SQ380 Inaugural : Part 1 - Check in

[upright man]

Woke up at 4.30am morning of 25th Oct 07, and me and my brother rushed to Changi airport, reaching there at 520am.


Already a long queue was forming in the Economy line :

The gentleman in the suit was the one who was on the Boeing 747 inaugural 37 years ago - and what a story he had to tell ! More on that later.


PPS and StarG priority check-in was available at the Business class counter, but I didn't know, cos I saw a familiar face :

It was our fellow SQTalker Iangoodwin ! We had already met 3 days ago, so we exchanged an enthusiastic greeting, and he let us join him nearer the front of the queue.
Ian created the website sq380.net which is already the no. 1 site when you do a Google or Yahoo search.

Here's me and my elder brother CP :

This is our first trip for 23 years, and we've been looking forward to it for weeks. I've always looked up to CP, and I was extremely excited to spend some quality time with him.

[upright man]

Here's Stevetas from the other forum posing for his souvenir stamp photo thingy which we are supposed to
receive in the mail.



Suddenly the media gathered around one man at the First Suites check-in counter :

It was the SIN businessman who bid US$56,000 plus for 3 Suites, 2 J and 1 Y seat. He was with his 91 year old father, the nurse, and a few other relatives.


CP and me were interviewed 'live' on Newsradio 93.8 at 6am. This took about 15 minutes, and I was getting hypoglycemic by then.
After going to the SKL J lounge for a quick breakfast, and getting a few souvenirs for Ian there, we proceeded to the champagne brunch reception at Gate F31 :

It was very crowded, with hardly any room to move, so we didn't check out the food on offer, nor verify whether there really was any champagne served.


After taking a few pics with the stewardesses at the reception, we made our way to the window and........

There she was ! 9V-SKA !
She was beautiful. We felt a bit strange, could hardly believe we would be flying on it later. I had a sudden thought : that they would let us board and tour the plane, sit in our seats, then tell us the tour was over and make us disembark !


Sorry everyone for taking so long to get started on this TR.
Next : Part 2 - the pre-flight ceremony and boarding. (Coming early Nov).

[KeithMEL]

Glad to see that you've finally got your TR going, upright man! Awesome report so far - looking forward to more.

[jjpb3]

Sorry everyone for taking so long to get started on this TR.
Next : Part 2 - the pre-flight ceremony and boarding. (Coming early Nov).

No apologies needed. Thanks for the first installment, upright man.

I did have a mini-cardiac arrest when I read the bolded portion, but then I realized just how close we were to the end of October. Safe travels, upright man!

[CGK]

I am glad you start your trip report, upright man. I was about to pm you asking about it.
Can't wait for the whole report!
Cheers!

[nickbot]

Excellent start upright man I always knew you were going to make an amazing job of the A380 TR, so it's wonderful to start reading! Look forward to reading more,...all the best for your busy week ahead

[HUGE AL]

After taking a few pics with the stewardesses at the reception, we made our way to the window and........

Now what happened to THESE pics?

[SQflyergirl]

Very nice more, more!

[upright man]

thanks everyone !
actually I thought this would be too long a TR for one thread, so I split it up into several threads - do all of you think it would work this way ?

HUGEAL - Don't worry. There are better ones of the crew which will appear later.

CGK and StarG : I met Isabelle on the flight, and she says hi !

[HIATC]

Hi upright man!

Thanks for the great report! Will be great to see the rest of your pics, as well to read the rest of your report.

As far as I seem to remember, there wasn't any champagne available at the send-off party, but that was OK since there was some available on the flight itself

[9V-JKL]

upright man, have been waiting for your TR. Great to see it

[WSSS]

I'm waiting for Part 2. I enjoyed reading it so far.

[SuperJonJon]

Thanks for the teaser, Upright Man! Now awaiting part deux.

[StarG]

Thanks for sharing, upright man.

[SDE747]

Hi bro,
I'm logged in as SDE747. Good report and nice photos.

I will remember and treasure the time we spent on SQ380 and in Sydney! Many more trips together in years to come!

God bless!