Singapore Airlines Conversion Discrepency

rock_princess

Hi, 
I booked flights on Singapore Airlines at the beginning of April. I thought it was a good idea to pay in SGD rather than £ with it being a Singapore company and I've got a credit card without foreign transaction fees (Halifax). On the website, they converted £1841.23 to 
3299.68 SGP and I paid, not thinking anything of it. When my credit card bill came, it was £1942.62, so well above what was invoiced originally before I opted to pay in SGD. I've been querying this with the airline ever since. Clearly however their website changed £ to SGD is off, which is why I've paid over £100 more than quoted. I'm not getting anywhere at all with the airline as they keep telling me it's my banks fault, which clearly it isn't, as I paid the exact amount cited online (SGD 3299.68). 

Presumably if there's a glitch in their website, this may have affected other travellers also. I'm fed up of their poor customer service. I looked at reporting it to the financial ombudsman but apparently can't as its not financial services. Does anyone know who I can escalate this to instead? 

Thanks in advance. 

bagand96

If you agreed to pay SGD 3299.68 then I'm not sure you'll have any recourse against the airline. They offered you a GBP price, you then made an assumption that the SGD price would work in your favour. A very quick Google and you could have checked the conversion.

eDicky

rock_princess said:

On the website, they converted £1841.23 to 3299.68 SGP and I paid

Do you mean the Singapore Airlines website during the booking process? It would be unusual for an airline to offer a better rate than the MasterCard daily conversion rate, which can be found here for the date of settlement of your card transaction:

https://www.mastercard.com/content/mastercardcom/global/en/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

Voyager2002

rock_princess said:

Hi, 
I booked flights on Singapore Airlines at the beginning of April. I thought it was a good idea to pay in SGD rather than £ with it being a Singapore company and I've got a credit card without foreign transaction fees (Halifax). On the website, they converted £1841.23 to 
3299.68 SGP and I paid, not thinking anything of it. When my credit card bill came, it was £1942.62, so well above what was invoiced originally before I opted to pay in SGD. I've been querying this with the airline ever since. Clearly however their website changed £ to SGD is off, which is why I've paid over £100 more than quoted. I'm not getting anywhere at all with the airline as they keep telling me it's my banks fault, which clearly it isn't, as I paid the exact amount cited online (SGD 3299.68). 

Presumably if there's a glitch in their website, this may have affected other travellers also. I'm fed up of their poor customer service. I looked at reporting it to the financial ombudsman but apparently can't as its not financial services. Does anyone know who I can escalate this to instead? 

Thanks in advance. 

I struggle to understand what the issue is here...

Apparently you were quoted a price in sterling and a price in SGD. You accepted the price in SGD: did you pay that amount on your card? Was your card charged exactly 3299.68 SGD and that amount converted to sterling by your card, or was an amount charged in sterling?

If your card statement shows only an amount in sterling then they applied what is called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) and you have grounds for complaint.

And what exactly was the sterling amount shown before you booked: did they invite you to pay exactly that amount in sterling, or was it simply their estimate of the sterling equivalent of the amount they were charging in SGD?

rock_princess

Yes, they (airline) converted £ to SGD and that's what I paid in. I've ended up paying over £100 more than what was originally quoted in £s (before I opted to pay in SGD) e.g. their website has done something weird when converting this. I should have been more vigilent and checked the conversion rate from £ to SGD but had no reason to think they'd try to diddle me. My bad I suppose but I'm surprised they haven't done anything to try to resolve this (and presumably they haven't looked at their website dodgy conversion rate either). 

JGB1955

I'm sure they are more than aware of their 'dodgy conversion rate' ...it's a commercial decision. Buyer beware. Advice is always to pay in local currency. If you buy airline tickets for flights starting in the UK, pay in £. We've recently bought one way flights to UK from Singapore (in SGD) and Tenerife (€).

rock_princess

I missed that memo- I just thought it was a Singapore company and didn't realise it had anything to do with where your flight started. Thanks for the info. 

Voyager2002

rock_princess said:

I missed that memo- I just thought it was a Singapore company and didn't realise it had anything to do with where your flight started. Thanks for the info. 

In fairness, sometimes you get a lower price by paying in a different currency. If the website offers you the choice, it is worth checking what it would cost you in each currency. You cannot assume that 'local' or 'foreign' will always be better.

One more detail: was the sterling price on the website the actual price that they would charge you in pounds for the tickets, or an indication of how much it would cost you when they were always going to charge you in SGD? When websites are simply giving indications of what the cost in a different currency would be, they are often careless.