Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Tokyo in Economy

This short trip to Tokyo was booked last year and it was a pleasant surprised that SQ had decided to replace the non-retrofitted B773ERs on this flight SQ632/633 to the brand new A350 since Dec last year. Missing out on the SQ A350 ride last May from Amsterdam, finally I had a chance to fly on the new birds in SQ's fleet, though it would not be my first flight on the A350 as I had flown QR's version before and had very good impressions of the aircraft. I would be flying up in Economy, and returning in the Business cabin.
Fast forward, it was a very early check-in and bag-drop at Changi Terminal 3 for the 0805am departure. Boarding passes were printed from the self-service check-in machines on thin paper slips.

Departure gate at A15.

Intially I was shocked when I saw an all-white Star Alliance liveried aircraft at the gate, fearing that the aircraft was subbed, but luckily the aircraft was actually for Gate A14. Our A350 was parked ahead, and to make things even better, the aircraft is also the 10,000th Airbus aircraft!

19 January 2017
Singapore Airlines
SQ 632
Singapore (SIN) - Tokyo Haneda (HND)
A350-900
9V-SMF '10,000th Airbus aircraft'
Economy Class
Flight Time: 5H58M
Announcement was made that boarding would be slightly delayed due to the late arrival of the aircraft. The plane had arrived from Amsterdam almost an hour late and hence has a tight turnaround. Soon boarding was called and was done orderly.
Proceeding down the gangway to aircraft.

Welcomed at the door and proceeded to my seat in economy.
Premium Economy seats. The PEY seats on the A350 are of a different seat model from the A380s/B773ERs and seemed slightly narrower.

Economy seats, which are similar to those on the new/retrofitted B773ERs. Pillow and blanket are placed on each seat.

Reached my seat at 56A, with a welcome on the IFE screen. The IFE interface seemed to be of the newest version, different from the retrofitted B773ERs which I flew on last year. This newest version seemed more user-friendly for Economy touch-screen users, though for Business Class, it is still a bit more complicated as the monitors are not touch-screen.

Legroom is good as can see for my 1.80m frame.

View of the seat frame.

Windows were fogged up.

Magazines and stuff

Boarding in progress. Flight was rather full in economy, but luckily we had a spare center seat in between.

After boarding was completed swiftly, hot towels were distributed while we awaited pushback clearance. Flight time would be only a short 6hrs and hence the delayed departure could be made up.

Pushed back and started a rather long taxi to the runway.

We are next for departure.

Takeoff from Rwy02C, bound for Tokyo Haneda.

Video of the departure.

The island every Singaporean's son is so familar with.

The 3D maps which some SQ flyers can't live without. Though I got bored of it just after a while… Prefers a more clean and simple presentation of the flight routing and stats.

Ear buds were distributed.

I simply love the signature winglets of the A350, especially with the blue skies.

Quick visit to the lavatory, which was stocked with the usual amenities. There was only one lavatory at the rear, with the rest of the four PEY/EY lavs at the center. Interesting fact: The trash disposal lid in the lav is sensor operated (just wave your hand across the lid and it opens) from SMF onwards, but is manually operated on SMA-SME.

Cabin view. Also realised that the A350 economy cabin is not fitted with magazine racks at the rear bulkheads, hence no magazines displayed during the flight. Guess cost-cutting in progress.

Menus were distributed. Breakfast and refreshment would be served on this flight.

Dinner selections on the return SQ633 sector.

Another wing view.

Chose to watch a suited-for-boring-flights comedy "Bad Moms".

A round of juices was offered. Had an apple juice.

Breakfast service started, with the service beginning from the front of mid and aft cabins, moving towards the rear. There is only one aft galley serving both PEY and EY and hence service took a while to complete. Definitely not joke to walk down half an A350 length to attend to passengers seated in PEY.

We both chose the Japanese selection as the international selection is always the plain old boring eggs and potatoes which does not differs much over the last 10 years. The meal came with only fruits and a warm roll with spreads only. No yoghurts on the breakfast trays on SQ's East Asian routes. Had a green tea and orange juice to go along.

Fruits, warm roll with butter and preserve.

Grilled salted salmon fillet and Japanese omelette, with assorted vegetables and steamed rice. The salmon and omelette were good, though I find that the rice has a kinda wierd taste, probably due to the heated wax foil.

After breakfast was cleared, cabin lights were dimmed. Felt that SQ's A350 economy cabin is utilitarian and functional (aka boring if I would say), with nothing too different from the rest of the fleet. Having flown on QR's version, I feel that QR's A350 cabin has a much more "glamorous" feel with cabin mood lightings, light fixtures along overhead bins, coloured bulkheads etc. I also started on a second movie, which is a Singapore production.

A wing view again.

Somewhere over Okinawa.

The refreshment service started about 1.5hrs before arrival. This time round, service started from the rear.

The choices, were Mango and shrimp panini or Chicken satay wrap. Apologies, but I forgot to take photos of the unboxed items. However, both items are tasty, though the wrap could be too spicy for some.

Also ordered a Singapore Sling, which was well-mixed.

As it was my travel partner's birthday, I had also ordered a complimentary birthday cake, which was nicely presented by the crew, along with a birthday card. Champagne (PEY ones) was also offered, a nice gesture by the crew indeed.

Another view of the cabin shortly before descend.

Nearing Tokyo

Starting the descend into Tokyo Haneda.

Clouds vs Cloudless

Mt Fuji in the distance.

Approaching Haneda

Landing into Tokyo Haneda Rwy34L, slightly ahead of schedule.

Taxi to the International terminal.

Video of the landing.

Disembarking and passing PEY.

9V-SMF will be resting for 1hr and being prepped for her flight back to SIN.

Immigration was rather smooth as there were not many international arrivals during this time of the day.
Waiting for bags.

Within 30min of landing, customs was cleared and we were on the 15min and 490yen monorail ride to Shiodome. Arriving in Haneda beats the distant Narita anytime! We stayed at Hotel Villa Fontaine Shiodome, which is very reasonably priced business hotel in the Shiodome/Shinsaibashi area.
First evening was spent in the Ginza area, which is a 15min stroll away. Had a wonderful unagi dinner at one of the restaurants. Not cheap, but worth it.

The next day was a full day trip to Nagano and the Snow Monkey Park. It had snowed the days before and the entire Hagano region was blanketed in white. Visited a famous temple within Nagano.

Had a very tasty and warming soba lunch.

On the way to the Snow Monkey Park

It was a 40min trek from the entrance of the park through winter wonderland to where the monkeys are.

Monkeys spotted! They are not afraid of humans at well and were non-chalent with our presence.

Beautiful scenery while on way back to Nagano city.

A warm bowl of Ichiran ramen for dinner is heavenly in the cold!