A380 and 777-300ER on Singapore Airlines... and some more segments in F

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(Copied from my other post of the same report on SQTalk)

LHR-SIN, SQ317 07APR08
Y-Class, Seat 73A


Internet Check-In
Being a bit more experienced in flying SQ than a complete newbie, I knew that online check-in was absolutely crucial in getting a half decent seat. Although I had specifically requested an upper deck window on the A380 through the reservation centre, it was nevertheless only a request and not guaranteed, so I was keen to log on and check-in as soon as possible.

When I first tried to log in exactly T-48h, it wouldn’t let me in – saying that online check-in was not available. I started to panic, thinking I was going to be stuck in one of the middle seats between two passengers-of-size. However, I did eventually manage to log onto the service a few hours later much to my relief.

I knew this was going to be an absolutely packed flight (and if it wasn’t for the fact that I was so keen to try out the new A380, I would have just gone for one of the seemingly empty later flights) so I knew it would be asking for too much to expect an empty seat next to me. But since the layout on the upper deck is 2-4-2, a window seat wouldn’t be too painful for aisle access while giving me a window view at the same time. I wouldn’t have gone for the window on the main deck where the layout is the more conventional 3-4-3; it’s such a royal pain to ask two people to move out!

The seat controller had assigned me 75K but I always seem to prefer the left hand side, so I changed the seat to 73A. It offered to print my boarding pass, but naturally I wanted a “proper” BP so I declined.

Getting to LHR
The day started well enough… not! I hadn’t done a single bit of packing by the night before, so I ended up staying up the entire night to pack and tidy up. I was almost tempted to have a little rest, but an extremely painful previous experience warned me against it (long story!).
So, I successfully managed to get myself on the bus to Heathrow from Croydon which took around 1h30m but at least I managed to get some much needed sleep – albeit not as soundly as I usually tend to sleep on public transport (much to my dismay when I go several stops past while probably snoring).

Checking In
Upon reaching the check-in counters, the Suites check-in had one person being checked in, the Business counters had a couple of people waiting, and the Economy counters had a much longer queue. I was connecting to a flight in First Class so I decided to see whether they would spare me the queuing, and thankfully the agent who checked me in wasn’t a dragon She told me the flight basically had zero empty seats in Y (didn’t ask about R or J classes), and gave me the boarding passes for the LHR-SIN as well as SIN-ICN which was in my favourite boarding pass colour – red! She also tagged the bags First Class without asking, which was expected I suppose but still nice.

But rather than leisurely making my way to the departure lounges (and trying my luck accessing any of the available lounges using my SIN-ICN BP in F instead of the LHR-SIN BP in Y, with no status), I had to rush into the city centre, have a quick meeting with my GP and obtain a letter which I needed before I set off. So instead of potentially going for a nice meal and relaxing at the Virgin Clubhouse for example, I had to run to the Heathrow Express, take the HEX to Paddington and rush to my GP. I originally expected to be seen by 9:45am at the latest, so when I found myself still waiting in the waiting room by 10:15am, I was beginning to get seriously worried – the boarding time on the BP said 10:55am, and I was still in central London. Hmm.

Back at LHR – the race against time
After much fretting and pacing, I met my GP and then started running back to LHR. I think I left Euston at 10:35am, giving me only 15 minutes to cab it to Paddington again to catch the 10:55am HEX. Thankfully the bus lanes weren’t too busy so I did in fact get the 10:55am train, which proved to be one of the many fortunate turn of events that got me onto the flight. While I was travelling on the HEX, I logged onto the BAA website which told me the flight to SIN was already “gate open” – and I had the horrible feeling I was in the wrong place. Very wrong indeed. Hmm.

After getting off the HEX and running to the SQ Check-in counters, I was waiting for an agent so that I could ask for a Fast Track sticker. However, I then overheard a couple who had been turned away at the security checkpoint for being too late – this despite the fact that it was only 11:10am!! They were really not happy – their BPs had the “UPPER DECK” and I would have been really unhappy as well if I was turned away from an upper-deck flight on the A380 onto a bog-standard 744 flight! Ouch! I was really scared now – if they were already back downstairs after having been turned away, surely I had no chance. I was beginning to really panic, adrenaline rushing around, and I gave up the idea of getting the sticker and ran upstairs anyway. I thought about going to the regular line and trying my luck, but my better judgement told me to go to the Fast Track and try my luck (even though I have only a Y BP for the LHR-SIN). By showing the gatekeeper both my F and Y BP at the same time, I successfully managed to confuse her into thinking I was eligible for the Fast Track lane. But it was too early to celebrate, as there was yet another checker by the entrance to whom I had to show the two BPs again. He seemed to glance at his watch, think for a split second whether to turn me away or not (which had my stomach sinking again), but after a second successful bluff as to my eligibility to use the Fast Track lane, I was through!

Unlike a lot of people’s experiences, Fast Track security only had about 3 passengers waiting in line as opposed to several layers of queues snaking in the regular lane. I thanked my lucky stars again and went through the x-ray, the passport control and the shoes x-ray (!) and ran for my life to Gate 3 where the flight was already reading “Final Call”. I couldn’t help but laugh at my original idea that maybe I’ll have enough time when I came back from London to check out at least one of the lounges.

At the gate, I realised they played their usual trick – “Final Call” was in fact “Boarding not yet commenced” and I had run for nothing. Breathless and sweaty, I waited by the gate to calm down a bit and took some pictures of the aeroplane, although the double-decker aerobridge was obstructing about half of the aeroplane- how dull Within a few minutes, after the PPS etc boarding, they called for Upper Deck Y passengers and I went through.

On the A380
I was surprised that the aerobridge linked directly to the upper deck – I was expecting to go through the stairs from the lower deck (and sneak a peek at the Suites at the same time). So I was greeted with the sight of the new Business Class pods – plenty of people have written trip reports about their trips in the new Business Class so it’s not necessary for me to say too much, other than to mention that it looked mighty impressive and really quite large.

I walked a bit more to the small upper deck Y cabin and found my seat. It really makes such a difference to have 2-4-2 as opposed to 3-4-3! It just seems so much more civilised somehow. The cabin overall seemed very light, nice high ceilings, the windows seem very large, and the little storage cubby-hole next to the window is of course very useful. I knew I would have a seat-mate so I was quite relieved to see that she seemed to be a nice Singaporean (guessing) girl.

Settling into my seat, I was really surprised at the legroom. Maybe it’s just been too long since my last longhaul flight, but when in the normal sitting position, the legroom was perfectly adequate. The second thing I noticed is the lack of IFE box under the seat – it made such a big difference especially as I had to put my carry-on underneath the seat in front, since the overhead lockers were full.

Surprisingly, the KrisWorld IFE system was already switched on, and I could have started watching a film even before taxiing if I wanted. But I wanted to sleep more than anything else, so I just put the screen on Flight Map mode, made myself comfortable, and dozed off. I can’t remember whether I was awake for the take-off, but all I know is that I wasn’t properly awake until they’ve already finished the first round of drinks service.
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lunch from london to singapore

appetizer

Smoked salmon with potato salad, lemon

main courses
Beef fillet with rosemary sauce, assorted vegetables and sautéed potato with onion
or
Stir fried pork with ginger and spring onion served with seasonal vegetables and steamed rice
or
Indian tandoori chicken, mixed vegetables curry and pilaff rice with almonds

cheese
Cheese and crackers

dessert
Ice cream

from the bakery
Roll and butter

hot beverages
Coffee - Tea

I hadn’t eaten since about 3am, so when it was nearly lunchtime onboard my stomach was growling very badly. The smell of the food probably didn’t help! Before long, the flight attendants came round with the meal. I chose the pork from the menu (no Lobster Thermidor BTC! ) The smoked salmon appetizer was very unremarkable save for a particularly tasty small tomato – it’s weird how that stuck in my mind – and the main course was not bad but the steamed vegetable side was really not great. I was far too hungry to read too much into it, however. The roll was typical Y standard roll, instantly forgettable and borderline unpleasant. Cheese, again, was a typical Y offering ; a plastic-wrapped stick of Cheddar (or at least they want it to be Cheddar!) and a better pack of crackers.

Dessert, which they brought separately, was a small tub of ice cream but it was not Haagen-Dazs - instead it was some weird brand I had never heard of, and as expected the vanilla ice cream was not great. Then two cups of coffee to wash it all down with.

Once the meal trays were cleared, I settled down to watch a film on the IFE (P.S. I Love You – I really only watched it for one reason, and it wasn’t Hilary Swank ) A few things about the new KrisWorld system:

1. The screen is a nice size – much more pleasant than the size on the 744.
2. The increased resolution is a real bonus – everything looks so much better in higher resolution. Can’t imagine what the 23-inch 1280x720 panels in the Suites must be like.
3. The interface is much quicker and much more refined. Almost quite pleasurable to use!
4. The PC features seem something of a gimmick, certainly with the tiny thumbpad on the back of the controller, although perhaps if you don’t have a laptop and wanted to jot something down then I guess it could be quite useful. I had fun playing around with it.

I had a brief stroll downstairs into the main deck, and my earlier thoughts about the advantages of the upper deck were confirmed. It had a considerably less cosy feel to it, the 3-4-3 was nothing new, and it was a much bigger cabin so presumably things like meal service is much slower. Upper deck every time, I think! (I feel even worse for the couple who missed their flight on this aeroplane)

I spent a while writing the trip report and had a small pack of sandwiches when I got a little hungry. Then, the previous night without sleep caught up with me again and I drifted in and out of sleep until roughly 3 hours prior to landing.

Feeling hungry yet again, I helped myself to some basic snacks that they put out in the galley, including a Mediterranean vegetable wrap and a bag of cheese pretzels. I walked around the cabin again, both upstairs and downstairs – by now, downstairs lighting had been turned on slightly whereas upper deck was still pitch dark.

After watching some TV and listening to music, it was mealtime again at roughly 1h30m before landing.

breakfast from london to Singapore

fruit

Fresh fruit plate

light starter
Fruit yoghurt

wholesome beginnings
Braised egg noodles with seafood, Chinese greens and mushroom
or
Vegetable fritatta served with chicken sausage, tomato and hash brown potato

from the bakery
Breakfast roll
Butter – Fruit preserve

hot beverages
Coffee – Tea

Meal was fairly unremarkable – the fruits were nice and refreshing, roll was disappointing though better than the last one, and the main dish of the egg noodles that I chose was edible but not great. I suppose unless there’s something exceptional, the best that you could hope for meals in Y is being pleasant and edible – not culinary fireworks! In the future, especially from SIN for example where there seems to be a decent food selection, I might just eat before I board the plane and just have the dessert or something – I doubt anything onboard can beat a good Singapore Chicken Rice or some proper Malaysian noodles!

Then I checked out the audio-on-demand and listened to some calming Beethoven piano concerto with a baby screaming in the background. Thankfully I had my Shure earphones to block out most of it, but the crying managed to still penetrate through. Maybe I need some custom ear moulds

Before long, it was time to prepare for landing, with the flight attendants collecting the headsets etc – the usual routine. Disembarkation after landing was very noticeably better in the upper deck compared to lower deck – I wanted to take a quick look at the Suites so I went downstairs after everyone in the upper deck Y cabin had left, and lower deck Y hadn’t even started moving by then! After a brief pause, lower deck disembarked as well and I asked to take a peek past the curtains at the Suites which they were happy to show me. Really quite amazing – I could well imagine not wanting to get off! However, I did think that you could end up feeling too isolated and completely cut off from everyone else which, depending on your mood, might not be what you want.

The flight deck door was also open but I wasn’t able to take a picture of the flight deck unfortunately. I proceeded to the aerobridge and went into SIN T3.
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Scheduled: SQ602 SIN-ICN 08APR08
Switched: SQ016 SIN-ICN 08APR08
F-Class, Seat 2A


Once I entered T3, I immediately asked where the transfer desk was. Yes, I already did have the BP for SIN-ICN sector already but I wanted to see whether I could switch to SQ016. Of course, that flight is operated by 77W so it has a much better F product, but also I really wasn’t in the mood for a 16-hour layover even though I could relax in the lounges and go into town. I really just wanted to go home and sleep. Clearly, Y on A380 is good, but not that good!

I had my doubts as to whether they would let me, but how do you know until you try? I wasn’t sure whether to be particularly optimistic or not, since 77W would normally mean paying a surcharge and it’s not even open for redemption for other Star carriers, which is what I did. So, I walked up to the J transfer desk (as the F one was busy) and asked her to check for me whether it would be possible to take the SQ016 instead. She didn’t seem to think it was a big problem and merely called to check whether they could cater for an extra passenger, and told me that although they’ll do their best, my BTC Lobster Thermidor may not necessarily be loaded in time. Well, I really didn’t care about that – if it meant going home 15 hours early!

After waiting for a response regarding the catering, she called me over and I received my new boarding pass I was really, really excited; as much about experiencing the new product as the fact that I avoid waiting for 16 hours for the SQ602.

Next stop: SKL F T3
I had clearly underestimated the size of the terminal, since I found myself walking a lot further than I expected to in search for the lounge. Maybe it was just general tiredness (staying up all night then catching a 13-hour flight ) Anyway, the escalator up to the lounge revealed itself soon enough, and I walked into the lounge.

I had heard so many different reports, mostly negative, about the lounge. So I didn’t really know what to expect. Not that I particularly cared too much, since I will only be staying for an hour instead of 16 hours The very first thing I did was ask where the showers were, went there, and took a long hot shower. I can count on one hand the times when a shower felt so good. As reported elsewhere, the door to the cubicle does indeed have a gap that an unscrupulous peeping-tom could take advantage of but the reports of lukewarm water was untrue in my case. The water pressure was very decent, and the temperature exactly how I wanted it to be.

After making myself decent again, it was time to take a brief look around the lounge while I waited for my flight. I could see why people were disappointed – it really was nothing more than a bog-standard average lounge. There was no bar service (only in late evenings), the food selection was good but not great, there were no comfortable relaxing chairs (only normal chairs) and there was just nothing that was remotely exciting as far as a lounge goes. If VS can manage a great lounge even for its J passengers (and not just at LHR either!), why can’t SQ do something more for its F passengers? Not that it mattered too much because once I had sat down with a few bites to eat, it was time to head to the gate and avoid being offloaded!



The entrance with the greeters...




I rushed to take a shower first - I needed it after LHR-SIN in whY!!




The wash basin in the shower room




Some shots of the lounge area










The non-operational bar...!! Apparently it opens for a whopping 2 and half hours every day (2100-2330). Even the SKL at ICN manages to have an open bar in the J section from 3pm onwards...







The dining area




Some of the food offerings - the salmon and some cold hams




Fried rice and pasta (if memory serves correctly)




The chef station where fresh egg dishes are prepared


When I reached the gate, clearly I was one of the last passengers to board as the area was completely deserted. I walked onto the flight, and that’s when the magical 6-hour flight began…

First Impressions
Big! Everything was twice the size of anything I had ever seen! (Well, until I saw the A380 anyway, but that wasn’t my seat so it didn’t count!) There were 8 seats in F in total, in 2 rows of 1-2-1 configuration, and the F “suite” was just enormous. I now realised what people meant when they said that two people could fit in the seat comfortably.

I was approached by the Leading Stewardess (LSS) who showed me to my seat and asked me for my choice of drinks. I would have normally gone for a nice glass of champagne (obviously!) but this time I wasn’t really in the mood for alcohol so I opted for orange juice instead. She offered to take my coat but I decided to just stick it in the foot-well instead.

There were 2 staff serving in F today – the LSS and the Leading Steward (LS). The LS was perfectly pleasant enough, but LSS was the one who really shined from the start. Her style of service was simply perfect – the right mixture of enthusiasm and experience. The more experienced SQ F flyers may have been able to find fault, but I certainly couldn’t!

Then she came around with the menu (which, by the way, was a full Lunch service rather than the abbreviated service on the overnight SQ602) which was enough to make me hungry just by looking at it, a pair of headphones, the useless sockettes (socks designed for in-flight use), eyeshades and slippers – slippers! I thought they only loaded them on the NRT flights! I use the slippers at home so I was glad to see them. However, as predicted, this was a day-flight under 7 hours so there were no PJs or the Ferragamo amenity kit. I did know this beforehand and realised that a pair of colour-unknown PJs and a little pouch of some perfume was not worth the very long wait, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

I asked the LSS whether my BTC had been loaded, and she said unfortunately it wasn’t. I also asked her to check whether my bag made the flight, but the flight pulled away before she was able to get a response so she kindly sent an over-the-air message and advised me that the ground staff at ICN should be able to tell me. She also asked me whether I would want to eat right away or later, and I told her I’d prefer to eat a bit later as I wanted to get some rest first – she couldn’t have been more understanding. When they say “eat when you want to eat”, they really meant it!

VIDEO: Take-off from SIN

As I only arrived 15 minutes before departure, it wasn’t long before the flight pulled away and we were on our way soon. I was really, really tired but couldn’t fall asleep as I was too busy being like a kid in a candy store with my new surroundings. So I remained awake until the seatbelt sign was turned off and then the service began.

I was in the mood for some coffee so, out of the 4 different varieties of coffee onboard, I settled for Jamaican Blue Mountain. It was brought to me quickly and I was glad to get some caffeine into my overworked system. I thought about whether I wanted to rest first as I had previously decided, but when she came around and offered me some satays if I wanted them, I couldn’t resist and decided to eat first and rest later.

I then switched to the Krug, thinking that I would want some alcohol so that I can get some shuteye after the meal. I’ve first tried Krug on a flight back in 2001 when I travelled in NH F, but of course I don’t remember the taste from a flight 7 years ago. Either way, it was really quite good. I didn’t quite get around to trying the Dom, however.
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The Menu

Lunch from Singapore to Seoul

Canapes
Satay
With onion, cucumber and spicy peanut sauce


Appetisers
Oven-baked warm oyster with tomato salsa and coriander cheese sauce in half shell

Terrine of crabmeat and avocado with tomato confit
Green Sauce


Soups
Cream of chanterelle mushroom and ceps with chicken

Clear Oriental broth with bamboo piths and Yunnan ham

Salad
Butter lettuce heart with baby cress and cherry tomato


Sesame soya dressing
Singapore dressing infused in shallot oil with sambal, lime and honey


Main Courses
Pan seared beef fillet served with green peppercorn sauce, sautéed wild mushrooms and baby spinach

Korean style chicken with spicy sauce, jap chae and steamed rice
With soup and kimchi on the side

Seafood and rice vermicelli soup
Rice vermicelli with prawns, fish and vegetables in broth

Rack of lamb in red wine jus with roasted vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes


Salad of oven-dried romatomato with mozzarella cheese, couscous and rocket
Basil pesto and balsamic dressing

Desserts
Black and white chocolate cake with passion fruit coulis


Cheeses
Selection of emmenthal, caprice des dieux, rambol walnut and boursault vache cheeses served with garnishes

Fruits
Fresh fruits in season

- Exclusively created by Georges Blanc, Vonnas
- Specially prepared meatless selection

I didn’t have all the courses because I knew I would just burst – especially since I seemingly never stopped eating ever since the first meal on the SQ317 before this flight. I had the crabmeat terrine which was fairly ordinary save for the fact that it went so well with the small potato pieces. Then the salad – the freshness and flavour of the lettuce was just amazing and it went so well with the dressing. It was like I’ve re-discovered the humble lettuce. Then there was the “chef’s surprise” which seemed to be some sort of a fruit-flavoured soup. I think LSS told me but I can’t recall exactly. Then the rack of lamb…

It was good. No, it was amazing. I don’t know whether I was particularly hungry by that point or what other reason there is, but I enjoyed it so much that the bones were almost polished clean. By now I had switched to a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Napa Valley) which worked very well with the lamb as well as being a very good bottle overall.

By this point, I really couldn’t breathe due to eating too much, so I asked to have a small break before continuing with the dessert. Naturally, the LSS answered with a bright smile and asked me to let her know. Then, the First Officer came out of the flight deck and was hanging around in the galley so I realised it was my chance to ask him to do me a favour; no, not divert the plane to somewhere that involves flying for an extra 6 hours (although that would have been nice!), but to ask him to take a picture of the cockpit with my camera (since passengers are not allowed in during the flight anymore). He seemed happy enough to grant me my wish, so I gave him my camera and waited.

After a few minutes, I thought I can handle some more food, so when I saw the LSS again I asked her for the dessert. My camera came back as well with a very good photo of the cockpit both with flash and without flash – the windows were completely white from the light, however. The cake was a strange dome shape which I suppose was somewhat lacking in terms of presentation, but the cake itself was great. I had to really restrain myself to only eat half of it so that I don’t burst. Needless to say, when the LS came around to offer me cheese and fruit, I had to wave a white flag and tell him I can’t really eat anything else.

To finish the meal, I asked for another cup of the Jamaican Blue Mountain.
After that was done and dusted, I decided to try out the bed position with about 3h30m flight time remaining. Of course, it was done instantly with a smile. I thought it would make more sense to ask her to convert 2C into the bed so that I can just switch back and forth.

I was really surprised at just how comfortable it was. Granted, it wasn’t a completely flat mattress like it is in the Suites (presumably), but if there were any bumps or gaps that were enough to detract from a good sleep, I certainly didn’t notice it. I could sleep on my back, on my side, or probably even on my front (though I didn’t try that one). After listening to seat 1A seemingly finish every single item in the galley for a bit (he was still eating 3h30m into the flight and I think he even had an extra helping of the appetizer as well as all 8 courses on the menu!), I fell asleep and had a decent sleep. Well, I was seemingly caught between extreme tiredness and being kept artificially awake by the excitement of the First Class because I woke up with about 1h30m flight time remaining rather than being woken up by the LSS roughly T-1h as I asked her to. I had around 1h30m of sleep on the incredible bed and it was amazingly relaxing.

No sooner than when I had moved to my original seat, the LS magically appeared and passed me a small bottle of Evian and asked me whether I wanted anything to drink. I asked for an orange juice as it tasted so great. Armed with a refreshing glass, I explored the 23-inch screen KrisWorld for a while, playing around with a film and also some music. The high resolution of the 23-inch screen was apparent in the menus and the flight map, but the actual video material was different. On feature films (I watched Lions and Lambs for a bit), the resolution was not too bad although the MPEG artefacts were too easy to see. On things like Friends (which seat 1A was watching), the quality couldn’t have been more than a very poor SD. I guess they import the material at different resolutions, but the HDTV resolution of the screen seemed somewhat wasted on the poor quality video.
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Before long, it was sadly time to prepare for landing into ICN. I decided to overcome my fear of appearing like a complete tourist and asked the LSS to take a photo of me in my seat. Naturally, it showed all too well that I had overindulged on the food (although clearly it has been a problem for some time judging by the picture!) but also showed the immense proportions of the seat – even for my relatively large frame, it could obviously fit another person next to me – hello LS!

Also, because I actually use those slippers you get on flights, I asked for another pair. I think I read somewhere that they were the pairs that are handed out in Suites – certainly they were pretty well made and comfortable.

I asked the LSS for her name as this was, by far, my best flight in recent years. But I guess she didn’t want to take all the credit, because she went away into the galley and put the names of the IFS, LS and her on a post-it. Then, the LS brought (without asking) another cup of the Jamaican Blue Mountain, saying “One last cup of Blue Mountain before landing, Mr Stargold?” Much appreciated and quickly finished. I knew it would take all my efforts to actually wait till a sensible time in Korea before zonking out so the caffeine was very helpful.

VIDEO: Landing into ICN

Then the final preparations were made and we did the final approach. We landed without any incident and taxied to the gate in about 20 minutes. An EK 77W had also just landed (and I thought, I’d much rather be in this cabin than the EK offering with the 2-2-2 layout and a tacky mini-bar!) and a few other flights within a short space of time, so I had a moment of “Oh no, what will happen at the immigrations?” which turned out to be groundless, since the queue for Korean nationals was pretty short.

When the door opened, the LSS remembered to ask the ground staff about my bag, but they seemingly confused the question so I wasn’t any wiser - the ground staff just told me to go to the belt and check whether it has arrived. So I did, and after waiting for all the F bags to come out, then all the C bags, I guessed that it hadn’t arrived and went to the Lost Luggage counter.

OZ handles the ground services for SQ at ICN, and they were basically useless. I realise that they handle a number of airlines, but from the way they acted, it might as well have been the first time they’ve seen an SQ baggage irregularity. 30 frustrating minutes later, my report was filled in (or so I thought, until I received a phone call 45 minutes later asking me for the description of my bag since she forgot to ask :angry1: ) and I went through to the arrival hall.

So… some thoughts:

1. Service: From this flight, I now totally understand why SQ has such a devoted following, especially in F. Apart from my last flights in F which were in 2001, I don’t normally travel in F so I don’t have a lot to compare with, but I simply could not find anything that I could possibly have imagined to make the flight any better. The service was absolutely flawless, certainly from the LSS. Perhaps due to the low load of only 3/8, but nothing was ever too much trouble, ranging from my fickleness as to when I wanted to eat, to asking for various things during the flight. Just amazing.

2. Seat: Some people suggested that the SkySuite might be better for a day flight and the new 77W F better for a night flight. I haven’t been on a SkySuite yet, but I had no problems finding a comfortable relax position on the seat. The leg rest was far too short to be useful, but I found that once I reclined the seat back, I could put my feet on the shelf of the foot well and that was just fine. The sheer width of the seat is something of a waste without someone sitting next to you , but it wasn’t a problem in any way.

The 23-inch screen was very nice and made a lot of difference when watching films. It wasn’t so clever when the video was of such a low resolution that it looked worse on the larger screen, however!

Lots of small storage areas. The table had a great range of flexibility as to its position but it was not sturdy enough. – it flexed too much when you pressed on the non-hinged end.

Sleeping position – wow. As I said above, apart from the completely flat surface of the Suites, I can’t really imagine a better seat for sleeping. I could sleep in any position I wanted, the surface was nice and flat and quite well cushioned, and the seat overall was wide enough to not feel like you’re hemmed in.

Overall, I really enjoyed the seat and personally, I would not hesitate choosing it for both day and night flights. The privacy was particularly good, as it was basically not possible to see anyone or be seen by anyone else on the flight while you’re sitting on your seat (apart from people walking in the aisles).

3. Meal: Overall, the food and beverage selection was really enjoyable. I didn’t get my Lobster Thermidor but the rack of lamb was so good that I really didn’t feel let down in any way. The appetizer was fairly ordinary, and I skipped the soup. But the salad was amazing and so was the main. Naturally, the choice of coffees and the Krug/Dom choice are hard to improve.

Conclusion: Counting the days and hours till my next flights, OZ in F ICN-HKG and SQ in F HKG-SIN!
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Thanks everyone for the kind comments - soon to come: two more shamelessly decadent First Class segments, OZ ICN-HKG and SQ HKG-SIN. And the HKG-SIN is on the SQ865 which should hopefully mean a SkySuite finally!


The photos from the flight...



Plenty of room for my carry-on. I preferred this to putting it in the overhead locker!




The flight was lightly loaded today, only 3/8 which made for an especially great service




The legroom - I was able to put my feet up on the foot well shelf, so I didn't mind too much about the less-than-useless leg/footrest which were clearly made for midgets!






The seat control panel. The IFE controller had a nice LCD panel with a constant "flight time remaining" display which was useful...




The immense 23-inch screen. Can't this flight go to... I dunno... LHR instead or something??




View of the seat. As others have pointed out, it's simply huge - and I quite liked it that way!




A glass of Krug to start off the meal...




View out of the window towards the back, showing the unusual shape of the wing etc.






Two photos that the First Officer kindly took for me inside the cockpit in-flight - I was really, really pleased about this one!
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The intuitive Panasonic ex2 AVOD system. And a very nice CD too!




The post-meal chocolate truffle and the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee!




Bed mode. Oh yes. I could sleep for hours and hours in this thing on a long flight - alas, I only used it for about an hour and half on this short flight...




As mentioned, the seat was definitely big enough for two. Shame about the empty space...!




Seat 2A. If only this happened more often!




The brought-by-LS-without-asking final cup of Blue Mountain coffee just before landing!




7 minutes remaining? Arghhh!! 7 hours, please!!
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For photos of the Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3 First Class section, see here, and in case you missed it, the photos for the meal are here
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Nice report stargold.

I am looking forward to my brief experience in F on a 77W on SQ later this year. I managed to bag a SIN-HKG sector using BMI miles.
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Very nice trip report. :-:Gold

A flight in SQ's First Class is always a memorable experience ^
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Quote: Very nice trip report. :-:Gold

A flight in SQ's First Class is always a memorable experience ^
I second that, SQ F is a memorable experience.

Thanks for the nice report !! ^
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Excellent report, thanks for sharing. ^
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A lovely report indeed, thanks! ^
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Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Next, on two flights tomorrow:

OZ ICN-HKG F
SQ HKG-SIN F

This could potentially be "a tale of two lobster dishes in-flight", as I ordered the Lobster Thermidor BTC on SQ, and I'm told they usually offer lobster as a main course on ICN-HKG...
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Excellent, Stargold. Quite readable and the pictures turned out really great. If onle you had the Suite to SIN and Y to ICN!
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