SIA A380 Premium Economy from Beijing to Singapore on SQ807 - "To Bid or Not to Bid"

[yflyer]

My rate included breakfast at "Chapter", a Library-themed restaurant on the ground floor.



A large sign at the door stated "No bedroom slippers"...



I notice that one quirk of hotel guests in China, even at 5 star hotels, is to wander around public spaces in bedroom slippers. And even on the occasion I was having breakfast there, one young and beautiful Chinese lady, immaculately dressed and groomed in every other way, strolled in for breakfast in bedroom slippers. She was discreetly and politely informed of the dress code by one of the waitresses, and promptly left, and appeared a few minutes later in regular footwear.

The restaurant's decor was styled like a library...



...with buffet selections placed along the bookshelves...



Not a huge buffet spread, but there were many interesting dishes, including...

Congee with traditional condiments, including fermented tofu and century egg...



Assorted dim sum...



Tea eggs...



Pig ear jelly...ignore mental images of scruffy hogs with hairy mud-caked ears eating at a trough...this dish is quite delicious...



Duck rolls...



Yellow Pea cake...(Spell it, don't say it...)

[yflyer]

Western buffet selections were also available, although the dish marked bacon looked to be a little different from what you would expect...



This was more of a semi-buffet, with a selection of Asian and Western a-la carte options (including eggs cooked to order.)



Some of the Oriental breakfast selections...



I opted for beef noodles...



...a satisfying breakfast dish...

[yflyer]

The sky was amazingly clear on the 2 days that I was in Beijing. While air quality and pollution is still a problem, you do get clear days on a regular basis, and this time round I was quite lucky with the weather.



Bike sharing has taken off in a really big way in China.

You can see this starting up in Singapore as well, but the scale of bike sharing in Beijing is just jawdropping, with bicycles lined up neatly just about everywhere, blanketing the city.



Along some roads, the entire pavement is covered with bikes, with many different bike providers vying for business.

In many ways, central Beijing is far more prepared for bike sharing than Singapore: there are already wide bike lanes in place through much of the city...



...and by and large the bicycles are arranged neatly along the sidewalk...



I didn't rent a bike myself, but if this was a longer trip, I would seriously consider signing up for one of these services to commute around Beijing, rather than take a taxi in Beijing's notorious rush hour traffic congestion.

[yflyer]

While I did use the equipment in the gym to work out during my stay, I was quite excited to find a jogging route card in my hotel room.

There was a small public park and lake across the street from the Conrad, which was perfect for a walk or a run.





On the day of my departure, before going to the airport, I headed out for a mid-day run...



Across the bridge over the East 3rd Ring Road...





To my surprise, I saw others on the way to the park to exercise in the midday heat...



I entered the park through the West Entrance...



This was a beautiful park. Shady and cool, even at midday.



It was surprisingly busy at noon, with many people either walking along the path, or just sitting on the many park benches enjoying their lunch hour.

[yflyer]

Each loop around the park was 1.4km. I did three loops.







Refreshment stand within the park grounds...



Total route that day was about 5.6km. The lap distance of 1.4km looks ideal for a workout. It is long enough such that it doesn't feel repetitive going round in circles, but also short enough such that you can choose the number of laps based on your workout preference.



I hadn't realized that there were such nice parks / lakes in central Beijing. Proximity to this park would be a big plus factor in the Conrad's favour the next time I need to pick a hotel in Beijing.

[yflyer]

Overall impressions of the Conrad? A very nice hotel to stay in. Wonderful rooms, and a good location not far from the centre of Beijing. The park across the street is also ideal for an outdoor workout when the weather is right.

After my run, I showered, then checked out and headed to the airport for my flight home on SQ807.



To be continued!

[yflyer]

When I arrived at Beijing Capital Airport's massive T3, there was already a long line at the Economy check-in counters. However, the Suites and Business/Star Gold counters were clear, and I checked-in without much delay.



There were long queues at the immigration counters as well, however these were quite fast moving, with airport staff pro-actively managing the different lines.

As I had arrived at the airport quite late, I did not visit the designated SQ lounge, and instead spent a few minutes browsing the airside shops before heading to the gate...



Today's flight was operated by 9V-SKK, a 7 year old A380 first delivered to SQ in 2010.

As the 11th of 19 A380's delivered to SQ, this aircraft is almost right down the middle as far as fleet age is concerned, with the oldest, 9V-SKA being 10 years old, and the newest, five year old 9V-SKT delivered in 2012.

[yflyer]

The PEY cabin occupies the space on the main deck just behind Suites, and in front of the main deck Y cabin.

The seat layout is a spacious 2-4-2.



By comparison, even though the A350's cabin is narrower in width than the A380, the new SQ A350's PEY cabin, with a different seat frame, is also laid out 2-4-2.

The seats are upholstered in grey leather, with orange and blue accents.



The bulkhead PEY seats have good legroom, with the IFE screens fitted in the wall ahead, rather than in the armrest.



Some pax may find the IFE screens positioned a little high up, but they are angled downwards for comfortable viewing.



The headrests have adjustable wings, and can also be raised or lowered slightly.



A view of the window-side seat backs. Large IFE widescreen and generous seat pocket storage space.



The aisle-side window seat has a thin metal bar in the footwell space, but in practice this did not cause any issues with legroom as there was ample underseat space for your feet.



The window side seat is free of underseat obstructions.



On the A380, the cabin curvature meant that there was quite a bit of additional space at shoulder and head level for the window side seats, and this really added to the feeling of space and openness.



Each seat comes with an extendable thigh rest. When reclined, the seat base pivots forward slightly for a comfortable angle.

Here is a picture of the seat fully reclined...



Overall, the PEY seats are very comfortable and a noticeable step up from regular Y seats.

[yflyer]

The large IFE screens are spectacularly clear and bright.

Like the 77W on my SIN-PEK sector, the Krisworld user interface was also the previous generation UI, but that didn't matter too much, as the UI was quite straightforward to use, and very responsive as well.



While the screens "look" like touchscreens, they actually aren't, and the UI is operated by the familiar handheld controller used in the other cabins on the A380.



Universal A/C power sockets (Which support US/Australia/Europe/UK sockets, including the 3-pin plugs common in Singapore).

[yflyer]

Large pillow and blanket on each seat.



Wide armrests...



Cup holder for drinks and a lower compartment for items such as bottles of water.



Foldout tray table in the armrest.



A large and solid tray table that didn't sag with the weight of a large 15" MacBook Pro.



USB socket and 3-pin airline headphone socket at the rear of the armrests...



...with another USB port under the screen.



The seat pocket is a very nice design with one pocket for magazines, and a separate padded compartment large enough to hold a 15" MacBook Pro.

[yflyer]

I browsed this month's 70th Anniversary special issue of SilverKris Magazine...



The safety card...







Note the warning on the card about not removing the safety card or other safety equipment from the aircraft.



Unlike certain drug offenses, removing a safety card will not trigger a mandatory death sentence upon conviction, but it is still against the law. Leave the safety card onboard!

[yflyer]

One quirk of A380 PEY is that the restrooms are in the economy section just aft of the first Y cabin. The restroom locations relative to the PEY cabin can be seen in the picture below.





As on my outbound flight, the restroom was stocked with toothbrushes and combs.

[yflyer]

5 hours 55 minutes flight time to Singapore today.



Prior to take off, high quality Phitek noise-cancelling headphones were distributed. As far as I could tell, these were the same ones that I've received in J on previous SQ flights, and sounded very good. As good as any airline-issued headphones I've used inflight.



The cabin crew went round with hot towels...



A short 5-10 minute delay before pushing back because of airspace congestion, and a long taxi to our designated runway...



...for a smooth and very quiet take-off towards the south on runway 18L...



For someone used to the cabin-rattling take-off roar of powerful GE90 engines when seated in the rear Y cabin of a 77W, the unusually quiet, almost silent take-off roll of the A380 was quite an novel experience.

[yflyer]

A full beverage service after take-off...



The cabin crew serving the PEY section today was outstanding. PEY pax were addressed by name throughout the flight, and requests were handled promptly and cheerfully.

A glass of champagne to start...



I wish they would use real glasses in PEY. But that said, champagne is a great inflight beverage (Even if it's not Krug or Dom in PEY...)

In case anyone is wondering, they didn't leave me with the whole bottle. It was just set on my tray table for the photo. But they were generous with refills. The pax sitting in front of me had a constant flow of champers to his seat through the first half of the flight...

A large packet of nuts...

[yflyer]

Today's menu...



Similar truncated beverage list as Y...



The meals are similar to Y meals, but there is an extra choice of main: 3 choices in PEY compared to 2 for Y.

2 International selections...



...and one Oriental selection...



In PEY, you of course also have the option of Book The Cook (BTC) meals.

For completeness, here is the breakfast menu from the previous inbound SIN-PEK sector of this flight...



...if I were on that flight, I would gone for the roti prata!