Harry Osborn aka the new Green Goblin

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hey there, loyal readers of my blog (if there are any), here’s a super update (sry bout it) for the past months. Then it was my holiday trip to Hong Kong.

~ Departure to HKG ~

09 June 2008

Flight Number/Route: SQ 862 SIN-HKG

Aircraft Model/Registration Number: B777-300ER 9V-SWA

Time: 11.00 – 14.45

Departure Gate: F59(T2)

Seat: 11K

Cost: SG$2,283 (including taxes & surcharges)

We left the house at 0815 & reached the airport at 0905. There weren’t many people checking-in at the J counters and lots of counters were open, so we were attended to almost immediately. We had done online check-in some 40 hours prior & managed to snag seat 11K, the first row of the first of two J (Business) cabins on SQ’s new 77W. Check-in was completed in 3 minutes & off we went to the Silver Kris Lounge.(SKL)

Personaly, I find the lounge is indeed not the best lounge in the world (my biggest gripes are the lack of apron view and natural lighting), but it's still is a great lounge with lots of food(Mmmm ... ... ) & drink offerings, full bar service(although I'm a minor), & free WiFi.Nonetheless, I do hope SQ will come up with a better lounge offering once T3 opens for business. There was also a separate food station where you can order Congee (Porridge) from the attendant on duty.

Our flight was assigned gate F59, one of the furthest gates from the lounge. Anyway, we left the lounge rather early at 10.15 & reached the gate when boarding had just begun.

9V-SWA would take us to HKG.

The In-flight Supervisor was on hand to greet us at the spacious entryway at door 1L. The new interior with wood/timber panels looked great and classy.

Found my seat just behind the F cabin. A Flight Stewardess came, said hello, and offered to hang my jacket. While another one asked me if I would like to read a paper. Finally, a third one passed the menu and asked if I would like a welcome drink. I asked for a glass of orange juice, which was delivered promptly along with my newspaper (Today).

My first thought upon seating down was how wide the seat was! At first it felt rather odd not being able to rest my left arm due to the width of the seat, so I put the pillow to wedge the gap and put my elbow on it. I was glad I got a bulkhead seat, as it is more spacious and far less enclosing than the non-bulkhead seats. The 15” PTV monitor is also located further away and there is a shelf in front, which made for a nice foot stool.

The leather was soft & felt nice although it was quite slippery. The cabin felt very private. Apart from those seated at the same row, you wouldn’t see the other passengers unless you try hard enough.

Row 11 has 2 windows …

... ... and this was what I saw when looking out of the windows. SIN was completely deserted !

We pushed back on time at 11.00 & without any wait, we roared down runway 02C & were airborne at 11.16. Those GE engines were very noisy.

Anyway,shortly after the seat belt sign was turned off I played around with the seat while waiting for lunch to be served.

Index of Pictures

i) Seat control
ii) Storage compartment & USB/Video ports + power plugs
iii) Mirror
iv) Headphone hook. There are two headphone ports to plug your headphone into (one on each side of the seat). The active noise-canceling headphone is superb btw!

Soon enough lunch was served.

The meal was served in new crockery, which I didn’t like. The light grey trim made it looked dull indeed. Drinks are now served in full-sized glassware, which was very much welcomed, but no more proper wine/champagne glasses. The tray table is large and oriented diagonally (slightly facing the windows in my case). It is also height-adjustable for use when the seat is in bed mode.

My Lunch consists of ... ...

i) Salad of scallop with waterchesnut and black fungus

ii) Slipper Lobster Thermidor with Saffron Rice, Asparagus and Vine-ripened Tomatoes as my Main Course

iii) Ben & Jerry’s chunky monkey ice cream - Banana and walnut ice cream garnished with chocolate sauce and tuile

iv) Cappuccino

PS: I skipped the cheese & fruit courses

The Chief Stewardess brought around a tray of Pralines to end the meal.

Service was attentive,my water was topped up regularly. Overall the meal was good & filling, although the lobster was a bit of a disappointment after hearing such good things about it. Lunch was cleared when were off the coast of Vietnam & I decided to check out the next generation KrisWorld.

The main menu looked cleaner & easier to navigate than earlier versions & the response time was noticeably faster than the Wisemen 3000. The local time at both the origin and destination cities as well as the remaining flight time are always on display at the corners of the screen when in the interactive menu mode. Lots & lots & lots of AVOD programming to choose from.

The handset unit looks neat and it has a nifty display screen where the title of the programming is displayed along with the remaining flight time. And perhaps most importantly, there is a one-touch button that takes you to the flight path mode. Cool! No more rummaging through the menu ! + a Qwerty-type keyboard at the back of the handset to use with the Office applications.

I was also exploring the new flight path which was terrific. It had much more detailed graphics & it even shows the current position of the Sun.

I then visited the lavatory, which was much improved. Here is the rather fancy sink design with motion-activated water tap.

There is also a magnifying vanity mirror + the wood/timber finishing make the lavatory looks very nice. The only thing missing is a window.

With just over one hour to go before we land, I decided to convert the seat to bed mode. It’s a shame that SQ did not provide a seat guide like they did when they rolled out the Ultimo, Ultimo Plus, and the Spacebed.

Although, to be fair, there is an instructional video in Krisworld on how to convert the seat to bed mode.Converting the seat to bed was easy enough and there was a duvet and a bigger pillow at the back of the seat back.

The sleeping position is flat, parallel to the floor, but you have to lie diagonally.

Sleeping on your side is probably the best & most comfortable position due to the constrained shoulder/head area and legroom area in non-bulkhead seats.

The bed itself was nice to sleep on, firm & comfortable.

All too soon, the captain announced our descent in to Chek Lap Kok (HKIA) & we had some spectacular scenery prior to landing.

We landed on 25R at 14.31 after a flight time of 3 hours & 15 minutes.

Immigration was packed as usual but the line moved at a very brisk pace. It took less than 15 minutes to clear, by which time my bag was already waiting on the belt. After we all got our bags, we were off to the city for our 5 days stay in Hong Kong.

My Verdict frm SIN to HKG: Overall this was a very good flight. However, the cabin crew on this flight was average, not bad but not great either. They were faultless, attentive enough, and efficient. I was addressed by name and most of my requests were delivered promptly and most of the time with a smile.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong is always a nice city to visit. The weather was perfect during my stay, although it was a bit chilly on the day we left. We stayed at the Peninsula. A very nice hotel with some of the friendliest staff I’ve ever met. Personally, I must say that I was very impressed with the level of service in Hong Kong. Everyone from the airport staff, hotel staff, MTR staff, waiter/waitresses to shop assistants, were all very polite, friendly, & willing to help unlike Singapore service providers.

~ Departure back to SIN ~

13 June 2009

Flight Number/Route: SQ 861 HKG-SIN

Aircraft Model/Registration Number: B777-300ER 9V-SWB

Time: 16.00 – 19.50

Departure Gate: 17 (T1)

Seat: 14A

Cost: SG$2,283 (including taxes & surcharges)

We went straight to SQ check-in counters at Area D and there was no line at the two J counters. The check-in agent was very polite and friendly and confirmed my special meal request.

Check-in was done very quickly. Immigration & the subsequent security checkpoint were jam-packed, but there were lots of booths open so we cleared them in no time. Our next stop was the Silver Kris Lounge.

The SKL in HKG is nothing special. It’s gloomy-looking with dated interiors and no windows at all ... (-.-) .

Food on offer included a Chinese Herbal Soup, a selection of Dim Sum, assorted hot finger food, and assorted cold sandwiches. There were also snacks and crackers, nuts, cheese and fruit, and small tub-sized Haagen-Dasz ice creams in various flavors.

We left the lounge at 15.25 and proceeded to gate 17, a short distance away. Boarding was well under way and most Y(Economy) passengers had already boarded when we reached the gate, even though it was only a little past 15.30. This time round, 9V-SWB was operating this flight.

Boarded through 1L and was greeted by a very young IFS. My seat was 14A, another bulkhead, the first row of the second J cabin. The Chief Steward hang my jacket and I was offered a welcome drink and a newspaper. I took The Sunday Times. The seat had some scratches, markings, & sticky stains on it.

Doors were closed at 15.55 and we pushed back two minutes late at 16.02.We were airborne at 16.20 & those seated on the right hand side was treated with an aerial view of the terminal building.

The cabin crew didn’t wait very long to start the meal service.

My dinner consists of ... ...

i) Marinated scallops with jellyfish and mesclun

ii) Roasted Chilean Bass Fillet in a New England Clam Chowder Sauce with Bacon and Spinachexclusively created by Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill, New York

iii) Black and White Sesame Panna Cotta with Kumquat Jelly

PS: I didn’t partake in the cheese and fruit courses and finished off the meal with a cup of Coffee again.

After my meal, I decide to watch an episode of Friends & an Australian Open special. Krisworld was a bit buggy on this flight. Response time was very slow & the program menu was mixed up in some places. After watching I decided to take a little nap. (Zzzz ...)

About 45 minutes later, a Flight Stewardess woke me up and said that we would be landing shortly. My jacket was already returned and placed on the coat hook. I went to the lavatory to freshen up .

An approach for 02L saw us flying down south before turning back to line up with the runway, allowing for a rather impressive view of downtown Singapore at dusk. We landed at 19.38 and after a long taxi, docked at gate F56 at 19.49.

My Verdict frm HKG to SIN: Service on this flight was slightly better than the outbound; the Chief Steward was particularly outstanding. But overall the service level was nowhere near the best I’ve had in J. Nonetheless this was another very good flight.

Overall feelings: The new cabin feels very classy with the use of wood/timber finishing. The color scheme is also very nice although I’m not to keen on the darker leather.

It also feels very private, especially if you are seated in the forward cabin or the bulkhead seats in the aft cabin. There is mood lighting, but since both flights were daylight flights it didn’t have much effect.

The lack of center overhead bins didn’t really pose a problem since there was plenty of storage space for everyone.The new seat is a vast improvement over the Spacebed. I like the ability to sleep fully flat, parallel to the floor and the bed is very comfortable indeed.

The recline function is essentially hopeless as the seat doesn't recline far enough to be comfortable. Bulkhead seats are by far more superior and have more space than non-bulkhead seats.

I have yet to experience non-bulkhead seats but I imagine the level of comfort can be quite different between the two.The new KrisWorld is simply amazing and a definite improvement over the Wisemen 3000.

With the breadth of choice it’s hard to imagine anyone who cannot find something to watch or do. The system still has a few bugs that will hopefully be fixed in the coming months.No significant difference over the current meal service, although on 77W longer routes, trays are no longer used. I don’t like the new crockery and table linen, which I think look dull.

The new full-sized glassware, though, is very nice.There are no changes in terms of amenities offered, although now you’ve got two pillows with different shapes and thickness and also a duvet in addition to the blanket. The blue/turquoise color of the pillows, blanket, and duvet is very nice. The sockettes and eye-shades also come in the same color. L’occitane and Etro products were available on the lavatory.

Overall, I’m very happy with the new Business Class. The overall product is very nice and a good step up from the Spacebed. SQ’s service level might be slipping and signs of cost-cutting were evident, but at the end of the day, I still think SQ as one of the better and perhaps the most consistent airline in the air today. And with their new products, they will continue to be ‘a great way to fly’ for many years to come.

Thank you for reading, I hope it was enjoyable despite the length & the gap between the time frame.

Comments are always appreciated.

9:42 PM