Flying with Singapore Airlines

A couple of months ago, I posted a question for you guys regarding which airline would you chose: one where your frequent flier miles are, and one which always top the airline ratings chart. Based on your answers, I made my decision to pick [tag]Singapore Airlines[/tag] over Philippine Airlines on my trip to Melbourne from Manila.

It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.

Singapore Airlines always get high marks for their service, and for a very justifiable reason: they really are one of the world’s best. They always look for ways to improve their already great services, taking special care to listen to their customer’s feedback.

My first contact with Singapore Airlines is through their website. From their site alone, I learned their flight schedules, fares, transit information, even vital security, customs and immigration information I needed. If it’s not in their site, they pointed me where I can look for it. It even let me apply for a Krisflyer membership, so I can start accumulating miles.

Two days prior to my flight, I checked-in online. This let me line up in the very short queue at the airport for baggage tagging, and even let me pick my seat. Their ground crew is actually handled by Philippine Airlines, and they get props for being very courteous.

On the [tag]Manila[/tag]-[tag]Singapore[/tag] leg of my trip, the aircraft used was a [tag]Boeing 777-200[/tag] Jubilee. It’s quite new, and they also added simple Christmas decorations to make the otherwise boring interiors homey. As I mentioned in my previous post, their flight attendant didn’t even make a fuss over my two cabin baggage (handbag not included). She even helped me put my over 7kg cabin trolley in the overhead compartment.

The flight attendant’s routine goes something like: hand out hot towels, give water, distribute headsets, hand out menu, serve special ordered meals, serve regular meals to the rest of the passengers, give second serving of beverage, get meal trays, duty free shopping and passenger assistance (another glass of water please!), get headsets, prepare for landing. All that with a smile.

The seats were comfortable; it’s comfortable enough even when it’s not slightly reclined. Each seat comes with a mini pillow, a great addition, and the legroom is pretty good as well (considering that I’ve mostly taken low-cost airlines this year where legroom is pretty much non-existent). Each seat gets their personal entertainment system, which is a really nice way to pass the time when you’re 30,000 feet above the ground.

On the way from Singapore to [tag]Melbourne[/tag], the plane was a [tag]Boeing 700-300[/tag] Jubilee, and unlike the plane on the first leg, it’s fairly older. There’s still a personal entertainment system, but unlike in the newer 777-200 where there’s video and audio on-demand, you get a very limited selection of movies, TV shows, audio and games. Also, unlike in the previous plane, you can’t rewind, pause or fast forward during playback.

The ground crew in Manila checked me in on my 2nd flight. I requested for a seat similar to what I picked my first flight, which near the back with only two seats (the seat configuration was 3-3-3 in economy). However, since the 777-300 is longer, she mistakenly put me in a 3-row. But it was okay since there were only two of us in that row and he moved to another row to sit with his wife. And so I have the row to myself and three pillows. Nice!

The food served was good enough, as far as airline food goes. For the holidays, they have a special holiday menu. Dinner for the Singapore-Manila flight was turkey. Turkey! Too bad I am on the morning flight. Poo. Anyway, their cutlery was a nice set of thick good quality silver, though in the Melbourne leg, a note accompanying the cutlery told us that some destinations require plastic utensils to be used. It seems that for Australia, airlines are only allowed to serve plastic dinner knife, instead of their usual set.

All in all, I am one satisfied traveller. Though I didn’t pay for my fare, I say that Singapore Airlines is worth the extra money you’d shell out. Take note that this is just only in economy class. What more for the business or first class? That’s something I plan to find out someday. 😉