SIN - KUL Shuttle "Service"
Last week on a business trip I experienced a lack of expediency that is a joke - given the aspirations of both SQ and MH plus the thoroughly modern-design KLIA.
Having in earlier years preferred to drive between KL and Singapore to avoid the then erratic chances of being able to actually make it door-to-door on the shuttle in less than 4 hours (given the situation at Subang), I looked forward to what I expected to be an efficient and pleasant short hop to Fried Rice Paradise. Instead, my associates and I were confronted with what must be a huge embarrassment for SQ, MH and KLIA.
We arrived at KLIA at around 7.00 p.m. on Wednesday last week, and purchased our shuttle tickets at 7.15 p.m. Our queue number tickets indicated that there were between 49 and 52 people ahead of us, which - depending on the type of aircraft used - is between 15% and 30% of seating capacity.
In the event, we did not make MH621 at 20.00 hrs, and we also did not make SQ117 at 20.30 hrs. We finally got seats on SQ119 which was supposed to depart at 21.45 hrs, but actually left at 22.25 hrs. Astonishingly, only a little more than half of the seats were taken.
The Shuttle area at KLIA is a joke, with only a few seats available. You cannot leave the area to sit out your wait at any of the catering outlets, as the queue number indicators are visible only from immediately in front of the check-in counters.
Despite every passenger requiring a queue number, we witnessed a gentleman - I use the term loosely - with four or five passports approaching the "queue numbers only" check-in desk and picking up a handful of boarding cards between two called numbers..... reminiscent of Lagos, somehow.
Given the self-proclaimed Singaporean status of excellence, and the oft-touted objectives of both MH and KLIA, one has to wonder why this triangle of misery is allowed to continue to frustrate passengers.