J flyer for a day! (But only one way...) SIN-SYD-SIN on SQ 77W J and A380 Y

[yflyer]

I am convinced that the companies I have worked for over the years have each had a business rule embedded within company policy: Job Level eligibility for Business Class Travel = yflyer's current Job Level + 1.

I am forever on the wrong side of a wave of cost cutting and travel cutbacks which keeps J travel perpetually out of reach. Once in a while I break through the barrier, and for a fleeting moment, get to enjoy pre-flight drinks, the occasional satay, and horizontal, rather than vertical sleep. Then the next round of travel budget cuts happens.

A recent, urgent, business trip to Sydney ticked all the boxes on my own pre-flight checklist of criteria to reach into my mileage bank to redeem points for an upgrade. A quick check online: Yes! Business Saver availability! An upgrade redemption was a no brainer, given that I had an important meeting to attend after my 77W red-eye to Sydney.

It was back to reality on my return leg, a day-time SYD-SIN on an SQ A380 in Y. But that flight turned out to be an example of SQ at it's best. No worries about whether SQ had lost any of its Mojo on that trip. On top of that, the novelty of inflight wifi, which was available on this aircraft (9V-SKB).

[yflyer]

What I like about T3 is that most times I am there, it is not crowded. I am sure there are peaks where congestion occurs, but quite often there is almost an atmosphere of serenity about T3, at least on the upper levels.



It was pretty quiet inside as well. With no queues for any of the premium class or KF / *A Gold check-in counters.



As I checked in fairly late, I headed straight to my gate. After years of travelling through T3, I still have not gotten over their choice of carpeting.



Nice views of an A380 from this gate holding area, but I wasn't catching a double decker bus that day...



...mine was a 77W. A little noisier, but essentially equivalent in J and Y.

[yflyer]

I passed through F on the way to the front mini J cabin.



Row 11, the first row of J.



A little more space to stretch out, compared to other J seats.



Row 12 is stated on the SQ seat map as windowless. We are missing one window here, but hey, there is a window.





A glass of champagne before departure...



As many folks have mentioned on this forum, you either love or hate the idea of a fold-down bed. This seat reclines (a little) and has a foot rest which comes up (a little). I personally like the width of the seat: I usually have a lot of stuff with me that I place on the seat. I can't do this on a QF Skybed. I also have no issue folding down the bed to sleep, but as you will read later...this leads to some slightly unusual passenger behaviour.



I spent about 5 minutes opening various compartments to try and refresh my memory on what lay behind each of them...lots of useful storage and amenities, including power etc, but does anyone actually remember where anything is behind those black covers?





There was already a pair of noise cancelling headphones at each seat. The crew came round a little later to distribute sockettes and eyeshades.



Mixed nuts to go with your drink after departure...

[yflyer]

The theme this month was tomatoes...what an interesting idea!



The Culinary Panel has been around for quite a while, and it has always been interesting to see what these top chefs can come up with, considering the constraints and limitations of inflight catering. On this flight, the beef selection for dinner was created by Alfred Portale (USA) ...

[yflyer]

Quite an interesting selection of dishes on the menu for this flight.



There was also a continental breakfast which I skipped in order to get more sleep.







A good selection of other beverages were also available, including cocktails and a wide range of coffees and teas.

[yflyer]

Dinner service started with the large fold-out table being laid, and an offer of a wide selection of bread. I have always liked the "snowman" salt and pepper shakers.





Things got a little unusual for the starter. This was listed as tomato soup, however the crew went around to apologise that what was loaded onboard wasn't actually soup, more of a terrine of crab and tomato.



It actually tasted pretty good. However, looking objectively at the plating, it did look like it was missing some garnish, or perhaps it was supposed to be presented that way, before having tomato soup poured over it (maybe the soup wasn't loaded?).

Let's be realistic: there will always be the occasional hiccup. Stuff that should have been loaded sometimes isn't. When that happens, it is the service recovery that matters, and I have seen a lot of excellent service recovery from SQ cabin crew, including, on other flights, many instances of LSS's etc crouched low by the seat of a pax who is clearly being a pain, doing his or her level best to resolve the situation. I thought the cabin crew handled the admittedly minor hitch around the starter mix-up quite well.

[yflyer]

If I had any reservations about the starter, all dissatisfaction was banished from my mind when my main course was served.



Whenever I fly business class, I try to select the beef or steak option on the menu, because I have always been searching for the answer to the question: "Is it possible to serve a good steak inflight?". Many of the steaks I have eaten inflight have been dismal. Either too dry, tough, tasteless or overcooked. Lately I have had quite decent steaks on both SQ and QF, but nothing quite prepared me for this dish created by Alfred Portale.

It was beautifully presented, had refined sophisticated flavours, and the steak was actually delicious. I like my steak done medium rare when dining on the ground. I doubt anything served at 35K feet will ever match a good sirloin or ribeye at sea level. But this inflight dinner was...really good! I found myself savouring the flavour of every bite.



This was easily the best steak I have ever eaten on a plane.

[yflyer]

I ordered the chendol with ice cream for dessert. The ice cream arrived hard as a golfball, but they got the chendol flavours right, and this was a nice (if a little heavy) way to round off the meal.

Cheese was served...

[yflyer]

I decided to check out the programme selection on Krisworld (Full AVOD IFE) before sleeping.



They had a good selection of movies and music.



A couple of years ago, I remember SQ screening the first few episodes of HBO's Game of Thrones. This is a great TV series (if you like this sort of thing) which has generated a huge following, including yours truly. However, for whatever reason, SQ never screened the full season...until now. Onboard, you can watch the full Season 1 and Season 2, which is perfect timing since they have just started broadcasting Season 3.



That said, Game of Thrones is meant for mature audiences, and this warning screen is fully justified. SQ is screening it complete. Let's just say that those folks who watch it on television on HBO in Singapore are watching episodes which are a bit shorter...

[yflyer]

It was time to fold the bed down to sleep.





I am sometimes quite amused by some of the online debate in various forums around herringbone vs forward-facing, fully lie-flat versus angled lie-flat, reclining vs fold down...the issue I am faced with on most of my flights is whether I can get my precious few degrees of Y recline, or whether the guy behind me is going to get up at 3am for breakfast and force me to wake up and put my seat upright for him to eat.

Being able to sleep at anything other than right angles is pure luxury to me!

I slept very soundly for the remainder of the flight.

[yflyer]

What I found amazing was that this passenger next to me appeared to sleep soundly too.



Looking closely at the picture you will notice that, though she was asleep for most of the flight, she never folded down the bed at all...

[yflyer]

We arrived in Sydney on time and I breezed through immigration, customs and into a cab to the city with practically no queues or delays whatsoever.

[yflyer]

Sydney is always a wonderful place to visit. The weather is usually great, and it is is a very compact, walkable city. It was Fashion Week while I was there (sadly nothing to do with what I do for a living) so hotels were full.

I did manage to snag one of the few remaining rooms at the Four Points Sheraton at Darling Harbour, though I had to pay a higher rate than usual.

This was a newly renovated room, with a harbour view. The renovations are in progress though, and there are still rooms yet to be remodelled.







The view from my room gave me both a great view of Darling harbour as well as views of aircraft climbing out of Sydney airport in the distance.



While in Sydney, I had dinner at the Rockpool Bar & Grill, at 66 Hunter Street.



This is quite different in concept from Neil Perry's Rockpool restaurant. The Bar & Grill serves some of the best steaks I have eaten anywhere.

No food pictures, as the restaurant was fairly dim, and I didn't want to distract other diners with flash photography that day.

[yflyer]

My return flight was SQ222 from Sydney to Singapore, a daytime A380 service.

At Sydney Airport, there is an SQ lounge, however more often than not, I go to the nearby Air New Zealand Lounge, which is a designated Star Alliance lounge, which I find larger and more comfortable.



They have a good selection of beverages. The food selection is mediocre...



...but by way of compensation, they have a self service hot dog stand!



I can't imagine one of these popping up in any of SQ's lounges anytime soon, although I think a good case could be made for a live satay stall, complete with charcoal grill and satay chef fanning away at the flames (with appropriate smoke extractors overhead) at the SQ lounge in Singapore.



Just expanding on that idea of a satay stall, I wonder if it was feasible for SQ or the Changi Airport team to open a rooftop "Satay Club", "Glutton's Corner" or similar at Changi. Imagine eating satay and other local delights on a sweltering, humid tropical evening, on a Changi Airport roof garden, while planes take off and land around you. For some, that would be a perfect way to spend several hours in transit. It also sounds like something archrival DXB would not be able to pull off :-)

[yflyer]

There were obviously no SQ boarding announcements in the ANZ lounge. I made my way down to the gate where boarding was just about to commence for my flight.

I had an upper deck Y seat, and made my way through the upper deck J cabin.



The sharp-eyed among you will notice several subtle differences between the A380 J seats and those on the 77W I posted earlier.

My seat was in row 83 in the rear of the upper deck. There are two pairs of two seaters.



Seatguru marks these seats as yellow / red. The seats are close to the restrooms and galley, but I have always found these to be great seats. There is a feeling of roominess, and you get full recline in row 83. This seems to be another case of Seatguru getting it wrong.



The picture below shows row 80 (preferred seats). A lot of legroom, but no window view whatsoever. And for those hard up for a view, trying to peer out of the small porthole in the door doesn't work too well either, unlike the 777 door windows.