This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
With the circuit route we were taking this was our first and only trip on the A380 so in true V-Flyer style I got organised in advance. Budget only stretched to Y class, esp. as SQ don't have a W class. Unlike VS, SQ don't allow you to choose seats in advance in Y class so 48 hours before I went to work armed with all the details to try and snag one of the pairs on the Upper Deck when online checkin opened. Only when the booking ref. didn't work and with phonecalls to SQ followed by VS, did I find out that on a codeshare ticket you cannot checkin online so we'd have to take our chances at LHR.
Two days later we headed to Zone A at LHR T3 to find a deserted SQ checkin area. It obviously gets pretty busy on some flights given the amount of queueing room provided. IIRC the divider between VS and SQ was some planters. Once at the SQ counters it was evident that all this planning had gone to waste as SQ are clearly using more desks than originally anticipated as they encroach past the planters and into the VS area - I'm guessing this is to do with the original plan being that J and R PAX could use the VS UC checkin.
Anyway, what with it being so quiet I enquired about snagging a middle four seats for us and the lovely checkin person ably assisted wishing us luck that no-one would be allocated next to us. Security was a breeze, no UK passport checking and shoe circus nicely dodged we headed for the world of shopping.
Noticing no sign of our VS FC numbers on our boarding cards I asked at the T3 SQ airline desk in the departure lounge whether they were on the booking to which she confirmed they were - of course despite this our miles weren't credited but oh well.
The flight was called promptly and off we trotted to Gate 3. I really like this area of T3 and most of my VS flights to PVG seem to have departed from here, gate 1 usually. At the gate J, R and Upper Deck Y PAX were segregated from the rest of us in Gate 3A and it was time to take some pix of the big bus.
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Boarding was soon called and with no priority boarding really needed for all us Y PAX it went smoothly and on we stepped. Having found our seats and placed my bag in the mammouth overhead bin I looked around. All seats had a Givenchy blanket and pillow. I have to say that this aside boarding is starkly different to VS. No background music was playing (which I missed really as boredome quickly kicks in), and interestingly no nannying announcements from the CC about seatbelts and the like. With boarding complete it was evident that we would indeed have the four seats to ourselves (and this was on one of the days that the third B747 flight had been cancelled)! The next difference to VS was that although the cabin was checked that seatbelts were on and seats upright etc none of the spare pillows and blankets got stuffed under seats.
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As we taxied I looked across my neighbour and out of the window, a pretty good view with the enormous wingtip slap bang at the bottom of the window. We reached the runway and stood for a minute or so before the powerplants throttled up, although it took some effort to discern that at the plane remained almost silent inside! As we raced down the runway I watched in amazement as the wingtip literally moved in front of my eyes up and up until it went out of view - I was literally watching physics in action! [|:)]
With the crew released out were handed Givency amenity kits (socks, toothbrush and paste) and menu cards - a real classy touch in Y class. I found my one and only snag of the flight as my footrest was rooted to the seat squab in front, no amount of prizing, pressing or kicking would release it and the stewardess who promised to return and fix it of course forgot - I could've reminded her but it wasn't really that big a deal.
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Lunch was served with that traditional accompaniment of a Singapore Sling (and a glass of red) and I have to say it was really rather nice. I thought another classy touch was (really heavy) stainless steel cutlery for Y class PAX. [y]
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With lunch out of the way it was time to try out the snazzy connections the IFE provided. I totally failed and couldn't get anything to work (phone, camera and IPod) so it's either difficult to use or was broken. I obviously wasn't all that worried as I could've tried the empty seat next to me but didn't. A quick visit to the loo showed me that innovations mechanical and technical have continued on from the 346. The foot pedal to operate the bin lid was really nice as was the temperature control on the tap, which even had the grace to remember your setting for about 30secs before reverting back to its default lukewarm. [y]
With the cabin settling down the next VS difference struck me, there was no attempt to force all PAX to close their blinds after the lights were turned off. Those who wanted to stay up happily did while the rest of us used eye masks to try and get some shut eye (I'm guessing the crew had them out on request - we us VS ones!). Having no intrusive engine sounds made it pretty easy for me to get some sleep even whilst in the Y class spoon position with my gf! [|)]
Waking up around an hour before brekkie I got started on the excellent IFE and by the time the morning mood lighting kicked in I was well into The Day The Earth Stood Still. Brekkie was a choice of frittata or noodles - the noodles looked better but I wasn't really up for prawns at 6am and stuck with the western choice. It was fine but nothing special although again served with stainless steel cutlery. [y]
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A nice landing in to SIN and I was quickly reminded of how quiet asian airports are compared with the likes of LHR as we quickly taxied to our gate for disembarking. SIN T3 was lovely and quiet and despite coming off the back of an A380 only one person was ahead of us in the queue for passport control and bags were already con the conveyor as we reached it.
Overall I'd say this was an excellent flight. I have to say that the A380 really ups the stakes in terms of comfort, especially noise (or lack of). It was great to have an IFE that did the basics just fine and didn't crash, although the unit itself gets pretty darned hot given that the CPU and HDD are beind the screen. As I've seen mentioned elsewhere the SQ girls are thoroughly efficient although lacking in real personality and touches.
That put us in Singapore for 4 nights to attend a wedding and meet other friends before we headed off to Kuala Lumpur ...
