No for both due to 'COVID-brain' affecting the leadership of the cabin crew union.

due to cabin crew shortage, some flights are operating with less than the pre-covid complement (according to crew onboard) so less crew means less time for all these pre-covid activities. pre-boarding and boarding - crew still have lots of things to do.

So until the recently ramped up hiring of crew are injected into these flights (will have lag of 2-3 months from training to graduation), these pre-covid items will not come back.

Not sure I agree with this. On most flights I’ve been on recently the majority of crew have been standing idly in the galley and aisles during boarding, seemingly with little to do. The exception being the IM and galley steward.

No hot towels yet - I recent flew on ANZ and they serve hot towels so I took a photo and sent it to someone I know in SQ management and he just laughed. As for pre-flight drinks, they're on request, unless local laws forbid the opening of the drinks cart whilst the aircraft is still on the ground; you won't have an issue with soft drinks or fruit juices etc.

With return fares in J to Singapore from Heathrow on random dates next week going for £8900 ($10800) one might have thought that the airline would do a hot towel service and not have to ask for a pre take off drink! I think even BA provide this longhaul (as long as you can get a flight)

Yes British Airways have brought the hot towel back. SIA management are aware. However, as I highlighted in several other posts, management intentions are being blocked by a stupid cabin crew union leadership and their stubbornness / COVID brain.

Sooner we finish with this covid excuses for poor service the better imo.

If management really wanted to reintroduce hot towels, they'd have done it by now. No union is going to stand in the way of their intentions, that much I know about Singapore. Especially in an organization that basically epitomizes the country.

SQ fares are at least double what they were pre-COVID on some longer routes, but senior management are not remotely interested in rushing to get back to the full service standards of yesteryear because all the flights are full, many overbooked actually, and they've just posted the 2nd highest quarterly profit in their history - there just simply is no current incentive for them to substantially increase their operating costs.

Have to disagree here - the SQ Cabin Crew Union just tows the management line - it's the way pretty much all Unions in Singapore have operated since inception. I regularly discuss such matters with the senior ranking crew on flights and the answer is always they same; these are questions they regularly get asked and in order to effect change, it's going to take some effort from passengers, esp QPP/TPP, including via the VOC questionnaires, to keep feeding back and pushing on these points.

Many things are now on request, it is because of FT that i am aware to ask for things.
Both my longhaul flights were full of passengers not availling them selves to BTC / preorder meal options or remotely aware of the existence of the amenity kit or even the snack basket in the galley !


We paid €1850 for our business class tickets AMS-SIN-DPS at pandemic pricing but have seen prices now jump to €7495 to match travel recovery pricing.
And the flights still go out fully booked with passengers in seats!

No wonder upper SQ management is leaning back and taking a slow approach to restoring all services...

Pre take-off drinks on request is actually currently SQ policy - the same even applies to amenity kits, slippers etc. and cabin crew are briefed specifically on this. If you want to forego the hassle of needing to ask every time you fly, especially if you hold status with SQ, ask the IFM to update your profile on the inflight iPad to reflect your choice of drinks(s) and assuming you have diligent cabin crew on future flights, they will automatically offer you the drinks once you've settled into your seat.

You were indeed very lucky there - you'd pay close to that amount for just a SIN-DPS return flight in J now! My understanding is whilst in the early stages of recovery and restrictions on transit stops were lifted, there was a surge in bookings (at pandemic prices) especially between Europe and Australasia, and also Asia to North America, and that is the bulk of passengers we are seeing now. There are still many aircraft which have not been returned to service so those that are in service are at capacity, so much so that some ULR routes are now being flown with long-haul aircraft (as they can carry more passengers), and this has led to the downgrading of some routes being flown with long-haul (3-class) aircraft, to medium-haul (2-class) aircraft. This, in turn, has led to many passengers who've had their travel plans changed unilaterally by SQ, venting their frustrations on social media.

Thank you for this insight! Interesting!

I disagree based on what I know. I think generally there is a negative perception of the Singapore 'system' (I'm not singling you out, another poster had similar sentiment) and I'm not going to necessarily challenge or partially agree with that here.

But in this specific case, all I can represent on my small part is that management really are trying but it is a delicate relationship. I however can be much more frank and just call the union's leadership and position stupid / shameful / disrespectful / deluded.