Wellington-Canberra in Singapore Airlines Business Class

[Mattg]

Earlier this week I flew from Wellington to Canberra with Singapore Airlines, taking advantage of their fifth freedom Trans-Tasman flight.

I booked this flight using KrisFlyer miles back when a Business class Star Alliance award between Australia & New Zealand cost 17,500 KrisFlyer miles. (Sadly, this particular redemption now costs 28,000 miles.) To get this price, you had to include at least one Air New Zealand flight in the booking. As I was travelling from Auckland anyway, this worked out well and I added an Auckland-Wellington leg on Air NZ.

Check-in

I checked in at the Air New Zealand premium counter in Auckland's domestic terminal. The check-in agent had never done an international check-in and had no idea what to do. After about 5 minutes on the phone she was able to issue my boarding pass for the Auckland-Wellington flight (only). She wasn't able to give me a boarding pass for the Wellington-Canberra flight, nor was she even able to tell me how or where I might be able to get it. I then asked if she could add my Velocity frequent flyer number to the booking (I have Gold status, which would get me into the Auckland lounge)… computer says "no". Thankfully my bag was checked through to Canberra, albeit without a priority tag attached.

I headed upstairs to the Air New Zealand lounge where a much more helpful lady was able to add my Velocity number to the booking and found me to a better seat!

The AKL lounge was pretty busy but had a good selection of food & drinks.



Flight 1: NZ443 Auckland - Wellington

This one-hour domestic leg was on an A320 with Economy-only configuration.

Departing at 4.30pm, this was a designated "Koru Hour" flight. A decent range of complimentary wines, beer, cider, sparkling water, L&P etc. were available. There were also three snack choices - cheese & crackers, pretzels or a cookie.



There was plenty of leg room and I was quite happy staring out the window and enjoying the NZ scenery for an hour. The service was good and we landed on time. Overall, a pleasant flight.

Transit in Wellington

I headed to the Singapore Airlines check-in counters, which were already open when I arrived just after 5.30pm. The check-in people were able to issue my boarding pass to Canberra. My Singapore Airlines flight was the only international departure that evening and the international departures area wouldn’t open until 6.30pm, so I was instructed to wait in the Air New Zealand regional lounge in the meantime:



A little later I headed through security & immigration to the Air New Zealand international lounge. This was recently refurbished, but isn't anything special and didn't have any windows:



The range of food & drinks was almost identical to the regional lounge, with sandwiches, cheese, a couple of hot items (which frankly were not appealing) and tomato & bean soup on offer.

 

[Mattg]

Flight 2: SQ292 Wellington - Canberra



I was in Business class, seat 18K for this sector. Singapore Airlines uses an older Boeing 777-200 with a regional Business class product on this route. The seats are angle-flat in a 2-2-2 configuration. However, I found it very comfortable for the 4-hour flight to Canberra and there was tons of leg room. I might think twice before booking this product for an overnight flight. But I did have a bit of a nap later in the flight and found the seat to be quite OK for sleeping (even if it's not fully lie-flat).




The service on board was exceptional. I was quickly greeted by name and offered a hot towel and pre-departure champagne. A menu, noise-cancelling headphones, socks, slippers, a pillow and a blanket were already on or next to the seat.

After take-off, my meal order was taken and I was given some warm nuts.



There were three main courses to choose from. Here's the menu:



The range of alcoholic drinks available was impressive. They even had a craft beer on the menu from a Wellington brewery:



In case anyone's interested, here's the menu for the CBR-SIN leg of SQ292:



The chili prawns starter came with a choice of warm breads:



I chose the lamb for the main course. It was fine, but I did regret not giving one of the Asian meals a try:



A plate of cheese was offered for dessert, along with some absolutely divine chocolate ice cream.



Drink top-ups were continuously offered and I was addressed by name throughout the flight.

The flight wasn't full in either class. Business would have been at around 60% capacity. I believe the onward Canberra-Singapore sector was fully booked.

Overall, this was a great way to fly across the Tasman. A comfortable seat, good catering and excellent service. Oh, and we arrived 40 minutes early! It's just a shame that I can't do this again for 17,500 KrisFlyer miles!

 

[Rugby]

Thanks Mattg - a great run down.

 

[love_the_life]

Thanks for the report. We did the return flights in economy in early November and like you found the on board service excellent. Not sure I’d be keen to fly to Singapore overnight though go as the plane is starting to show its age. There were quite a few people trying to operate the entertainment system via the touch screen (which it isn’t). For the short daylight hop to NZ we thought it was excellent and priced at about $400pp return from CBR in Y a bargain.

 

[kermatu]

Nice one. I'll be doing this trip a few times in 2018. Good to know it is a quality run.

 

[RoMambai]

Great read, thx Mattg. I've done the CBR-SIN leg 3 times in J and after the last sleepless night in May I've vowed not to do it again if I can help it. Good to know the WEL leg is better.

 

[craven morehead]

Flight 2: SQ292 Wellington - Canberra

View attachment 112695

I was in Business class, seat 18K for this sector. Singapore Airlines uses an older Boeing 777-200 with a regional Business class product on this route. The seats are angle-flat in a 2-2-2 configuration. However, I found it very comfortable for the 4-hour flight to Canberra and there was tons of leg room. I might think twice before booking this product for an overnight flight. But I did have a bit of a nap later in the flight and found the seat to be quite OK for sleeping (even if it's not fully lie-flat).

View attachment 112693
View attachment 112694

The service on board was exceptional. I was quickly greeted by name and offered a hot towel and pre-departure champagne. A menu, noise-cancelling headphones, socks, slippers, a pillow and a blanket were already on or next to the seat.

After take-off, my meal order was taken and I was given some warm nuts.

View attachment 112702

There were three main courses to choose from. Here's the menu:

View attachment 112698

The range of alcoholic drinks available was impressive. They even had a craft beer on the menu from a Wellington brewery:

View attachment 112699

In case anyone's interested, here's the menu for the CBR-SIN leg of SQ292:

View attachment 112700

The chili prawns starter came with a choice of warm breads:

View attachment 112701

I chose the lamb for the main course. It was fine, but I did regret not giving one of the Asian meals a try:

View attachment 112703

A plate of cheese was offered for dessert, along with some absolutely divine chocolate ice cream.

View attachment 112704

Drink top-ups were continuously offered and I was addressed by name throughout the flight.

The flight wasn't full in either class. Business would have been at around 60% capacity. I believe the onward Canberra-Singapore sector was fully booked.

Overall, this was a great way to fly across the Tasman. A comfortable seat, good catering and excellent service. Oh, and we arrived 40 minutes early! It's just a shame that I can't do this again for 17,500 KrisFlyer miles!

The food looks to be of a decent standard Mattg

 

[LadyC]

Nice report Mattg, thanks for posting

 

[dajop]

Matt which day of the week was this? I was originally booked on CBR-SIN in J using UA points on Mon 11th but shied away from it (instead doing MEL-SIN on EK in J which came available using QF points) because I understood it to be the old angled flat (purple) product.

If I had know it was the regional product I would have been much happier .... oh well I saved 4 hrs and a MEL-CBR flight ...but cost extra $200 in surcharges ...

 

[Mattg]

Matt which day of the week was this? I was originally booked on CBR-SIN in J using UA points on Mon 11th but shied away from it (instead doing MEL-SIN on EK in J which came available using QF points) because I understood it to be the old angled flat (purple) product.

If I had know it was the regional product I would have been much happier .... oh well I saved 4 hrs and a MEL-CBR flight ...but cost extra $200 in surcharges ...

This was Wednesday the 13th.

The hard product on this run is not bad, but Emirates is definitely better on the A380.

 

[dajop]

This was Wednesday the 13th.

The hard product on this run is not bad, but Emirates is definitely better on the A380.

Thanks, so my original flight may well have had the older "space bed" product as it appeared on the seat map, which is sort of good to know, that product is getting rather old.

Whilst EK is definitely better on the A380, it was 60K pts + $325 vs 34.5K pts (UA/BA) + $140 (MEL-CBR-SIN), so did come at a price (although I did get the car that comes with EK J to pick me up at Woodend, almost 60km away from MEL).

I've had the SQ regional product overnight that was on your flight on numerous sectors over the years, and whilst it's not as good as a lie flat, I have worked out how to configure the seat for optimal sleep (ensuring the seat has a slight kink rather than being completely straight) so it's fine for me on a 7 hr sector.

 

[jokes128]

Mattg, didn't you try the Book the Chef or was it not available?

 

[Mattg]

Mattg, didn't you try the Book the Chef or was it not available?

Book the Cook was not offered on this sector.

 

[kermatu]

Not offered out of Canberra either, as far as I'm aware.

 

[jokes128]

Book the Cook was not offered on this sector.

Oh thanks. I can forget about this Book the Cook idea then, as I am flying the same flight next year and was considering how to Book the Cook. By the way, do you know if I can use the Air NZ lounge in Wellington or if I can only use the SQ lounge prior to departure(I have basic status but flying J for WLG-CBR)?

 

[Mattg]

Oh thanks. I can forget about this Book the Cook idea then, as I am flying the same flight next year and was considering how to Book the Cook. By the way, do you know if I can use the Air NZ lounge in Wellington or if I can only use the SQ lounge prior to departure(I have basic status but flying J for WLG-CBR)?

There is no SQ lounge in Wellington but you'll be able to use the NZ lounge with a J ticket.

 

[jokes128]

There is no SQ lounge in Wellington but you'll be able to use the NZ lounge with a J ticket.

Oh I thought I read somewhere before that the SQ lounge in Wellington was under renovation but I must have poor memory then.