2 Kids, 2 Countries (Slight Return)

[MattA]

Right then. Three years on from our last big family trip to Europe — 2 months, 2 kids, 2 continents (technically) — and the small matter of acquiring another 1 million (ish) Krisflyer points later, our family of four is heading back to the UK and France in SQ J. In many ways this will be quite similar to my 2022 trip report, if a tad shorter at just under 5 weeks this time compared to the previous 8 week extravaganza, but hopefully there’s enough different stuff to make for some interesting stories… (I have also failed to learn one of my lessons from last time, when I vowed to try to avoid flying within Europe and do the train when possible—we’ve somehow ended up with 3 Easyjet flights on this trip, which is approximately three too many for me—but we’ll get to that, and the reason why, in due course…)

We start with SQ 208 MEL - SIN, followed by SQ 302 onwards to MAN. Flights were booked right when awards opened at the end of June last year at 522,000 Krisflyer points for four of us on this leg plus A$300.08 taxes. SQ redemption availability at T-12 months continues to be excellent: we had our pick of departure times, and getting 4 J Savers on the same flight was no issue at all.

Not a bad deal at all for what is a very comfortable way to get to Europe.

Very quiet in MEL when we arrived on Tuesday evening; walked straight up to the J check in desk at T-2.5, breezed through security, and completed a TRS claim in under 5 minutes.

Formalities over, we started at a very quiet Air NZ lounge for something a bit different (I’ve never been in there before).





I think it’s a much nicer space than the dungeon vibes of the SQ MEL lounge—at least you can see the tarmac—but the rest of our travelling party weren’t overly impressed by the buffet offerings so we just stayed for one drink and then headed back upstairs to SQ to wait out the remaining time until departure.

Big tick on the SQ meatballs with mash from Miss MattA.

 

[MattA]

Onboard and we’re taking over row 20 on the first leg to SIN, which is the second row in the mini rear J cabin on these Long Haul-config A350s. Put the kids in the two middle seats, with myself and MrsMattA taking the windows. Seems to be the best setup for us and at any rate the kids are now 6 & 11 so they don’t need as much active assistance from either of us (they are more than capable of navigating the IFE and quite happy sorting themselves out with unfettered screentime…)



Book the cook lamb loin stirfry, with a side of the Donald:



Very tasty (the dish, that is, not the orange one, although I did also enjoy the movie—“The Apprentice”).

Kids had the book the cook burgers. Thumbs up all round. No time to get a photo of that one before it had been attacked.

After that we pretty much all dropped off to sleep and next thing I knew we were starting our descent. I know many people have negative views on the angle of the bed on SQ, but I had no problem getting comfy even at 6ft 4. Slept right through the second meal service, but it was only the “refreshment” so I think sleep was the better call.

Weirdly the crew handed out Le Labo amenity kits as we came in to land. Er… That seems kind of late? (There were only slippers/socks/eye masks on the seat when we boarded).

Bears for the kids:



Touched down in SIN 20 mins early (despite having departed 30 mins late).

 

[MattA]

Just two hours to kill at SIN before the onward leg. Bit of a wander and then hit the lounge, which was also pretty quiet.



Before we knew it, time to board SQ 302 onwards to MAN. This time I had managed to snag row 19 at check in (previously it had been blocked and we were in 20), which is the bassinet row with slight additional legroom. It did give me a message on selecting those seats saying that row 19 was “only for passengers with infants”, but then allowed me to select them anyway. I figured that if there was an infant on the flight they would have sorted their bassinet seating well prior to T-48…

BTC Lobster Thermidor. Second time I’ve had this on SQ and to be honest probably the last as I was pretty underwhelmed and didn’t really enjoy it. Bit of a cheesey mess.



Got about half way through a movie before dropping off for a few hours, interrupted only by regular announcements about the seatbelt sign going on. I guess SQ policies on that have tightened up a bit, for obvious reasons. It didn’t affect the service too much though (cabin crew were advised to continue their duties “with caution” each time).

BTC Laksa for breakfast. Another one I’ve had before but this I absolutely will get again. It’s seriously good. Might be the best thing on the whole menu, I reckon. Mrs MattA got it too and was equally complimentary.



Waffles with strawberry coulis for the kids:



And that was nearly it.



Touched down around 10 mins ahead of schedule, and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for over half an hour waiting for access to our gate. But once we were off we breezed through immigration (no lines at all) and bags were out promptly with the first batch of priority bags.

All up, a very pleasant way to travel half way around the world…

 

[MattA]

Since arriving on Wednesday morning we’ve had a very pleasant few days at my parents’ house, on the North West coast of England, recovering from our jet lag, mostly spent sitting out in their garden—it’s been hot here—and enjoying the bounty from mum’s veggie patch…



Food miles are excellent on those, if you don’t count the human miles it took us to get here.

Tomorrow, London…

 

[Rebus]

Pleased to hear that you had a smooth experience at MAN. We fly into there at Xmas and I have been fearing the worst based on media reports of the past few years.

Are you all travelling on UK passports?

Hat-tip for the Bluetones reference BTW