Hotel advice for night prior to 6am departure
 

I searched a bit without luck before posting this...

I have a trip to Singapore in September. I'm staying in town most of my staty, but my flight leaving SIN is at 6am. I don't feel like I'll get good value from my full service hotel staying that final night, so I'm looking for other options. The transit hotels look appealing, but from memory, I don't think I can get to them (past security and passport control) more than 3 hours before my flight. Are there any non-airside options for some private rest for a few hours at or near Changi?

Some hotels allow you to specify when you'll be checking in and checking out and then charge for a room on a 24 hour basis, so that if you arrive and depart at 3 am you don't pay for an additional day on either end. This is sometimes called 24 hour check in at top hotels or Starwood calls if Your24 for Plat75 elites.

Another option is to keep your room as long as possible (elite status might give you 4 pm, but in locations where flights come and go at strange hours, 6-8 pm certainly isn't unusual and I've had check out times as late as 10 pm. After check out, you're usually invited to use the hotels facilities such as pools and lounges, so you could pick a hotel, at least for the last night, where you have status and there's a good lounge. You might also be able to keep the room longer for a half day rate, but this is often officially limited to 6 pm.

Finally, you can just stay up or stay out until the first reasonable time to go to the airport, around 2:30 am for a 6 am flight, check in and go airside as early as possible, then enjoy SIN including any lounges your can access.

Thanks this is good help. Thanks!

I'm not a night owl, so pulling an all nighter sounds a little bit like a fallback choice (though more or less what I had planned to start with).

I need to update my status info, I've been demoted to Gold with Hilton, and I have gold with another alliance (I always forget which) due to Amex Plat.

IIRC AmEx Plat gives Gold with Hilton and SPG, but you must request it. If you link your Starwood and Marriott accounts, their current merger's status match provision makes you also Gold with Marriott, which means lounge access at Marriott side properties (as MR Golds get more benefits than SPG Golds, but MR Gold normally requires more nights).

Assuming you're on the DL SIN flight, they open check in at around 3 am for the 6 am departure (with seasonal variations). You can seemingly do OLCI, but you cannot complete the process until you're at the airport and the check in counter is open for the DL flight. It's a pain IMO.

I'd much prefer to spend the night in a SIN transit hotel, which I have done when flying SQ as SQ permits check in and going airside 48 hours before the flight. Very nice and relaxing.

There's a badly overpriced Crowne Plaza landside at the airport, but IMO it's not at all a solution and I'm not even sure than you wan walk from that hotel to check in at T1 (which DL uses).

You can -- this was my solution leaving the SIN DO this past January. (I had originally planned on trying to power through the night, as unlike OP I am a night owl, but started having second thoughts the night before and caved and bought a room.) I don't remember it being an inordinate walk.

There is a landslide transit hotel at T3, end of arrival level on the left when you enter. You can get 6 hours there 10-4am. However you need to take a shuttle bus from T3 to T1 at that time of the day.

I don't mind a shuttle. Do you know the name of the landside transit hotel at T3?

I haven't used it, but presumably

http://www.changiairport.com/en/airp...e-lounges.html

PUBLIC AREA

Terminal 3 - The Haven by JetQuay
Location: Level 1, Arrival Meeting Hall South
Operating Hours: 24 hours Email: [email protected]
Website: www.thehaven.com.sg

Well, don't know if you even would consider this option, but certain hotels in Geylang rent our rooms per hour....

That's the one.

So, I was going to skip this and just tough it out since the prices didn't appeal to me.

But, then, I slept really poorly on the penultimate night of my trip and I decided I did not have an appetite for an all nighter.

Nap room is about a 2 meter square. Bed is twin width. Perfectly comfortable. Light control is excellent - room is very dark.

I could not find a way to walk from T3 to T1, so ended up waiting for the shuttle. At ~3am, they were not running very frequently. Took me half an hour to get from T3 to T1.

There's also a Crowne Plaza that's landside at T3, but I think for my night it was going to be a decent chunk more expensive.

Actually there are perfectly clean (if basic) hotels in Geylang that only cost around US $50 for the night. Since the MRT doesn't start early enough (IIRC) you need to take a cab to the airport (it's not that far)