Review of Singapore Airlines flight Milan Singapore in Economy

Airline Singapore Airlines
Flight SQ377
Class Economy
Seat 53J
Aircraft Boeing 777-300ER
Flight time 11:35
Take-off 16 Dec 15, 12:40
Arrival at 17 Dec 15, 07:15
SQ   #3 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 696 reviews
FlySmartZ
By 7826
Published on 7th January 2016
Introduction
Welcome to my first flight report!
This report covers my trip with Singapore Airlines from Milan (Malpensa) to Singapore (Changi).
Flight SQ377 is a thrice weekly flight from Barcelona to Singapore with a stopover in Milan.
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Flight Details at a Glance
Actual Departure Time - 12.58pm (Central European Time)
Actual Arrival Time - 7.06am (Singapore Time) [Arrived 1 day after departure]
Actual Flight Duration - 11 Hours 8 Minutes
Actual Flight Distance - 10,485 Kilometers
Flight Equipment - 9V-SWS (Delivered on 27th June 2008)
*This Flight is now operated by the Airbus A350-900.

Pre-flight
Initially, this flight showed up as fully booked with many seats blocked off on Singapore Airlines Seat Selection Webpage. As a result, even though I had a confirmed itinerary with Singapore Airlines, I wasn't allocated a seat. Well, I thought I was way too early in selecting a seat for the flight so I gave it a few days wait. Checking back a week later, the flight still showed up as fully booked with many seats still blocked off. Being unable to select any seat a few days prior to the flight, I decided to try my luck for a last minute upgrade at the check-in counter (I got upgraded to Business Class on my previous flight from Barcelona to Singapore under similar circumstances). So, off i went to the airport!

Checking-in
Singapore Airlines operates out of Terminal 1 at Milan Malpensa International Airport. Terminal 2 is built solely for Low Cost Carriers, with EasyJet currently being the only operator out of the terminal.

The check-in row for Singapore Airlines is located at Row 11, Level 2 of Malpensa Airport Terminal 1.
Here's the view of the check in counters:
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I arrived at the airport 3 hours before the scheduled departure time, giving me plenty of time to get my tax refunds done and join the queue to check in. Surprising, there wasn't a long queue for check-in even though the flight was full. It turned out that most of the passengers were continuing from Barcelona.

Joining the queue for Economy Class passengers, I held on to the hope that I would be upgraded.
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Economy Class Check-in Counters:
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Notice Lufthansa employees working at the Check-in counters. Looks like Singapore Airlines outsourced the check-in job to Lufthansa.

Going to be my turn soon…
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Sadly, I didn't get upgraded…
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Nonetheless, I still had to return home. The terminal was relatively small, with restaurants and eateries on the 3rd floor and arrivals on the 1st floor. Security checkpoints on the departure floor was located right behind where I checked-in for my flight. It was just a short 5 minutes walk and I arrived at the security checkpoints. Surprisingly, you just have to scan your boarding pass and you are good to go into the transit area. (So this means people holding expired boarding passes can also enter the transit area? I certainty hope not and that the machines are clever enough to only allow people with boarding passes printed on the actual day to enter the transit area, otherwise it could be a big security loophole. Oh, they also don't check your passports at the security checkpoints. There is another area in the transit area for passport control. I will cover more about this below.)

Transit Area
Through security, you have to go down a 2 floors before you arrive at the transit area. The shops in the transit area are mainly clustered around the central area, the area where u first enter immediately after u clear security. [refer to the picture below]
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Things at the shops were generally more expensive. Having gotten most of the stuff I needed, I decided to skip shopping and head straight to the gate. My flight will be departing from Gate B58 today.
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Breezing past the duty-free shops, I reached the passport control area. There were many counters open and very little people going through at this point of time. This allowed me to clear immigration swiftly i was soon on my way to Gate B58.

Gate B58
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Look who pulled up at the gate beside us!
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Its the Emirates Airbus A380 dawning the Real Madrid Special Livery!

Boarding
Not long after, Boarding was called with the Business Class Passengers and Families with young Children boarding first. Finally it was my turn to board.

Onboard
On the aircraft, it was quite a messy situation as other passengers settled down for the long flight.
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However, with the help of the cabin crews, everybody swiftly settled down. Here's a view of the cabin after the messy situation previously.
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It was another disappointment for me as I was hoping for a refitted 777-300ER with the 2013 Economy Class seats. This particular aircraft came with the older 2006 seats, which the cushions I find were generally harder and less comfortable to sleep or sit for prolonged period of time. My butt is so gonna ache after this long 11 hour flight.
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Furthermore, the flight information on this plane wasn't functioning properly. The estimated flight time to Singapore wasn't displayed, the system didn't know where the plane was and miscalculated our arrival time into Singapore.

Hot oshibori and the menu card was distributed a few minutes later. Two meals and 1 refreshment will be offered for this leg.
A quick look at the menu card:


Not long later, the captain gave the pre-takeoff announcement and we were on our way.

Dinner
An hour or so after takeoff, dinner service began. Two options were available, Beef Goulash or Gaeng Phed Kai.
I chose the Beef Goulash Option. Both meal options came with smoked salmon salad, bread roll and spread and an ice cream. You can order any drink to complement your meal. I had the orange juice. I think there was a slight error in the printing on the aluminium foil of my tray which labelled my meal as 'Lunch'
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Nonetheless, the meal was good!! The beef was well cooked, the salmon was very fresh and the bread was surprisingly soft.

After collecting my tray, I asked for a cup of tea. The tea on Singapore Airlines is a must order as its refreshingly good!
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Lights Off
Soon, cabin lights was turned off for passengers to catch some sleep on this overnight flight to Singapore. I decided to make a trip to the toilet before taking a quick nap. In this section of economy class, toilets are located right at the rear of the aircraft, where the rear gallery is. A look at the toilet:
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The lights in this cubicle wasn't working.
For a more complete 360° view of the toilet, please watch the video version of this flight report via the link in the summary section.

After a nap of around 5 hours, I woke up over India and was shocked to see the speed at which we were cruising at.
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A Staggering 1116km/h thanks to the strong tailwinds!

Refreshment Service
Refreshment service was served at this time, and I had the Cold Savoury Sandwich. The other option available was the Cold Vegetarian Sandwich.
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It wasn't that nice but for a side meal it was still bearable. However, I was still quite full after the dinner, so my opinions about this sandwich may not be fully accurate! After consuming the sandwich, I went for another toilet break and went back to sleep.

Breakfast Service
Around 9 hours into the flight, lights was turned on. Woken up by the lights, I got myself ready for breakfast. We were now flying over Indian Ocean and was less than 2 hours to Singapore. Day light started to break over the horizon.
Not long after the special meals were served, Breakfast Service commenced. There were also 2 options available, Braised Egg Noodles or Parsley Cheese Omelette. I had the Parsley Cheese Omelette. Both meal options came with Seasonal Fresh Fruit, Bread Roll and Spread along with any drink of your choice. I had the Orange Juice again.
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Approaching Changi
Finally, Breakfast service was completed. Not long later, the Captain announced that we were commencing our descent into Singapore. The Cabin Crew started preparing the aircraft for landing. The sun was almost fully up by now. Weather at Singapore was generally cloudy, so we felt some bumps as we descended towards Changi. Traffic at Changi was gradually building up but lucky for us it was the departures that were busy.

Landing
With lesser planes arriving into Singapore at our time of approach, our aircraft proceeded for a direct approach into Changi, landing on Runway 02C and arriving 9 minutes ahead of schedule.
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Conclusion
Overall this was a rather normal flight with Singapore Airlines, one which you typically expect of such a world-renown carrier. However, there was 1 major issue that concerned me. Apparently there weren't enough pillows catered for this flight, leaving those passengers seated behind me without pillows for the entire flight. This is certainly an issue that you will never expect to happen on Singapore airlines, and i certainly do hope that such errors never happen again. Apart from the other minor faults on this aircraft, namely the Flight Path system and the toilet lights, the service provided by the crew was able to make up for all the shortcomings on the flight. All in all, this was a very enjoyable flight, and Singapore Airlines will and still is A GREAT WAY TO FLY.

Thanks for reading my first flight review, comment below to give me suggestions on how I can improve and provide better content for my subsequent reports!

Video Link
Lastly, do check out the video of this particular flight report:
See more

Verdict

Singapore Airlines

8.9/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Meal/catering9.0

Milan - MXP

7.1/10
Efficiency7.0
Access6.5
Services7.0
Cleanliness8.0

Singapore - SIN

9.5/10
Efficiency9.5
Access9.5
Services9.5
Cleanliness9.5

Conclusion

Information on the route Milan (MXP) Singapore (SIN)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 3 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Milan (MXP) → Singapore (SIN).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Singapore Airlines avec 8.7/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 11 heures et 50 minutes.

  More information

3 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 154336 by
    Mikhil 23 Comments
    Thank you for sharing the report.
    Being short of pillows on a 12 hour flight is a surprising lapse by SQ! But as usual, the service by SQ makes it all up!
    I am waiting eagerly too for the upgrade of all their B77Ws. But its taking a long time.
  • Comment 154384 by
    757Fan 632 Comments
    Great to read about your experience with SQ on a flight from Milan to Singapore. It's great that SQ still offers some really good looking meals, and great service in Economy. I have to try them out one of these days!

    Thank you for sharing.

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