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Earlier this month, I finally had the opportunity to fly SIA's Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner again, after a long period where all my flights booked on SQ's 787-10 were substituted for other equipment types, while issues with their Rolls Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines were being rectified.
I booked these flights on SQ to Bangkok -- my third trip to Bangkok over a period of 4 weeks, with my previous trips to BKK done on TG and CX. This would be a great opportunity to compare my experience on SQ to Bangkok with the experience on these other carriers.
I was, in fact, due to be in both Bangkok and Hong Kong that week. The ideal option would have been CX, who offered a very appealing SIN-BKK-HKG-SIN itinerary at a very attractive price. Of course, with the current uncertainty in HKG and the barest possibility of delays or even cancellations on CX and HKG, I decided to play it safe by booking two separate, and more costly, tickets on SQ: SIN-BKK-SIN and SIN-HKG-SIN, with several hours of transit time in Changi in between my Bangkok and Hong Kong trips. I would take a call on whether to head to Hong Kong on the day of my HKG flight itself. In any case, these trips would now be decoupled. This TR covers the SIN-BKK-SIN segment on SQ.
My ticket was an economy ticket, but I made a low-ish bid for a one-way business class upgrade on the SIN-BKK sector, and a few days later, I was happy to receive an email indicating that my bid had been accepted.
So this TR covers SIN-BKK on SQ 787-10 Business Class, and the return sector BKK-SIN in Economy Class, where I did not bid for an upgrade.
Why didn't I bid for an upgrade on the BKK-SIN sector? A simple reason: I had never flown SQ's 787-10 economy class product before, and I was keen to fly in economy, to see how SQ's economy class stacked up against other 787 economy class cabins.
Regulars on SQTalk might recall that the only Dreamliner Y cabin that I would unreservedly recommend was JAL's 787 Economy, which was laid out in 8-abreast 2-4-2. On all other 787's I've flown, whether UA, NH, TG, QR, AI or TR, these have all been laid out 9-abreast 3-3-3 in Y, and while many of these flights were fine, I did find the seating comparatively narrow, and not comparable to, say, A350 Y or even 9-abreast 777 Y.
However, on a previous SQ 787-10 flight in Business class to and from Perth, I did stroll into the economy cabin to briefly check-out the Y seat there, and was amazed to find that it felt quite comfortable, even though SIA also laid out the Y cabin on the 787-10 in 9-abreast 3-3-3. I was intrigued. What kind of magic trick did SQ pull off here, that no other airline had managed to do, I wondered then? But that was too short a try-out to draw any conclusions.
So on my return BKK-SIN sector, I would finally get to fly SQ's 787-10 Y on a full flight to see if Singapore Airlines has really found the secret to delighting economy class customers on a 9-abreast Dreamliner...
TR INDEX
1. Introduction
2. Lounge - SilverKris Lounge @ Changi T3
3. Flight - SQ982 SIN-BKK on Singapore Airlines 787-10 Business Class
4. Lounge - SilverKris Lounge @ BKK
5. Flight - SQ973 BKK-SIN on Singapore Airlines 787-10 Economy Class
6. Final Reflections
I booked these flights on SQ to Bangkok -- my third trip to Bangkok over a period of 4 weeks, with my previous trips to BKK done on TG and CX. This would be a great opportunity to compare my experience on SQ to Bangkok with the experience on these other carriers.
I was, in fact, due to be in both Bangkok and Hong Kong that week. The ideal option would have been CX, who offered a very appealing SIN-BKK-HKG-SIN itinerary at a very attractive price. Of course, with the current uncertainty in HKG and the barest possibility of delays or even cancellations on CX and HKG, I decided to play it safe by booking two separate, and more costly, tickets on SQ: SIN-BKK-SIN and SIN-HKG-SIN, with several hours of transit time in Changi in between my Bangkok and Hong Kong trips. I would take a call on whether to head to Hong Kong on the day of my HKG flight itself. In any case, these trips would now be decoupled. This TR covers the SIN-BKK-SIN segment on SQ.
My ticket was an economy ticket, but I made a low-ish bid for a one-way business class upgrade on the SIN-BKK sector, and a few days later, I was happy to receive an email indicating that my bid had been accepted.
So this TR covers SIN-BKK on SQ 787-10 Business Class, and the return sector BKK-SIN in Economy Class, where I did not bid for an upgrade.
Why didn't I bid for an upgrade on the BKK-SIN sector? A simple reason: I had never flown SQ's 787-10 economy class product before, and I was keen to fly in economy, to see how SQ's economy class stacked up against other 787 economy class cabins.
Regulars on SQTalk might recall that the only Dreamliner Y cabin that I would unreservedly recommend was JAL's 787 Economy, which was laid out in 8-abreast 2-4-2. On all other 787's I've flown, whether UA, NH, TG, QR, AI or TR, these have all been laid out 9-abreast 3-3-3 in Y, and while many of these flights were fine, I did find the seating comparatively narrow, and not comparable to, say, A350 Y or even 9-abreast 777 Y.
However, on a previous SQ 787-10 flight in Business class to and from Perth, I did stroll into the economy cabin to briefly check-out the Y seat there, and was amazed to find that it felt quite comfortable, even though SIA also laid out the Y cabin on the 787-10 in 9-abreast 3-3-3. I was intrigued. What kind of magic trick did SQ pull off here, that no other airline had managed to do, I wondered then? But that was too short a try-out to draw any conclusions.
So on my return BKK-SIN sector, I would finally get to fly SQ's 787-10 Y on a full flight to see if Singapore Airlines has really found the secret to delighting economy class customers on a 9-abreast Dreamliner...
TR INDEX
1. Introduction
2. Lounge - SilverKris Lounge @ Changi T3
3. Flight - SQ982 SIN-BKK on Singapore Airlines 787-10 Business Class
4. Lounge - SilverKris Lounge @ BKK
5. Flight - SQ973 BKK-SIN on Singapore Airlines 787-10 Economy Class
6. Final Reflections
...
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