SQ Business: SIN-HKG (Part 1 - Lots of Photos)

[Julian L]

Hi all, and welcome to my first ever trip report. This will cover the Singapore to Hong Kong leg of my trip.

Background

Back in October of 2012 I got an email from Singapore Airlines saying I had 30,000 miles expiring at the end of October. So instead of expending them I decided to spend it on a business class flight somewhere, as I have never flown business class. After looking around I decided on going to Hong Kong. It had the aircraft I wanted to fly and I have always wanted to visit Hong Kong. I had chosen my flights, as I wanted to try both of SQ’s business class offerings, the regional seat and the long haul seat. I had also never flown on an A330, shocking I know. So it was decided, I would fly when I was in Singapore visiting family, which I will cover in a different trip report as it is a lot less interesting.

Flight 1
Date: 12/01/13
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Flight: SQ 890
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300E
Registration: 9V-STC
Seat: 16A
Route: SIN-HKG
ETD: 7:25
ETA: 11:20

Fun Facts
21st Flight on Singapore Airlines
1st Flight on an A330-300
1st Flight on 9V-STC

At The Airport

I arrived at the airport nice and early at 5 am. This was to maximise my time in the lounge. T3 was quite as per usual and check in was very quick in typical Changi fashion as there were multiple counters open for business class with absolutely no wait. I got my lounge invitation printed onto my boarding pass with a nice Blue strip at the top indicating business class.

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My Boarding Pass

I didn’t delay and went straight through immigration again with no lines. I headed for the lounge which having never been there before took me towards the KrisFlyer Gold lounge rather then directly to the SilverKris Lounge, but no problem, they are next to each other. I found a seat in a dark looking and very very crowded lounge near to the food. I settled down and went to get some breakfast. I had virtually everything they had on offer. Sorry no pics, I was too hungry.

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A sneaky shot of the lounge, too many people to take everything

Having had breakfast and a really bad coffee thanks to the automatic machines, I headed to A13, the gate I would depart from. It was a fairly long walk to A13 but I didn’t mind. I still couldn’t see much outside due to the very low light and multiple layers of glass.

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Almost there!

At the gate there wasn’t much of a line and I quickly passed through security without any hassle. The lounge was fairly full and I spotted my A330 outside. It was still dark and the reflections were too much for me to get a clean shot of it. Boarding was called fairly quickly and for once I was one of the first to board.

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Only shot of my A330.

The Flight

I boarded through door L1 and was greeted by name and directed but not escorted to my seat in the last row of business class. I chose this seat, as it would give the best view of the wing in business class. I then got a glass of orange juice as a welcome drink. During boarding I had no view out of my window except for the grey jet way connected to door L2. I settled down and got acquainted with the biz seat. Not a bad product, the only annoying thing is that there is no under seat storage. But not to worry the very friendly stewardess offered to keep my camera bag in the overhead bins. The load today wasn’t too bad. Only 4 or 5 seats were empty.

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Obligatory legroom shot

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Seat controls and remote

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SilverKris Magazine and Menu

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Socketts

Socketts were handed out and our orders taken for breakfast. I chose the “Selection of Dim Sim” as from previous experience “eggs + altitude = disgusting” and I didn’t fancy having noodles. Yes I know this menu says brunch and it is from SQ 856/861 but it has exactly the same menu and I couldn’t be bothered to take two shots.

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Breakfast selections

The jet ways pulled back and pushback was imminent. I could finally see the apron, and the rest of SQ land. We taxied towards 20C, where virtually all the aircraft depart from. We were 4th in line for take-off but had to wait for one landing Air India.

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Pulling away

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9V-SWR next to us

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It’s definitely Singapore. The land of SQ heavies

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Our gate

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Pins out, we are ready to go

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9V-STN, One of my aircrafts sisters

[Julian L]

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A Shanghi Airlines 767 also parked at T3. I didn’t even know they flew here

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SQ Land, with, I think was the SQ albino Star Alliance 777 landing on 02L

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Three other sister aircraft, 9V-STK, 9V-STS, and 9V-STB

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Crossing the bridge

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Probably my last ever look at an SQ A340-500. I wish I could have flown it at least once

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9V-SRO taking off

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Air India A319 landing

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9V-STA taking off, the 6th and last SQ A330 I saw that morning

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Air Asia A320 taking off

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Garuda 737 taking off

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Holding short of Runway 02C, and looking back at the line of waiting aircraft

Now it is out turn. (Video) – Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my channel
http://youtu.be/VJGrV0Fi_8U

The take-off was very powerful and I got a very nice overview of Changi Airport. All of which can be seen in the video above.

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Out of the clouds

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Into more clouds

[Julian L]

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And out of the clouds again

The meal service then started.

The Prelude was “Fresh fruit”

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My fresh fruit. Containing pineapple, papaya, honey melon, strawberries and blueberries

The fruit was nice and cold and tasted good.
I skipped the cereal, as I’m not much of a cereal person.

The main “Selection of dim sum”

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Radish cake, siew mai, fried Shanghainese dumpling and har kow. Along with the remnants of my croissant and my finished cappuccino.

It all tasted good with absolutely no complaints. My orange juice was constantly refilled throughout the flight, which may have lead to multiple toilet breaks.

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Clear blue sky with puffy ***** of cotton wool, I mean clouds

I settled down and started watching Taken 2. Absolutely loved it, full on action during the whole movie. The noise cancelling headphones provided are not quite as good as my Bose QC15’s but since I was travelling fairly light I didn’t carry them and had to make do. After Taken 2 finished there was around an hour left and since I couldn’t finish another movie I switched to the map.

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Almost there

We did a few turns on approach in a slight holding pattern. The cabin was prepared and winds were quite strong.

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Turning

The Landing (Video) – Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my channel
http://youtu.be/E5TibiNx8Mw

We landed on Runway 07L and was quite bumpy and the engines kept spooling up and down. We had a crosswind on approach and the A330 was being blown around a bit.

We taxied to out gate, which was a fair distance away but gave me the chance to spot some unusual birds that I cant get down under.

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Star Alliance (United) 777

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Random biz jet

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Dragon Air A230

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Hong Kong Airlines A330 under tow

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One World (Cathay) A330 at the gate next to us

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Out gate, awaiting out arrival

Disembarkation was quick but I took my sweet time, I was the last off in business class and spotting my opportunity I asked the lead steward if I could visit the cockpit. He went off to ask and said the captain said ok but no photos, sorry guys. I then headed out into the terminal. HKIA has a split-level design much like my home airport of Sydney but much more pleasant.

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A few doors down was a Hong Kong Airlines pushing back.

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And next to it was a Korean Air 747 in the “Welcome to Korea” colour scheme and if you can see behind it was the Dragon Air A330 in the “25th Anniversary” colour scheme.

Immigration was quick and baggage claim was quicker still with my bag priority tagged. I then headed out into the massive arrivals area of HKIA and then into the very efficient transport system of Hong Kong as I took the Airport Express MTR into the city.

Part 2 covering my return journey in SQ 861 coming soon.

[Ryan N]

Excellent report. Thanks for sharing.

[Radi K]

Nice report, good pics!