SOUTH

Having finally made the gate we deplane and I head to transfers. Since they were unable to issue onward boarding passes in SIN for some obscure technical reason (they normally would be issued no problem), I had to show my itinerary to security. 5 seconds later I'm heading down the escalator to a deserted departure level. Due to the overnight curfew and lack of super early flights the terminal doesn't start waking up until about 8am.

I do my usual NRT thing by walking all the way to the far end and back a couple of times - these laps take much longer than SEA(!). While doing so I notice someone else is also doing a turnaround on SQ and trying in vain to find when the transfer desk opens. I let him know it wont be until after 8am. After another lap of the terminal - it is now time for the lounge to open.

So I head up to the Silver Kris Lounge. I don't have a boarding pass to show, but they look up my card number and see my onward flights - we'll sort these out for you Kiwi Flyer, why don't you go into the lounge on the right? Thanks!

I log on to check some emails - the connection seems to have gotten faster since I was last here a couple of months ago. I also have some Fauchon ice cream - sadly no green tea flavour for quite some time. In a couple of months (or less) the SKL is going. The *A airlines (except Air New Zealand due to its codeshare with Japan Airlines) are relocating to a common area of the terminal and there will be a new large *A lounge (UA RCC will stay). So this will probably be my last visit.

The lounge is fairly empty - no more than half a dozen people, and so I am sure the load on the flight back will be light. Boarding is called quite late and takes no time at all. Onboard I see I'm the only one in F, and even business class only has a few pax. The crew seem to have an extra bounce in their step, knowing this will be an easy flight for them.

We push back slightly early. Fortunately the runway has changed so we don't have a monster taxi again. We had very strong headwinds back to Bangkok, at times our groundspeed was only 600kmh, with a long flight time (for this route) of 8 hours. Despite this there was no significant turbulence. It did seem to go on forever, or perhaps that was my ever increasing tiredness. At least I was enjoying the pampering in F rather than cramped in Y. I decided to stretch out the meal since there was no need to rush - I made it last for several hours by taking a break between each course.

Even though the schedule does allow for the prevailing head winds on this route, naturally we arrive very late into Bangkok.