Previous: 4 - Flight: MUC-SIN SQ F
Amazing. Beautiful. Best airport ever!!! These are just some of the descriptions of Singapore Changi airport that I’d read before. A bit skeptical, but curious to see what it was like for myself, I emerged into Terminal 3 and just had to stand there and admire the architecture for a bit. It was bright, modern, spacious and I really liked it at first sight.
I picked up a Changi brochure on the way and wandered around for a while, past the indoor butterfly garden, rest areas with snooze chairs, and phone charging stations. Wifi was free, just ask at any Information Counter for the login code and start surfing. The shopping arcade definitely looked like a mini-mall – and, despite the early hour, most of the shops were already open. I knew that somewhere there was a fitness center, a pool, and a movie theater, but I had only a couple of hours and the Private Room was calling to me.
I followed the signs to the SilverKris lounge on the upper terrace.
The entrance was staffed with 3-4 suited attendants. As soon as I approached, one of them greeted me warmly and asked for my BP. I presented it, along with the Private Room invitation, and the sight of it put them into an overdrive mode. “Ah, Private Room, right this way, sir!”. The male attendant took my suitcase and followed me as I walked next to the arrestingly charming female attendant. We glided through a mini-labyrinth of turns, and she pointed out the Business Class lounge on the way, but turned right to the First Class one. It was large and airy, with a big dining area and what looked like an extensive buffet. Busy, but not full. I made a note to check it out on the return flight from Bangkok. As we came through, there were a couple of turned heads, wondering perhaps where and why I was being escorted, which made me feel a bit self-conscious. The entrance to the Private Room was towards the back of FCL, staffed by yet another attendant. I was handed off to him and he welcomed me to PR and said he would alert me when the boarding time came.
PR itself was spacious, quiet and decorated in rich brown, beige, and gold tones, with marbled columns and tables. I’m guessing they were going for the air of exclusivity and weren’t unsuccessful with it.
The dining area was at the back and had a dozen tables with high-backed leather benches for seats
Adjoining was a small room with a couple of iMacs.
There were only a few pax besides me, and I wondered whether it ever got busy. I chose a chair halfway down the lounge near the window and took the opportunity to reorganize my suitcase, which was looking somewhat rounded from having pajamas, slippers, and amenity kits stuck into it. A waiter appeared promptly and asked if he could offer anything; I went with some sparking water and bubbles, specifically Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame, which was quite a nice drop.
You could dine either in the dining room or at your own seat, and while the food menu had some interesting items, I declined for now.
The lounge attendant gave me a code for wifi and I caught up on email and such, though wifi was kind of slow. At this point I started feeling a touch tired – unsurprising really, considering I just finished my 4th flight in a day and half and won a battle with a provocative quantity of first-class alcohol. I decided to stop with the champagne and got a coffee instead.
The flight to BKK was leaving from Terminal 2, so I left early and took the Skytrain there. The departure was from F60, the very last gate at the end of T2, and the boarding already commenced by the time I walked over. It was a corral-style gate with security at the entrance and just seats inside. Compared to TSA, security was a breeze – just take out the laptop and iPad and walk through the scanner – though they do lose points for the lack of TSA-style complimentary massage.
The agent had to hand-write a J class boarding pass because mine was for some reason printed on F stock (and I kept it as a souvenir).
Singapore Airlines 972
Singapore (SIN) – Bangkok (BKK)
Saturday, September 9
Depart: 9:40 (10:00 actual)
Arrive: 11:05 (11:14 actual)
Duration: 2hr 14min
Boeing 777-200
Seat 12A (Business Class)
I boarded through 1L into what was a fairly full business cabin. SQ regional business is configured as 2-3-2. I turned right and walked down the aisle to my 18A window seat.
Aside from the somewhat garish purple/red color combination the seat was nice, with lots of legroom.
PDBs were apple/orange juice and water; I chose the apple juice. Departure was delayed by about 20 minutes, so I listened to PointsHoarder podcast about the Singapore, since I was coming back here tomorrow. Most of it was food-related, and I salivated a bit, hoping that my Singapore friends would take me to some good places. We pushed off around 10 am and passed a couple of SQ 777-300ERs on the way out.
Shortly after take-off, the drinks and lunch orders were taken by two achingly lovely stewardesses.
I went with Sunrise Breeze, a cocktail with sake and bitter lemon, and decided to try the braised udon noodles. The cocktail was delivered in a few minutes and was tasty, though I think would benefit from being made with gin instead of sake.
Before the trip I put together a “Window Seat” playlist filled with mostly instrumental and electronic music. I forgot about it during the SQ flight, but fired it up now and had a great time sipping my cocktail and staring outside the window. The noodles were ready in half an hour or so and were enjoyable, but pretty filling, so I ate only half. My favorite part was the fruit salad and the orange/pineapple gateau.
The overall meal quality was similar to what AA/UA serve in domestic first, which is not too bad for a 2 hour flight. I got some more coffee and went back to looking out the window. Once the descent started, the stewardesses gave out Premium Lane passes for immigration. We landed just a couple of minutes late and taxied to the distinctive looking Suvarnabhumi terminal.
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