A Singapore Airlines First Class Suite Passenger found a metal screw in his soup, during his flight from Singapore To Auckland on 1st January. In his flight review, he wrote that he felt a sharp object in his mouth while he was sipping his pumpkin mushroom soup. Knowing that it was a metal screw, he no longer had any appetite for the rest of the flight.
A SGD $200 service recovery voucher was offered to him immediately during the flight. He then later wrote to Singapore Airlines and was unhappy with the response that was given to him.
In the response email, it was mentioned that:
- The missing screw belongs to a blender from SATS’ catering.
- All food catering staff were briefed on this incident and were reminded to check the kitchen equipment, before and after daily production.
- The technical team was asked to explore other blender models with no exposed screw that could come into contact with the food.
- Metal detection has been implemented for all meals catered to Singapore Airlines
- No further compensated is offered other than the initial SGD $200 service voucher.
You may read the full response here:
Concluding his experience on this flight, the passenger said that he would have given a full rating for his journey from Singapore to Auckland if there was no metal screw in his meal. At the point of writing, there seems to be no further compensation.
H/T: Will
Did he complain about this straight away to the staff, or waited to be home to write a review? I’m wondering how possible it would be to mock it, claiming you found a screw when nothing happened. Not saying that that passenger did that, I’m just curious…
The passenger could have been compensated after flight, but he didn’t disclose the details.
The reply from King F Hui is ENTIRELY correct. Everything must be seen in context so I absolutely think that S$200 is innadequate – but I don’t think money is the general pursuit of someone paying this much for a flight.
For a regular customer (i.e. not a YouTuber, Vlogger, or reviewer) the reason you fly first class is for the luxury experience and feeling of being special. Regardless on your view of the human condition, that premise is used to generate massive profits on a flight so for SIA to shrug it off is appaling – those procedual changes should be mater of fact no matter what the class a passenger travels, but for a First/Suites pax I would definitely expect a call from a Senior Director/VP from Operations.
Put it this way, if you paid £28,000 for your family of 4 to fly return LHR – MNL would you consider S$200 and a “my bad” to be acceptable?
Actually, I’m leaving that rant in but I’ve changed my mind – I would expect a call from a Senior Director/VP REGARDLESS of who or what class was being travelled. A screw?? Imagine if anyone – let alone a child – swallowed that! Yes accidents happen but its how you deal with them that define the service.
I remember once at a dinner in France I found shards of glass in a sorbet. They gave me a new one. Life went on – no compensation necessary. Too many societies have become litigious and people need to get a grip on reality. I think the $200 certificate is way above and beyond.
SQ forgot how to treat their best customer (First Class pax) properly. If I paid SGD$11K for the first class flight SIN-AKL, would I care about $200? NO, I would expect a telephone call from the CEO to apologize, NOT money.
The review from the pax is longer than your post 🙂
Clearly the passenger is only after one thing – money or a free ticket !!! It’s always the same.
This site us decaying….
Do you really think that this is important news related to aviation?
I disagree, this is an interesting news related to passenger experience and it is within our scope.
Could it have been that this particular gentleman had ‘iron poor blood’ and might have needed this nutritional additive?
A good number of years ago I found a small nail in my dessert on Northwest Airlines. The crew didn’t really care. The gentleman was lucky to get $200!!
The good news is that the metal object wasn’t ingested nor was it part of the engine. The airline should’ve provided another RT flight and dinner in Singapore fine restaurant.
Of course it’s important. I was about to fly with Singapore in F next month with my two young kids and you can be certain I’ll cancel my trip with them. What would have happened if a 4 years old did ingest it ?
I think that’s a fair compensation. Mistakes happen…nobody was injured.