SQ322 SIN-LHR

March 26th, 2023

Posts in this series:

Introduction - A Long March To China

Review - United Airlines Business Class B767-400 Newark to London Heathrow

Review - EVA Air Business Class B777-300ER London Heathrow to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

Review - Thai Airways Business Class A350-900 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Chengdu Shuangliu

Review - JW Marriott Singapore South Beach

Review - Singapore Airlines Business Class A380 Singapore to London Heathrow

Review - United Airlines Business Class B777-200 London Heathrow to Newark

Check-in:

Well well well, back to where it all began… If you recall in the “About” section of this blog, my first flight in international business class was from New York to Frankfurt on Singapore Airlines A380. I loved it so much I spent the next decade doing another 800,000 miles of it.

The thing is, though, have you ever been in a relationship where you outgrew your counterparty much faster? I will always remember that Singapore Airlines opened up the world of premium travel for me, and I hold that fondly. But a decade later, it’s just no longer special. I can easily name a dozen other airlines I’d fly with more. Not to mention how Singapore Airlines completely mishandled my trip with them two years ago…

So why do I fly with them again? I had to be in Singapore to visit some long-time family friends, and SIA was the cheapest/most convenient option. So yeah, grudges can’t stop bargains.

Lounge:

After check-in, I headed towards the new SilverKris Lounge, which went through a major renovation during Covid.

At the entrance, the lounge was divided into first and business class sections. I used the business class lounge on account of my business class ticket. Back in the day, this lounge was a nightmare. It had no natural light, and during the evening rush hours it was impossible to find a seat. I particularly recall the shower suites being disgusting and poorly ventilated - they were probably the dirtiest place in all of Singapore.

My first impression of the lounge was generally positive. Don’t get me wrong, it was still impossible to get a seat. However, the new décor was modern, and there was ample natural light.

Immediately past the entrance, there were three helpdesks, in case you need anything with your reservation.

To the left of the lounge were the main seating area, as well as all of the food stations. As you can see, there was virtually no open seat. Granted many flights were leaving for Europe when I visited, but still - imagine when you get off a 10-hour flight from Sydney, with two hours of layover before another 12-hour flight to Heathrow, only to find the lounge more crowded than Bondi Beach during Sydney World Pride.

Given the lounge was near capacity, the buffet area was naturally quite bustling. Kudos to Singapore Airlines for successfully recreating a hawker center experience in its own lounge😉.

One positive aspect of the lounge was the free-flowing Henriot brut. For a regular business class lounge, I find the offering to be respectable.

I sampled a round of the food options during my stay. The selection was above average, with plenty of Asian and western varieties. The quality was decent as well.

I know all of you are here for the travel hacks, but today I’m giving you something even better. If you’re ever at a seafood buffet in Asia, get the chicken nuggets. I know your frugal Asian ancestors would be screaming in their graves, but the seafood buffet chicken nuggets just hit different. They are always piping hot (y’all know Asians don’t like hot food cold), crispy, not too salty and actually taste like real chicken.

You can’t leave Singapore without eating laksa. I tried the one from the lounge, and it was delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever had laksa that I didn’t like?

Before boarding, I requested a shower room. Back in my solo flying days I valued a good lounge shower tremendously, as I was on all kinds of exotic routings. Ever since I settled down for the domestic life, it has been more about getting from A to B in the most expedient fashion. So the sponsor of these trips doesn’t complain about having to stop in Santiago de Chile and Bahrain on our way to London.

Aesthetically the shower rooms were an improvement over the dingy old ones. Unfortunately, that’s where the improvement ended. Many of the legacy issues were still unresolved. The showers still had terrible ventilation, hopeless water pressure and non-branded toiletries. Given how highly Singapore Airlines regards itself, the lounge showers are sheer disgrace.

Boarding:

As bad as the shower situation was, boarding was an even worse mayhem. Security checks were at each gate at Changi Airport, and there was no priority lane whatsoever. You can envision what it was like to board a fully loaded A380.

Rather than waiting in line, I decided to find myself a comfortable seat outside the gate, watching the other 500 passengers scramble their way first.

Business class was located on the upper deck of Singapore’s A380s. It truly is a shame that A380s will soon become history, so I cherish every opportunity to fly this miraculous whale before that happens.

Overall I find this business class product to be style over substance. I’ve flown in these seats a handful times in the past, as they were introduced before the pandemic. My biggest gripe with the seat is how it’s capacious but cramped at the same time. The shoulder width was as vast as the Pacific Ocean, while the footwell would make a midget struggle. When you sleep, you must angle yourself towards the footwell, wasting all the shoulder space. Is there really no alternatives to better utilize the real estate here? Because the footprint for this seat type is quite liberal. In addition to the design flaw, the seat was ill-padded.

After settling down, I was offered a pre-departure champagne. The presentation was quite third-tier. I’m pretty sure even Royal Air Maroc serves drinks with a coaster, maybe a towel too. The flight attendant also offered champagne to a visibly pregnant woman. What a rookie mistake for an airline who brags about its attention to detail.

The champagne on offer was Charles Heidsieck, which I didn’t mind.

While waiting for pushback, the flight attendants came around with an overnight Penhaligan’s pouch and amenities, which (finally) included slippers. Singapore Airlines vehemently protested against offering amenity kits and slippers in business class for decades, only to realize how irrevocably wrong they had been.

I perused the menu while on the ground, which reads as follows:

Inflight:

30 minutes into the flight, apéritifs arrived. I went with an obligatory Singapore Sling, which I haven’t had in years.

Our flight was departing around midnight. I believe dinner was in an express format, since they didn’t serve the signature satay. The starter tray was brought out an hour into the flight. I’m convinced Singapore Airlines owns a smoked salmon factory, because that’s every appetizer I had on SQ for the past 12 years.

The salad was every bit as gross as it looked. I can’t tell you how many times Singapore Airlines didn’t have dressing for their salads. It’s like you almost have a better chance of scoring a Taylor Swift ticket. Moving onto the main course, I had pre-ordered the lobster thermidor. Again, this was underwhelming, and I don’t understand why people hype it up so much. I’m not sure what clientele Singapore Airlines is appealing to by having this dish, because I only ordered it to demonstrate what an embarrassment it was. And before you come at me, I’ve had this dish in first class and suites too. Not impressed.

For dessert, I chose the namelaka chocolate cake. It was fine, and so was the Kopke 10 year tawny.

One positive aspect of this flight was the complimentary wifi offered to business class passengers. I didn’t have high hopes knowing the A380s had OnAir wifi, but the speeds were surprisingly tolerable this time. I was able to browse Instagram with moderate delays - not so slow that you want to throw your phone out of the window. There were many areas that service wasn’t available, though.

After 8hrs of rest, we were approaching the English Channel. Breakfast started with a plate of fruits and a yogurt. The pomelo was good.

A pastry basket was presented.

For main course, I opted for the local flavors, which was the Nyonya ikan assam pedas dan sambal udang. This was described as a seabass in turmeric and tamarind gravy, chili prawns, fried anchovies and peanuts, served with cucumber slices and coconut rice. This was way better than whatever atrocity served at dinner.

On Arrival:

Let’s start with the negatives. The mixed nuts served with apéritifs were cold, no towel was ever served during the flight, service and crew had no personality, catering was largely a letdown, the flight attendant refilled my sparkling water with still water, and I was addressed by name only at breakfast. None of the issues was critical independently, but for the a millionth time, Singapore Airlines is NOT a top-notch airline.

And that’s it. I can’t think of any positives.