Singapore Airlines · CX evidence review

METHOD & SCOPE

How this study was run.

54 scored pairs: 39 exchanges across 20 virtual-user conversations and 15 fixed-question attempts. In total, 57 typed questions plus 38 “Start over” presses produced 95 messages in 38 conversations, all in one chat window.

These are hypothetical policy conversations, not completed customer transactions.

U.S. booking within 24 hours: An unused JFK–Singapore Economy Lite ticket was bought and paid by card on singaporeair.com 10 hours ago, departing in 10 days. Is a voluntary refund available without penalty? Expected against saved policy: Recognize the U.S. booking exception despite the fare label and read “10d” as ten days. Describe the published cancellation channel while the owner verifies practical alternatives. Observed context: The wording was selected from a known failed adaptive question. Three of the four denials read “10d” as ten hours; these counts overlap. Two denials also gave an unverified 45-day refund time.

U.S. booking after 30 hours: The same JFK–Singapore Economy Lite booking was made 30 hours ago, with departure in 10 days. Does the 24-hour option still give a full penalty-free refund? Expected against saved policy: Compare elapsed time with the 24-hour limit before promising a refund. Explain that this exception no longer applies. Observed context: Attempt 4 called 30 hours “well within the 24-hour window”. Attempts 1 and 3 ended correctly but began with a contradictory qualification statement; those openings are reviewed separately.

A route without a U.S. leg: A Singapore–Tokyo Haneda Economy Lite ticket was bought 10 hours ago and departs in 10 days. Does the U.S. cancellation option apply? Expected against saved policy: Keep the U.S. exception separate from a non-U.S. route and explain the applicable fare conditions without promising a penalty-free full refund. Observed context: All five core outcomes matched. Four said only taxes are refunded. Attempt 4’s remaining-balance/fee explanation was not supported by the saved pages and was not scored.

LIMITATIONS

What this does not establish.

• All conversations reused one chat window after “Start over”; earlier history remained visible and backend isolation was not established.
• The four-of-five result re-tested one known failed wording, not a random sample. Three time-reading errors are included within those four denials.
• Two leading follow-ups repeated a wrong taxes-only answer; one other conversation corrected itself in its second reply.
• The three unscored questions about the eligible case all stated the 24-hour rule correctly.
• Manage Booking capability and the two 45-day refund claims remain unconfirmed; no cancellation or refund was attempted.
• The non-U.S. control score concerns its core outcome, not every fee, tax or remaining-balance statement.
• Synthetic users, short conversations and five repeats are not a customer failure rate or proof of root cause.
• Expected answers use saved public pages; some general refund/fare sources use Ireland/Japan English pages after U.S. downloads returned errors.