Indian couple receives $2,400 for 'mental agony' caused by malfunctioning business class seats

A recliner malfunction landed an airliner company into trouble after an Indian couple sued them for giving faulty business-class seats on their way to Australia. Singapore Airlines has been ordered to pay $2,400 (approx. INR 213, 585) to Ravi Gupta and his wife for causing them discomfort during their flight.

Ravi Gupta, a police chief in the Indian state of Telangana, was flying with his wife from Hyderabad to Australia, which transited through Singapore. The couple said they paid $800 (approx. INR 66,750) each for business-class seats.

During the flight, the couple complained that their seats’ automatic recline feature was not working; instead, they had to recline the seats manually. The minor seat malfunction left the couple frustrated during their five-hour trip.

When they complained, the couple was promptly offered 10,000 frequent flyer miles or loyalty points each. However, they declined the offer and sued Singapore Airlines.

In official court documents, the Guptas accused the airliner company of making them feel like lowly “economy-class passengers” despite them paying for spacious business-class accommodation. The couple also said they were forced to stay awake throughout the journey as a result. The incident took place last year in May.

Watch |Gravitas: Why airlines are obsessed with weight- your and your bag's

The judgement in the case came last week when the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Telangana ruled in the couple’s favour and ordered Singapore Airlines to pay them $2,400 “for causing mental agony and physical suffering”.

In a statement to The Independent, Singapore Airlines did confirm the ''faulty'' automatic recline ability in their seats.

“SIA can confirm that while the automatic recline function on Mr and Mrs Gupta's seats was faulty, the manual recline function was working on their flight from Hyderabad to Singapore. There were no issues on their connecting flight from Singapore to Perth,'' a spokesperson told The Independent.

As the flight was full of passengers, SIA staff was unable to relocate Guptas elsewhere in the Business Class cabin, said the company in their official statement.

“Our crew proactively checked in on these customers regularly and offered to manually recline the seat when needed. We apologise to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by this mechanical issue,'' the statement added.

(With inputs from agencies)