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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Overheard in the first-class lounge of Singapore Airlines

Media consultant Peter Ong, who contributed to the post, Knowledge gap at Tang's, has more to say about his short stopover last week:

"Last Sunday (April 4), while waiting in the Singapore Airlines' first class lounge at T3, i was shocked to overhear the bartender condemning Australians out of hand to two passengers, apparently Singaporeans.

"He said something like: "Australians don't like to work, especially on weekends. They prefer to booze."

"Being an Australian citizen, I chirped in: "That's not true at all. I live there and I know for sure they work as hard, if not harder than Singaporeans."

"But my point is this: the Singapore Airlines staff should never say such a thing within earshot of other passengers, some of whom may well be Australians who would definitely be offended.

"Singapore Airlines should remind its staff not to badmouth other people and countries, especially those it flies to.

"Boo to that bartender, whom i noticed, closed his counter a good 5 minutes before official closing time!

"Boo, too, to the GST refund counter at T3.

"While queuing for my refund, I noticed there was only one girl manning the counter. And there were at least 15 people waiting in line. There was no attempt to speed things up, nor call for help from another colleague. I waited for at least 12 minutes before I was served.

"Imagine the 10 or 12 others behind me! Would they miss their flight?

"But bouquets to the buggy driver who picked me and another passenger up from the lounge for the long ride to the gates. He was super efficient, coming up to get us well before time.

"Bouquets too, to the police officers and staff manning the gates. Super efficient, as always!"

*** LATEST

Mr Dzuraimi Mohamad Taib, Singapore Airlines' Customer Affairs Manager has responded to the feedback. In an email, he said:

"Thank you for your feedback on 8 April regarding Mr Peter Ong’s bad
experience at the SilverKris First Class lounge on 4 April.

"We are sorry to learn about the bartender’s inappropriate remarks. May I assure you that we have highlighted this to the Manager Premium Passenger Services for counseling of the staff concerned."

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