Singapore Airlines, I’m a big fan- but their new regional business class seat- not so much.
Join me on this short hop from Bangkok to Singapore. The full experience is coming up.
This is the first leg of my trip back home to Saigon- a very short journey that managed
to take 16 hours. Today's flight took off to the north from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport,
to the east of the city center. We used runway 01R and eventually reached a cruising altitude
of 41000 feet on our 876 mile journey into Singapore’s Changi airport runway 02L.
Suvarnabhumi is a forty minute drive from central Bangkok and will cost you 400-600 Baht depending
on the time of day and tolls you’ll need to use. I’ve been here a few times in the past month and
am happy to see that the travel experience here seems a bit more normal each time I pass through,
though Thai Airways still has a huge chunk of their fleet parked for now.
Check in took me just a matter of minutes and I was soon through priority immigration
and security. From getting my luggage wrapped to being airside in 22 minutes.
The international terminal here has a LOT of construction going on. Part
of it is refreshing all of the retail outlets and the other is building the the new train that will
take passengers to the new satellite terminal.
A bit about my fare. This has just changed in Vietnam, but prior to January, there were no
commercial flights into Vietnam- they were all considered repatriation flights and the point
of sale had to be in Vietnam. So, the one way economy fare from Bangkok to Saigon via Singapore
was a ridiculous $550. For the first sector, I bid to upgrade for $145 as I would have had to
pay almost that much in baggage overage charges, with my 80kg of stuff I was lugging back.
Singapore Airlines has a lounge at the airport, but it is not currently open
so the friendly agent very specifically told me to goto the Thai lounge in the E concourse. Well,
it was closed and I didn’t have time to walk back to the D gates to check
if she was just wrong about the concourse- so I went to the always reliable Oman Air lounge.
Besides the fact that it doesn’t have any views from the lounge,
the Oman Air Lounge is my favorite Priority Pass lounge at the airport.
There is always a decent selection of food available- though it is limited now-
and even before COVID, it was never more than half full in my experience.
Plenty of drinks on offer and anytime you put a box like this in front of me,
I will be happy for quite a while.
There are a couple work stations and plenty of seating in the adjoining room,
including two day sleepers.
Soon enough it was time to head to gate E3 for SQ711.
Our ride today was a two year old Airbus A350-900 in Singapore’s regional configuration
featuring 40 seats in Business Class and 263 in Economy. For their regional A350s and 787s,
SQ uses the Stelia Aerospace seat that you’ll also find on Turkish Airlines.
For me, the best seats are the true window seats in row 12, 15, 17 and 20. If you’re traveling with
someone, you might prefer the honeymoon seats in the center section. My seat today was 15K.
The fit and finish of the seats is very nice and very SQ, but the seats themselves I am not
a fan of. If you’re broad in the shoulders, the cocoon-like surround might not be comfortable for
you. Keep in mind these seats are used on flights as far away as Adelaide. That surround also means
you’ll need to lean forward quite a bit to talk to your partner if you’re not flying alone.
The seats have USB and universal outlets hidden in the side cubby along with your COVID care kit
and noise canceling headphones. For the short hop, your pre-departure beverage is going to be limited
to a bottle of water. Seat controls are easily accessible but not easily accidentally pushed.
Personally the two reasons I really don’t enjoy the seats are the wing which has all of your
personal reading lights entirely blocks your view from your closest window and these seats
are actually optimized for Boeing 787s which have a narrower cabin, so there’s a lot of wasted space
that would have been nice to reclaim in the footwell. The IFE screen is large and tilts
so you can find a good viewing angle. Overall, not a bad product and fine for a regional flight.
Pushback was a few minutes late- but absolutely no complaints from me
as that timed our take off with this incredible sunset.
Soon enough we were taxing on our way to runway 01R,
passing plenty of widebodies and aircraft in storage along the way.
The spool up snuck up on me, almost missed it.
I was just about to complain that as I was on the wrong side of the plane
to see the spectacular sunset- but I luckily was about to speak too soon.
Now that is a view I could look at all day long.
We started heading south to Singapore and around 20 minutes after take off,
dinner service began. The tray table pulls out from under the IFE screen and can be used half
or fully open. Dinner tonight was standard fare for a regional flight- though I did order a
Beef dish with creamy polenta from Book the Cook which as well as airplane beef can, hit the spot.
Around 30 minutes after the quick dinner service finished up,
we were on our final descent into Changi where I got my boats as always.
Lucky for me, because of the limited flight schedules, I had to stay at the airport
overnight. So, I reserved a room at the Aerotel for a ridiculous $341 Sing Dollars-
a price that might just be worth it depending on your layover.
I’m not going to do a full review so I’ll just briefly show you around.
Checkin was an absolute mess with at least 30 people waiting for their rooms.
I’m not sure if they reserved in advance or were just walk ups.
I had a reservation for 23:00 and by 23:30 the room was still not ready and honestly- it seems
like first gear is as fast as the staff here go, so I literally just stood near the checkin desk
for 15 minutes and magically got my room ahead of literally everyone else waiting.
The room itself was nicer than I expected to be honest. Cost aside,
it was great- as far as windowless airport hotel rooms go.
Had everything you needed and included a meal for free- though, that is probably best skipped.
And so, on to The Flip Flop Score. The seat, not my favorite at a five.
Service was great as usual with full marks. The lounge, well there was none when there should
have been. For cleanliness and ease of using the website full tens. Food selection and taste
were a nine and eight respectively. Entertainment amenities and connectivity were all solid as well.
Overall a 77/100- not great, but a big chunk of that comes from the lounge being closed.
I hope you found this review helpful and will check back in to see my next segment
and my quarantine hotel in Saigon. Please give this video a like and subscribe to see
two new flight or hotel reviews every week, it really helps the channel out.