Two Parks and a River – PART 1: Singapore Airlines A380 to Frankfurt and New York

[yflyer]

Two Parks and a River – PART 1: Singapore Airlines A380 to Frankfurt and New York (SQ26 SIN-FRA-JFK) and a Side Trip to Munich (LH FRA-MUC-FRA)

As the World Cup kicked off earlier this month, I kicked off a trip of my own – a long one compared to most trips I do. This would take me on a west-bound journey to Europe, the USA, and Asia before heading home: SIN-FRA-MUC-FRA-JFK-SFO-ICN-SIN on SQ, LH and UA in Y.

Having mainly flown BA, JL, CX and EK in the past 1-2 years, it was good to be back on Singapore Airlines for most of this itinerary. I have flown SQ a lot over the years, but less so in the last 24 months, so I was glad to be able to savour the SQ experience again.

Regulars on this forum would also know that I enjoy running/jogging, both in Singapore and overseas. Apart from clocking air miles, on this trip I clocked kilometers on the ground as well, with very enjoyable runs in Munich’s Englischer Garten, Central Park in Manhattan, as well as a beautiful a run from Frankfurt airport (FRA), along the Main river, to the Zeil / Frankfurt city centre.

The World Cup makes cameo appearances throughout this TR, and experiencing the tournament (via television, mainly) on three continents also served to remind me how small the world has become: from die-hard fans in Germany to an unexpectedly huge amount of interest in the World Cup in the USA, and football fanatics in Seoul up at 3am and congregating in Gangnam for mass viewing/cheering for their team’s final game in the first stage.

This TR covers part 1: SIN-FRA-MUC-FRA-JFK, with the remainder to be posted under a separate thread.

Some of the cabin products in this TR have been covered before on this forum, so apart from the usual content on SQ's hard product, I will also add a few tips on how best to maximise the Y experience on SQ.

Quite a long trip, so this TR may take a while to complete, but I thought I would kick this off today, given that this is my 1000th post on SQTalk!

[yflyer]

SQ26 SIN-FRA

My first flight was SQ26 SIN-FRA, an 11.50pm departure out of Changi Airport T3.

T3 was the usual oasis of calm and tranquility, and boarding took place right on time, through aerobridges on both levels of the aircraft.

At the aircraft door, I was warmly greeted, and directed down the left aisle to my seat in the rear of the aircraft. This was not my first flight on SQ's A380, but this was the first time I noticed the artwork adorning the walls of the spacious entrance area.



This A380 was configured with an all-business class upper deck, seating 86 J pax upstairs, and 12 suites and 311 Y seats downstairs.

The Y cabin on this A380 was bright, spacious and pristine, and laid out 10 abreast, in 3-4-3.

On the way to my seat, I passed seat 48D, which has no seat in front of it, and noticed more artwork on the walls as well.



The different sections of the Y cabin were done up in two different colour schemes: a light brown scheme in the middle cabin, and a blue/grey scheme in the front and rear Y cabins.

My seat was in the rear section of this enormous aircraft.



This is the emergency row at row 55 of the rear Y cabin. These are spacious seats, with the emergency door protrusion quite far from the seat.



Here is another view of the row 54/55, showing the bulkhead seats in this row.



Rear staircase to the upper deck...

[yflyer]

The Y seats are the old "New" seats, which are consistent across the A380, A330 and 77W's (With the exception of the newest 77WN's flying to LHR, BOM etc).



While not at the leading edge of Y design any longer, I would still consider these seats to be very good, and among my favourite Y seats (Although my favourite remains the Qantas A380 Y seat). They are wide by Y standards, at 19 inches in width, and have decent recline, where the front of the seat also slides forward slightly as the seat back reclines. Legroom is average. There are no IFE boxes blocking legroom.

The seat is fairly comfortable, although I would rate it on the firmer side of the spectrum.

Each seat came with a soft pillow in a real fabric pillow case, and a blanket.

There is a footrest that extends outwards. I am a fan of footrests, as I find that the leg support helps me sleep, however the oval shape of these footrests means that my feet tend to slide off.



TIP: If you are seated by the aisles, the aisle-side armrest can be lifted all the way up if you press a small button on the underside of the armrest (the end closest to the seat back). This is very handy if you want to step out of your seat with your meal tray still on the tray table.

IFE is full AVOD on a high-resolution widescreen. This screen is operated by a controller and not a touchscreen.



There were many other nice touches in the seat design, including a cupholder, a rounded hook for hanging jackets, USB charging, a small light under the screen in addition to the overhead reading light, as well as A/C power in the armrest.



Headphones...



Amenity kit, now with a subtly updated colour scheme, grey/brown rather than beige/brown...



TIP: Eyeshades and earplugs (the bright orange 3M foam kind) are not included in the amenity kit, but available on request.

[yflyer]

A round of hot towels was distributed.

Printed menus were handed out...



A round of peanuts and drinks prior to supper. I had a dry martini.



TIP: Although they bring round a tray of juice, wine, beer and water rather than a full cart for the initial drink service, the cabin crew will be very happy to bring you a drink of your choice if you ask.

[yflyer]

Cabin crew on this flight were superb: Cheerful, engaging and thoroughly professional.

Meal service began with no less than four carts in the rear Y section, two in each aisle.



There were 3 choices of main course offered for dinner.



All looked really appetizing. I went for the beef stroganoff.





The stroganoff was quite delicious.



The cabin crew came round often with wine refills.

[yflyer]

And if dinner was not sufficient, a selection of "light bites" were also available...



This was the roast beef roll that was served mid way during the flight...moist and tasty.

[yflyer]

I slept soundly on the flight, but before that I did explore the selection on the Krisworld IFE.



A very wide selection of movies, television and music were available.



Picture and audio quality were great.



I was quite impressed with the classical music selection onboard as well.



TIP: The standard Y headphones provided by SQ are mediocre (Same goes for pretty much all other airlines for that matter). You will get much better audio quality for music and movies as well if you buy an airline 2-pin to mini-plug headphone adapter (available at airports and many electronic retail outlets for between S$5 to S$10), and this will enable you to use standard headphones e.g. ipod / iphone headphones onboard.

[yflyer]

About two and a half hours before arrival, lights were turned on and a second round of steaming hot towels were distributed.



By then we were flying over Central Europe.



Bright sunlight was streaming into the cabin, however it was fairly cloudy so views out the window weren't particularly interesting.

[yflyer]

It was time for breakfast...



Two choices were available, an Asian/Oriental selection and a Western selection.



I opted for the poached eggs...



This was a spectacularly delicious breakfast, and a welcome change from the usual bland egg dishes served (Scrambled eggs / omelette / frittata etc)...

[yflyer]

This was a completely full flight in Y, however cabin ambience was fine throughout the flight, on account of the spacious cabin.

A view of the front Y cabin...



Middle Y cabin...



Rear Y cabin...

[yflyer]

We landed on time in Frankfurt on a cloudy morning.



Many pax on this flight were continuing on to JFK. I would be getting off here in FRA and heading for a connection to Munich on Lufthansa, before resuming my trip on SQ26 from FRA to JFK later in the week.

Overall, a superb flight on SQ. A great hard product and wonderful cabin crew -- I would be hard pressed to find fault with any aspect of my experience on this flight.

While there is a newer hard product available on SQ's 77WN and on the competition (For example Emirates latest A380's), the current SQ A380 Y cabin product remains competitive and taken as a whole, I think SQ remains the carrier to beat in terms of delivering a top notch Y product.

[yflyer]

Fresh from that hassle-free, seamless experience on SQ, I entered that mother-of-all-hubs, FRA, with a mixture of excitement/bravado/trepidation.

Casual travellers can find FRA a little intimidating, and as I was soon to discover, even more seasoned travellers could get tripped up too.

As I navigated the labyrinthine corridors and workflows at FRA, things were about to get interesting, and not always in a good way...



To be continued!

[yflyer]

As I was connecting to a domestic flight, I had to pass through German / EU immigration checks. There were queues 30-40 deep at the queues for non-EU residents. I picked a queue at the far end, close to the EU queues. After waiting a few minutes, the EU passport officer, sitting at an empty booth, subtlely waved and caught the attention of some of us in the non-EU queue and motioned us over. I couldn't believe our luck. In any other airport, this would have caused a stampede of pax moving across, but in this case a few of us sauntered over, and he started processing us. When another pax came over and asked what queue this was, the officer said "This is the EU queue, but it is empty, so I can process a few of you". This must have saved me at least 20 or 30 minutes.

Then there was another round of security screening and a long walk through a connecting tunnel, before I was through to the shopping and airside lounges.



They had a BMW i8 on display as well...



It was now after 8am. I had an 11.15am flight to Munich to catch (or so I thought...) so I headed to the Lufthansa Senator / Star Gold Lounge.



This was a large and airy lounge with ample lounging and work areas, as well as a dining area setup for breakfast. (And by breakfast that appears to include beer here in Germany, which a surprising number of people in the lounge appeared to be drinking. Thumbs up!)





I didn't take pictures of the breakfast buffet, but there was a nice spread consisting of fruit, cereal, birchenmuesli, yogurt, cold cuts, spreads, cheese and a bewildering selection of different breads. There were also several hot selections including scrambled eggs.



There were also showers in the lounge.

[yflyer]

I sat comfortably in the lounge, using my MacBook, with one eye on the flight display. It was now after 9am, and my 11.15am flight looked to be on-time.

Close to 10am, I noticed my flight, LH 102 was now showing a 30 minute delay...and in a blink of an eye, the display changed to "CANCELLED". What the...

I headed to the lounge reception. "I'm sorry, yes your flight has been cancelled. No guarantees, but there is another flight to Munich leaving at 10.25am. Two other passengers are running to catch it. You can try, but no guarantees..."

On other times I have travelled through FRA, I noticed many harried pax running for gates. I never imagined I would be one of them. I cannot recall the exact gate number, but it was at the extreme end of the terminal, somewhere between A40 and A42...a worst case scenario.

I headed out the door, rollerboard in hand and laptop backpack on my back and began trotting towards the gate...

About two-thirds of the way there, I realized that it was almost a lost cause. I was running at a fair pace, but this airport was huge. A gym in disguise, I was starting to think. In desperation I approached a buggy which had just dropped someone off. "A40?" I asked? The buggy driver nodded, and motioned to me to hop on. Relief! Now this was the way to travel. The buggy sped towards the gate.

I arrived just as the gate was closing...the gate agent was processing one final passenger, who boarded the flight, then that was that.

"I'm sorry the flight is now closed."

"I've just arrived from Singapore, and my connection was cancelled. Is there anything you can do?"

"I'm sorry, but the flight is closed."

At that point, things could have gone two different ways. Tired, jetlagged and a little frustrated by this turn of events, I could have played the angry passenger, and tried to bully my way onboard, but that seldom (never?) works. In any case, I am not that kind of guy. Resigned to my fate, I asked the gate agent if she could help in any way.

She checked my reservation and said: "They have rebooked you on the 12.15pm flight, but I can't check you in right now as check-in has not opened.". I smiled, thanked her and went across to a nearby table to wait.

A while later, she printed a boarding pass and brought it over to me and apologised again for the inconvenience. I thanked her profusely. I think she did all she could, and in any case losing one's temper is almost never justified when the agent is obviously doing all she can.

I would land an hour later than scheduled -- not too bad considering the circumstances.

My other flight, LH104, would leave from a different gate -- as luck would have it one quite close to the lounge where I originally started...the FRA gate controllers must have quite a sense of humour.

[yflyer]

I boarded my flight, LH104 FRA-MUC by a bus gate, which provided all on the bus a great tour of the tarmac, including several 747-8i's, Cargo MD-11's and other less common types. Quite a treat for me, although I doubt many others on the bus appreciated it.

LH104 was an Airbus A321.



I boarded through the rear stairs, where the cabin crew were handing out Milka chocolate wafers to each passenger as an inflight snack on this 55 minute flight.

I was immediately struck by how slim the seats were.











Although the seats were slim, they were actually reasonably comfortable. Not a seat I would want to spend more than an hour or two in, but fine for a short hop like this 55 minute flight.



The captain on this flight was a lady, who went on the PA to say "There are many days when it is fun to fly, but today is not one of those days. There has been bad weather all morning, and many flights have been delayed, but we are all here now, and we will do our best to get you to Munich without further delay."