LX 182 BKK-SIN
4:20 pm – 7:45 pm
Equip: A340-300
Reg.: HB-JMM
Seats: 9J, 9K (Business)

Mr. Megatop thought we were taking SQ to Singapore, as we usually do. This time, though, I had booked onto Swiss International Airlines, the reincarnation of Swissair, because the flight timings suited us, the fare for Business Class clocked in at half of SQ prices, and the seats would be long-haul quality. At Suvarnabhumi, the LX checkin desks, staffed by TG agents on contract, were basically empty. Checkin was effortless, and our three bags were priority-tagged to Singapore. We were handed outbound Suvarnabhumi Premium passes for the CIP immigration channel, and these came with coupons for 1000-baht off any King Power duty-free purchase of 5000 baht or more. Most of the outlets at Suvarnabhumi are operated by King Power under a controversial contract from AoT, so after passing through the empty CIP immigration channels located in the middle of the otherwise respectably busy Departure Hall, we headed for the VAT-refund desk and some shopping.

As a Thai resident member of King Power’s (free) frequent-buyer program, Mr. Megatop ordinarily enjoys a 10% discount on King Power purchases. As long as our selections came in between 5000 and 10,000 baht, then, the coupons were worth a few hundred baht to us. And free baht are free baht. I picked up a nice black polo shirt from Dunhill (on sale from a price already well under that available at Gaysorn Plaza) and a new belt. (You can never have enough hats, gloves, and shoes—I mean, belts.) Over at Mont Blanc, we selected for Mr. Megatop a handsome new black wallet that will be matched by a passport cover I’ll buy from SQ using my service-recovery voucher. Hopefully, this wallet will not routinely carry the ream of receipts and other garbage that doomed Mr. Megatop’s last wallet after just six years.

LX departs from Concourse D and invites premium pax to TG’s Royal Silk Lounge. The food and beverage selection was underwhelming, and the massive lounge was somewhat crowded, though we managed to find a seat with a view of SQ’s evening 773 and the empty gate awaiting LX’s bird from Zurich. The inbound aircraft was a bit late arriving, so we knew we didn’t have to rush right to the gate. Ten minutes before STD, with the departures board showing no delay, we hustled for the gate anyway. This required walking clear through the lounge nearly to the junction of the A, B, C, and D concourses, where we passed through an unusually clogged security checkpoint, then a long travellator-less dash all the way back to D4. We arrived right at STD, only to find a gate area full of pax. I told the poor TG-contracted gate agent that they really should post delays on the board when they know they’re having one. Apparently, I said it with too firm a tone, as he just smiled and laughed innocently in the Thai way of avoiding confrontation. I felt somewhat bad about it afterward, for it wasn’t his fault. But there was no one else to tell.

Boarding began about 10 minutes after STD and it went quite smoothly, though LX must have decided to skimp by using only one jetbridge. Everyone was on board pretty quickly, and the door closed long before I thought it would. Because Mr. Megatop and I don’t fly together very often, we decided to set the mood with a pre-departure glass of Champagne. As we rolled out to the eastern runway for a northbound takeoff right behind the SQ bird, I noticed a couple of Zurich-originating pax had switched seats in the 40%-full cabin to get a better view of the wing during takeoff. They moved themselves and their noise back to their proper seats shortly after climb-out.

LX’s AVOD system had little interesting to watch: Batman: The Dark Night and a couple of dozen forgettable selections. I stuck with the Airshow, which had some very cool graphics of the airplane a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The Matrix, depending on your taste in cinema. Evening meal service was better than some photo trip reports I’d seen on another website made it look. Perhaps things have improved. I had a decent Thai chicken curry with steamed rice, and Mr. Megatop went for the fish. We both gave the white wine from Zurich canton a try, finding it a potable and interesting blend of Sauvignon Blanc and [NEED NAME]. Swiss chocolates rounded off the meal service, and we had time to chat with the very pleasant Zurich-based crew. They were on the first leg of a BKK-SIN-BKK turn done in between Zurich-Bangkok longhauls.

The Captain initially said we’d fly straight into Changi, but later announced that we’d be doing a turn and landing to the northeast. Granted permission by the amiable crew, Mr. Megatop and I gingerly slipped from 9J and 9K into 9A and 9B for the view of Singapore on the approach, and it delivered. After touchdown, the taxi into Terminal 1 went very quickly. Before the crew could do much about it, the unwashed masses from Y were hounding into the serenity of the J cabin, crowding around us and pushing for the exits before we could even grab our totes from the overhead. Singapore must have been about to up and move someplace else, from the urgency of it all.

The C concourse in Terminal 1 was packed, more so than I’ve ever seen any concourse at Changi ever. We popped into some duty free shops on the way to immigration and found them lacking in comparison to those in T2 and T3. By the time we cleared immigration, which seemed to be giving some folks a hard time about their documents, sending quite a number for special interviews, our bags were circling the belt. Landside, we stumbled upon the longest taxi line—by a factor of at least 50 times—I’ve ever seen in Singapore. Over Mr. Megatop’s agitated protests, I insisted on taking the AirTrain to T3. There, we walked straight to the head of the non-existent queue and waited all of 20 seconds for a Mercedes taxi (maybe Singapore had moved after all and allowed Munich to stand in for it tonight). The driver loaded up on S$8.00 in “extras” on the meter (another cab driver later told me this was $3.00 too much), but the quick ride down the verdant East Coast Parkway to the Ritz still came in at barely S$20.