Uber, Gitane and SQ1 SFO-SIN in New Economy Class (77WN)

[yflyer]

I asked for the Indian selection…what I was given was a non-veg Indian selection, with a lamb curry, and not the Indian vegetarian meal as listed on the menu, which was fine by me…



Appetizer…



The main course was very generous, and quite delicious. I also appreciated the fact that it came with real Indian-style curd, not Western style plain yogurt. The Indian bread that came with the meal looked fresher and crisper than other Indian breads I have received in the past as well. Overall, I think the Indian meal catering out of SFO is very impressive.



Dessert…

[yflyer]

An excellent selection of movies and entertainment programmes on the Krisworld IFE…



I was going to watch either "The Martion" or "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" but then I noticed that those were listed under the header "Coming Soon" and would only be screened next month.

The movies this month were great too, including the latest movie installments of both the Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible franchises...

Jurassic World…



Mission Impossible…



Movie picture quality on the widescreen display was superb…



Audio quality was very good, too as long as you brought your own headphones (with airline headphone adapter), as the supplied earbuds sounded terrible.

Volume and brightness controls…



Other notable movie selections this month included classics, such as…

Back to the Future…



…and Stanley Kubrick’s classic, A Clockwork Orange…



Television selections…



Music selection…there is still no “album cover” view to browse available albums, a glaring omission, in my view…



Great concert videos…especially of classical music…



Touchscreen handheld controller…



Rate a movie…I’ve always wondered what the point of this feature was, as the rating was 0 for the movies I looked at, and when I rated Mission Impossible after I watched it (5 stars! A great movie…) the rating on the IFE still remained 0…



This is the 2nd time I have used the IFE on the new 77WN, and I am much more used to the user-interface now. Once I figured out I could swipe up and down to switch from Movies to TV to Music etc, I’ve found the system easier to use…

[yflyer]

Mid-flight snacks…





Breakfast was served 2+ hours prior to landing…



Hot towels…very refreshing after a long flight…



Breakfast, which 3 choices: Chinese noodles, Western poached eggs and a South Indian selection…





I chose the noodles…



Half & Half…a nice touch…



Fruit…



The Chinese-style fried noodles were quite tasty…



I waited for the young man seated to my left to unwrap the foil from the top of his meal casserole, before asking him if I could take a picture of his choice: the Western-style poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce and pork sausages…he kindly obliged…

[yflyer]

We approached the southern tip of Taiwan, where I headed to the starboard emergency door window to snap a few pictures…



Mountainous terrain in the south of Taiwan visible through the clouds…

[yflyer]

We landed in Hong Kong for a short transit stop before heading on to Singapore.



On the long walk to immigration / transfer security, we passed Scoot 787 “Barry”, also being prepped for departure to Singapore.



Why doesn’t SQ name their aircraft? Lufthansa names their aircraft after German cities like “Munich”, and have recently started naming some of their planes, notably A380’s after international cities like “Beijing”. Qantas on the other hand has named their planes not just after cities or towns, like “Cairns”, but also after people, such as notable figures “Nancy Bird Walton” and even real birds such as “Lorikeet”. And SQ? Well Singapore has no cities, so perhaps we can make do with local Singapore towns and neighbourhoods. Fancy a ride on 9V-SKA “Telok Blangah”, anyone?

[yflyer]

The very long flight time today meant that our transit stop was a very brief one, before our on-time departure for Singapore at 8:00am…

HKG has two main transit security checkpoints heading back into the airside departure area, one at each end of the immigration area, designated Transfer areas E1 and E2.

SQ1 was parked at gate 18. The near end transfer point, at E1, near gates 15-19, was very crowded with transit pax just off SQ1 forming a very long queue. Seeing the long transfer queue at E1, I walked the 100m or so to the other end of the immigration area to the other transit checkpoint, at E2, closer to gates 1-4. That transfer security checkpoint was nearly empty, with no queues whatsoever. I managed to get through security and into the airside area without delay…



…and was back in the airside area in no time…





The SQ Silver Kris Lounge in HKG has recently been renovated, but there was nothing in that windowless lounge which appealed to me, so I didn’t head in this time.



Instead, I headed up one level to the large food court, and headed to the very popular noodle and congee outlet there…





Extensive menu, ordered by number…



Two chefs hard at work making fresh won ton behind the counter…



There was a queue, but this was a very efficient operation, with orders swiftly delivered by an army of staff…



With tray of mixed pork congee in hand, I sat myself down at a prime spot: a counter table overlooking the bustling airside area, and tucked in…



Delicious…

[yflyer]

I had just enough time to finish my congee before making my way to the boarding gate to reboard SQ1…



We boarded on time…

Hot towels…



Breakfast…



I chose the dim sum selection…



Two different sauces. Not the most generous breakfast I’ve had on SQ in terms of quantity, but it tasted fairly good.



I spent the remainder of my time on this flight on the IFE, watching a concert performance by talented German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott on video…





…as well as audio…

[yflyer]

58 min flight time remaining, before arrival in Singapore…



Off the eastern coastline of Malaysia…





Aircraft heading east…an MAS 737 or maybe an A330?



Another full-size image here, in case anyone would like to guess the aircraft type…

Preparing for landing…



Views of the city out of the left hand side windows as we landed…







Parked at T3…

[yflyer]

Overall impressions of SQ1 and the Y product on the 77WN?

It was an excellent flight. The cabin service and catering were wonderful. The hard product, which currently offers SQ’s latest economy seating and IFE, is superb.

The seat is very comfortable, with slightly softer cushioning than the Y seats on SQ’s 77W and A380, and has superb recline.

Perhaps most importantly, SQ has retained the 9-abreast 3-3-3 layout on the 777 that many lesser airlines are abandoning in favour of 10-abreast 3-4-3, which I consider to be a “do-not-fly” layout.

I find SQ’s 77WN’s 9 abreast Y cabin very open and airy. Great cabin ambience, about on par, in terms of perceived spaciousness, with the A380 main deck at 10-abreast. I find the cabin slightly more open and spacious, in fact, than a 9-abreast A350 (Using QR’s A350 as an example) , although the A350 is also quite comfortable to fly in. The perfect Y cabin is probably an 8-abreast 2-4-2 Dreamliner, a config which only JAL (and a few ANA planes) still use, but most airlines operating the 787 are going down the 3-3-3 route in Y, which is a catastrophe from a passenger’s perspective.

This is my second flight on the SQ 77WN in Y, and in my view the new SQ Y on the 77WN remains the best economy class product I have flown to date, whether on SQ or on other airlines.

With the 77WN Y product, SQ have set the benchmark for excellence in long haul economy class. That said, soon they will have a new Y product with the introduction A350. When SQ unveil the new A350 economy class product in January next year, SQ will have only themselves as the competition to beat!

Thanks for reading!

[HUGE AL]

You neglected to mention that Über can be as much as 4x as high in SF as it is in LA.

I wonder what my rating is…

Go to Help->Account->I'd like to know what my rating is

[saobangpo]

Why doesn’t SQ name their aircraft? Lufthansa names their aircraft after German cities like “Munich”, and have recently started naming some of their planes, notably A380’s after international cities like “Beijing”. Qantas on the other hand has named their planes not just after cities or towns, like “Cairns”, but also after people, such as notable figures “Nancy Bird Walton” and even real birds such as “Lorikeet”. And SQ? Well Singapore has no cities, so perhaps we can make do with local Singapore towns and neighbourhoods. Fancy a ride on 9V-SKA “Telok Blangah”, anyone?

sure, perhaps they can start naming the new a359s. so, we could potentially find ourselves on a jet named "joo chiat" or "punggol" on a nonstop flight to ams, lax, or nyc

don't think they should name the jets after people/personalities (think "ah meng"). although naming planes after local food might see btc requests go through the roof.

[eminere™]

Another great report, as usual. I thought it was very interesting that a dedicated Indian selection was available for the catering. Are there a lot of Indian travellers ex-SFO?

[ycp81]

Great report!!

I chose the noodles…

Following the absence of the breakfast muffin, looks like the yoghurt has been removed from the breakfast tray as well...

[Tonitan]

Thank you for the great report! I really appreciate your time and effort in creating an easy to read and entertaining trip report that is not too picture or word heavy. I'm looking forward to SFO for this Christmas.

[banoffi]

Excellent report! really enjoyed reading it, and makes me want to go to SFO again!

14:45 hrs from SFO to HK!? Think I need to be able to afford a J class ticket before I will attempt it...heh.