Prelude

This is a trip report that was never intended to be written. However, fate intervened and thus I am compelled to share my experience on SQ 1 . Finishing up another semester at college, it was time to fly the all too familiar route from San Francisco back to Hong Kong. In my opinion, SQ has the best schedule for those of us who appreciate the extra day gained from it. It seemed to be another regular flight on Singapore Airlines, upholding the same high level of standards in all classes served. Nothing out of the ordinary.



Preflight

Supershuttle dropped me off at the international terminal at around 8:30 p.m., after dropping off some of my fellow passengers at their respective domestic terminals. I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the new Terminal 2, and it was indeed quite an improvement over its predecessor. Walking into the terminal, the airiness concourse continues to impress me, especially when juxtaposing it against the third world terminals at LAX. Singapore Airlines was operating counters in Aisle 6(or was it 7?), and there were around 8 counters open. One for First, two for Business Class, one for Star Alliance Gold and Internet Check in, and the rest for Economy Class.

Luckily, there was not much of a line for economy class. I had already checked in two days ago but was unable to print my boarding pass due to some weird circumstances. The staff manning the counter was a trainee, and he was assisted by a senior manager in learning the procedures. He was quite pleasant, yet he struggled with printing out my bag tag. At the same time, he asked that my bags be placed on the scale, followed by my carryon. This caught me by surprise, as I was not checked in Hong Kong and had presumptions that the SF station would follow the same protocol. My carry-on was overweight by 3 kg, and the ground staff kindly asked for me to step aside and reshuffle some of my items . I can now confirm that SQ does take the carry-on policy very seriously. After the matter was resolved, the agent handed me my boarding pass, assured me that my A3 account had been recorded and wished me a pleasant flight.

Feeling quite relieved, I then head on towards the security check. It was a complete nightmare. The security line was separated into a priority and a normal one, yet the security staff made no effort to direct people to the right line. I am not complaining because I am not eligible in any form, but I do have one question. What is the point of a priority security line when people who are eligible for the service is directed instead to the regular lines? Anyways, I believe there was an EVA Air flight departing before us, and the majority of those waiting in line were students heading home for the holiday. To make matters worse, some of them insisted that their beauty products and bottles of coke were not a form of liquid, and thus the already long lines seemed even longer. Obviously, this was not the best beginning for a long flight ahead.

Entering the G concourse, I first walked around to survey the locations of the Silver Kris Lounge and United Red Carpet Club. I will be travelling on ANA in May and after a quick look, I found that the location was quite obvious. I then proceeded to get a bottle of Snapple from one of the stores who charged me $3 as an inelastic consumer. After all that, I picked a nice pair of seats by the window and used my laptop for a while until my flight was announced.

To be continued....