SQ325

The market and the people might be different. Iam amazed that about 1/4 to 1/3 of the passengers in the cabin opt for a meal at 12am, especially on the India-SIN routes.

KACommuter

This is exactly why I wonder why on earth SQ (and other Asian airlines) do not emulate the BA trans-Atlantic flights with a sleeper service on the 5-6 hour redeyes. BA even goes one better - you can ask for a doggy bag breakfast in the form of a bacon roll if you really want every last minute of sleep, in which case they wake you up 40 mins before landing so that you have enough time to go to the loo.

However if heading into LHR I find it more civilised to have a shower and breakfast in the Arrivals Lounge in T5 or T3, a feature that SQ will probably "discover" in 10 years time based on the time take to prove to themselves that premium economy is worth having.

KACommuter

So we should all suffer for those 1/4 to 1/3? Sounds like the tail wagging the dog.

Question is if you offered a sleeper service (which includes dining well in the lounge) wouldn't that also reduce this further? I know that quite a lot of the BA trans-Atlantic passengers do have dinner at the buffet in the lounge, so the result is that only ~10-20% of passengers want a meal on board (which they still get).

SQ325

I think we are already down to the minimum, the figure wouldnt further reduce. There will always be people which insist on their onboard meal.
Never got it why. The meals onboard are neither appalling nor of exceptional quality (its microwave food to me). I take my meals before the flights, iam not a fan of eating after midnight and i prefer maximizing my sleep (thats what a full-flat is made for).

SQueeze

I think the 1-2-1 layout is spacious enough and private enough for the meal service to the 1/3 - 1/4 who eats not to disturb most ppl but the very light sleepers.

I always try to schedule my India trips to exit from DEL/BOM because I barely notice the meal service after 2 glasses of champagne.

So with regard to this, SQ's 1-2-1 is ultimately the best product and is as great as the hype, with respect to the topic of this thread. ^


Just an added note to the BA sleeper service thingy. I thought most of those transatlantic flights depart in the early evening? How do people actually sleep there? I can't even get to sleep on SQ25 until after the dinner service. I can't sleep at 8 or 9pm .... no matter how hard I try.

AA_EXP09

Many times, I have seen the sleep be medically induced (whether by drugs or alcohol.)

mitwg

Not too much experience with JFK-LHR flights personally, but I go on QR's Business 1 (A319) quite often which departs LHR at 10pm and gets into DOH at 4~5am. Quite similar concept to the BA sleeper service flights, albeit an hour or so shorter.

For that flight, I try to make it to LHR by around 8pm so I can spend an hour at the QR premium lounge having dinner and then I'd change my clock to DOH time (which is already past midnight), shower and change into PJs as soon as I board and ask for turndown asap.

With this pattern, I land at at DOH with around 5~6 hours of sleep which is fairly decent for a 6.5 hour flight (I average less than that on SIN-SYD SQ overnight flights) and I arrive well rested.

The whole point is to imagine that you aren't sleeping at 8pm but rather that it is already past midnight at your destination.

SQ325

I try to do the same, but sometimes my schedule doesnt allow.

geminidreams

I havent flown SQ J for a decade so not presumptuous enough to compare it to today. I have however flown J enough to not be a novice. I haven't seen SQs 1 -2 - 1 layout. I have sat in their J seats as was curious to experience what the rave is about. For me I use a CPAP to sleep so I find it hard to sleep on planes without it. I don't find the width of any great utility. I agree the J seats on EK 380s are not as comfortable as those on the 777 but I don't complain when I get an op up!

Certainly 20 years ago SQ was the standard setter in long haul aviation. I would say a lot have caught up now, so there is a wide choice of pricing, hardware and service levels so its not hard to understand people not being overwhelmed with the SQ offering especially when some of the ancilliaries such as lounges and frequent flier programs are well below others.

However give me SQ any day over AF/KLM.

QF Lad

I suspect you are right and 20 years ago SQ were the top airline. I remember at school drooling over their advertisements in Time when they were introducing the Megatops and advertising dom perignon in first class, against a European backdrop, I still remember those ads today.

When I actually got to try SQ as a revenue first and business, the reality was different. Sure I have had some nice flights on SQ, ironically overall my J flights have been better than my F flights, but I have been disappointed with a number of my SQ experiences. Perhaps my expectations were too high from the advertising and hype and I believed that because I loved Cathay I would automatically love SQ, not this was not to be.

This has perhaps been due to some poor SQ crews (the comments by the original OP on this thread ring true), I didn't like Krisworld as much as Studio CX, and I struggled with the SQ website getting it to do things.

I also found SQ a little tight fisted with its top paying passengers, I have never forgotten being denied a second helping of caviar on a revenue F flight, or being denied entry to the Private Room on a revenue F flight because the next sector to BKK was in J, or the ridiculous Suite redemption levels they demanded for a number of years (now remedied) that put me off their FFP altogether.

In recent years SQ have not kept up with Cathay, Emirates and Etihad for their top passengers, and there have been questions raised about SQ's safety culture. It should be remembered that a SQ plane was very close to the MH place shot out of the sky over Ukraine. SQ were lucky that day. They had not taken the lead of some of the top safety culture airlines including BA (to give credit where credit is due), and CX in avoiding the Ukraine.

SQ has struggled with the rise of the ME carriers. It has some stiff competition in the region, Jetstar Singapore has badly affected its regional yields, and it is not placed as well in the region as CX for growth and expansation. So they have certainly had their challenges, and this will effect on the airline's ability to deliver services as well as other airlines in the longer term.

Having said that, I would hop on an SQ F or J flight without a second thought, in fact I would welcome the change. I always remember a flight attendant named Christina on a Cape Town to Singapore flight I was on in 2011, she was a delightful lady, truly the Florence Nightingale of the skies as she came around with endless Singapore Slings. Perhaps I will run into Christina again, perhaps not, but in any case the SQ girls and girls are usually professional to passengers.

nanyang

Not sure re SQ 20 years ago, but you are 100% correct about one major difference between SQ J and EK J; SQ J pax typically were originally booked in that cabin!

Now, I don't necessarily need to be overwhelmed by SQ, but things generally just work pretty well with them.

I strongly recommend giving SQ long-haul J a try.

nanyang

Questions re SQ's safety culture!? Where?

KACommuter

In the air, yes. On the ground it's a different story. Pray that when things go wrong they are covered in the SQ manual. Otherwise it will be denial first. Then "the rules". Then the supervisor. Then rewind. Then replay. If unlucky, 2nd denial. And the whole shebang repeats to the next supervisor...

KACommuter

Perhaps the rules allow only one helping of caviar per person?

jagmeets

KACommuter- while we are rehashing some of the stuff from the CX vs SQ thread (on the CX board), I couldn't help but chuckle at the 'Perhaps the new rules allow only one helping comment'

I'd go a step further and say (to your other comment) that even in the air, or in things-didn't-go wrong situations, there are way too many small/random things that can be outside the 'manual'.

Like a 'happy' but harmless elite (brought to that stage by an ISM who greeted the lower elite birthday girl on a long flight where she and +1 were upgraded to F, with a cake, bubbly, wishes and a 'Let's get him drunk') enquiring if there was any possibility of getting on a connection scheduled to depart 10mins after the scheduled landing time incase we landed early.

On CX, I get a super apologetic crew (a serving of mollifying Macallan 17 in hand), handing over the ACARS message denying the request since we'd land just at the scheduled time.

On SQ, I wouldn't even bother asking.
Hey, even if there was the time, and even if the ticket allowed, the change would require a process similar to one outlined above and take a few hours.

Guess where my S$s go.