FlyerTalk Forums - SEA-SIN on PR

Hey everyone, this is my first trip report. I hope you'll offer feedback. And I hope it isn't too much. I tend to go on sometimes.

This trip is a first for me. I've flown WBC on NW to Europe about a dozen times, but this time I had a short-notice trip to Singapore come up. And in accordance with NW's "no awards during summer" policy, I had to choose between the back of the plane on a relatively direct NW flight from SEA, or picking up a bizclass ticket from a consolidator in SFO.

Granted, the flight was only $1640 RT SFO-SIN, but I wondered how the overall experience would stack up. So this is a report on the trip but also a comparison of what you get for your money.

So, here it is.
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Trip Report – SEA-SIN

SEA-SFO AS592
B734 in F, 2C
Scheduled: 5:42, actual 7:12

This flight got off to an uneasy start the night before, as I attempted to check in on the Web. The computer informed me that there was a problem with my reservation and to “proceed to the airport.” My travel agent had booked the flight and upgraded me using a WorldPerks cert. This wasn’t a full Y fare, so I suspected AS had caught this and was going to relegate me to the back of the plane. I called AS and they said my travel agent had failed to supply all the information needed, so I couldn’t check in on the Web. No problems though. Whew.

As usual, I planned to leave my house for the airport at 4:00, a little over an hour and a half before the flight. Also as usual, I pulled out of the driveway at 4:55. Luckily, 99 was wide open through downtown and I made it to SeaTac in about 20 minutes driving much faster than was prudent. I got a parking space right by the elevator and was in the F/MVP line a couple of minutes later. Still, my flight’s departure was approaching and I was afraid I would miss it. The nice lady at the AS counter checked me in, checked my bag all the way through to SIN, and gave me a sticker to get through the elite security line. Did I mention how nice AS folks are?

Security was light, and I breezed right through and jogged the 50 or so yards to the gate. I got there just in time, at 5:20. The only problem was that there was no plane. The flight had been delayed until 6:21, so I headed down to the Board Room to have a drink and check mail.

The Board Room at SEA seems to have been designed by the same guy who designs cabins on the planes. Tiny, cramped, and austere, this is no MEM WorldClub. But the nice AS folks were friendly as always, and I found a desk and passed the time.

When I walked back down the concourse to D5 about 6:00, I couldn’t help but notice that there was still no airplane. Now we were leaving at 6:49. OK, not a big deal. My flight to SIN doesn’t leave until 11:00, so I’m fine. Shortly after, the plane arrived and AS had it emptied, cleaned, and ready to start boarding in about 20 minutes.

Thanks to what I learned on FT, I hung back when they called for pre-boarding and watched as the first guy in line was hauled off for a wanding. After that, boarding was typical, including the part where they didn’t ask for my upgrade cert http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

Chilled bottles of water were waiting at our seats, and the FA came around and welcomed each passenger in F aboard and took drink orders, followed by a verbal menu presentation:

Cold turkey on a kalamata olive baguette smeared with herbed something or other
Or
Chicken breast on wild rice

I opted for the turkey. Shortly after our takeoff to the south over Olympia, the FA brought drinks and a bag-o-nuts to everyone but me (evidently she forgot). I didn’t complain as I didn’t want a bag-o-nuts anyway. A few minutes later, dinner was served. Oh, how I wish I had asked for the chicken. It looked great. The turkey sandwich was dry and bland and just, well, blecch. Soon enough, the FA took it away and I settled in for the rest of the flight.

Here's a photo of the Something-smeared Turkey. http://alan.westenbroek.com/images/sin-01.jpg

There was a very interesting man in 1D who seemed to know all the crew, and joked with them throughout the flight. In between the banter, he was reading what I’m sure was a Greek New Testament. You don’t see that every day. Behind me in 3C was a guy with the LOUDEST VOICE I have ever heard on an airplane. He was droning on and on, regaling his neighbor and the rest of F with tales from his high school reunion. I was tempted to turn around and ask him if we could please try to remember to use our “inside voices” but he eventually wore himself out and we were ready to start our descent into SFO, arriving about 90 minutes late.

SFO-HNL-MNL PR115
A340 in C, 12A
Scheduled: 11:00, actual 11:20

This was my first time in the SFO international terminal. Very nice. I made my way to the PR checkin counters, and even though monahos had prepared me for the sight, it was still startling to see eight or so long lines crammed with people, each pushing a cart with two enormous cardboard boxes on it. Despite being in a long line, the crowd was generally boisterous and excited. The Mabuhay (Bizclass) line had about ten people in it, and the F line was empty. The agent at the F desk just sat there, staring off into space while the agent at the C desk took people one at a time. All in all, the process was terribly disorganized. It took me 55 minutes to get to the counter where I asked for an aisle seat and got an invitation to the Mabuhay lounge. I couldn’t help but think that if I were flying NW I would have been checked in long ago.

The lounge is grouped with all of the others, past security and up to the fourth floor. Once inside, it was even tinier than the AS lounge in SEA but modern and nicely appointed. There was no place to sit, so I stood around for a minute and decided to head for the gate since we were getting close to departure. It was about this point that I really began to wish I was flying good old NW. As I walked down the stairs, I passed a nice, big, new WorldClub. <sigh>.

The gate was at the end of the A concourse and there were already two lines formed from the gate across the concourse and wrapped back to the gate. There was no preboarding, but they did go by row and I was in the first group. While standing in line, I could look out and see a NW 747, probably going the same general direction as me. At that moment I cursed Beth Shultis for the lack of upgrade awards on NW.

I had been expecting a dilapidated older plane from what I had read on FT, but this was a nearly new Airbus 340, clean and in good condition. Arriving in the Mabuhay section, I again wished I was on a NW plane right about now. Business Class on PR is very similar to domestic F on NW or AS. They claimed 50” of pitch, but I find that hard to believe. There were footrests that caught me mid-calf and about 10” of recline. On a shorter flight of a few hours, this would be OK. On a 16 ½ hour haul like this, it was miserable. My neighbor was an older lady in a wheelchair who ate some kind of nut one after the other from a large plastic shopping bag the entire duration of the trip. In front of me were two people who just LOVED the reclining seats. Before takeoff they reclined/sat up over and over again. As soon as we were in the air, the seats went all the way back and stayed that way even through meals and bathroom trips. Being a fat man, I found it impossible to actually get to the aisle with the seats all the way back and the disabled lady sleeping next to me. Finally, she had to go and I was able to stop doing the pee-pee dance and go as well.

Shortly after takeoff, dinner service started, with a choice of several entrees:

Beef tenderloin with whipped potatoes and julienne of vegetables
Pan-fried salmon with whipped potatoes
Some kind of mushroom pasta I didn’t get to remember before the FA took my menu away(!)

It was nice to have the entire meal (save the entrée) brought on a single tray. This was much more efficient than the excruciatingly pretentious two-hour ordeal that was dinner on my last CO BizFirst flight. I mean, it’s airplane food for cryin out loud. I don’t need nine pieces of silverware to make it through a meal of airplane food! Anyway. The food was OK as airplane food goes, about like what you get on a transcon domestic F flight. I had the beef, which was just as overcooked and bland as the beef always is on an airplane. But the alternative was fish, and I’ve watched enough movies to know that you never have the fish.

Here are photos of the appetizer and main courses.
http://alan.westenbroek.com/images/sin-02.jpg
http://alan.westenbroek.com/images/sin-03.jpg

After the meal was cleared, I settled in to watch Monsters Inc. on the IFE main screen. Maybe it’s just my experience with NW’s rickety fleet, but the projector seemed to have a nice picture, with all the colors converged and shapes the right…shape. They also had personal screens but nothing was showing except the same thing as on the main screen. Sometime during the film I dozed off (anyone know if the little girl gets back to her bedroom?) and awoke when we started our descent into HNL for refueling. We were there for about 45 minutes (“everyone stay in your seats!”) and then started the 10 hour flight to Manila.

I pretty much slept the entire time, only climbing over my neighbor twice for a trip to the lav and a short walk to get some circulation back in my legs. About 90 minutes from MNL, the crew served breakfast. I had the sausage and eggs which were about as bad as sausage and eggs get on an airplane. I think the scrambled eggs had been “cooking” since SFO. No surprises there though.

Overall, the crew was friendly and polite, but not very attentive. I got one water glass refill the entire flight. After we took off from HNL, they passed out a slice of French bread with some turkey on it and then disappeared until it was time for breakfast—about 7 hours. I saw one passenger roaming around in the dark galley looking for something to drink at one point but I’m not sure if he got it.

We arrived on time in MNL at 6:32AM, two days after we took off. It took me less than five minutes to go through a transfer desk, security, another transfer desk (didn’t ask), and find my way to the Mubahay departure lounge for my flight to SIN some seven hours later. The new terminal is very nice. Modern, airy, and well laid-out. It reminds me a little of AMS in terms of style and architecture, except the whole terminal is smaller than the KLM Business Class lounge at AMS.

The lounge in MNL is very nicely appointed and quite large. There is a “quiet area” with tables and chairs for working, and two private cubicles with desks (one has net access). A large TV (off), and an adjoining bar area with a variety of snacks and lots more seating. In the back of the lounge is a masseuse doing chair massages, which is a nice touch. Furnishings in the lounge are especially good, and it looks like they could have furnished it from Kasala in Seattle though I am sure they did not.

While writing this I just overheard that there was an earlier flight to SIN, and I could have saved myself 6 hours of sitting in the airport but it was too late to change. This is the price you pay buying from a consolidator, I guess. Now to explore the MNL airport for a while.

OK, that was quick. Without going outside security, there is nothing in this terminal aside from the lounge, a Christian bookstore, and a kiosk selling coffee and candy. Oh, yeah. A “duty free” shop full of cigarettes and booze. Back to the lounge to watch a movie on the laptop and sleep for a few hours.

MNL-SIN PR501
A330 in C, 12A
Scheduled: 2:10, actual 3:00

Boarding by row number, no preboarding for F. This was another nice new Airbus, this time a 330. The A/C was turned off for some reason, and it was stifling inside the plane. Everyone was fanning themselves with the menus, but still we all had sweat pouring down our faces. Not a nice condition when you’ve already been traveling for 28 hours with no shower. If you know what I mean. Once the plane was loaded up and the door was shut, we sat. And sweated. After about 20 minutes I asked the FA what was up and she said she’d ask the captain. A minute later he came on the PA and said there was a wait to taxi.

Finally, we took off. Service and food were identical to the SFO-MNL route: so-so food, polite but inattentive service. After takeoff, the plane cooled down some but was never less than warm. We arrived into SIN about 20 minutes late.

I’ll post the actual Singapore experience and return trip once I’m back.

-alan in seattle

[This message has been edited by alanw (edited 06-17-2002).]

[This message has been edited by alanw (edited 06-25-2002).]

Well here it is, the conclusion to my first report. Hopefully the pictures work. I added some to the first post as well.

June 16-22, In SIN

I had never been to Singapore. Acquaintances had warned me that it was clean but sterile, boring, oppressive, the heat/humidity were unbearable, and a whole other litany of things which made it an undesirable place to spend time.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was clean but hardly sterile, with friendly people everywhere I went. And hardly boring.

I was in town for a trade show, and our distributors had arranged a room for me at the Carlton (“not exactly the Ritz-Carlton”) Hotel, only a couple of blocks from Suntec City, where the show was held. I had a very unpleasant experience at the sound-alike in SFO, and wasn’t at all crazy about this one. The few reports I could find online complained of dumpy surroundings, construction noise, and poor service.

My room was on the 23rd floor, on the “Carlton Club” level. The lobby is very nice if not breathtaking, and checkin was handled in the Carlton Club by a very friendly staff. My room was quite large, with a great view of the city and very pleasant new furnishings.

I’ll spare the gory details of a week working a trade show at the equator, except for a couple of high points. Thursday night, we had a wonderful Thai dinner at Paddyfield’s in Alexandra Road. They had a set 10-course menu and everything was fantastic. Highly recommended.

One of the things I always do first when I’m going to be spending more than a day or two in a city is to find a good bar and ingratiate myself to the staff. Across from the hotel is the Chijmes complex, which has several bars and restaurants housed in an old church. I quickly selected China Jump, a cheesy disco, as the place to spend my evenings. It turns out they have a really terrific house band and service no more indifferent than I experienced at any other bar or restaurant in SIN. The S$11.00 Tiger beers were a little steep though. I met a gaggle of Quantas FA’s the first night, who were friendly and awfully chatty. I also ran into a few FA’s from Emirates in the hotel. All I can say is those are about the classiest uniforms I’ve ever seen.

Friday, our last night in town, we headed down to Boat Quay on the river to watch the USA-Germany match and seek out some good Indonesian food. Well, you know how the match turned out. It was a good feeling to walk around the streets of this city half a world away and hear people chanting “USA! USA!” from every bar and restaurant. We tracked down an Indonesian place called Java something or other, and had a very expensive and mediocre meal. I guess I have been spoiled by Lom Kapur in AMS. This place only bears mention because they charged us S$.60 for the napkins and S$18.00 for those styrofoamy-chip things you get free in the bars. Not highly recommended.

We ended up the night as we had all the others, drunk and sweaty. Overall, I give SIN 4 ½ stars. I took half a star away for the humidity, which was a bit much. But this is definitely a place I will enjoy coming back to. It turns out I will be able to, since my company picked up a new distributor based in both SIN and SYD this week. I can think of worse places to spend January.

SIN-MNL PR504
A330 in C, 12B
Scheduled: 2:50, actual 2:50

I arrived at SIN a couple hours early, and walked right from my taxi to the checkin counter. There was no line for Mabuhay class, and I was checked in with my bags through to SEA and an invitation to the lounge in less than five minutes. Again I asked for an aisle and got a window, but this time I caught it and made them change it.

As I was headed through immigration toward the lounge, I spied a sign I didn’t expect to see on the second level: Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits. I have several weaknesses in this world, and Popeye’s is near the top of the list. We don’t have one in SEA (there’s one down past the airport someplace, but that doesn’t count) so I have to make due with Ezell’s. It’s good, but it’s no Popeye’s. I made a beeline, and ordered something similar to my usual. Which turned out not to be my usual at all. It’s true that different cultures have different tastes, and Singaporeans may like this stuff. Alan, however, did not.

After that little stop-off, I headed through to the lounge. I looked around for about 15 minutes, wandered around the “lounge area” on the third floor, but never did find it. Given my experiences with Mabuhay lounges in the past, I wasn’t too compelled to ask for directions. Evian at the sushi place by the gate was just fine instead.

This time, they preboarded C, and I got an aisle seat in the nearly-empty cabin. The FA’s were extremely friendly, and I chatted with the purser for a few minutes while the completely full Y cabin boarded. I asked him if the pilot could get any updates on the Spain-Korea match, which was just set to start as we boarded. He told me he’d see what he could do.

Here's a photo of C on a PR A330. http://alan.westenbroek.com/images/sin-04.jpg

OJ during boarding, along with a hot towel and menu. The C meal was the same as on the way in. After takeoff, I opted out of any food at all, and slept through Enigma again instead.

The purser woke me at one point to tell me that Spain had lost ugly, and I slept again until it was time to land.

MNL-SFO PR104
A340 in C, 9B
Scheduled: 10:30, actual 10:30

After another long stint in the Mabuhay lounge, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that my flight to SFO wasn’t going to stop in HNL, and was only going to take 12 hours instead of 16. I was in 9B this time, an aisle in the forward C cabin. I made it a point to get a good look at F; it was similar to NW’s WBC with maybe 55-60” pitch between rows. The seats didn’t lay flat, but were close.

The two driver’s-side seats in row 9 were flush up against the little office area and I didn’t realize until we were airborne that they only reclined about 4”. The row in front of me didn’t have the same restriction of course, so I spent the majority of 12 hours with a very close close-up of the back of a seat.

I could have made it through without too much complaining if it hadn’t been for the other inhabitants of the cabin. I don’t want to start another flame war, so I’ll just state the facts. Within three rows of me in every direction, there were a total of seven small children. These were not small children of the “isn’t that cute” variety. These were small children of the “how does something so small make such a big racket” variety. Luckily, I had my Bose headphones along, and they did a fair job of muffling the cacophony. They weren’t as good at shutting out the kicking, throwing, and food-smearing. Suffice to say that I would have preferred sleepy adults in their place, and I’ll leave the talk of sedatives and cages for the lively discussion on the NW forum.

I skipped the meals altogether this time. Though I was hungry, nothing looked appealing. More of the pretentiously-dressed-up microwave “steak” stewing in something’s juices. So, I made due with my two small glasses of room-temperature water. Thankfully I had picked up a couple bottles for the carryon and made it through without becoming totally dehydrated.

We arrived at SFO an hour early, all of which was used up waiting for my bag—PRIORITY tag intact—to fall out of the chute for customs dead last. I was through by 8:15, and somehow managed to miss the re-check area, so I hauled it to the AS counter to get checked in for my 9:00 SEA flight.

SFO-SEA AS273
737 in F, 1C
Scheduled: 9:00, actual 9:05

Have I mentioned how much I like AS yet today? For some reason they didn’t have me in 1C like my travel agent said, but in the back of the plane. I asked for 1C and the agent told me they could do it but I’d have to pay $50. I flashed one of my WP certs and she happily took that instead. Drat. There goes my perfect record of uncollected certs.

I headed for the Board Room, which was right next to gate 24, to pass the time. It closed at 2:30. 2:30! The nerve! As I passed the time in the gate area, I looked around for anyone I knew from SEA, but didn’t see anyone. Shortly they called for pre-boarding, for the very old and very young. As soon as the announcement was made, a conservative-looking guy in his 30’s pushed ahead of everyone to the front of the line. The GA had to ask him to step aside so the pre-boarders could pre-board. He did his best to look put-out and I would have thought him a jerk if I didn’t know what was coming.

A minute later, the GA made the announcement for MVP, WP Gold, and F to board. He jumped back in front of the ticket-taking-machine, and…wait for it… “Sir, could you please step over here?” If looks could kill. The GA’s could barely contain their glee, and one of them mumbled something to the effect that if he didn’t like it he could take a train. I went ahead and boarded, followed by all the Y pax. It turns out Mr-in-a-hurry was my seatmate and was the last one on board. He must have really gotten a good going-over. I was going to helpfully point out that you NEVER go first, but he didn’t seem in the mood for a chat so I let it go.

We took off and landed quickly, and got the usual drink-and-cashew service from an FA with a great personality and sense of humor. I was served a greater volume of liquid between SFO and SEA than I was between MNL and SFO, and never had to ask for a refill.

My bag was second off the conveyor at SEA and I made a grateful exit, glad to be back home. The only downside was the $170 I paid to park for eight days.

I mentioned earlier that part of the purpose of this trip was to figure out if it makes sense to buy cheap international C or F tickets from consolidators when faced with an airline like NW, which runs out of summertime upgrades a year in advance. Since I already have my status on NW for next year, I don’t technically need the miles. And buying a C ticket on just about any real airline to SIN with 3 weeks notice would have cost me at least $5,000.

That being said, $1640 on PR wasn’t too bad a deal. You definitely get what you pay for, and I don’t think I would make the same trip again if I had the chance. This is a reflection on PR’s service and schedule. But I will buy from this consolidator again. It turns out I’m going to SYD and HKG next month, so this will be a good opportunity to give them another chance.

That’s it for my first trip report. I hope it wasn’t too long or petty. I really enjoy reading those posted by other FT folks.

[This message has been edited by alanw (edited 06-25-2002).]