Singapore Airlines Trip Report MEL-xSIN-PVG-xSIN-MEL

[anchew]

SilverKris Lounge Singapore Airport

As we're flying J on SQ, we were welcomed into the SilverKris Lounge in T3. It's located just between concourse A & B up the escalators. And OMG what a great lounge. Personally, I think that its much better than the QF Int J lounges in MEL/SYD, and dare I say, better than the QF J & F lounges in SIN.

 

[anchew]

 

[anchew]

Restroom:




Showers:

 

[anchew]

Tea and coffee with scones were brought around on a trolly:




Internet speed:

 

[anat0l]

Good trip report so far anchew. Reminds me of my SQ F trip of last year.


SQ are generally very good, but things that stick out for me:

• Their amenity kits are very thin. Even SQ F is just a fancy clear plastic cosmetic bag with leather lined zip featuring Salvatore Ferragamo. Yes, you get more in the bathroom, but it's hardly quality stuff (except their toothbrush sets are quite good). That SQ J shoe bag looks quite inadequate.
• Their menus always seem rather boring. Of the mains that were on the menu you posted, the only interesting dish out of all of those was the one you picked - the fish. The others seem so dull; I mean, some of those easily pass for hawker food in Singapore or something you'd find on almost any room service menu around the world (on the 24 hour menu no less!). Heck, I could try cooking a couple of those!

I didn't know they had playing cards available. Damn - I got an extra amenity kit but didn't know about playing cards.

SQ service is always very good, and no Western airline can ever be as "good" as SQ simply because no Western FA can match the deference of a Singaporean. For this reason, though, I found SQ FAs sometimes a bit difficult to strike banter with, even SQ F crews it seemed awkward.

 

[dajop]

SQ service is always very good, and no Western airline can ever be as "good" as SQ simply because no Western FA can match the deference of a Singaporean. For this reason, though, I found SQ FAs sometimes a bit difficult to strike banter with, even SQ F crews it seemed awkward.

One thing about SQ FA's that makes it difficult to banter with is general lack of shared experiences, shared culture etc. Despite the fact that they are English speakers, there is a lot of difference in the culture/background to an Anglo-Saxon based cultures (US, UK, Aus, etc) that make it so easy to strike up a conversation. I've found it easier since living in Singapore, there's always a few key topics that can be discussed or laughed at, and I've also found the crew on the really long haul flights (think SIN-EWR) a bit better too - I think that is because they have more time, as normally on short flights to Australia they have quite a busy workload.

 

[anchew]

• Their menus always seem rather boring. Of the mains that were on the menu you posted, the only interesting dish out of all of those was the one you picked - the fish. The others seem so dull; I mean, some of those easily pass for hawker food in Singapore or something you'd find on almost any room service menu around the world (on the 24 hour menu no less!). Heck, I could try cooking a couple of those!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention re food was that the snapper was my colleague's meal choice. I had the chicken with macadamia from 'book the cook'.

Funny thing you mentioned the food being hawker style. For the SIN-PVG leg (TR to follow soon) I had chicken rice, because it's a hawker dish. I couldn't pass up a traditional Singaporean meal on Singapore Airlines .

 

[anat0l]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention re food was that the snapper was my colleague's meal choice. I had the chicken with macadamia from 'book the cook'.

Funny thing you mentioned the food being hawker style. For the SIN-PVG leg (TR to follow soon) I had chicken rice, because it's a hawker dish. I couldn't pass up a traditional Singaporean meal on Singapore Airlines .

BTC is a saving grace. Such a shame though that the onboard menu should serve as a poor backup if one hasn't taken advantage of BTC.

I BTC'd a Lobster Thermidor on my SQ F flight last year. Quite good, quite rich and lobster a little rubbery.

My mum makes a fine chicken rice and you can also pick up a chicken rice set from a Malay hawker for a few ringgit. I couldn't stand it if I chose chicken rice for a premium class meal - especially if the other menu selections make this the only good, or the best, option



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Aust Freq Fly app: bringing this anat0l content to your mobile.

 

[medhead]

I liked "caution hot steam". Is there any other kind?


Sent from the Throne (80% chance) using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[anat0l]

I liked "caution hot steam". Is there any other kind?

From the people who made McDonalds put on their coffee cups, "Warning: Contents May Be Hot".

(Yes I know there's more to that case, but let's not go here: the premise is much the same)

 

[Alanslegal]

Nice report anchew . keep 'em coming.

Thanks for the reminder about BTC as I need to choose some meals for my upcoming redemption flights

 

[NDiddy]

Great thread anchew and thanks for referencing the TR I wrote

You did a great job with the lounge photos in SIN. I almost didn't recognise it as there were plenty of people in there when we visited.

Wish I had heeded deluxeflyers words on booking BTC but alas I thought the normal menu was suffice (dinner most def was but breakfast was meh!).

Keep the pics coming and of course enjoy your trip

 

[anchew]

Hey arrived in Singapore and read your review - so far looking good. I think the 777 seats looked bigger than yours but looked ok. My review will post soon on Where to from Here? | Travel Blogging by CarlousMoochous with pics to follow. We only has 2 hrs in the lounge at Mel as delayed ex cbr by 1+ hrs.... Flight was great and matched your service/menu.. Looking forward to the updates.

Ahem... Still waiting Mister

 

[jetlagger]

Lovely TR, all the pictures with narration do it justice..

 

[anchew]

SIN-PVG SQ 836
777-200
Dep 5:20pm
Arr 10:35pm

As with many other airports around the world, boarding is not called in the lounge so we left the lounge at around 4:50. The boarding gate was at B9, which was quite a distance from the lounge. It took us a good 10 minutes to get there, and we were walking quite briskly. Once we got to the gate, the departure lounge area was already empty of passengers so security screening and boarding was a breeze with no wait at all - the way I like it - straight onto the plane. To my surprise, we weren't the last J pax to board as there were several empty seats, and I knew from expert flyer that the J cabin was quite full.



I was seated in 12A so was fortunate enough to be one of the only pax with a spare seat next to them .

Pre-flight drinks were offered, then my 'book the cook' order was confirmed. Shortly after that, the doors were closed and we were pushing back. While we were taxing, a FA came around to take drink orders. I should have known drinks orders were coming being my second SQ flight for the day and all, but I totally forgot and didn't check out the drinks menu before orders were taken, so I just ordered a coke. But after browsing the drinks menu, they were more than happy for me to change my drink to tie guan yin tea. Two different FAs actually came around to confirm the change to my drink order.

One thing I noticed on this flight was that announcements were made in Chinese and English, while the MEL-SIN leg, announcements were only made in English. What surprised me was that Chinese announcements were not made on the first flight. Don't know why I was expecting Chinese on the that flight, but I guess I just thought that if KE made announcements in Chinese (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....trip-photos/korean-air-trip-report-34639.html), then I just assumed SQ would too.

Anyway, here's a view of the cabin from 12A:

 

[anchew]

12A was a bulk head seat and OMG there were so much leg room. With the seat next to me free, it felt like I was in my own little private world. These seats are referred to as SQ's medium-haul (i.e. regional) J product, but me and my colleagues all agree that it was much more comfortable than the 747 'aubergine' seats. They were a little bit wider and had much more cushioning. When reclined, the seats reminded me of a lazy boy recliner.

 

[anchew]

I also managed to take a pic of a non-bulk head seat at 14C which had a little less leg room than the bulk head :

 

[anchew]

What I did like about these seats were the storage areas, especially the laptop slot:




Menu (apologies for the quality):

 

[anchew]

As with the previous flight, no amenity kits were handed out, expect for the same slippers and eye shade. The power point in the laptop slot area was quite handy, but it wasn't working on my seat so I just used the one in the seat next to me. One issue about these seats though, was the way that the tray table came out of the armrest. It didn't have any bends/joins in the tray table so it was quite awkward and coughbersome when taking them out, so you had to pull them quite high up before you were able to bend them down.

Anyway, when we were airborne, and the seat belt sign went out, the drinks that we order before take-off was brought out, then instead of nuts that came with our drinks on the previous flight, satay chicken sticks were served on this flight.


Approximately 90 minutes into the flight, the meal service began. Although if you wanted, I think you could elect to have your meal at the end of the flight instead as I saw some people get their meals around 2 hours prior to arrival.

Fa Chai Yu Sheng (Prosperity New Year Salad with salmon):


Singapore Chicken Rice (from book the cook):


Lemon grass sea jelly with salad of mango, strawberry, sago and pomelo:


They also brought cheese around but I was so full that I decided to skip it. Maybe I should have had my meals at the end of the flight after all!

 

[dajop]

One thing I noticed on this flight was that announcements were made in Chinese and English, while the MEL-SIN leg, announcements were only made in English. What surprised me was that Chinese announcements were not made on the first flight. Don't know why I was expecting Chinese on the that flight, but I guess I just thought that if KE made announcements in Chinese (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....trip-photos/korean-air-trip-report-34639.html), then I just assumed SQ would too.

Depends on the route. SQ make announcements in English plus language of destination (or for SIN bound flights, the origin). IIRC, flights to CAN are made in English, Cantonese & Mandarin.

The question I have, did you know what to do with the prosperity salad? I was on recent flight SIN-PEK, and looked around the cabin and a lot of people didn't know how to prepare/eat it. {for those that don't know it you are presented with a plate with separate piles of ingredients, such as shredded vegetables, fish, short crisp colored noodles etc plus two spice packets, a small bottle of oil and small bottle of honey, and these need to be tossed together -for good luck. Many on board were simply picking at items individually, big fail on behalf of SQ flight attendants}