Two Flights on SIA's A350: Premium Economy (MEL-SIN) and Economy (SIN-BOM)

[yflyer]

My seat was 41H, the first row Y bulkhead aisle seat...



This is a great seat, with good legroom in front, and of course ample space to open your laptop computer if needed.



Universal A/C power socket and USB ports under the seat.



The PEY cabin is 2-4-2, so that means that there is a bit of a zig zag in the aisle between PEY and Y, where the catering cart essentially needs to navigate a bit of a turn when going between PEY and Y, which the cabin crew took special care to do without bumping the cart against seats or passenger feet...



The angle did mean that the bulkhead aisle seats were essentially facing the aisle, and not the bulkhead.

For window and window-side middle bulkhead seats, the screens are mounted on the wall in front.



Interestingly the bulkhead aisle seat has the IFE in the armrest, as there is no wall in front of you -- just the aisle...

Hot towels were handed out prior to departure...





The new safety video...

[yflyer]

While waiting for take-off, I browsed the duty free catalog...

A350 models were available, but not the 787-10...



Lalique items were also now available...



I suspect some passengers will be very excited about the availability of new Funko Pop! Singapore Girl dolls...



There were also some really over-the-top items in the mail order catalog...I wonder how many of these they sell a month?

[yflyer]

A powerful take-off to the north-east on Runway 02C on a very cloudy morning...



New IFE product, similar to what you get on the 77WR and new A380...a very easy to use system...



Handheld controller...



Initial drink service, with a choice of juice or water...I decided to stay away from the sugary stuff and just had water...(One of the rare occasions where I have ever selected the "healthier choice" )...

[yflyer]

The A350 Y cabin feels very spacious and open...

The first Y cabin...



The second Y cabin...



Cabin ambience was very good, even though this was a very full flight.

The A350 Y cabin, at 9-abreast, feels much more spacious than any of the 9-abreast 787 cabins I have tried (I've flown 9-abreast 787's on UA, BA, NH, AI, TR, QR).

The SQ A350 Y cabin also feels much more spacious than any 10-abreast 777 as well (Of course SQ's 777's are 9-abreast which makes them even more spacious than the A350).

I've not flown SQ's 787-10, which is also 3-3-3 in Y. I am keeping an open mind, but honestly I am not optimistic, since there is nothing SQ can do about the fuselage width of the 787.

[yflyer]

Breakfast was served somewhere over the Nicobar islands...





Today's menu...





A choice of international, Asian veg, and Asian non-veg options...



For completeness, here is the lunch menu on the return BOM-SIN sector...

[orionmiz]

For bulkhead seats, the screens mounted on the wall in front.

Are those IFE at PEY front seats touchscreen?

[yflyer]

Are those IFE at PEY front seats touchscreen?

That's a good question, orionmiz...I didn't check, as I was in the bulkhead aisle, with a touch screen that folded out from the armrest, but the window and window-side middle seats do come with handheld controllers, so you don't need to stretch forward to use the touchscreen.

[yflyer]

For my breakfast, I chose the non-veg Indian option, along with a cup of masala tea...

The tray as served...



This was a very nice breakfast spread, to my tastebuds preferable to the international selection on SQ, which can be a little bland in Y.



The samosa was tasty, as were the vegetables and the chicken and lentil stew.

My only quibble was that the meal came with a Western bread roll, and not Indian bread, which would have made it perfect.



This was the first time I sampled SQ's masala tea and I found very good as well, like a nice sweet Singapore kopitiam teh with some added spices...



Note as well the real glass, which remained empty, since my apple juice was poured into a larger plastic cup. I've always found this to be a very amusing quirk of SQ's meal service: a real glass in Y, but very seldom actually filled by the cabin crew.

[yflyer]

I browsed the IFE a little, but actually spent almost the entire flight sleeping --with the early morning wake-up to catch the flight taking its toll.



I had a tomato juice and nuts prior to descent...



...and a quick walk around the cabin...



...before prepping for arrival in the sunny mid-morning.



We landed about on schedule at around 10.30am Mumbai local time.



Immigration queues were very light at that hour, and after a lengthy walk through the huge terminal, I breezed through the large customs/immigration hall with hardly any delay at either immigration or customs. This was a Sunday, so I would have the afternoon to relax in the hotel before heading to Navi Mumbai the next morning to start the work week.

Overall a very pleasant flight in SQ A350 Economy. This is an excellent Y hard product, and cabin service was top notch as well.

Comparing Y with PEY on the A350, I was struck by how small the difference in experience was. Sure, you get a larger seat in PEY, and champagne, but that was essentially it. But the difference is not huge (8-abreast PEY vs 9-abreast Y), and on the A350, the Y seat is a very comfortable one.

In fact this superb flight in SQ A350 economy simply highlighted once again how small the gap was between Y and PEY on this A350. I find it a little strange that SQ would put such a mediocre PEY on the A350, which does long haul routes to Europe, and even ULH routes such as SIN-SFO, where the added comfort of PEY would arguably be something pax would be willing to pay a premium for. Are SQ so paranoid about cannibalising their J business that they are willing to launch a deliberately low-spec PEY cabin?

For future flights, I would think very hard if given the option to upgrade from Y to PEY on the A350, either through bidding or using points. On the other hand, I would be more willing to upgrade to PEY on SQ's A380, where the PEY seat and cabin are a bigger step up from Y.

I spent the next few days in Mumbai before flying home on SQ423 in A380 Y.

[yflyer]

The ITC Maratha is one of my favourite hotels in Mumbai. This is a Luxury Collection hotel affiliated with the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program.

The rooms are well appointed, and it is conveniently located right next to the International Airport. It also has several outstanding Indian restaurants in-house.



The hotel is 5-10 minutes drive from the airport. In fact, the airport is visible from some of the hotel rooms...



It is not a huge hotel, but the public areas are very elegant.

The Lobby...



Inner atrium with main restaurant at its centre.



Over the years I have spent many mornings indulging in the large Indian/International buffet spread offered at this restaurant.



Lounge area, overlooking the atrium.



Beautifully decorated passageways...

[yflyer]

I was upgraded to a room in the ITC One section of the hotel...this section of the hotel has enhanced rooms and facilities targeted at the business traveller.



A very large room with separate living area...



The bed...





Work table...



Quite a few art pieces (And a Bose sound system...)...



...as well as a Panasonic Massage Lounger!



The bathroom...





My room overlooked the pool...



Overall a very comfortable room, in a property with a very high standard of customer service.

[yflyer]

Later that day, I headed to Dakshin restaurant, in the hotel, for lunch....



This has a huge menu with many regional and coastal specialities...



Here is just one of many cloth pages outlining the preparations available...



These dishes were really more suitable for sharing. For single diners, a vegetarian, non-vegetarian and seafood set menu was also available...

I opted for the seafood set...



This is a wonderful set menu, consisting of a procession of different specialities and delights.

But I have to warn you: If you order this, make sure you starve for the day and have this as your one and only meal, and also clear your calendar for the rest of the day to recover afterwards. The courses, and serving sizes, are generous to a fault, and this "single diner" set could probably feed a party of three...

First, a selection of crisp papadums and crackers, eaten with different chutneys....these were quite delicious...



Then a classic South Indian soup, called rasam, with a tangy taste which I found quite addictive. This was served in a glass...I could drink a lot of this...



A small selection of sweet dosas/crepes...



And then beautifully spiced and marinated prawns and fish fillets, served crisp and piping hot...



And then the mains, which came in large copper pots: 5 of them, in impossibly large portions, including lobster tails, crab meat, fish, tomato and lentils, and a vegetable medley...



This was spooned into little bowls on your banana leaf, and first eaten with a soft, tasty appam, or fermented rice flour pan cake...

[yflyer]

The variety of tastes and flavours was incredible...

Special callout: the lobster tails, especially, were fresh and tender...



...next parotta, a layered bread, was served...



...this was flaky, and full of melt-in-the mouth goodness, which I dipped into the various bowls of spicy preparations...

There was still a rice course to come, but at that point I was too full to have any more, and went straight to dessert, which was peppermint chocolate ice cream paired with a jaggery-based Indian dessert...



What an amazing meal...

After that, I had to scale back my plans for the rest of the day, and simply vegetated in my hotel room, occasionally using the computer, and only managing to drag myself to the gym for a short run on the treadmill late in the evening.

[yflyer]

The next day in Mumbai was a scorcher...



The top headline in the Times of India that day, taking precedence over any other global or domestic news, was the cricket scandal involving ball tampering by members of the Australian team.



I checked out of the ITC Maratha and took the long drive to Navi Mumbai, or "New Mumbai."

Navi Mumbai is about 1-2 hours drive from old Mumbai (Depending on the traffic). This is a planned city and major business hub, with large campuses housing both international companies and Indian businesses, as well as several shopping malls.



The environment and layout of buildings here was much more open and organised than Mumbai proper.

While on the road in Navi Mumbai, I also caught a glimpse of Mumbai's local train network, with massive stations...



...and trains which went around with doors open -- and passengers standing in the open doorways!



While SQueeze has offered to teach me how to board and get off these trains while they are still moving, I am still considering whether or not to take up his offer ...

I did notice, though, that while these trains are packed during most of the work day, they were fairly empty early in morning, say before 8am, and so were the streets. This raised the possibility of a future early morning outdorr run in Navi Mumbai, and even an early morning train ride, before the crowds of the rush hour...

[yflyer]

My hotel in Navi Mumbai was the Four Points Sheraton...



This was an older business hotel which offered clean comfortable rooms, but nothing especially distinctive. I was there for the location, close to my workplace, as it was just not feasible to commute to the office from the ITC Maratha each day.

The room...





The bathroom...



...with shower and no tub...


A perfectly decent, if not particularly memorable, business hotel.