Short hair Francis

Part 7 – I’m flying too much, SQ F ICN-SIN, UA F SIN-HKG


Now why did I choose to route my SQ F all the way south to Singapore to fly back North to HKG, well I wanted to maximize my time onboard Singapore First, but with a performance like my last one, I almost just wanted to go home.

Jan 6, 2013 – Sunday
SQ 15 ICN – SIN 7:35pm – 1:05am (+1/Jan 7) (77W/F)
Jan 7, 2013 – Monday
UA 896 SIN – HKG 6:30am – 10:10am (744/F)

After my extremely long waiting time at the transit security, man I could use a bottle of water and a shower right now for my nerves.
Thankfully the Asiana First Class Lounge was close by.

ICN Satellite Terminal Asiana Airlines First Class Lounge










After a nice refreshing shower, time to head back down to gate 123 for the continuation flight, it was bad to be an SQ employee facing me that day, I was on a raging roll

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER


After another 5 minutes talk, this time with the SQ ICN personnel with regards to my broken adapter, displaying my displeasure about the work of the incompetent outsourced OZ agent and about the transit process for First Class passengers, I finally went back onboard the SQ 77W to Singapore

Singapore Airlines 15
Seoul Incheon to Singapore Changi
7:35pm – 1:05am(+1)[Jan 7], 6 hr 30 min flight
First Class, Seat 2F
Food – Dinner
Equipment – Boeing 777-300ER



I’ve decided to go on 2nd barrage of pictures in the cabin as the female ISM for the ICN-SIN welcomed me onboard, the ISM for SFO-ICN passed along the details of what happened onboard earlier and she promises her crew will display their A game onboard this sector

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class Cabin








Back in my crib that is Seat 2F




Part 7 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

I wasn’t too comfortable with this table, didn’t feel very sturdy


After my barrage of yet more cabin photos, I went with Still Water for Pre-Departure


First Class was full yet again, 8/8 with 5 out of 8 passengers leaving us from SFO.
Door were closed 1 minutes late, 7:36pm due to chasing down last minute passenger, captain indicates a 6 Hour 5 Minute flight to Singapore.


Soon we were airborne and I decide to be comfortable and have the bedding set up prior to the meal.
I personally love this photo the most out of all of the ones I took this whole trip


Departure from South Korea


SQ 15 Dinner
*Featuring Matthew Morin, chef from Australia

Canapes
Satay with Onion, Cucumber, and Spicy Peanut Sauce

Appetisers
*Salad of Crab with mango, witlof, and basil

Gooseliver and Smoked Goose breast with Mesclun and port wine jelly

Soup
*Pumpkin veloute with mussels and crème fraiche

Khori Komkuk
Double-Boiled Korean Soup with Oxtail and Spring Onion

Salad
Mizuna with shaved fennel and cherry tomato
Ranch Dressing or Balsamic and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Dressing

Main Course
*Cod Fillet with steamed mussel in Moroccan spice sauce, baby leek, peas, carrot and fettuccine

Ssambab
Korean Grilled Beef Fillet with dipping sauce, seasoned vegetable, and steamed rice, kimchi and seaweed soup on the side

Slow braised chicken with abalone and garlic, beancurd with vegetables and fried noodles

Sauteed Prawns in herb veloute, grilled vegetable and gratin potatoes

Finale
Chocolate and Earl Grey Cream
Caramel Biscult Ice Cream, and Candied Kumquat

Korean Traditional Rice Cake
With Persimmon walnut roll and fruit skewers

Camembert, Chaumes, Cheddar, and Blue Cheeses with Dried Fruit, Grapes, and Crackers

Fresh Fruit in Season

A selection of Gourmet Coffees & Fine Teas served with Pralines


And with my tradition with flying Singapore Airlines, a Singapore Sling to Start


Canapes, Satay with Onion, Cucumber, and Spicy Peanut Sauce

Seems like Malaysian caters more satay than Singapore lol

Dining Set-Up


Bread Basket

The Garlic Bread was soft and yummy finally unlike SFO

Anyone for a Wine Rack


Appetizer #1, Salad of Crab with Mango, Witlof, and Basil


Appetizer #2, Gooseliver and Smoked Goose breast with Mesclun and port wine jelly


Both appetizer were delicious, SQ doesn’t disappoint with food provided if it’s available

Soup, Khori Komkuk, Double-Boiled Korean Soup with Oxtail and Spring Onion

Went with the lighter of the two soup options

Salad


Main Course, Slow braised chicken with abalone and garlic, beancurd with vegetables and fried noodles

Was actually the weak point of the meal

Dessert, Chocolate and Earl Grey Cream with Caramel Biscult Ice Cream, and Candied Kumquat



Part 7 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Fruit Basket


Cheeseboard


The full service took 2 hr 15 Mins, pretty good and with a tired and screwed up body clock, I retired for the rest of the flight to Singapore

Pralines and Green Tea to End the Service


Turndown Water Service


3 hr 45 Minutes to Go



And at 0:20am SIN time, we begun our descent into Singapore, these US-SIN flight take forever, kinda thankful I usually fly only to HKG


Finally arrived into Singapore at 0:59am, the ISM passed me along to one of the gate staff for my much-needed damage report.
Now here is what SQ struggles, when things go outside the norm and irrop or thinking outside the feet is needed.

What happen was nobody wanted to give me a freaking damage report, so took over 45 minutes to get one from one of the SATS ground handling agents. As they only do damaged baggage report, what I resorted was to get a photocopy of the Cabin Voyage Report displaying what happened to me.
And I only got the copy of the Voyage Report after fighting tooth and nails for it, since it’s supposedly “company private info”

Geez, I love some aspect of Singapore First, but others parts, geez Louis.
I want no further part, they look horrible when things go astray.
And with a 2am – 6:30am overnight in Singapore, I gave up on the transit hotel idea and somehow lounge agent let me sleep inside the Terminal 3 First Class Lounge which wasn’t so bad, still not too sure to this day how I got in there seeing I only had a continuing UA F flight.


SIN Terminal 3 Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge













And they really do keep the riff-raffs out of the Private Room, closed at 3am


Managed to get about 1 1/2 hr of sleep, I could’ve done worse, and at 5am, I went to gate B9 for the UA First flight to HKG

Part 7 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

United Airlines Boeing 747-400


United Airlines 896
Singapore Changi to Hong Kong, Continuing Service to Chicago O’Hare
6:30am – 10:10am, 3 hr 40 min flight
First Class, Seat 3K
Food – Breakfast
Equipment – Boeing 747-400




Boarding started at 5:45am for Global First customer and soon I took a few photos onboard.

United Airlines Boeing 747-400 First Class Cabin



My seat, 3K to Hong Kong


Door closed at 6:23am, yet another on-time departure, flight time of 3 hours 41 Minutes to HKG and with my severe lack of sleep, I promptly passed out before taking off

ZZZ….
Zzz…..

Finally waking up, my watch saids 10:10am, not bloody again, we’re supposed to land already, why are we still so high up.
FA saids we’re landing in 40 minutes, do you want the breakfast, ya sure.
Now this is service, hot breakfast so close in.

Main Course, Chinese Sticky Rice with Preserved Sausage and Meat wrapped in a Lotus Leaf


I proceeded to moew that in about 2 minutes, thanks majorly to the UA FAs today, great service like that.
And due to the influence of Severe Tropical Storm Sonamu, it took 3 hours 55 Minutes flight time for the flight.

Very weird approach into HKG indeed.

UA 896 finally got to the gate at 10:51am, over 40 minutes late from scheduled time.
Weirdly we were park at Gate 61, so 108 Hours after I started this trip, I’m back in the exact same spot where I was 4 days and change ago.

You are also welcome to use 84 hours as a gauge since that was effectively the last time I was here and that was only gate 63, 1 gate away from gate 61.
Phew, that was one whirlwind trip Around the World, next time I think I’ll take more time in other destinations.
My body is worn out.

As to my broken 1 > 2 prong adapter, the ISM personally emailed me back after he returns to SIN base and promptly mailed it to my HKG address.
Replaced 1 week after the conclusion of this trip, pretty good follow-up


Thanks for Reading another one of My Trip Reports
Safe Travels and looking forward to more Mistake Fares in the years ahead

TomVexille

Good to see that the ISM followed up quickly and resolved the issue instead of trying to pass it off as insignificant. In any case, what an amazing trip, photos and report. Thanks for sharing.

SASDC8

Interesting report so far, and good to hear that SQ replaced your adapter plug ^

With so many great meals served on AC around the world, I must say that the UA breakfast thing is the single worst aircraft meal I have ever seen. I just hope it tasted better than it looked...

Short hair Francis

Was pretty good, I got an email from the ISM after 24 hours if I got home.
A very quick trip Around the World without a set destination
Thanks, glad to have written another TR, until new time

Bahaha, that is the entire TR, sadly no more "so far" lol
Yes, the ISM replaced it very quickly.
I probably should've taken a pic of the inside, taste like one at a dim sum place . You're not supposed to eat the leaf, only the rice inside.

AKCuisine

Very nice report and terrific descriptions/depictions of the food served on your various segments.

Over the years I've heard such great things about SQ F and would like to sample it for myself. I do hope your SQ flights were outliers.

Short hair Francis

Thanks very much, I love my food
I'm not sure to be honest if they are outliers, well I think most know SQ ground handling is already like meh...
I mean yes, when their game is on, they are very very good indeed
But man, on the real bad day like my day, they are bloody horrible, its like nobody taught them the concept of irrop handling

quirrow

Yup having taken SQ quite frequently, I have to agree that SQ actually have very good hard products, probably the best in the skies. Their product is very consistent across their fleet.

Where they fail sometimes is the staff. When you get the right staff, the experience is memorable. Most of the flight crew are usually pretty good. But the IT staff, ground customer service, and KrisFlyer agent are some of the worst I have encountered.

That being said, I do think SQ shines most in Economy Class when compared to other Asian airlines since their products are consistently good, and not much service to be said of anyway in the back!

Short hair Francis

Same here, definitely agree with what you said, I've actually done more SQ than AA this year which is shocking.
On a normal day, I love them, but when things go bad, watch out
I love SQ's Hard Product in J, done a F in and there, and thankfully Y.
The New Medium-Haul J product is simply fantastic for a 3 - 8 hours flight and i"m on that a fair bit since HKG-SIN runs that alot
Food is usually pretty good and if your crew is good, your all set.

I've never had any interaction with the IT Staff nor Krisflyer agent thankfully.
And the only time i had anything to do with the ground customer service, bloody awful, they kept pushing me to their colleagues instead of doing anything.

Thankfully have not had to touch SQ Economy yet, but it must be good seeing all the Chinese Tourist want the China, didn't know they still use metal cutlery in the back.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insid...nd-over-flight

I'll post a SQ Suites Trip Report either later this week or next week so hopefully the experience will be better

allset2travel

SHF,
Thanks for the great report. A real adventure!


I think the picture did not do justice. If cooked right, it normally tastes real delicious. I seldom miss having it when doing dim sum in Hong Kong.

Flyingfox

"As the Americans" blah, blah, blah - same old generalisations that have become quite boring by now.

The report is brilliant!

Short hair Francis

Thanks very much, glad you've enjoyed it.
I agree, the photo does not do it justice at all.
However it was just about 30-40 mins out, I was trying to clean my plate and get ready for landing

Bahaha, do I count as "As the Americans" lol
and Thank You Again