Review of SilkAir flight Singapore Siem Reap in Economy

Airline SilkAir
Flight MI 636
Class Economy
Seat --
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 04:35
Take-off 20 Jan 10, 13:55
Arrival at 20 Jan 10, 17:30
MI 59 reviews
TerryYong
By 4575
Published on 26th September 2013
Having discovered this trip reports forum, I shall upload my reports dated from year 2010 till now. Hope those who have never read my reports before will enjoy them!


20 January 2010
Silkair
MI 636
Singapore (SIN) - Danang (DAD) - Siem Reap (REP)
A320
9V-SLF
Economy Class


Silkair operates most of its Siem Reap flights as a 3 sector flight, either non-stop or via Danang/Phnom Penh. This flight would be SIN-DAD-REP-SIN. I performed the online check-in before the flight and was successful in obtaining a window and aisle seat for both of us, praying the middle seat will be left empty as the flight was not full. We arrived at Changi Terminal 2 about 2 hrs before the flight and proceeded to the check-in desks to get our boarding passes as well as checked-in our luggage. There were no queues as it was non-peak during that time. Terminal 2 currently is more of a Silkair land as Silkair has taken over quite a number of regional flights from SQ.

FID at Terminal 2. Mostly regional flights operated by MI codeshared with SQ.
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Through the efficient immigration and into Terminal 2 transit hall to get a quick bite. Our gate was F32 and the plane had just arrived from Phuket and was being serviced. There were more MI planes and SQ planes parked at the gates!

Our A320 being serviced.
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An announcement was made about half an hour before the STD for passengers to proceed to the gate for immediate boarding. However when we reached the gate, boarding had not begun and will only commence 10 minutes later!! Changi is a bit too efficient in this aspect of boarding passengers.

Our A320 (9V-SLF) with another smaller sister A319 being towed to the gate.
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Boarding was orderly and done by row numbers from the rear of the plane. As the load was light, boarding was finished very quickly. The Silkair girls seemed to be in high spirits as they welcomed all passengers onboard during the boarding process. Proceeded to our seats and I was surprised with the generous seat pitch!! The legroom was more than sufficient for a flight of this length and my 180cm frame was definitely very comfortable in it.

Generous seat pitch. Supposed to be 32 but felt more like 33.
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At the gate.
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Boarding was completed very quickly and the crew came down the aisle offering newspapers and immigration forms. They also confirmed that a birthday cake was loaded for my friend. However no hot towels were given out (I do miss the SQ hot towels now..). The flight time to Danang was announced by the captain to be 2hr20min. The purser, Felicia, then made the welcome announcement as well as introducing the rest of the crew members. There were a total of 6 cabin crew on the A320, 2(including purser) serving in business class and 4 serving in economy. Safety video was then shown on the overhead drop-down LCD screens.

Safety video being shown. It was very similar to the old SQ safety video.
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We were then pushed back and had a very quick taxi to Rwy02C for takeoff. Wow, the pilot was really rushing as we basically gunned down the taxiway!

Taxi to the runway
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Turning onto the runway and we were off!


Climbing to 38000ft.
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Lets have a look at the seat pocket contents. We have the inflight magazine (Silkwinds), duty-free (Skyshop) and the safety card.
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The cabin crew then disappeared into the galley to prepare the meals. The overhead LCD screens then came down to show the only inflight entertainment, silent TV shows consisting of Tom&Jerry cartoons and Just for Laughs comedies. Lunch would be served on our flight. About half hour after takeoff, the crew came down the aisle with 2 meal carts. The choices for lunch were either chichken curry with rice or fish with pasta in tomato based sauce. There was also a fruit appetizer and a cup of water on the tray. Drinks, coffee/tea were served with the meal. Initially I chose the chicken while my friend went for the fish. The chicken curry was very good but the fish option was disappointing. My friend then requested for an extra chicken curry casserole and was given one my the crew, who also cheekily remarked that the extra casserole was my friend's birthday present, lol.

Meal service with silent TV programmes shown on the overhead screens.
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The awful fish with pasta
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and the very good chicken curry with rice. I had a white wine to go along. Wines were served in small bottles.
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Cruising at 38000ft
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Lunch service was completed within half an hour and all meal trays were then collected, afterwhich duty free sales were offered. I bought a A320 diecast model and also got 2 packs of playing cards as souvenir. The crew then retreated back into their galley for their break though one can request for drinks by pressing the call button.

Now for the pleasant surprise. Just before we start our descend into Danang, all the crew including the purser approached our row. The purser wished my friend a happy birthday and then offered the crew to sing a happy birthday song for him! Following that, all 6 crew really did sang Happy Birthday and wished my friend a great birthday!! Wow, you would never see that happening on SQ!!! The birthday cake was then presented to my friend and 2nd surprise, the cake was a 15cm diameter blackforest cake! It was much bigger than the birthday cakes SQ give out onboard! 3rd surprise, one of the crew went back to the galley and returned with 2 cups of specially prepared cocktails, which was sort of a pineapple juice with cherry syrup and a cherry in it. We never expected all these on Silkair!! Way to go, Silkair! The purser then offered to pack the cake for us and would hand it to us when we reached Siem Reap.

My friend's birthday cake, compliments of Silkair!
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Landing into Danang. Weather was bad. Interestingly, the post-landing welcome announcement would be in the local language of the arrival city followed by English.


Taxiing to the gate. We were the only aircraft at the airport.
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All transit passengers were required to stay onboard while those whose final destination was Danang disembarked via stairs and bussed to the terminal. The crew then did a headcount of the remaining passengers after which a couple of cleaners boarded the aircraft to clean and dispose of the trash. No catering was done at the airport.

Cabin during the transit stop.
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Another view of the generous seat pitch.
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A Jetstar Pacific B737-400 arrived soon after and parked beside us.
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Followed by the arrival of an VN A330-200. Wow, never did I expect a
A330 flying into Danang! Must be peak hour at the airport with 3 arrival flights! Lol.
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The transit stop was 45min and soon a new batch of passengers started boarding.
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The flight filled up quite significantly but luckily our middle seat remained empty. Interestingly there were quite a number of businessmen in suits boarding in Danang and seated in Business Class. Silkair also had rights to fly passengers from Danang to Siem Reap, which might also explain the higher pax load on this sector. Same welcome announcements as usual and flight time to Siem Reap was approximately 1hr.

No push back was needed. We just taxied right out from our stand. A new terminal is currently being constructed.
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Taxiing to the runway. We took off in the opposite direction from landing.
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Liftoff!


Climbing to our cruising altitude of 35000ft.
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On this short sector, the same set of crew would be serving a cold refreshment consisting of a jackfruit danish from a basket and a pre-cupped orange juice. No hot drinks were offered.

Cold refreshment service
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Jackfruit danish and orange juice.
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Service was very efficient and completed within 15min. Me and my friend then proceeded to the galley to have our photos taken with the crew. All of them were more than willing to obliged. They even got their purser to come up from business class to have the photos taken together. What a great set of crew!

Cruising
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Not long after, we started our descent into Siem Reap.
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The weather in Siem Reap was also not very good due to a low depression over the South China Sea. In fact according to the locals, it was the first time it rained in the month as it was supposed to be the dry season.
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Landing..
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Touchdown!! Welcome to Siem Reap!


Similarly, the welcome was announced in the local Khmer language followed by English. At Siem Reap, all transit passengers to Singapore are required to disembark due to security reasons. We were bussed to the arrival terminal where it was a mess as all passengers have to show their boarding passes to the authorities to filter out the transit passengers. The transit pax would then be guided to the departure hall.

This was a great flight with a superb set of crew. It was a refreshing change from the normal SQ flights with the more relaxed attitudes of the crew. The birthday song choir was also definitely unexpected! Not to mention the creamy blackforest birthday cake! What a wonderful way to fly!! My first Silkair flight and it greatly surpassed my expectations!
See more

Verdict

SilkAir

7.5/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew9.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering7.0

Singapore - SIN

9.4/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.5

Siem Reap - REP

7.8/10
Efficiency8.5
Access7.5
Services7.5
Cleanliness7.5

Conclusion

Information on the route Singapore (SIN) Siem Reap (REP)

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


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est SilkAir avec 7.7/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 56 minutes.

  More information

9 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 88496 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Great 1st FR! Very detailed and pleasant to read on a new route and rarely reported airline. I always hope the middle seat stays empty to when travelling in Y as a couple. I'm actually glad you posted this because I am looking at perhaps taking this flight next year to get to Siem Reap. How cool to be surprised with a birthday cake on board like that!

    FYI you can insert the videos directly into the FR by using [youtube] [/youtube] tags

    WELCOME to Flight-Report! :-)
  • Comment 88500 by
    AirCanada881 1616 Comments
    Great flight report and welcome :)
  • Comment 88502 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Welcome and thanks for this first FR.
    Wow Silk ir does provide an excellent service, on par with SQ at least!
    Did you have to preorder the cake or did Silk Air provided it automatically when they saw the date of birth of your friend?
  • Comment 88506 by
    manureva744 251 Comments
    Excellent Flight report ! Congratulations and welcome to the family !
  • Comment 88507 by
    Papoumada GOLD 7321 Comments
    Welcome on board and thank you for sharing.

    Congratulations for this 1st opus.
  • Comment 88510 by
    marathon GOLD 10116 Comments
    The good news is that this is a wonderfully detailed - picture and narrative - FR (the pictures are somewhat too small, but then, this is an archive report). The bad news is that my backlog of want to read FRs is unlikely to reduce any time soon, with your posting rate. Well, there are worse news than that :)
    Silk Air delivers a very convincing hard + soft product. I never heard Happy birthday to you being sung to a passenger anywhere. Are their crew always that motivated ? (OK, I should read the other reports...)
    I am not surprised by the A332 in Danang which is no small Vietnamese city. The airport is even busier at present, because it takes the additional traffic of Hue which is closed for massive rehabilitation work.
    Thanks for this FR, and welcome among the contributors !
  • Comment 88515 by
    lagentsecret 12186 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your first FR and welcome aboard Terry

    It's nice to see you here : I already had the pleasure to read your TRs on SQTalk

    It's possible on Flight-Report to post larger pictures if you like

    Silk Air is a great airline
  • Comment 88523 by
    A380B77W 4295 Comments
    Thanks for this good FR and welcome on board !
  • Comment 415404 by
    arikevin 9 Comments
    Great FR.
    I have been on many flights SIN-PNH-SIN on Silkair and the announcements are strictly in English only.

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