jacob_m

Time for one of the longer flights on the trip, a flight between Shanghai and Singapore with Singapore Airlines in business class, a scheduled flight time of 5 hours and 15 minutes.



Pudong airport

I was back at the airport around 5 pm after the cool ride on the Maglev train.
Despite many evening departures both security and passport control were quite quick and I was through all formalities in less than 10 minutes.
Before security all passengers in groups of 10 were checked if they had traces of any explosive substances, fortunately we were all cleared of suspicion.
At passport control they had, once again, three customer satisfaction buttons to press, they became available at the same time as the passport was returned.
I pressed the hands up button for my officer who was friendly and efficient. ^



The transit hall of terminal 2 was bright and airy. There were a few airport shops selling the standard selection of duty free items and some Chinese souvenirs, but nothing remarkable and not particularly cheap either.

There was an interesting selection of airlines parked outside terminal 2 including a Thai Airways A340, a Turkish Airlines A340, a United Airlines B777, an Air Canada B777, a Lufthansa A340 and a United Airlines B747.
On top of that all kinds of Chinese aircrafts including Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Hong Kong-based Dragonair.
Pudong is a very busy airport nowadays!

Pics
The international departure board
The massive departure hall in terminal 2
The bright and spacious transit hall
UA, TK and TG aircrafts on the apron
AC, LH and UA aircrafts and a B737 from China Southern landing

Shanghai Airlines Business Lounge, Shanghai/Pudong

Singapore Airlines uses the Shanghai Airlines lounge located on a balcony right in the centre of the transit hall.
All Star Alliance carriers at terminal 2 obviously use the lounge, but a few other airlines as well including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air India and Eva Air.

There is an escalator bringing passengers to and from the lounge, I presented my lounge invitation at the reception desk and was invited inside the lounge.

The lounge itself was fine, it was tidy, well-maintained and in a good condition. However there was nothing special about it.

It is a very long lounge with small seating sections with brown leather armchairs and couches divided by low brown walls and plastic dividers. There is also a small restaurant section where you can sit down and eat at a table.



The selection of food was fine but nothing out of the ordinary. There were some vegetables, fresh fruits, a small selection of sushi, finger sandwiches, western and Chinese bread rolls and some miniature desserts.
There was some hot food as well, if I remember correctly noodles or rice with some kind of meat.

The drinks selection was far less impressive though. The white and red wines were all Chinese, Imperial Court, that certainly won’t win any awards. They were also served in paper cups.
There were no spirits and the selection of beer and soft drinks was nothing to get excited about.



I had some finger sandwiches, some fresh fruits and a Tsingtao beer and had a seat in an empty seating section.
There was free WIFI in the lounge, which is always nice.
Interestingly the Chinese authorities have blocked the use of Facebook in China. I had read something about it, but now I can confirm it is actually true, the only way to use it in China is if you have access to a foreign VPN.

On the whole the lounge was OK to spend an hour inside, but otherwise it was absolutely nothing special.

I left the lounge 35 minutes before departure, however there were still no indications about “go to gate” or “boarding” for the flight on the screens.

Pics
The lounge reception desk
The lounge is used by a large number of airlines
Inside the lounge
Seating sections
The restaurant section
View of the transit hall from the lounge
The self-service buffet area
Selection of wines
Different types of bread
Vegetables, fresh fruits, sushi and some hot food
Finger sandwiches

Boarding

Boarding for flight SQ 835 took place at gate D85 just a short walk from the lounge.



Boarding eventually started 25 minutes before departure. There were no pre-boarding announcements, instead one of the young gate agents passed through the waiting area and invited some passengers to board (presumably business class passengers).
I was standing just a few meters from the gate podium, I was the first one she approached and as she saw my blue boarding pass (all SQ business class boarding passes are blue) she invited me to proceed to the counter for boarding. Nice touch! ^

I don’t know if they made a proper boarding announcement later, probably they did, I was already onboard by then.



I was the first passenger onboard the Boeing 777-200.
Business class had the “Spacebed seat” onboard, which is used on most longhaul flights in business class. I was a bit surprised as I had expected the new regional business class on the flight.

Once seated I was offered a pre-departure drink: OJ, water or bubbly.
Menus were also handed out and they took orders for the first drink service after departure.

A safety video was shown on the screen before the doors were closed and the cabin prepared for departure.

Pics
Heading for the gate
The Singapore Airlines B777 seen from the terminal
The gate counter, interestingly it says “priority lane” on both sides
The business class cabin on the Boeing 777-200

Shanghai/Pudong-Singapore, flight SQ 835 operated by Singapore Airlines
Departure: 19:10
Arrival: 00:25
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Class: Business Class
Seat: 14K

Considering the late start of the boarding process we also pushed back slightly late at 7.25 pm and took off a few minutes later at 7.40 pm from runway 17L.
We were told by the captain the delay was due to congestion in the Chinese airspace.

There were a fair number of passengers on the flight in business class, but the check-in staff had not done a particularly good job with the seat assignments.
Several single travellers had been seated together, even though there were 3 or 4 empty seat pairs in the cabin. I was not the only one making that reflection.

The exact same thing had also happened to me. I don’t mind having a seat neighbour, it can be great fun, but I was quite tired and was planning to get some sleep during the flight.
I had been travelling since 5 am the previous morning with only a short proper sleep on the night flight between Hong Kong and Seoul, so the tiredness was really catching up with me.
After the seatbelt sign had been switched off I asked the crew if I could move to seat 11A, the first row of business class with two empty seats.
That was not a problem, even the drink order was transferred automatically to the new seat.
Two other passengers did the same thing.

My glass of Charles Heidsieck was delivered and I had a look in the menu to decide what to eat.

The menu

Pics
The business class menu

Here is the menu for the evening meal service to Singapore:

Meal service

My glass of champagne was topped-up and the first course which was satay with vegetables and peanut sauce. I love satay! My plate was emptied in no time...



However after the satay it took a long time before the appetiser arrived, nearly 30 minutes.
Although this was a long flight and there was no rush it was just too long to wait if you plan to do other things during the flight. Refills of drinks were also lacking during this time.

Eventually the table was prepared for the meal service with a white table cloth. The meal tray was handed out with the appetiser.
The appetiser was salad with prawns and eggplant puree. It was good but the portion was tiny.

I had a glass of the Italian Valpolicella Superiore red wine to drink.

Meal orders for the main course were taken rather quickly and some passengers were prioritised.
I don’t know in what order the meal orders were taken, I can imagine PPS members got priority. Since I was travelling on an award ticket (which meant my *G status was not properly displayed on the BP and probably other lists) I was not very high on the priority list.

There were four choices of main course: chicken, beef tournedos, cod or lamb.
I had the beef tournedos served with pumpkin mash and vegetables and it was very nice.
I had some more Italian wine to drink with the main course.



The dessert was ice cream, either Viennetta chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream with raspbertty coulis.

I declined some cheese but asked for some fresh fruits after the meal and got some grapes and pineapple.

I skipped the coffee since I wanted to get some rest after the meal, although I love that you can choose what bean you want for your coffee, there are three different beans to choose between in business class.

The meal service was rounded up with chocolate pralines.



On the whole this was substandard for Singapore Airlines. The whole meal service took over two hours, which is simply too long.

I have previously praised Singapore Airlines for their excellent inflight service which is usually coordinated to perfection with full control of everything going on.
This was not the case on this flight. There was too much time between the courses and too much time between the refills of drinks.
Obviously there can be unexpected delays, but so much time passed that I got sick of waiting, and there was nothing to drink in the glass.

Pics
A glass of champagne after take-off
Satay
Appetiser
Main course
Dessert
Fresh fruits and a glass of whisky

Seat and inflight entertainment



As mentioned I had expected the new regional business class for the flight and was actually looking forward to try it, so there was a slight disappointment for that reason.
Anyway, I’ll let more frequent SQ flyers judge if the aircraft change was actually positive and negative. I have not tried the new regional C seat so I can’t make a comparison myself.

Well I got the Spacebed seat instead which is used on most longhaul flights on B747 and B777 aircrafts. Although it’s been around for a few years it is still a fine seat, it would have been different if they had sent an aircraft with the old regional business class.

There were five rows with a 2-2-2 configuration on the Boeing 777-200.

I guess most people here have already seen or read about the Spacebed seat.
It’s a fine seat, a seat pitch of 56”, and it can be made lie-flat with a very small angle from being horizontal.
The seat was quite comfortable to sleep in, although I found it slightly tricky to adjust to an optimal sleeping position. Most modern seats have one button to press if you want to recline the seat to a bed (or whatever position they have for sleeping), there was no such button in this seat.
The seat control was in fact slightly basic by the standards of year 2010, but admittedly the seat is a few years old now.

The KrisWorld AVOD inflight entertainment system was reliable as usual, an impressive selection of audio, video and games.
However the experience was of course not as nice and impressive now that I have tried the new first class seat with the 23” high-resolution widescreen TV... (pretty much everything is underwhelming after that experience).

I watched an episode of Fawlty Towers followed by a German movie about a man who was planning to escape from East Germany.

Pics
The business class seat
Legroom and the personal screens
Seat controls
Watching an episode of the legendary Fawlty Towers

Arrival in Singapore

After the meal service I reclined my seat to get some rest while listening to some music through the KrisWorld system.
Eye shades and ear plugs were handed out by the crew and there were pillows and blankets available at the seat.
The seat was comfortable and I dozed off for about an hour.

Despite the late departure from Shanghai we made up time enroute and landed ten minutes early at 0.15 am on runway 15R at Singapore Changi airport.
The approach was very quick and rather steep, actually my ears got rather badly blocked up.

The new terminal 3 is used for SQ flights to and from China and we were quickly parked at the gate almost opposite immigration.
Sitting in 11A on the first row I was the first passengers to disembark and was addressed by name and thanked by the crew as I got off.

I was most surprised to see a young man standing at the gate, holding a sign with my name on it.
I just couldn’t understand what he was doing there waiting for me, I had no flight connection in Singapore, no departing flight to rush to and no special requests of any kind. Could there be a problem with my checked luggage?

Well the guy introduced himself and said he was there to meet me for my pre-arranged hotel transfer.
Wow!! I mean, how cool is that? I didn’t even think that was possible to do! ^ ^

He escorted me to immigration where there was no line, met me on the other side and escorted me to the baggage reclaim where the baggage delivery had already started.
The priority tag was reliable as usual, my bag was around the 10th to arrive on the belt, he helped me with that as well and loaded it on a trolley.
I was selected for a quick x-ray of my suitcase at customs before we headed for the car.

I was very much looking forward to some proper sleep, but more about the hotel stay in the next instalment.

Verdict

On the whole the flight was fine. The FAs were friendly and courteous and addressed me by name throughout the entire flight (and even managed to learn it by heart as they addressed me by name also when I got off).

The hard product was fine although it is getting a bit old. The SpaceBed is comfortable to both sit and sleep in and the KrisWorld system is excellent with all the video and audio options on demand (although the screen felt a bit dated compared to some newer products I tried).

The meal service was underwhelming though. It was simply too long, it did not feel particularly coordinated and there was too much time between courses and refills.
I know Singapore Airlines can do far better than this, and thus I’m not going to judge the airline based on just one experience, they obviously have their days as well.

A nice touch in Shanghai that the gate staff personally invited business class passengers to board before making a proper boarding announcement.

Next it’s time to give a review of my hotel experience in Singapore, which unexpectedly started before the flight experience had even ended.