As I entered the lounge, I was greeted by the standing welcoming staff, or 'bouncers' if you will. One of them approached me to check my BP.
"It's been a while since I've been to this lounge."
"Oh, why is that?"
"Well, I'm usually upstairs."
"Aaaahh... you've dropped." Wow - as if I had that written all over my face, or it's an all too common occurrence? Ah well...
"...don't worry, we aren't too bad down here. Welcome."
The greeter was good to his word. The SYD J Lounge seems much wider and compacted compared to the F Lounge above it, though that's probably due to the F Lounge's much brighter appearance, higher ceiling and unobstructed view of the tarmac (cf. the "window-boxed" view from the J Lounge). However, given that there were so many flights leaving in the morning and so many people are able to use this lounge (QP,
oneworld Sapphire, EK Gold, Business and some other airlines by contract), I'm surprised that it wasn't standing room only. Sure, it was not as easy to find a seat, especially at the long tables, but space was still to be found, and the entire place didn't feel like another airport departure lounge or zoo.
But first thing's first... I had a short transit here and I needed a shower. The showers are located to the left side of the lounge (left as you enter the lounge) and, compared to some other Business Class level lounges in the world, these ones in the SYD T1 QF J Lounge are quite good. The rudimentary hair dryer was out of order in the free shower room I found, but other than that, it was a complete bathroom (i.e. shower, toilet and vanity sink), enough room to move around without difficulty, good rain shower with decent pressure and Molton Brown accessories.
Shower room in the SYD T1 QF J Lounge.
Molton Brown shower amenities.
Had my quick shower, shaved with the adequate razor kit I got from the shower reception desk and was good to go. Even had a few minutes to carefully repack my rollerboard. Looking at my watch, I had about 15 minutes or so until scheduled boarding, so I headed back out into the lounge to find something to graze on for breakfast.
Catering, or at least for breakfast, in the lounge had improved leaps and bounds since I was last here, though suffice to say if it were a case of keeping up with the domestic J lounges then so be it. Last time I was here years ago it was only some fairly pedestrian continental selection (if even that - no cold cuts or cheese). Now there was a decent amount of hot food and some nicer yoghurts and muesli on offer.
Lounge buffet selection for breakfast.
I grabbed myself a nice plate and then set about finding a place to sit and enjoy it. I'm not that good at sitting in a lounge chair and eating from the coffee table, so I tried to find a spot on the already crowded long benches.
The long benches in the SYD T1 QF J Lounge, which are ideal for eating and even working at "desk level". Seems QF have no problems leaving the booze out this early in the morning.
I managed to find a spare seat after moving away the empty plate of the last patron that sat there. I left my stuff for a second to seek out a drink. I was seriously considering getting a latte from the barista (human, not a robot), but I felt that I wouldn't have enough time for it to cool down and drink it before I had to go for boarding. I had a look at the bar selection and strangely eschewed a common glass of orange juice in favour of a flute of Seppelt sparkling. Well, it wasn't Taittinger, but quite drinkable.
As I returned to my spot to dig into my plate, a staff member was mingling around with a large tray of egg, bacon and aioli foccacias. Definitely looked quite a bit more elegant and somewhat tastier than my self-serve English fry-up; wish I'd seen him before I'd loaded up on the buffet!
Egg, bacon and aioli foccacia from the mingling staff; traditional English fry-up from the self-serve buffet... all accompanied (well, at least one was eaten, maybe not both) with a glass of Seppelt sparkling.
I managed to bump into a colleague who was travelling to HKG that morning, and we had a brief conversation before I heard my flight being called. We ended the conversation not long after that as I polished off the rest of the Seppelt. At that moment I just remembered that I had to call my credit card company to tell them that I was going overseas. Damn! Quickly pull out my credit card to grab the call centre number, dial up and wait. I could not help communicate my impatience to the agent who helped me, and despite the random boarding calls in the background he was very patient and happy to help me out as quickly as possible. That's customer service. But, I digress...
Phone call complete, now it's off to the gate. We were in the gates between 30-40, but rather far from the central area, so I had no time to waste. Why is it when you're in a rush to your gate, it seems to take
ages and the gate numbers counting up (or down) to the gate you need to get to seem to count
so slowly. A bit of pace in my step and I pulled up to the gate with only a few people still queued for boarding.
Flight: Qantas Airways QF81 Sydney (SYD T1) - Singapore Changi (SIN T1)
Sched Depart: 0940h
Aircraft: VH-QPH "Noosa" Airbus A330-300
Class: Economy
Seat: 25J
As I stepped on board the QF A330, I was warmly greeted by the CSM - most professional, just the way I like it. A little banter revealed that J was full today, though Y would be interesting given that I seemed like I was the last to board, but we were hardly into Final Call when I reached the gate. Then it all became clear.
Y was looking pretty sparse. I mean, there were definitely many spare seats, albeit many middle seats (obvious reasons). Lots of people had no problem using the overheads for their stuff. The second Y cabin was looking rather more packed than the first. For myself, I had no troubles with overhead space, plus I had 25K free for extra space.
QF A330 Y cabin.
Legroom in my seat, 25J. Don't let the picture fool you - it looks crowded, but for me, there was plenty - or at least adequate - legroom for comfort.
The A330s are the mainstay of Qantas' mid-haul international operations, particularly SIN since the Lion City had stopped being QF's mid-point hub for European flights (and further to that, the other Asian centres like BKK and HKG). I don't know why but I have a soft spot for the A330s (not just QF's, but in general). Maybe it's because it's a nice twin aisle that seems a bit bigger than a 767 but not as big as a 747, so with the former it doesn't seem as old (or as crowded), and with the latter you get a convenient 2-4-2 config in Y on the A330 compared to 3-4-3 standard on 747s.
Guess the only thing you have to concede is that the interior needs a bit of a facelift. The blue desert sand kind of motif on the Y seat covers looks a bit old now, as does the divider curtain crawling in blue goannas (or lizards). I don't watch a lot of TV, but the IFE screens are rather low res and are so small that even today's newborn baby's first words would be, "Too small!" Despite the faults, the cabin was pretty comfortable, and even more so since we were not heavily loaded in Y today.
Small IFE screen. My youngest cousin of a few years of age, who knows how to use an iPad, can't believe that screens could exist in such a small size.
Our boarding was completed fairly quickly, so once the final door was closed we were all but ready to be pushed back for departure. Safety briefing is shown, but soon enough we are heading towards the runway and up into the skies towards the Lion City.
Once we are at cruise, the seat belt sign is off and the crew springs into action. A couple of FAs quickly wheel out a small cart in each aisle and offer every Y passenger a small bottle of water. The CSM has made his appearance and greets the uber elites in the Y cabin.
We weren't given any printed menus for our meal services on this flight, so instead the FAs just gave us our options on the spot as they were serving lunch. I had heard a couple of rows ahead that the options were Japanese style fish or lamb and Israeli cous cous. At first I was intrigued to try the fish, but then I noticed the person in front of me opposite the aisle had ordered fish and promptly removed the cover so I could peek at the dish. I saw little fish, a
lot of rice and some vegetable matter. Hmmmm.... not quite the fish dish I was hoping for. So I opted for the lamb instead.
Braised lamb with Israeli cous cous for lunch in QF Y.
I took up the FA's offer of a wine to go with my meal, so I selected a Shiraz. It was interesting that they had more than two options (i.e. one red or one white) on offer this time, but I was looking for a nice red to go with the lamb.
Red wine to go with my meal.
The lamb was pretty tasty, which is saying something considering this is Y food. Some Y food - particularly by the airlines based in the USA - can be quite bland, or remind you so much of TV dinners that you'd almost think that's what they were using. As with many Y meals, the taste was a lot better than the presentation, which is equally applied to the side salad. Cheese and crackers is a regular on the tray (of course with packets of two crackers only), as is the bread roll, which this time was soft enough to eat and not use as a weapon of mass destruction (i.e. one's own teeth / jaw or someone's head). The dessert was a salted caramel pudding which tasted great. QF have switched to "pre fab" packet puddings now as have many carriers, rather than the old way which was having the pudding in a separate dish with a cover.
Lunch trays were quickly removed after everyone had finished, then the cabin was generally darkened as people mostly decided to try and get some sleep. Before most of the shutters were closed and the cabin lights dimmed down further, the crew came through with the relaxation drink offer of either hot chocolate or peppermint tea. I think this is always a nice touch by Qantas.
Relaxing drink service: hot chocolate.
Duty free was also offered, and being a playing card collector myself I decided to get myself a couple of packets. I hadn't had a packet of Qantas branded playing cards in years; I'd almost thought they never existed again.
Qantas branded playing cards.
After this, shutters were generally pulled down and the cabin was dimmed. Some watched a movie whilst sipping on more alcohol (well, generally that's what I observed). I decided to get some rest after such an early start this morning. I know this might not help me later when I should probably try to be tired to get as much overnight rest as I could, but I didn't care much, as watching TV wasn't really on my mind, and I had nothing much else to fill time.
The rest of the flight was nothing to greatly note. The crew on this flight were great and call bells were attended to promptly. I filled out my immigration card for Singapore and went over my plans for the next couple of days before the crew started coming through the cabin for the second meal service, or refreshment before landing.
I could smell pizza wafting in the air as the carts rolled by. It wasn't quite that, but just as tasty - a warm sandwich of mozzarella cheese and vegetables on Turkish bread. The sandwich was slightly toasted so when you bit into it, it was almost as good as eating a Margherita pizza.
Refreshment of warm cheese and vegetable sandwich...crispy toasted.
The sandwich was accompanied with a Crunchy mini bar, which was the small sweet to round it all off, though the real round-off of the entire meal was the ice cream service which followed the refreshment service.
Weis bar for ice cream service.
Landing in SIN was nothing too drama filled. We were right on schedule as we pulled into the gate and I entered Changi Airport, albeit in terminal 1, which is - perhaps competing with terminal 2 on this - the oldest of the three terminals and featuring some of the most retro fittings - carpet, signage. It was comfortable, but of course when the judges come to take the best shots of SIN Changi, of no surprise they are ferried to terminal 3.
Well, no time to waste. Enter Singapore, and now it's time for the Singapore Airlines short-haul premium experience......
Welcome to Changi Terminal 1, the retro Asian airport shopping mall closest to the equator.