Oops: Does Singapore need better consumer protection laws for air tickets?

Have you ever wondered why the rules governing mistakes in the airline industry are so asymmetrical?

If an airline accidentally fat fingers a fare, most jurisdictions (including Singapore) say that it is not legally required to honour it. We’ve seen numerous cases of this over the past few years, most recently ANA’s US$300 Business Class fares between Jakarta and North America.

On the other hand, if a customer messes up their name, dates, flights, or any other information during the booking process, they’re on the hook for hefty change fees. In a worst case scenario, they might even have to forfeit the entire ticket! You don’t need to tell me there’s something wrong with this picture. 

But some countries have enacted legislation that gives consumers a limited-time window to fix mistakes without penalty, and certain airlines offer it voluntarily. Is it time we had something similar in Singapore?

What are the policies in Singapore?

Singapore Airlines

If you misspelled the name on your ticket, Singapore Airlines has a little-known Name Correction Policy which allows a name correction for a fee of US$50.

The Name Correction Policy is permitted for:

• Corrections of three characters or less
• Change of salutation
• Correction of married/maiden name
• Adding of middle name

However, this policy does not cover other mistakes, such as selecting the wrong airport (e.g. Haneda instead of Narita), choosing the wrong date, or picking the wrong flight number.

In those scenarios, it doesn’t matter whether you spot the mistake five minutes or five days after booking: changes will follow the standard rules of the fare class, and can cost up to S$340. That’s assuming you can even make changes; if you’ve purchased an Economy Lite ticket, you’re out of luck. You either fly the ticket as-is, or forfeit it entirely!

Now, before you reach for your keyboard, I’m sure there must be cases out there of people managing to get exceptions. If so, good for you- you dodged a bullet. But the official position is that only corrections to names are allowed, so you can hardly rely on that going forward.

Scoot

Scoot allows name changes to bookings to be made up to four hours before departure. This can be done online via Manage My Booking, Live Chat, the call centre or the Scoot mobile app.

A change fee applies, which varies depending on route and how the change is made.

However just like Singapore Airlines, other changes to dates, destinations and flights are not permitted unless you’ve purchased a “FLEX add on”, which starts from S$20 and includes unlimited flight date and time changes.

Note that destinations cannot be changed, and fare differences may apply.

What are the rules in other countries?

Since 2013, the United States Department of Transportation has required airlines to:

• Hold a reservation at the quoted fare for 24 hours without payment, or
• Allow a reservation to be cancelled within 24 hours without penalty

Most airlines offer the latter. The policy applies to any flight to, from or within the USA, provided the reservation is made at least seven days prior to departure. It does not matter whether you book directly with the airline, or with an online travel agency.

The rule also covers foreign airlines. Singapore Airlines mentions this on their website:

If you’ve purchased a ticket for a flight to or from the USA, you may cancel your ticket without penalty within 24 hours of your booking – as long as that reservation is made one week or more before your flight departs. To ensure that you get a full refund, your cancellation must be made with your local Singapore Airlines office.

-Singapore Airlines

For example, if you book a Singapore Airlines award from SIN-JFK, but within 24 hours change your mind and want to book SIN-EWR instead, you can cancel your original booking without any penalty or change fees and rebook (subject to availability, of course).

Other countries with similar legislation include India (domestic flights only) and Brazil. 

Airline-specific policies

Some airlines offer free changes within a certain window, even when the countries they operate in do not mandate it. 

For example, in Australia both Qantas and Jetstar allow customers to make free changes as follows:

In the UK, British Airways offers passengers the right to cancel a reservation without penalty within 24 hours of ticketing, provided travel is one week or more from the date of purchase.

And closer to home, Cathay Pacific offers all Cathay members complimentary 24-hour free cancellation for tickets booked directly with the airline, provided the booking is made at least eight days to departure and their Cathay frequent flyer number is provided when making the booking.

Cathay members: Enjoy 24 hour free cancellation on all Cathay Pacific bookings

This does not apply to Asia Miles award flights, but is still one of the most generous policies in the region. 

Time for a change?

Given what we’ve seen overseas, is it time Singapore implemented an “oops” rule of its own?

I certainly think so, though given the relative power balance between consumers and companies here, I doubt we’ll see it happen in the near future.

But even if it’s not mandated by law, I do think that airlines could give themselves a competitive advantage by offering a limited cancellation window. After all, people browsing airfares usually have a serious intention to travel, though some of the details may not yet have crystallised. A limited cancellation window reduces purchasing friction and makes them more likely to pull the trigger, and assuming those dates and times are correct, they’re unlikely to switch.

Airline objections are likely to centre around opportunity cost and administrative burdens; opportunity cost in the sense of missing out on a sale because the seat was taken by a customer who later cancelled, administrative burdens in terms of processing refunds. I don’t know how much incremental work there’ll be processing refunds, but I imagine that opportunity cost can be minimised with a short yet reasonable window for changes, and a buffer period from departure.

The best case scenario in my mind is to adopt a version of the US DOT’s policy, offering free cancellations within 24 hours provided there’s at least seven days to go before departure. If 24 hours proves too much, then even a “one-hour quick fix policy” ala Jetstar would go a long way towards fairness for passengers.

Conclusion

While Singapore Airlines and Scoot have a mechanism to correct misspelled names, there’s no concessions granted for errors relating to destinations, dates and flight numbers (unless you’ve bought a more expensive flexible ticket that allows such changes). 

It’s of course the passenger’s duty to double-check all details before booking, but given how easy it is for airlines to disown their mistakes, it feels somewhat unfair that similar concessions are not extended to consumers.

The trend overseas, at least in Australia, Europe and the US, is to provide passengers with a short window to correct mistakes without penalty. That has yet to filter to Asia though, with the notable exception of Cathay Pacific.

Should Singapore have “oops” rules for air ticket purchases?