[cosmoB2012]

I usedSQ several times before Covid and liked the seats, the crews, the friendliness. A let down was the lounge in Singapore. Having flown from
Stockholm to Bangkok and then on to Singapore on TG in their A350 business class last week I was positively surprised. Planes were top notch and the crews were excellent, same for the food and drinks. For a short hop from Singapore to KL I took the SQ A350 which was nice, but a 40min flight is different than long-haul. The new SQ lounges in Singapore are absolutely fantastic, the immigration in Singapore a breeze (took me 60 secs via their e-gates). KL arrival was a nightmare, waited 2 hours for my turn at immigration. Badly organised and managed.

[PierreQuatannens]

My last return trip with SAE in business from France was very bad too, bad seats and poor services.

Was PPS before and travelled with them during 12 years, now I’m Platinum on Emirates.

I still don’t understood why they are still N°1 company in Asia.

My last business trip with Thai from Paris to Bkk was not good too on 350 (seats and services) but the other flight from Bkk to Tokyo on 777 was better (seats and services) and they lost my luggage, waited 5 days to have it!

[Rodney]

I flew J LHR – SIN – New Zealand in November (A350, B777, A350, A380) and was very disappointed with the seat, having to put my legs at an angle in the cubbyhole.

Food was OK, and I liked ‘Book the chef’. Crew were reasonably interactive.

Long walk from gates to Lounge at SIN.

[maxgeorge]

JAL at least seems back to pre-Covid standards.

I just flew TSA-HND-LAX and, apart from the shared lounge at TSA (Taipei Songshan, very convenient to downtown), I was well pleased.

JAL’s HND Lounge is airy and spacious, and their 300ER Business seats very comfortable, with a privacy screen.

[Richardw]

I urge everyone posting to stop saying things changed or were stopped due to Covid. Covid is just a simple virus which behaved exactly as it should. The only factor which affected our ability to fly or live normal lives were Government interference and complete over-reach in our lives for absolutely no reason.

[cwoodward]

Richardw. With ever respect I totally disagree with the thrust of your post and to me it is total nonsense that ignores that the virus mutated and killed hundreds of thousands. Granted governments made mistakes some more than others.

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pdwtrip, maxgeorge, DerekVH, Johnnyg, ASK1945, Hillhead1, esselle

[Jomtien9]

I flew recently a 2 sector SQ flight in Business. First the A350 which was very comfortable and good lie-flat seat…. then A380 – I was in complete disbelieve at the horrible layout of Bus Cl seats with only a 55 inch pitch and an off-centre foot cubby hole, meaning you need to be either a child or a contortionist to lie flat comfortably. Give me the TG completely flat and straight lie flat seat on their 777 any time. (My only gripe with Thai is that they have removed Campari from their Bus Cl offering – otherwise it is getting back slowly to pre-covid quality and good old fashioned customer service.)

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cwoodward

[AMcWhirter]

One major issue with these reactivated A380s is they *tend* to be fitted with less up-to-date business classes.

The cost of a total A380 refurbishment is enormous and that is one of the reasons why AF retired its A380s so early because their interiors had not been modernised since they were delivered. In other words business class was still the old angled seating (i.e. not fully flat) and the layout remained 2-2-2 on the upper deck.

Not sure about the A380 you travelled on Jomtien9 as SIA did refurbish some of its A380s after they were returned to Singapore.

[lostantipod]

Having done 4 long haul SQ sectors over xmas/ NY for the first time in a while, and a BA LHR-JFK-LHR in Feb, a few observations –

– SQ J seat varies across the fleet, I was in A350s and 777s, i hate the version where your legs end up in a little cubby hole. I sleep on my side and feel quite restricted (6’2″), I didnt sleep well, and dont appreciate being twisted across the seat (which forces my head to be the closest part of me to the aisle and thus to people walking past). And getting up out of your seat to turn your seat back over so you can sleep on it is not, in anyone’s world, a pinnacle of passenger experience. Disagree? Fight me!

– SQ On board offering not as good as years ago, but still very very good, and staff were attentive on all flights and showed a few “extra mile” touches here and there. Wine list excellent. The service experience would not make me avoid SQ, but at an equal price point, I would skip SQ because of the seat. I frankly cant believe it got greenlit.

– BA’s new club suite is excellent to travel in, although perhaps not as private as QR for example. The staff, however, were as disinterested and invisible as ever. Somehow BA seems to think that giving you an extra scone with afternoon tea is what constitutes an attentive passenger experience, but to me it feels like a gesture stemming from embarrassment not to be serving an actual meal with some flavour and effort behind it. Although they did bring the cabin red coloured champagne as it was Valentines Day so there’s that.

– Also, being bussed from LHR T5 to your plane to climb steps on what is supposed to be your “flagship” route is just sad…as was being kept waiting 45 minutes because they weren’t sure the front door would close and seal ( yes, good from a safety perspective but again, not the experience you want)

– BA – disclaimer – it was an award flight. I usually dont fly BA long haul when I’m paying the fare, and that trip only reminded me why.

[Broadgate]

I have read the BT email for many years, but have been retired for some time, and now only fly as a leisure passenger with my wife in business class cabins across a number of airlines both short and long haul. We have recently returned to Heathrow from Auckland via Singapore. Not having flown with SIA for some years, I found this thread very interesting so thought I’d offer some observations on our experience.

Didn’t get off to a good start at Heathrow check in as we were told our pre reserved seats we’re unavailable due to a maintenance issue, and we were forced to sit in 96A and 97A, the last two seats on the upper deck. To sell those as a full fare business seats was a disgrace, and to date we have managed to get 10,000 krismiles as compensation!

Our main issue with the two legs on the A380, and the 777-300ER was the dreadful seats. Even in the updated A380 on the return leg to London, the seats are too hard for a long haul leg, there is no mattress for sleeping, and if you want to lie flat, having to lie almost diagonally with your feet in a small cubby hole is quite the worst option we have experienced compared with other carriers. There is no automatic amenity kit given out, and if you ask for one, the contents are pretty naff.

That said, we found the cabin crew excellent on all legs, and the food using “book the cook” was quite good. SIA business fares to the other end of the world have become very expensive , we shall not be using them again.

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Jacob

[w8ster]

Huge improvement onboard but everything on land operates like a budget airline

I have been travelling with Singapore Air since my teen doing many flights between Singapore and Melbourne then NYC Singapore when I lived there, London Singapore later on and most recently Dubai London.

For years now I have felt the overall service has really declined for many reasons which is why for many years I switched to Cathay for the London to Asia route.

Living in Dubai now, Cathay isn’t always going to work and started investing more experiments on Emirates and SIA. Apart from that delicious satay starter, onboard service continued to deteriorate when flying business class DXB-SIN-MEL. The level of inconsistency of the 2 legs were incredible and a piece of steak that was rock hard (ok no airline does steak well onboard apart from Air France).

In my most recent flight however, I was very impressed with the onboard service in Business round trip DXB-MEL and would say crew are almost back to the quality of SIA’s hay days. Clean cabin and toilets throughout the flight, good quality meal service and crew were very engaging from the moment I step onboard.

Everything offboard was nothing shy of budget airlines quality.

1. SIA’s website and iOS app has deteriorated from very user friendly and intuitive to virtually painful to think about using. Everything spells arrogance towards passengers. I was hoping during the pandemic, the opportunity to revive would be sensible but it has actually gotten worse. There is a permanent error message to say there is a problem loading my profile on the app (tried deleting and reinstalling)

2. Somehow, my booking suddenly blocked any attempt to exploring changing my flight and without any explanation why. Call centre could not tell me why that is the case and only asked me to check back in.

3. They own Scoot and when I had to book a Scoot flight separately (I had a moving schedule and didn’t know when I was going to return to Singapore for the returning flight back to DXB). It seems the attempts to speak to multiple reps from Scoot and SIA still failed me. Worse of all, each gave confusing message and essentially blaming each other. Call centre staff were clearly untrained ( I called during business hours). Ended up being a very stressful transfer in Singapore of immigration, collect luggage, change terminal and re-check in. Good thing I know Changi well or may not have made it.

Onboard improvements certainly not sufficient to keep me loyal.

Have emailed them with much more detailed feedback than I had written above but have yet to hear back. Lets see if I do but not hopeful.

[Mark]

That really is a shame SQ have possibly started a downward spiral.
I was one of the lovers of their inflight service and used it often on the UK-Oz milk run.
Have some great memories of those sectors.
The industry really has become a £££££££££££££ grabber of late and the airlines have got our thumbs screwed in tight!

[EU_Flyer]

I few SQ 12 months ago in Economy. They were great.

Due to being confined to a wheelchair at the time, they blocked 3 economy seats for me on both sectors (each on an A380). The on-board service was charming, the entertainment extensive (except the cheap headphones) and the food was decent with 2 hot meals from SYD – SIN and vv and a willingness to provide a second serving.

I don’t fly Economy much but found they made it as pleasant as it could be. My Star Alliance Gold card may have helped.

[Author]

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