These days, I got to echo SMK77, the senior crew are often the ones that hold things together and make many trips still a good to great experience as long as it is within their means/ power.

Of course, if one pays super high fares, expectations also shift accordingly. I almost fainted when I priced out a SIN-CGK-SIN RT in Eco Lite fare (low fare bucket, no flexibility at all) that came in around 450$ before paying any seat selection fees or so. YMMV.

SIN-London J return is ~SGD13k. That is very, VERY close to F prices for QF/LX/EK/TG for the same route.

Caviar and Dom/Krug, or take a gamble on whether you get a pre-departure drink or some other passenger's trash? Hard choice indeed.

(granted, those F fares have one stop vs SQ direct)

Yup, I hear you. I just got the latest SQ marketing email and it advertised J fares to a few places in Europe for later in the year and the lowest offer (not sure how many seats they will to load to that fare bucket actually) was ~6k$ (LHR was a chunk more) and upwards.

While that is a far cry from 13k$, this is what I assume will book into D Fare bucket and as such is not a bargain any more either in my book.

Completely agree. I think there are still many people at SQ who do care, but they are being blocked by various factors that are beyond their control.

What do I think is wrong?

1. A relentless obsession with cost cutting, losing the big picture of what is actually important and dare I say it, what competitors are doing
2. Poorly-conceived process changes - much about cost saving - that simply do not work
3. Totally inadequate technology platforms that are not fit-for-purpose and completely unreliable
4. A total disregard for supporting front-line employees, including the provision of acceptable training
5. Deteriorating relationships with the unions, whose members have copped the brunt of COVID-19 restrictions and limitations and who are no longer supportive
6. A pervasive 'cannot' attitude where more time is spent justifying why things cannot be done, rather than figuring out how to get things done
7. Absolutely no ambition - perhaps this is what happens when your main shareholder has been so generous

Unfortunately SIA at the moment wishes to masquerade as a 5-star airline with Scoot costs. That's just not feasible, especially in an inflationary environment and very disappointing given SIA is the recipient of the largest shareholder recapitalisation in airline history.

Which is why, as a person living in Singapore, I only ever take SQ if it’s a redemption flight because, at least that way, I still get some “value”.

All my paid flights go to other carriers in OneWorld, even if it means connecting in another city but that doesn’t bother me much.

Are printed menus making a return? Saw recently on instagram someone posted pics from their flight and they had a printed menu.

My flight yesterday had a printed menu. However when I had it open to order, the stewardess said that the menu wasn't correct and instead just read me off the options.

The beef dish I had was pretty bad... Definitely the worst J dinner I've had with very tough beef steak and way oversalted potatoes. I was surprised. Breakfast was good though.

There was no upgrade when I flew EY medium-haul on my birthday very recently, even though there were 2 empty seats in JCL. The issue of cakes on request also seem hit-and-miss - I requested a cake when my wife and I were flying F on our anniversary (out of Australia back to SIN) and was told that due to "operational reasons" they no longer offer them.

Yes printed menus are back as of 2nd July, but only in FCL and JCL for now. I understand that even the signature hot-towel service will return eventually.

"eventually" lol

What unions? There are no unions in Singapore!

Technically NTUC has the word 'union' in the name. But back to reality, there are no unions in Western terms in Singapore.

P.S. If you are curious, do some googling what happened to bus divers who went on strike several years ago asking pay rise...

Mmmmhuh you know where Im coming from

The Singapore government detests the concept of unions as we know it, unless they are fronted by MPs / ministers / appointees who are sympathetic to the ruling party, which they all are - ultimately, in their eyes, unions have to be subservient to the State.

This is what happened to the last person from Singapore Airlines who disagreed with his union and tried to institute change - although the State controlled media in Singapore does of course disagree with this version of events:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/new-...02-gdiumq.html

I gather that printed menus have returned in J and it was mentioned that the hot towel service would resume. Has that happened? Still no pre take off drinks as standard?