Almost week had passed and it was time to start our long journey back to Singapore! The return flights were SKY726/BC726 and SQ633. Weather that night was bad.

SKYMARK AIRLINES 726, CTS-HND

FLIGHT DETAILS
Flight number: SKY726/BC726
Date: 19 December 2013
Departure Time: 7:15PM (GMT+9)
Flight Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (Actual ~2 hours)
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Aircraft reg.: JA737X

As per the previous flight, boarding commenced only 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. The aircraft only arrived 30 minutes before departure, so the turnaround time was pretty quick. Procedures at New Chitose Airport are similar to that of Haneda's domestic terminals. And as usual, Skymark's gates are at the very corner of the terminal, in the JAL zone.


On board JA737X. Notice the blue heart on its winglet.

Boarding was quick and we pushed back on time. The manual safety demonstration was done. Surprisingly, the purser did a welcome announcement this time, in both Japanese and broken English. Part of the safety demonstration was also translated into English if I remember correctly. What I realised about this set of crew was that they were strict about seatbelts being fastened. As in, really strict. The crew on our outbound leg were already strict enough, taking their time to check that every passenger has their seatbelt fastened before moving on, unlike on some other carriers whose crew simply just make a quick walk about the cabin. On this flight, however, not only did the crew check our belts, they stopped at every row and pointed at our waist (Probably hinting us to show them our belts? I'm not sure.) Still, at Skymark, the cabin crew really cares about passenger safety. Good on them! ^

However, this set of crew did the right thing, as this flight was really turbulent. They probably experienced it on their way to CTS, so they probably wanted to make sure we would be fine. Similar to the previous flight, we had a powerful takeoff roll, steep climb and steep roll to the right. As soon as the pilots initiated the turn, that's when the turbulence started to freak me out. The aircraft bounced up and down, left and right, and it seemed to go on for eternity!

Eventually, the seatbelt sign did go off when the flight was less bumpy, but however, I did not see the crew do their rounds this time. And that was probably the right thing to do, as the turbulence became worse halfway through this short flight. I was sweating and my legs were shaking. With sudden drops happening through the second half of the flight, I closed my eyes and tried to distract myself from the turbulence. That obviously didn't help since both my arms were clinging on to the armrest for dear life and I was breathing rather heavily.

When I heard the five "Ding!", I felt a relief as that meant we were finally about to land. And then the turbulence got worse...

While we were on approach to Haneda, I could see the city lights near us. I looked as the dark silhouette of the wing shook and flexed. We came in at a really fast speed and touched down at Haneda really hard. We must have slammed down onto the runway or something... We braked and exited at the end of the runway. That sense of relief! We taxied to the gate and everyone couldn't wait to get off the plane. It was raining really heavily in Tokyo that night.



Look at all the airsick faces!

As we disembarked, the purser stood in front of the cockpit door and greeted "Arigatou gozaimasu!" with a smile on her face. Wow, she must have seen worst! After leaving the gate, a few people on my flight proceeded to the toilet to throw up. Totally understandable. We followed the rest of our tour group to the International terminal to catch our flight back home.


Haneda International Terminal at night.

At this point I was feeling really tired. The thought of missing the flight did cross my mind, and I told dad about it jokingly. He said he would volunteer us to be offloaded if the flight was overbooked. I agreed, actually hoping that it would happen. We headed off for a quick udon supper before going to the gate. The rain was becoming heavier, and I felt nervous.

FLIGHT DETAILS
Flight number: SQ633
Date: 20 December 2013
Departure Time: 12:30AM (GMT+9)
Flight Time: 7 hours
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300 regional, refurbished
Aircraft reg.: 9V-SY*

Boarding was called at around midnight and I was half asleep by then. When I got on board, I was surprised to see the new regional economy class. But I didn't bother much as I sat down in my seat and tried to relax.


We pushed back and and safety video started playing. I fell asleep halfway through it. Opps!

I woke up when the captain announced "Cabin Crew to your takeoff station please, thank you." What a bad time to wake up! It was past 1am and I believe we changed runway. We started our takeoff roll and took off with quite a bit of bumps. Then, the captain announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. There are reports of Moderate to Severe turbulence while climbing out of 25000 feet by an aircraft ahead of us. Please remain seated with your seatbelts fastened. Cabin Crew please remain seated. Thank you." A chill went down my spine! Thankfully, the turbulence wasn't so bad as we passed FL250. Then I fell asleep again.

I was woken up by some turbulence over the Philippines. It was also just minutes before the cabin lights were switched on for breakfast service. The meal options on this flight was better than I had on SQ636. I took the rice option. On every tray was a special dessert, and a Christmas card from SQ. Nice touch by them!



To be honest, the rice wasn't really nice. But the cake definitely was.

We landed in Singapore on time and the windows misted up too quickly for any pictures to be taken. I was quite shaken by the seemingly endless turbulence but at least I managed to fall asleep on the regional economy seat. It was much more comfortable than the economy seats found on the A330s. I probably only have luck to blame for having to fly on a day of very bad weather. Oh well.

This marks the end of this Trip report. Thank you for reading!