SQ A380 Biz: HKG-SIN (Part 2 - Lots of Photos)

[Julian L]

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

This is part two; Part 1 can be found here:
http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=9171

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 861
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800
Registration: 9V-SKM
Seat: 22A (Upper Deck)
Route: HKG-SIN
ETD: 15:20
ETA: 19:20

Fun Facts
22nd Flight on Singapore Airlines
11th Flight on an A380-800
1st Flight on 9V-SKM

At The Airport

I took the MTR Airport Express from Kowloon Station in the city direct to HKIA. The transport system in Hong Kong is excellent. The trains are twice as long and it is a direct and dedicated service to the airport unlike Singapore. There are also free shuttle buses to the main hotels, which further reduces cost to the passengers. The train was fast and I arrived at HKIA T1 at 12 noon.

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Design of HKIA

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My Boarding Pass

Check in was painless again with no lines. Boarding pass printed I headed past security and immigration with no troubles. And as soon as you clear immigration and walk downstairs the SQ lounge is there, and directly opposite was gate 15, the gate I would be departing from. But before I hit the lounge I wondered around HKIA a bit. I was getting a bit hungry and went to the SQ lounge for some free food. There were plenty of free seats all around probably cleared by the midday flight, and before it started filling up with my flight. The offering in the lounge was as expected nowhere as much as in Changi but most of the food on offer looked appealing to me. I had a bit of everything and finished with a couple of Haagen Dazs Ice Creams.

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Pastries and a Coke

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Haagen Dazs Ice Cream, I wish they gave bigger serves

The SQ lounge in Hong Kong is all right but my biggest annoyance is the lack of toilets in the lounge. You have to walk out and around the corner to the nearest toilet, a major inconvenience. Thanks to flightradar24 and the free Wi-Fi I was able to find out which of the new config A380’s would be operating my flight. This would be my first flight on the new seating layout A380, as normally when flying economy I prefer the upper deck seats and tend to choose the older A380’s, which have economy upstairs.

It was nearly boarding time and I was getting a bit bored in the lounge so I went outside to see if I could do any spotting but as I stepped out and faced gate 15 the boarding call was made for Business class, ahead of the stated time. Amazing for once boarding was called early. Due to the parking angle of gate 15 I was unable to snag a pre-departure shot of my A380.

The Flight

I was one of the first to board and was greeted by name and escorted to my seat in 22A. My baggage was stowed in the overhead locker and this time was able to have my camera bag under the seat in front of me. Since there was no one else but me in the main section of the cabin the stewardess seeing my DSLR and me snapping away offered to take me in the biz seat. +1 for service.

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The empty cabin

This A380 has an all-upper deck business class and the cabin is slightly different from the first batch of A380’s. The overhead bins, which were installed on the sides, have moved to the middle. And the seats have now got a headrest, which hangs down vs. the cloth of the older seats. The seats despite only being just over 2 years old are showing some signs of ware and tear, namely the footrest. The seatbelt also had an airbag; I guess it is needed for such a wide seat.


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BA 747 next door

Drinks runs and newspaper runes were constantly running as each individual passenger boarded, excellent attentiveness by the staff. I had a welcome drink of orange juice and was asked my selection for the post take-off drink; I had a coke with lemon. Meal orders were also taken and I had selected the beef, which according to the menu was prepared by Alfred Portale from New York.

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The menu

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Obligatory legroom shot + orange juice

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SliverKris Magazine and the menu

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Socketts

As only business class was upstairs boarding seemed very quiet and I had no idea where boarding was at. Load was very light; I think it was less then 50% in biz.

A while later the jet ways were pulled and pushback started. The captain informed us it would be a very long taxi to the runway threshold. Boy was he right we had to taxi from Gate 15 all the way to runway 07R.

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The BA and two CX’s

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2 ANA’s, 2 CX’s, 1 GA, 1 MU, and 1 EVA in the 777-300ER colour scheme

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A MAS parked at the satellite terminal

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Our reflection

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Its been a long time since I’ve seen an EK A340-300

[Julian L]

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Guess where we are, yup, you guessed it, HKIA

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For me some birds that don’t visit the land down under

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And ones that do, feat an Ex-SQ 744. Hey that biz jet is still here. (Look at my previous trip report)

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I spy with my little eye, a B747-8F. My first look at one

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I was hoping this was another 747-8F, but not my luck

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Another first for me, A330-300F

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A look at what’s behind us

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Hold on a sec, you were behind us, how did you get to cut the line

Now it is out turn. (Video) – Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my channel
http://youtu.be/9D9wPHfu8kM

Probably the quietest take-off I’ve ever experienced.

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And picking up from where the video left off, out of the clouds

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I fired up the KrisWorld system and the first thing that I noticed was the new circular style home menu

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Finally able to see MIB 3, wanted to watch it in the cinemas but was unable to

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My coke and lemon, love the lemon peel, and also the glasses.

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The assorted nuts, looks a bit cheap, they should really give different nuts to the premium classes

The meal service then commenced.

Starting with the starter:
“Smoked duck breast with dried apricot compote + honey mustard vinaigrette”

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It was cold but very tasty; the optional honey mustard vinaigrette was an excellent addition to the salad.

[Julian L]

The main:
”Seared beef in balsamic with shallot-caper topping sautéed ratatouille vegetables and creamy polenta”

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What looks like a mess, actually tasted quite good, the sauce was tasty but my only complaint was a bit too much polenta and the presentation is messy.

The finale:
”Choice of Haagen Dazs frozen dessert, (mango sorbet or Dulce de Leche ice cream with fruit salad).”
&
“Gourmet cheese with garnishes”
&
“A selection of fresh fruit”

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I chose the Dulce de Leche Ice Cream as I’m not a fan of Mango, shocking I know. The ice cream was very sweet but I loved it.

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My milk chocolate praline with a glass of water

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My cappuccino

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More pralines, this time milk and dark chocolate

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View out the window

The service was excellent throughout the flight, they were friendly and made sure my glass was never less then half full, very attentive. They were also more chatty and friendly then the inbound crew on the A330. The seat was also sooo much better. I cannot understand how other airlines compete with seats so much narrower and to me that looks less appealing. I hope SQ’s new biz seats maintain or improve on this and I definitely do not want SQ to stoop down and follow the angled/staggered layout many other airlines are adopting. My favourite aspect of the seat probably being so wide I can get out of my seat during the meal service to visit the washroom without disturbing my meal table.

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Shadow appearing, the sun setting, destination approaching

Decent was quick and another feature I love is the remote displaying the remaining flight time, really useful as SQ switch off the IFE before landing.

The Landing (Video) – Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my channel
http://youtu.be/9P-L6i396WE

We landed on runway 02L with some pleasant landing music, I miss the music, I remembering having it when the A380 was first introduced but it stopped for a few years. Upon landing I got a very nice view of rival heavies parked in T1, including a sight that, for now, cannot be seen. It included 1 EK A388, 2 QF A388’s, 2 QF 744’s, and 1 BA 744. A company A388 can also be seen in the distance.

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The iconic control tower

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Crowne Plaza

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The mood lighting on landing

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Seat controls + remote

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My seat for the past 3 and a bit hours

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Changi

Deplaning was quick as the biz section was fairly empty, immigration took a while as a few flights arrived around the same time and baggage claim was quick thanks to the priority tags.

Would I fly SQ biz again? Of course, especially the long haul product. I loved every minute of it and all I need to do now is save more miles for an even longer sector.

Coming soon, SQ’s cheaper cousins Biz, a.k.a Scoot Biz.

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Nice report, beats economy!
The traffic at HKIA has changed a bit since my visit in 2008. They were just starting to build that satellite terminal which we saw everyday from our hotel window.