I was on a flight today and got to talking with the lead FA. When I mentioned that I'll be going to SIN soon (3/31), he told me that he'd done that flight a couple of times lately, and that it is "always" very turbulent. He even mentioned that the FAs had to sit for 3 1/2 hours on a recent flight.

For those who have flown that route, is he right that this is "always" (or even usually) a very turbulent flight, or did he maybe just have a bad experience or two? If he's right, I may have to get the SO (and perhaps me as well) some dramamine....

On the bright side, this will be my first flight on an A330! ^

Just flew this route RT last week. I do recall some above average turbulance NRT-SIN (most of which I slept through) but didn't give it much thought, as sometimes you get turbulance. On return 6:00 AM flight SIN_NRT it was very smooth for the most part. Maybe time of day? Don't worry about it and if you do have a propensity for motion problems, DO take some meclizine or similar. You'll want to sleep anyway by then if coming from US.

BTW, the 330-200 series is a very nice experience. Good crew, nice equipment, wonderful AVOD, get exit row if you can in Y, otherwise WBC is very nice, which I was unexpectedly upgraded to.

I've flown this route the last few years, and haven't ever run into anything that would worry me. The turbulence between the US and NRT has been worse.

I've flown the same route many times, the flight generally is pretty quiet I haven't really experienced anything too serious. Especially with the new A330's they're using.

There are a few jet streams around Northern Asia, (Japan and Korea), but i'd highly doubt that was the cause for such turbulence.

If i were you, I wouldn't worry about it too much, there's turbulence much more worse than what you would find on that specific flight.

Enjoy!

I didn't fly it last year, but have flown it annually since 1998 (OK, actually about 2000 since NW used to fly to KL.) But I don't remember any of my flights having any "turbulence" issues.

I've done that round trip a few times, most recently last month. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's always been a pleasant trip in the A330.

It's no worse than it has typically been... I've been on this a few times lately, including last week. While it's been a bit rough in and out of NRT itself the flight as a whole really hasn't been that bad. Last week on the way back from NRT-SIN they did put the seatbelt light on and stop economy cabin service several times (but we were still getting drinks poured upfront), but it wasnt major turbulence in my book. No drinks spilled. There are routinely thunderstorms in the region as you move south and get into the warmer air, this is typically the culprit more than the jet stream. I agree that with the big plane this isnt really a big deal, the 330 rides nicely in chop, but I think NW is more cautious than other asian carriers in terms of stopping service in turbulence and making the crew sit. I've been on a 737 in similar conditions with stuff flying all over the place and people were walking around.

Thanks everybody for the helpful comments. I generally don't get bothered uch by "normal" turbulence, so I won't give it another thought.

I will add that I've been on this flight about twice a year, for the past 3 years, and have not had anything significant enough that caused me to remember it as "turbulence".

All the best, James

I've flown on that route several times over the past 2 years in different seasons. It's no worse than a (US) west coast to east coast flight. It's long so the chance of some minor turbulence is possible. However, not such heavy turbulence that the pilot asks the FA to suspend service and sit down (unless the message was secretly passed to them).

I'll disagree slightly with some of the trend here. While, generally speaking, it's not a bad run, without a doubt my most spectacular experiences have been on NRT-SIN, usually right around this time of year. In all my commercial flying, this was the only flight that made me queasy (back in 2002).

That said, I've had lots of nice flights through there as well, so it's far from a guaranteed thing that happens every time, but when it does happen, it'll keep everyone buckled up for hours -- and the lighning shows can be amazing.

Steve

I will keep an eye open next week just for this! Always enjoy a good lightning show.

All the best, James

I have never flown NRT-SIN, but have been doing NRT-HKG or TPE for over 20 years. That route is very often bumpy, especially about 45 minutes to 1 hour after leaving NRT, for about 1 hour. Then it generally smooths out.

Funny, but coming back up to NRT is usually much smoother. Not sure if it is the winds at the particular time of day (NRT-HKG is at night, HKG-NRT is in the morning), or if it is the route of flight.

I have a slightly different experience from most here. I fly this route twice a year and find the evening NRT-SIN flights to be smooth but the morning SIN-NRT flights to be turbulent. On my most recent flight SIN-NRT in Feb, one sudden jerk was so bad I thought we had hit something. In general, I observe that the 332s don't seem to deal with turbulence very well for some reason.

Nothing crazy. Mostly a smooth ride both ways except the last 30minutes or so both into SIN and into NRT.