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

[yflyer]

At this point in time, SIA has 21 A350's in the fleet, operating a range of short, medium and long/ultra-long haul sectors.



Now that the newness/novelty of flying SQ A350's has worn off, and with the limelight now on 9V-SCA, Boeing's newly delivered 787-10, this is an opportune time to take an objective look at what the SQ A350 offers in terms of passenger experience in Economy (Y) and Premium Economy (PEY) cabins, and how this compares with other aircraft in SQ's fleet.

I recently flew the A350 from MEL-SIN on SQ208 in Premium Economy, and a few weeks later, flew SIN-BOM on SQ422 in Economy.

In this TR I would like to share my impressions of these flights, and how I think PEY and Y on the A350 compares to Y and PEY on other aircraft types in SQ's fleet, specifically the A380 and the 77WR.

Chronologically speaking, the original A380/77W economy cabin product came first in 2006, followed by the 77WN cabin products in 2013. PEY was introduced in 2015 (A380 and 77WR), and then the new A350 cabin products (Both PEY and Y) in 2016.

Newer should be better, right? Well, read on...part of the answer to this question may surprise you!

TR Index

SQ228 - MEL-SIN in A350 Premium Economy
SQ422 - SIN-BOM in A350 Economy
Hotels - ITC Maratha, Four Points Sheraton and Navi Mumbai
SQ423 - BOM-SIN in A380 Economy

[yflyer]

SQ228 is a 7.25pm departure out of MEL, with an arrival into Singapore just after midnight at 12.15am.

This is a great flight timing...you get to spend much of the day in MEL before boarding the plane for dinner, and then hopefully some rest, before landing in Singapore, where odds are you would be able to get a good night's sleep on land after a midnight arrival.

On this trip, Kyo was kind enough to give me a ride to the airport in his beautiful red Citreon MPV, which he had purchased in Sydney and had driven all the way from Sydney to Melbourne earlier in the year...that's 850km on the road, which is a mindboggling distance for Singaporeans, considering that Singapore island is only about 40km from East to West. Even Singapore to KL is only 350km by car...



Enroute to the airport, we stopped for an afternoon snack, and some grocery shopping, at LaManna supermarket, located next to Essendon Airport, itself just a short drive from Melbourne's main international airport, Tullamarine (MEL).



This is a wonderful supermarket with an amazing selection of produce, including great cuts of meat, including lamb, locally-raised wagyu and huge tomahawk steaks. I took the opportunity to do a little grocery shopping and picked up a selection of steaks to hand carry back to Singapore. There was cooked lobster and fresh shucked oysters on sale too, but obviously those were not practical to bring back on the plane...



LaManna may become a regular stop for me before departing MEL...the location is really convenient for a quick round of grocery shopping before catching a flight at Tullamarine. Nothing quite like heading home after a trip with fresh groceries from overseas. I am glad Singapore customs generally permits food products from Australia to be brought in for personal consumption...

[yflyer]

The check-in area at MEL...



Very quick security through the automated gates, and a visit to the MEL SilverKris Lounge (Covered here)...



...before walking to the boarding area, at one of the more distant satellite gates...



The gate area itself was a spacious, sunlit hall.

[yflyer]

A nice selection of newspapers along the aerobridge (Along with earphones for Y pax...)



Warm greetings at the aircraft door...



...and a walk through the Business Class cabin (No F on the A350)...



The Business Class cabin is laid out 1-2-1, with direct aisle access for all J seats. The seats fold down to a fully flat bed.



These J seats are similar to the 2013 J seats on the 77WN/77WR. The seats have been modified to fit the dimensions of the A350 fuselage, which despite the XWB (Extra Wide Body) designation, is slightly narrower than the 777 fuselage.



One of the window-side J seats...

[yflyer]

The PEY cabin is laid out 2-4-2...



While the colour scheme is similar to A380 and 77WR PEY, the seat frame and dimensions are quite different on the A350.



SQ's PEY cabin on all three types, A380, 77WR and A350 have the same 8-abreast 2-4-2 layout, which would make the A350 PEY seats slightly narrower than those on the A380 and 77WR.



A view of the row 41 PEY bulkhead seats...



All PEY seats have calf rests (Both bulkhead and regular non-bulkhead seats...)



The bullkhead calf rest, with an integrated footrest...



Seat recline is good -- a lot better than economy. Here is a picture of the seat fully reclined, with calf rest extended...



Footrest for the regular PEY seats...

[yflyer]

A review of PEY or Y would be incomplete without the seat width magazine measurement™...

[yflyer]

The IFE screen is a very large and bright touch screen...



There is also a separate remote touchscreen controller...



For bulkhead seats, the IFE screen is in the wall in front of the seats...



Seats come with adjustable reading lights, and USB ports...



...and coat hook...



High quality Phitek noise cancelling headphones...good. Not quite as good as the Bose headsets in F/Suites, but infinitely preferable to the muffled earbuds that Y passengers are given.



A/C power, with universal sockets...



The armrest comes with a small drink table, that has a convenient diagonal dividing line, presumably to prevent border/territorial disputes over whose drink goes where...

[yflyer]

On the A350, PEY shares bathrooms with Y. There is a need to cross a small section of the Y cabin to get to the bathrooms.



This is also the case on the 1st generation A380 PEY cabin, although the latest 2017 A380 cabin configuration resolves this issue by putting the PEY cabin right in front of the main deck, with restrooms directly behind it.

The restrooms themselves are done in a light coloured tones, with either orange or light blue accents.

[yflyer]

Hot towels...



I believe I have mentioned countless times in these TRs how much I appreciate these hot towels on SQ...

Bottles of water...



A dusk take-off to Singapore...

[yflyer]

After take-off, cabin service continued with distribution of amenity kits...



...and a round of champagne...



...and nuts...

[yflyer]

Wifi was available onboard...



...but it was fairly expensive...there were no flat rate plans, just plans based on usage, with ridiculously low usage allowances. I did not sign up. Why can't SQ just go with time-based plans?



I would entertain myself on this flight with the IFE instead...





A quick stroll through the Y cabin, laid out 3-3-3...





A spacious and open cabin, with large windows and good cabin ambience.

[yflyer]

It was soon time for dinner, which began with drinks offered by the cabin crew, who were warm and cheerful on this flight, not to mention completely on-the-ball...



Today's menu...





Choice of 3 mains for dinner (One more choice than Y)...



A choice of hot refreshment before landing...



For completeness, this is the menu for the outbound SQ207 SIN-MEL sector...

[yflyer]

The seafood tagine with shellfish sauce looked intriguing, and that was what I ordered.

The tray as served, with "Seafood" handwritten in neat purple letters on the foil casserole cover...



This was a very appealing looking dinner, which I accompanied with a glass of white wine...



A tasty smoked salmon salad starter...



The seafood tagine was absolutely delicious...



...with tender scallops, prawns and chunks of fish in a rich umami-laden tomato broth...one of the nicest tasting mains I have had in Y/PEY on SQ...



Chocolate Ice Cream for dessert...



I was amused by the name on the top of the ice cream cup "Death by Chocolate". I thought there was a taboo on using words like the D-word on planes, so as not to trigger anxiety in pax prone to fear of flying, just as you don't load movies involving air crashes on the IFE (Did "Sully" ever screen on Krisworld?)...

Name aside, the ice cream was delicious.

Dinner service ended just as the sun set...



Overall, one of the nicest dinners I have had on SQ PEY, although I still think there is room for further differentiation between Y and PEY catering on SQ.

[yflyer]

It was time to rest...



PEY on this mid-week flight was very lightly loaded...with ample empty seating in the PEY cabin.

Only the centre 2 armrests in the middle bank 4 PEY seats folds up, which means, it is not possible to make a 4-seater bed...



But with the spare pillows and blankets at my disposal, I was able to get fairly comfortable in my row of 4 seats, which I had all to myself...

[SQ228]

Enroute to the airport , we stopped for an afternoon coffee and snack, and some grocery shopping, at LaManna supermarket, located next to Essendon Airport, itself just a short drive from Melbourne's main international airport, Tullamarine (MEL).



This is a wonderful supermarket with an amazing selection of produce, including great cuts of meat. I took the opportunity to do a little grocery shopping and picked up a selection of steaks to hand carry back to Singapore. There was cooked lobster and fresh shucked oysters on sale too, but obviously those were not practical to bring back on the plane...



LaManna may become a regular stop for me before departing MEL...the location is really convenient for a quick round of grocery shopping before catching a flight at Tullamarine. Nothing quite like heading home after a trip with fresh groceries from overseas. I am glad Singapore customs generally permits food products from Australia to be brought in for personal consumption...

LaManna is where I do my grocery shopping every week! In fact I'm eating a meal from there right now. It's pretty bizarre for me to see my supermarket on SQTalk I have to say!