On SIA's 787-10 Dreamliner to Bangkok and Back

[yflyer]

Other breakfast selections available in the BKK SilverKris Lounge included bakery items, sandwiches and breakfast cereal...



Savoury Pastries...



Vegetable sandwiches...



Hard boiled eggs and kaya toast were a nice local touch, even if the taste of the kaya toast was a far cry from the authentic Singapore kopitiam version...



There was also Haagen-Dazs in the freezer...



And as a last resort, cup noodles were also available, although given how sumptuous the lounge spread was, I would be very surprised if anyone decided on that...

[yflyer]

The lounge had toilets but no showers, which was reasonable given that this was an outstation lounge serving regional SQ flights.

[yflyer]

Overall, I thought the SIA SilverKris Lounge in BKK was a wonderful lounge, with great ambience and decor, not to mention very good F&B. I think the fact that the lounge was not crowded when I was there, and the close proximity to the boarding gate, were also positives which contributed to the delightful experience.

This is one of my favourite SQ lounges in the whole SIA route network. I would even go as far as to say that I would rather spend time in this lounge than any of the current SilverKris lounges in Changi Airport.

[yflyer]

From the SQ SilverKris Lounge, it was just a few steps down the corridor to the gate for my flight SQ973 BKK-SIN.



Today's flight was operated by a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, rego 9V-SCD...



This was a 1+ year old aircraft, delivered in mid 2018.



It was soon time to board...

Newspapers and earbud headphones along the aerobridge...

[yflyer]

The Economy Class cabin was laid out in 9-abreast 3-3-3...



This had the latest SQ Y seat product, similar to the 2nd generation A380 Y seat and also the regional A350 Y seat...



These were comfortable and very well padded seats...



...with very good recline...



The seat base moves slightly forward when reclined to cradle the passenger at a comfortable angle...



No footrests, as this is a regional configuration, but no underseat obstructions either...



Large widescreen touchscreen IFE on the seatback...



The screen can be adjusted for a comfortable viewing angle if the passenger in front reclines...

[yflyer]

The IFE was the latest Krisworld system, with a great UI and huge program selection...



This was a touchscreen only system, with no handheld controller.

The seat back had a light button, call button, headphone socket (Which works fine with regular 3.5" miniplugs...no adapter needed) and USB port...



Cup holder...



Foldable tray table with vanity mirror....



A/C power in between the seats...



Armrests went all the way up...



A small lever at the base under the armrest allows you to raise the aisle-side armrest for easy aisle access even with your tray table down...



Wifi was available on this aircraft...

[worldrally]

yflyer, assuming you are a SG passport holder, there are autogates that can used at the departure immigration hall. Definitely a lifesaver when normal queues are long. Unfortunately there are no APEC counters on departure, last few times I've tried asking.

Enjoying your fantastic TR as always!

[yflyer]

Enjoying your fantastic TR as always!

Thanks, worldrally!

yflyer, assuming you are a SG passport holder, there are autogates that can used at the departure immigration hall. Definitely a lifesaver when normal queues are long. Unfortunately there are no APEC counters on departure, last few times I've tried asking.

Yes, I have an SG passport!

On the day I was departing, I did try to find the autogates at the BKK departure area, but I either missed them, or they were not operating that day. The autogates were a lifesaver when arriving at BKK on a couple of occasions though...helped me avoid the inbound immigration queues the last couple of times I arrived.

Thanks again for the tip! Will look harder for them the next time I am departing from BKK...

[yflyer]

As far as the seat was concerned, so far so good! This was a state-of-the-art seat, among the best Y seats currently available on SQ or any other airline, for that matter...

But what about the big issue with Y seat width on a 9-abreast Dreamliner? This had been an issue for me (And many other travellers, apparently) on previous flights on other airlines' 787's.

On all my previous 787 flights on other airlines (Except JAL, which does an 8-abreast 2-4-2 Y cabin on their Dreamliners), I found the Y seats just marginally too narrow for comfort, especially compared to A380, 9-abreast 777 or A350 Y seats.

The root cause of this is, of course fuselage width, where the 787 fuselage is narrower than both the 777 and A350. Till this flight, I had not yet encountered a 9-abreast Dreamliner Y cabin which I felt could compare with Y on an A350 or 9-abreast 777

When i sat down in my seat on SQ's 787-10 Y, I felt surprised that this seat felt no different from my Y seat on SQ's regional A350, nor did I feel slightly constrained the way I did on other 9-abreast Dreamliners.

This seat actually felt ok. I did the informal "magazine measurement"...

The SQ 787-10 Y seat...



Here is the same measurement done on the SQ regional A350 Y...



...and the Y seat on SQ's 9-abreast 77WR/77WN...



To my great surprise and delight, the seat width across these types did not appear to look significantly different, and subjectively I felt fairly comfortable in the seat as well.

Someeone mentioned that the Y seats on SQ's 787 were wider than other carriers' 787s because the SQ aisles were slightly narrower.



If this was the case, then I think the right decision was made to very slightly reduce aisle width in order to make the seats slightly wider. But these were very subtle difference that were hard to confirm with the naked eye.

Overall, though I felt that SQ's 787-10 Y cabin and seat was more comfortable than other 787's I had been on.

Was it as good as JAL's 2-4-2 Y? No, i didn't think so. The 8-abreast JAL 787 Y cabin had a serene, uncrowded ambience that remains unequalled...but as far as 9-abreast 787's were concerned, I think SQ's Y seat was the best I had encountered so far.

[yflyer]

Prior to settling down in my seat, I also spent a few minutes roaming the Y cabin to take a few other pics...

The first row (41HJK) bulkhead window seats...



Middle bank bulkhead seats (Row 41 DEG)...note that the armrest between row 41 D-E is movable, whereas between 41 E-G it is fixed.



Row 58 emex seats...



Passageway across the two aisles ahead of Row 58...



Last row window-side seats on the ABC side seem to have full recline without hitting the wall...



Whereas the row 74 DEG last row middle section seats just touched the wall when reclined. Perhaps these seats had fractionally less recline than regular seats.



Note as well in the above pic tat there were two rows of 2-seater Y seats, 74HK and 75HK, in the rear of the plane. Those existed on the right side only, as there was a bathroom on the rear left side, after row 73 ABC.

Overall, I found this to be a very comfortable Y cabin, which I would be very happy to fly on short or medium haul routes.



No pillows or blankets on each seat on this short BKK-SIN sector, but blankets were available on request.



Bathrooms in grey...



These were well stocked with amenities, such as toothbrushes...

[yflyer]

2 hours and 2 minutes flight time from Bangkok to Singapore today...



A short taxi and quiet take-off to the Southwest on Runway 19L...

Hot towels were handed out after take-off....



I continued watching "The Wandering Earth" on the Krisworld IFE...



Picture and sound quality (Using my own headphones) was superb...



Apart from Movies and TV, the audio selections were very good as well. Apart from CD audio on demand, there were many playlists...



...and also a few radio channels...



The IFE on this aircraft was great. The only minor quibble I had was that the volume could only be adjusted on the touchscreen, and it was a little tricky to get the volume setting exactly right...



The wifi pricing on this flight...





PPS and Business Class passengers were offered complimentary wifi, which was a nice touch...



Would it be too much to ask for Krisflyer Gold members to be granted the same privilege as well?

[yflyer]

Cabin ambience was very good.



With the large 787 windows letting in lots of light (And going very dark electronically, if needed), the cabin felt open and spacious.



Subjectively speaking the Y cabin ambience felt similar to that of SQ's regional A350...no mean feat given that the cabin of the 787 was slightly narrower than the A350...

[yflyer]

It was time for breakfast. No menus were handed out, but the choice was Singaporean carrot cake ("Chye Tow Kway"), or a Western egg selection...

I picked the Chye Tow Kway...



This was a very attractively presented meal, with fresh fruit and colourful Thai dessert...



I was also very happy to see the Chye Tow Kway accompanied by chilli sauce...

SQ still has the best Y cutlery in the industry...



Beautiful dessert and cut fruit...



I thought the Chye Tow Kway was decent, but not 100% authentic like the same dish catered out of Singapore. This version looked to have been catered out of the Bangkok flight kitchens, and was tasty but not as close to the Singapore hawker dish as the Singapore SATS kitchen version.

[yflyer]

I was in an aisle seat, so had to be content with 3D map views rather than window views of our descent...



...and arrival into Changi...



Our landing was on Runway 20R, and we flew over the beaches of Changi Point as we landed, on an overcast afternoon, at 12.56pm, 10 minutes ahead of schedule.



At the gate in T3...



...and through the autogates and into the arrival area without any delays whatsoever...




Overall, a wonderful flight in Economy Class on SQ's 787-10 from Bangkok to Singapore. I was very impressed by SQ's 787 economy class seat and hard product.

This was the most impressive 9-abreast 787 I had flown to date, and subjectively, I would rate SQ's 787-10 Y cabin to be on par with SQ's A350 regional Y cabin, which is also fitted with the same economy class seat and cabin product.

[yflyer]

Final reflections...

While the Changi SilverKris Lounge experience was so-so, I thought the Bangkok SilverKris Lounge was excellent, and I think this bodes well for the upcoming revamp of SQ's lounges in Changi.

Having now flown the SQ 787-10 in both Business and Economy on the SIN-BKK-SIN sector, and previously SIN-PER-SIN in J, I can say that SQ's 787-10 is one of my favourite aircraft types to fly in SQ's fleet.

I was similarly impressed with SQ's regional A350 in Y when I flew this type, and consider the Y cabin on the 787-10 and regional A350 in SQ's fleet to be on par, which is saying something since on other airlines, such as QR or TG, I much preferred their A350 to their 787.

To sum up, I had a great experience on this trip, both in business class to Bangkok, as well as on my economy class return sector BKK-SIN.

How does SQ compare with the competition? On the same SIN-BKK-SIN sector, both CX and TG represent strong competition. Setting price aside as a consideration, each of these competitors has strengths, for example CX has a superb lounge network, and TG excels in catering and cabin service, however overall I think SQ still retains a slight edge: the newest SQ planes were the best I experienced on my recent flights, and cabin crew and catering were consistently good to excellent as well. I would happily fly them all, but SQ remains my favourite.

SQ operates a range of aircraft on regional routes. Most are fine (perhaps except for the oldest 777's with legacy cabins...) but for the SQ experience at its best on regional routes, I would want to seek out flights operated by SQ's 787-10 or regional A350, as these are among the best and newest aircraft out there.



One TR ends, another starts...

After landing in Singapore from Bangkok at 1pm, I had a decision to make: I had a meeting in Hong Kong the next day, and a booking on SQ2 to Hong Kong, at 6.40pm that very evening. Should I go, or should I cancel?

Earlier in the week, the airports were briefly closed, with some disruption for passengers. But today, things seemed to have calmed down.

Immediately off the plane from BKK, I contacted my Hong Kong colleagues and we decided that things were fine for me to fly up. My trip to HKG was a go!

I headed to the transit counter to check-in and pick up my boarding pass for my SIN-HKG flight, before clearing immigration and heading home. I would be back at T3 several hours later to catch SQ2 to Hong Kong. More on that coming up in another TR...

Thanks for reading!