The SIN lounge was new, being just opened in February. It’s quite big and new. There was still a faint smell of fresh paint around the place. With hardly anyone around, there was no food, only chips and drink snacks. There was also a row of computers, plus 3 ‘office cubicles’ with printers available for use. With no one around, I asked the agent at the door whether she could find me an upper deck seat on this flight and even a boarding pass for my flight to WLG. A few seconds of tapping on the keyboard, she found me 64A, I gladly took it, but the WLG flight still wasn’t open…

The lounge would have quite a good spot for watching people at the check-in area. Unfortunately, the seats facing the window were all too low to see anything interesting. You could only see the road outside the terminal…

Food gradually came out. It wasn’t a big range, and it’s all cold food. There was a Singapore style noodle plus the usual selection of sandwiches and fruit. One could never have too much fruit while travelling, so I took the chance to catch up on this food group.

Instead of sitting down after stuffing my face, I went downstairs for a walk. There were as many moving walkways for me to repeat my NRT achievement. While there was a good selection of shops, they’d nothing I wanted. Tiger Airways were launching a new direct flight to Mumbai, and were giving away caps as a promotion. I probably would have got 4 or 5 caps if I didn’t tell them I already got one. As there were no space to leave your luggage at the lounge (you could pay to leave your luggage at one of the shops), I didn’t take go to Terminal 2. The number of airlines was smaller than Terminal 1, so I thought it wouldn’t be as big… Terminal 1 was nice, with a nice fountain, and a stage near some bars. There’s also the Cactus Garden outside, and it’s not a bad place to waste a couple of hours. Anywhere near 5 hours (like I’d) would be a bit much.

I went back to the lounge, and tried out a variety of different seats. A TV was showing golf and another one was showing Asian MTV – none of them exciting enough, but it’s good enough to put my feet. A few more passengers drifted in, including a father and daughter. The teenager wasn’t wearing very much and she wouldn’t stop walking back and forth in front of me. She was even ‘stalking’ me outside the toilets a couple of times… It also didn’t help when her old man sat down on the sofa next to me… No matter where I moved, she would follow. I didn’t know what she wanted… 

When I was getting my boarding pass earlier, I saw some papers at the counter the flights today and their loads. They all looked pretty full, and it seemed most flights would have lucky people for op-ups… I decided to have a shower a good hour or two before the flights from LHR arrived. There were 20 shower rooms, I wouldn’t think there would be a queue even during rush hour.

After my long shower, there were quite a few more people at the lounge. Even with the more people, there was still plenty of room at the lounge. Compared to other lounges, e.g., CX HKG lounges, this SIN lounge is right up there. I’d even rank this better than the QF first lounge at SYD.

I left for the gate well ahead of time. It was a slight walk, but I still arrived early. Security for the gate wasn’t even open. People already started to queue when I got there. There was a rather dodgy looking around. I was standing against a column with my luggage, he’d nothing but a magazine and a paper bag with a small package. The more I stood there, the closer he got… He was probably innocent, but I would give him a look and he’d back off a little. Once I looked away, he’d get closer… The flight at an adjacent gate opened, and some seats opened up, so I left him standing there for the seats. I watched him for a couple more minutes and he disappeared…

My flight also opened, and we went through security. I always got ready (i.e., wallet, mobiles in my bag) before joining the queue. Pretty much all the people that were queuing before the gate opened had to be stopped because they’d something in their pockets. Why wouldn’t they get ready when they were queuing? It’s not like they’d better things to do while standing around.

Most passengers on this flight came from LHR. There were plenty of families and small children. Some of them were grumpy and tired. This just made the gate area especially busy… Babies crawling everything, crying, children arguing, fighting… Finally the air bridge opened… Boarding calls were made for families and they needed it. Some people still tried to get through early though. It’s not going anywhere without you… Another call was made from the back of the aircraft. Some premium passengers were confused as there was no call for them. I waited, and most of the premium passengers also waited for the call. The last call was just a general call, so we just queued… Boarding was through the one door.

I went upstairs and some people were already there. I took my window seat, and it’s a pretty good seat. Since it’s the last row, there’s no one to skip over to get out. It’s also a bassinet seat though. While it faced backwards, just as all window seats, you couldn’t really see the toilet or the gallery. There wasn’t much light or noise coming through either. One slight down side was I couldn’t use as much of the side bins as possible. Half the space was occupied by the plane. You could use several bins, since you were the last row, but none of them would be big enough to store a normal sized luggage.

Pre-departure drinks were offered, along with a menu. We were looked after by a couple of ‘experienced’ FAs. They seemed to be getting along very well, laughing and joking all the way. The service wasn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t as attentive as the flight from SFO. It’s my first time on a backward seat, and it took me a couple of seconds to figure out which way we were going as first pushed back before going forward.

Dinner wasn’t bad, and I might have a fish of some sort (couldn’t remember). Dessert was a very nice cheese cake. For some reasons, it took them ages to get the plates away (they might have forgotten). I like to finish dinner, use the facilities, brush my teeth and go to sleep on overnight flights. With a clear passage to the aisle, I just took my plates out with me. A FA just happened to walk past and she took it off me and just put them on where they put the newspapers before take-off.

The flight wasn’t long, only 7 hours or so. I missed half a movie again, and I woke up about an hour before landing. BA really need to take a look at their breakfast. It’s nothing more than fruit (or cereal) and bread. It’s ridiculous.

During the flight, the captain warned that MEL’s runway is under construction work (probably for the Airbus 380), so we might be under heavier braking than usual, that’s assuming we wouldn’t get hindered by possible fog. Luckily, we were quick enough to beat any fog and there wasn’t any extra braking that I noticed when we landed…

We left the plane quite quickly, even from upper deck. It’s just past 4am, and it seemed we were the first flight in. There were a few staff milling around, taking things easy on a Saturday morning… It seemed I was the only one with a connecting international flight, as I headed to security by myself…