Bangalore (BLR) to Singapore (SIN) on SQ 503
Written: Apr 19 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well maintained aircraft, cheerful cabin crew, good food, pleasant flight
Cons: internet check-in can be better
The Bottom Line: SQ goes the extra mile (amenity kits in coach and hot towels) and is efficient. Changi appears to still be a nice hub.
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| bharat_rao's Full Review: Singapore Airlines |
I arrived at Bangalore Intl airport at 8.45 pm for my first eastbound international flight (and first flight with SQ) from India. This is, of course, the old BLR airport. I was hoping to write a review of the new airport, but that isn’t opening until May 11 (instead of Mar 31 as originally planned). So the old, hopelessly inadequate airport is being flogged for an extra month or so.
Internet Check-in
This was a business trip but less than 6 hours (4.5 hours to be precise), so I had to fly coach as per corporate policy. Internet check in on the SQ website (seat selection really) was a smooth process. As I realized later, the large number of empty seats didn’t mean a light flight – it only meant that a large no. of passengers hadn’t used internet check in. This is misleading and SQ should think about this. Can they not assign default seats to those who do not select seats? I think CO does that and I found the CO experience better in that respect.
Airport Experience
The airport check-in was relatively smooth. SQ staff didn’t seem to mind the extra 5 kg of my check in baggage. I declined any changes to seat selection as I thought I had selected an aisle seat with no one in the window and middle seats. That was not to be, though. Immigration was very quick and sec-check didn’t take too much time. The waiting area had enough vacant seats as only Thai (22.45) and SQ (23.05) were scheduled to leave around then. The coke vendor refused to give a receipt so I refused to buy. The ‘courtesy’ phone that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) provides was non-functional. There were a few flies that some concerned passengers were trying to swat.
Boarding
SQ started boarding at about 22.35 almost immediately after Thai closed boarding. Boarding for economy was as per rows and was not too disorderly. The 777-200 was clean and cheerful as were the cabin crew. The stewards did help a few passengers with the stowing of their cabin baggage. My hopes of having no neighbors were dashed and both the window and aisle seats were taken. The economy cabins were over 90% full and a bawling baby in our cabin was causing considerable disturbance. The captain came on air at about 23.00 and announced a delay of 10-15 min because of delays in cargo loading. Very lukewarm towels were handed out and amenity kits given. The flight pushed back well after 23.40 and took off about 15 minutes later.
The flight
Headsets were handed out. I didn’t bother with the Audio-Video on demand (AVOD) as I was desperate to catch a few winks. The bawling baby wasn’t quieting down and the mother was frantic. Cabin crew tried to help. The seat pocket in front was groaning with the weight of a pillow, blanket, amenity kit, Silver Kris magazine, the KrisWorld quide to AVOD, Kris Shopping catalog, a 777-200 safety guide and a healthy flying pamphlet. As if this weren’t enough, menu booklets were handed out which had the dinner and supper selections in English and Kannada (local language in Bangalore). I thought the booklet and the 2nd meal were both unnecessary for a 4.5 hr flight.
For the beverage service, the air hostesses walked around with a tray containing glasses of white wine, beer and orange juice (instead of lugging the trolley in the aisle). They offered to get other drinks for passengers who didn’t want any of these. For the meal service, the trolleys did materialize. The Indian veg meal was hot and tasty.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. There was turbulence off and on. The toilets were clean and I slept through the 2nd meal service. We arrived at about 6.25 am – about 20 minutes later. Immigration, customs and baggage retrieval at Changi was super quick and I was in a cab by 7.05 am.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bharat_rao
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Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
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