Short and Shorter: Intra-Asia on SQ Economy (MNL, BKK, KUL)

[yflyer]

The joys of flying long haul on SQ are well known, but there are fewer TR’s out there on many of the workhorse regional intra-Asia routes that SQ flies.

With the increasing competition from low-cost carriers, it looks timely to review what SQ offers in the economy cabin on flights to and from nearby destinations such as Manila, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

I recently made several trips on SQ to regional destinations:
- Manila (Flight time just over 3 hours)
- Bangkok (2 hrs)
- Kuala Lumpur (55 min)...with this flight operated by SQ's newest A330, 9V-SSC, delivered on 26 July 2014.

Here are my impressions of these flights…

[yflyer]

This TR starts in Manila Airport, in early July, the week before Typhoon Glenda wreaked havoc in Makati and other parts of the Philippines.



This is probably the last time I will see the old T1 at Ninoy Aquino International, as SQ will be moving to T3 some time in August.

No pictures of the old terminal to share, but probably none are needed, as it had not changed in the 15 or so years I have been travelling to Manila. On the bright side, on both my arrival a few days prior, and on the day of departure that morning, queues at immigration and security were minimal, and quite manageable. I actually found the SQ lounge in the old T1 to be quite decent. As an added plus, the lounge was very close to the gate.

[yflyer]

This flight was operated by a non-refitted 772.

I was very surprised to see that this aircraft still had the blue Y seats, in 3-3-3 layout.

A peek into J while boarding showed that this plane was also equipped with the old dark blue Ultimo seats, configured, 2-3-2.

There can't be many of these planes in this older config still flying.

That said, while this was an older config, the plane was very clean and well maintained, and the seats and covers were in excellent condition.



The plane had full AVOD, on smaller 4:3 format displays.



Remote in the armrest...



Footrest, with straight "wings", which I prefer to the footrest on the new Y on the 77W and A330 and A380, because my feet tend to slide off the rounded "wings" of the new footrests.



Massive IFE boxes under one of the seats in each block....

Under seat C...


Under seat D...


Adjustable cushioning with an inflatable pump at the front of the seat. This one was not working. In fact, even when these planes were new, I could never get this feature to work. Glad they dropped it in subsequent seat iterations.



On this aircraft, row 44 is the emex row, with 2 seats by the side. A quirk of this layout is that seat 45C / 45H has no seat in front of it and a whole lot of legroom. Grab this seat if you can.

[yflyer]

Hot towels distributed before take-off...



While taxiing to the runway, I passed T2, used by Philippine Airlines. This was a much newer terminal, but a different one from the one SQ is moving to, which is T3.



We took off to the South...



Some great views as we passed over the coastline...

[yflyer]

This was a morning flight, and a full hot breakfast was served...



I chose the fried rice with beef...



This was quite a tasty meal, although looking at the menu, I was expecting more beef than the tiny bits of minced meat accompanying the rice.

[yflyer]

There was a decent IFE selection onboard, with the upgraded IFE system being quite snappy and responsive.



The screens were small by today's standards, and in 4:3 format, but the picture quality was ok.



After the 3 hour flight, on approach to Changi...



For an on-time arrival...

[yflyer]

Not long after that, I flew SQ to Bangkok. This was a 2 hour flight, but this time it would be operated by an A330 with the modern Y cabin product.

Flights to BKK depart from T2. That said, my flight departed from E28, which is at the extreme end of T2, adjoining T1.



Beyond the E gates are the D gates of T1...



A took a few photos before boarding the plane...



Yes, that is a C-17 Globemaster you see parked at T2. Markings said it belonged to the UAE Air Force.



A Biman Bangladesh 737 in their "new" livery...



Apparently there are only a couple of 737's in this "new" livery, introduced as part of a rebranding in 2010. This paint scheme was scrapped not long after that after a change of government, and an updated livery and logo quite similar to their old one was reintroduced.

Lufthana A380 landing on runway 20C...



...and at the gate in T2...

[yflyer]

As usual, I peeked into the J cabin when boarding, and snapped a quick picture before heading to my seat in Y.

Like all SQ A330's, this was the new regional J product in 2-2-2 layout.



My seat was just round the corner: 31K -- first row bulkhead in Y.



This is a great seat. (As long as there isn't a baby in a bassinet next to you...)

Even on this short 2 hour sector, every seat came with a plush pillow and blanket.



From seat 31K, I had the opportunity to take a few pictures on take-off and climb-out...here is the Eastern coastline of Singapore. You can see Bedok Jetty in the distance.



Also partly visible from the photo above is the jogging trail along the coastline by the beach. This is part of the East Coast Park, which stretches all the way from Fort Road near the city, to Changi Coastal Road. There is some construction after Fort Road, but once that portion of the track is done, the cycling/jogging track at the East Coast Park will connect all the way to Gardens By the Bay, which means you will be able to cycle or jog all the way from the city to Changi Point on the Eastern tip of the island. In fact, the route is now "unofficially" accessible on foot for joggers/walkers, as long as you don't mind a few detours onto the grass and over/under road barriers around the Fort Road construction area.

Many visitors to Singapore are amazed by the number of ships anchored off our coast.

[yflyer]

IFE was full AVOD, on a large, high-resolution widescreen, perfect for movies and TV.



Fantastic selection of entertainment options on Krisworld.



But even the large, clear screen could not save the storyline of "Noah"...

[yflyer]

A full hot meal was served on this 2 hour flight.

Because of the short flight duration, there was no pre-meal drink service, and no menus were handed out either.

The combined drink/meal service began from the front of the cabin with a choice of two mains, an Asian and a Western selection...



I chose the Western style chicken today...



The chicken was surprisingly tasty. Tender on the inside, and not over-seasoned the way some in-flight meals are.



You also had smoked chicken salad as a starter, and chocolate mousse cake (Delicious...) for dessert, and a choice of soft and alcoholic beverages, coffee & tea.

[yflyer]

Overall cabin ambience was good...



Flying over the Thai coastline...





On time arrival in Bangkok...



A fairly long walk from the gate to the immigration counters, but thankfully queues were short, and as I only had a handcarry, I was out of baggage claim and customs very quickly.

[yflyer]

I spent a couple of days in Bangkok, where I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, a wonderful hotel where I have written up a separate TR.

I also had a very nice dinner at Rosabieng restaurant...

A preview of the restaurant and their delicious tom yam goong below...





A short write-up of my dinner at Rosabieng can be found here.

[yflyer]

My BKK-SIN return flight, SQ979, was on a Friday evening, a 6.30pm departure.



This was also on an SQ A330, laid out 2-4-2

Same new cabin product as my outbound flight, but this time I was seated in the rear of the plane.





Seat 58 G has no seat behind it. The rows after 58 in the middle block have only 3 seats each.



As we boarded the plane, a thunderstorm passed briefly over the airport, resulting in a 30 minute delay when airport operations were closed during the heaviest part of the storm.



Flight operations eventually resumed, although storm clouds remained in the area.

As I wrote in reply to scooby5 in another thread:

"When we finally took off in the rain, it was the most powerful A330 take-off I had ever experienced. I was sitting in the back and the engines were LOUD (Like 777 loud...). Take-off angle was steeper than usual too. And while climbing out, we passed through a squall which really rocked the plane, literally lifting our bums off the seats into the seatbelts for a brief instant (thankfully all were still belted as this was during initial climb out). All this time the full cabin was deathly silent..."

[yflyer]

We eventually broke through the storm and emerged into clear, smooth skies.

Dinner was served. Again, no printed menus, and no pre-dinner drinks -- straight to meal service.

This time I had the Asian-style pork cutlet with rice. This turned out to be a Japanese-style tonkatsu.



Starter was a delicious squid, onion, chilli and lettuce salad.



The main course was a generous sized pork cutlet, not small chunks of meat, but a whole cutlet sliced into pieces, just like in a restaurant.



Not quite as scrumptious as the best tonkatsus you get on the ground in restaurants in Japan or Singapore for that matter, but that isn't a fair comparison, is it. One of the more impressive Y main courses I have had recently. I enjoyed it very much.

On a related note, one of my favourite tonkatsu restaurants in Singapore is Katsuya, in an old part of Katong in the Eastern part of Singapore. That's where I go for a tonkatsu fix...

Dessert was tiramisu.

[yflyer]

They had just changed over Krisworld to the August programmes. I watched episode 1 of Game of Thrones (Season 4), which I had just enough time to complete before our arrival in Singapore, just a few minutes later than scheduled on account of the delayed departure.