Introduction
When I decided to make a quick weekend getaway to Hong Kong in February, a straightforward redemption on Singapore Airlines seemed the best option. There was the added bonus of flying on the A380, which is currently operating the last SQ flight out of Hong Kong. The business class product on the A380 isn’t that new, it’s been in service since 2017 after all, and I’ve already flown in every class of travel onboard the newer A380s. In fact, Hong Kong was my first experience of this 2017 business class seat, nearly five years ago.
I was delighted to fly on an A380 again, considering at one point during the pandemic there was a risk they might go prematurely extinct. As for the 2018 business class seat, I felt there were too many flaws, some of it possibly due to poor maintenance. This is despite us deliberately selecting the bulkhead seats for extra leg space and “double bed” feature. Not that HKG-SIN was long enough to really use the seat in lie-flat mode. There were other issues on the service and meal aspect of the flight as well, plus the ground experience is currently very weak with the HKG SilverKris Lounge still shuttered.
Overall, while the issues weren’t that major, it was not the greatest SIA flight. Looking back, I’m not sure how I was able to maintain a happy mood onboard throughout, and I didn’t write a more lengthy complain than I eventually sent.
Booking
My girlfriend and I made separate bookings for our flights to and from HKG. As a result of this time lag, Business Saver awards were on waitlist when I went to do my bookings. The waitlist did eventually clear quickly and more inventory was also immediately confirmable, but I opted to hold off ticketing it till after the KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes list for February was released. While HKG did feature on the list, the specific flights I wanted weren’t available anymore. Subsequently when I tried to ticket my cleared waitlisted bookings on these flights, the system automatically repriced it to Spontaneous Escape rates, but wouldn’t ticket because of this glitch. Some heavy back-and-forth with SQ’s call centre finally resolved this, with the tickets issued at Spontaneous Escape rates.
Thus, my round-trip Business redemption ended up costing 47,600 KrisFlyer miles. That’s 30% less than the usual Saver rate.
On the Ground
For our journey from the Conrad Hong Kong in Admiralty to Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), we opted to go by MTR and Airport Express. This took us around 50min, of which around 15min was spent walking from Conrad through Pacific Place mall to Admiralty MTR, and then walking from the Island/Tseun Wan line platform at Central to Airport Express platform at Hong Kong Station.
We eventually got to HKIA around 5.15pm for our 6.50pm flight. When we got to the SQ check-in counters at row F, there was one customer ahead of us, so there was short wait before we could be attended to. At check-in, we informed the SilverKris Lounge (SKL) was still closed, and were handed invitations for the Plaza Premium Lounge (PPL) near gate 1. I knew this before booking this trip, but I still find it annoying SQ are taking their time reopening the overseas lounges. I overheard the next agent telling a passenger that the lounge might reopen in “April or May”. That statement was akin to saying “we don’t know”.
Security and immigration were fairly painless and didn’t take too long, after which we did a spot of shopping before heading to the PPL.
Plaza Premium Lounge (Gate 1)
Given that SIA alone had an A380 with loads of lounge-eligible, combined with the fact that almost every non-Oneworld carrier would be directing their passengers to the PPL, I knew the PPL would be crowded. That expectation still wasn’t enough to prepare me for the scenes in the lounge. We got to the lounge close to 6pm, and there was a queue to get in, as many passengers ahead of us were going in through credit card entitlements. After a couple minutes wait, a lounge staff was finally free to admit us in. She took our invitation passes, and also photocopied our boarding passes. I recognised that as part of the process for billing and audit trail purposes as an ex-airline auditor, but taking copies of the boarding pass still seemed like overkill.
The scenes inside were far worse. It was crowded, and it honestly felt cramped and claustrophobic. This wasn’t helped by the lack of natural lighting.
The crowd situation got a bit better further in. Thankfully, with the adjoining PPL First close, the space was opened for First Class, Business Class and Airline Invitation Voucher Users. There was a signage indicating this, and a staff member was stationed there to verify eligibility.
I’m not sure how they verify the last category, since we all had our invitation vouchers collected when we entered the lounge. Anyway, this section of the lounge was much more peaceful. There was ample seating too. The decor was a little different, I think to look more refined and luxurious.
The PPL First section had a nice bar area, though it wasn’t operating as such given the PPL First is closed.
The PPL had a couple of buffet areas. There was one near the entrance, in the first section of the lounge after entering. This had a noodle station offering Hong Kong style fishball noodle soup.
The other buffet section was located in the PPL First section. This had a more elegant dining area compared to the standard PPL.
There were various drinks stations scattered around the lounge. The main drinks area was located adjacent to the PPL buffet line. There were dispensers for soft drinks and water, and coffee machines, plus canned beers and alcohol. Another beverage station was located near the PPL First dining area. This was more limited, with just wines, a coffee machine, and dispensers for juice and infused. The wines were a cabernet – merlot and a chardonnay, both from Blowfish Wines.
We’d had quite a lot to eat during the day, so we didn’t partake in any of the food offerings. We just wanted some peace and quiet to relax, which thankfully we could find in the PPL First section. The lounge has showers, but we didn’t use them because of time constraints. The amenities – at least what I saw in the toilet at PPL First – were from Elemis.
The PPL was about what I expected from a PPL. It did start to empty out a fair bit not long after we entered, so a significant proportion of the crowd were fellow passengers on SQ895. While the PPL was acceptable for what it is, in the context of SIA’s business class offering it simply won’t do. The HKG SKL may not be the finest in the network (but arguably than say, Melbourne or Taipei), but I definitely rate it higher than the PPL.
SIA mostly uses gate 5 for its flights currently, which is practically right outside the SKL. That’s the gate we departed from, and it was galling to walk by the shuttered SKL.
Onboard
We left the lounge around 6.15pm, taking about 7min walking to get to gate 5. Boarding was well underway when we reached, and there was no queue in the Business class line. We could go through immediately, and for the first time in over 3 years, I had to walk up the aerobridge to the aircraft. My last A380 flight had been Lufthansa First Class in January 2020, while my last SIA A380 flight was old Suites in December 2019. Coincidentally, today’s aircraft was 9V-SKV, which was also the first of the second tranche of SIA’s A380s I flew on back in 2018.
At the top of the aerobridge, we were warmly greeted by the crew. Oddly the crew felt the need to check our boarding passes. That was something SIA did away with during the pandemic, so not sure why this occurred.
The Seat
Our seats, 96D and F, were located right at the back of the upper deck, the second last row in fact. We wanted the bulkhead middle pair, and this was the only pair available when online check-in opened. The bulkhead seats are only available for selection by PPS Club members prior to online check-in, so it can be difficult get these seats. I flew to Zurich once in 96F even though I was travelling alone, because the need for the large footwell to sleep well was so important. I absolutely recommend taking the bulkhead seats if available.
One of the features of the middle bulkhead row is that the seat pair can be converted into a double bed. This is usually done by lowering the middle divider all the way down, and fitting a large mattress topper. Hong Kong being a fairly short flight, this wasn’t available, but we did request for the divider to be fully lowered after takeoff. The crew seemed to struggle with it, and even after they supposedly locked it in place, I found the divider was inching upwards. When the divider is raised, it pretty much blocks any view of the passenger next to you, so it’s still quite private even if travelling alone.
The main advantage of the bulkhead row, particularly the middle seats, is much larger footwell. The footwell for our seats were the full width of the shell, and extended quite far in. This makes it possible to sleep straight quite comfortably, unlike the standard seats which require sleeping at an awkward angle. The duvet, pillow and seat cover are preset in the footwell of all seats. In standard seats, these take up the entire footwell. In the bulkhead row, we still had plenty of space to stretch out even with these amenities in place.
If you look closely at the photo above, part of the lining of the shell is peeling off. Not a big deal, but it’s quite clear there’s a fair bit of wear and tear on this seat. This is in addition to the difficult and stubborn middle divider.
To the left of the IFE screen was a compartment with the universal power outlet and USB-A port. SIA has also installed NFC readers for onboard payments, but 5 years on from the introduction of this product, this function still isn’t in use. On the right of the screen was a coat hook.
One of the drawbacks of these particular seats was the lack of storage. There practically none. Other than the literature pocket and a small space for the headphones, there’s nowhere to place small items within easy reach. At least there’s a large enough space under the footwell to store a rollaboard. In our case, we were able to fit a large size Longchamp in that space. Given the amount of space around the seat, it’s definitely possible to grab stuff from a carry-on when needed, but still inconvenient.
Around the side console was the IFE remote, seat controls, a mirror and reading lamp. At my seat, it seem some of sound-absorbing lining was joined to the seat shell properly, with lots of loose threads around.
The seat controls were of the touch variety, which vibrated when pressed. I’m personally not a fan of such buttons. I did notice there was now a shell around the buttons compared to when I flew on this product years ago. The shell now separated each button. I guess it’s to prevent fat fingers hitting the wrong button.
Unlike the 2013 long haul business class seat on the 777-300ERs, long haul and ultra long-range A350s (SG*, SM*, SJ* registrations), the A380 business class seat can converted to lie-flat position at the touch of a button. No more standing and flipping the seat over. This makes is more convenient for shorter flights, but I’m not sure it really provides a better sleeping surface. SQ does provide a seat cover to smooth over the various seat joins, but I feel the 2013 seat is still better for sleeping. Some find the 2013 seat too hard, and the 2017 seat here too, but I prefer a firmer sleeping surface so it’s fine for me.
One improvement from the 2013 seat – at least in my opinion – is the tray table. The tray table on this seat slides out horizontally from the side console, and is a bifold unit. The only downside of this design is that because the console is on the aisle side, it’s almost impossible to get out of the seat while the tray table is deployed. Previously on the 2013 seats, I could easily swivel the table away from me and squeeze out. Although that’s got a lot more challenging in recent years with the weight I’ve put on!
The tray table is supposed to lock in place, but we found our tables never did. This resulted in a bit of sliding around. Not great when the flight was already turbulent for long stretches. I don’t recall having this issue on prior flights with this product, so it might be wear and tear again.
I wasn’t too happy with the condition of the seat in this specific instance. There were clearly a number of wear and tear issues: problematic divider, loose seat linings, unstable tray table. The aircraft hasn’t been back in service that long, and was only delivered in Jan 2018, so it hasn’t really been that heavily utilised. It would also have been thoroughly checked prior to returning to service, so these wear and tear were rather annoying.
Overall, I’m not the biggest fan of this product. It’s addressed some inconveniences of the older seats, such as having to flip the seat and the cumbersome tray table. However, unless in a bulkhead, one still has to sleep at angle. While I obviously didn’t have that issue on this flight, my past experience with the seat made me feel like it’s even more uncomfortable to lie at an angle now. This is due to how ‘blockish’ the side console is. The 2013 seats have angled consoles which align with the sleeping angle. With these seats, I felt like I have to contort my body to bend round the console.
Therefore, my recommendation is to get a bulkhead seat whenever possible. I would further recommend row 96, as it’s farther back and should have less foot traffic around. Of course, it’s challenging when these seats are reserved for PPS until online check-in opens. On the whole though, given a choice between the A380 or 777/A350 business class seats for a long-haul, I would actually prefer the 777/A350.
Meal & Service
While the seat had its flaws and defects, it’s really these next two sections of the review that precipitated my complain to SIA.
Service started with a pre-departure drink. SIA is currently running a special, featuring Bellini as a pre-departure beverage only, so this was what I selected. To be honest, I didn’t really like it. Too sweet for me.
The crew member serving my aisle, Jasmine, then came round to introduce herself and informing us the flight time of 3h20min. She also took my order for post takeoff drink – champagne – and my meal order. Here’s the menu for this flight:
Unfortunately, we only realised later that she had written down the wrong item. Instead of beef cheeks, she had mistakenly noted down the char siew pork ribs. When we did realise it, they were no more beef cheeks left. The other alternatives offered sounded worse, so I accepted the char siew pork ribs. This mistake was annoying, but I let it slide.
Soon after takeoff, my champagne and a dish of mixed nuts were brought out. SIA recently switched over to pouring Henriot Brut Souverain, and I found this a step down from the Piper-Heidsieck Vintage Brut that was previously offered.
Meal service commenced around 30mins after takeoff. The cart with the tray setup, appetiser and beverages was rolled down the aisle. The appetiser was a prawn and legume salad, supposedly with yuzu, soy and sesame dressing. That dressing unfortunately, seemed to be nonexistent, rendering the salad dry and tasteless. I also didn’t realise seaweed counted as legumes (someone correct me if I’m mistaken). My girlfriend’s salad was also equally lacking in dressing. I checked with the crew, who informed me that the dressing is oil-based and normally at the base of the seaweed. Well as i pointed out to them, my garlic bread plate was greasier than salad plate. I’m not sure if catering messed up, but the appetiser was terrible both taste and texture-wise.
I had the crew clear away the appetiser once I ate all the prawns. Sadly, the meal didn’t get any better from there. A dish of char siew pork ribs was brought out, which I looked at questioningly. That’s when we realised the crew wrote down the wrong order. As mentioned, I eventually accepted the pork ribs given the lack of decent alternatives.
This dish was actually decent to be fair, though the char siew sauce was a little strong for my liking. I had requested the Australian Shiraz in anticipation of having beef, this was quite a drinkable wine.
For dessert, given we were among the last few passengers to be served, we requested for one of everything between the two of us. While SIA used to offer cheese, dessert and fruits separately in business class pre-pandemic, with sufficient of each for all pax, it’s now compressed as one course with portion control across the three options. There’s still usually some excess, but crew don’t proactively offer more than one in my experience. Jasmine insisted we each have a platter of fruits, so we accepted her offer, plus one slice of cake and a cheese plate to share.
The cake and cheese were ok, nothing spectacular. We were promised sweet fruits, and so it proved, mostly. For a post-dinner drink, I had my usual SQ order of TWG Moroccan Mint tea. It had been quite bumpy during meal service, and by sheer luck I managed to order and receive my tea during a break in the clear air turbulence. The seatbelt sign – and thus no hot beverages served – went on again literally seconds after my tea was delivered to my seat. The turbulence got so bad that service had to suspended for around 40min a bit later on.
In all, meal service took around 1h. It was not the best meal I’ve had on SIA business class, mostly dragged down by the appetiser. Not getting what I ordered was also annoying, but at least the substitute tasted fine.
Other than the mistake with my meal order, the crew were generally good. Mostly friendly, well-intentioned and a little warmer than some crews I’ve encountered. I’ve seen better, but I’ve also had a lot worse. So, pretty much a bang average meal and service.
Inflight Entertainment & WiFi
I wont’ go too much in these section. The inflight entertainment was typical KrisWorld, 399 movies, 725 TV shows etc. There was fairly recent movies such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Black Adam and The Menu. I’d watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on the flight up to HKG, so I just ran through episodes of Young Sheldon season 5 on this flight. The KrisWorld magazine can be found here.
Singapore Airlines had recently announced permanent enhancements to its inflight WiFi offering. Great, except the WiFi didn’t work on this flight. In my opinion, its rather disingenuous to boast about your services when you can’t assure a reliable system. This system failure was the second item that featured in my complain to SIA over this flight. At this point, my failure rate with inflight WiFi on SIA group flights, including Scoot 787s, is probably around 1 in every 5 or 6 flights. Maybe I’m just cursed, but that’s totally unacceptable in this day and age.
Conclusion
On the whole, it was a rather average flight on SIA. The meal and inoperable WiFi were certainly low points. The seat has too many flaws to compete for being one of the best around. I do love flying the A380 though, except in economy, so that was a highlight. The A380 is a special aircraft to me, since I had the great pleasure of being on the inaugural in 2007. I felt immense joy stepping onto an A380 after the pandemic threatened to ground these giants permanently. Taking away the A380-tinted glasses, it was an entirely unremarkable flight. Maybe I just fly SIA too much, but there’s nothing exciting about the airline. It’s good, largely consistent, but doesn’t really spark anything in me.
Other posts in this series: