Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to London in Economy

Introduction

Hi all and welcome to the second part of this UK series. 

This report will pick up from where I last left you upon arrival in Singapore Changi Airport for a 4 hour layover. Before heading off for the longest segment of this trip.

A quick reminder of the routing below…

Terminal & Lounges

We arrived into SIN at terminal 2 and due to there being no gate information for our flight yet we decided to head to the Terminal 2 Krisflyer Elite Gold Lounge.

Singapore Airlines provides two lounges for their Gold status customers one in terminal 2 and the other in terminal 3.

Upon entering the Terminal 2 Gold Lounge we found seats down the back and both grabbed an orange juice which were available from the self service mini fridge. The lounge itself was comfortable, albeit small, however there was very little that really stood out to make it a lounge worth visiting again. There was a typical buffet style service and self service bar, however there were no windows to look out of and you had to leave the lounge if you needed to use the bathroom which I found surprising. 

The lounge décor was nice and in the standard Singapore colours which are quite pleasing to the eye. 

Overall, the lounge was nice but nothing really that stood out about it and we shortly left to stretch our legs and look around the airport.

Changi airport is likely my favourite airport in the world. There's plenty to do within the airport, with good spotting areas littered throughout the terminals too. The carpeted floors are a nice touch too making the terminal feel very quiet. We found an information board and saw that our flight was departing from terminal 3 so we decided to head on over there and try the other lounge.
There are two options in which you can transfer between terminals at SIN and that is either walking or catching the terminal transfer trains which depart quite regularly. We opted to walk, knowing we had a near 14 hour flight ahead of us.
We found some lovely gardens and Koi ponds along the way.

After a 20-30 minute walk with a few stops along the way we arrived at the Terminal 3 Gold Lounge and my goodness is there a stark difference between the two lounges. This lounge was open and airy, with huge floor to ceiling windows overlooking the runway. 

We found a seat right near the window which offered some lovely views of the apron. Frustratingly the windows were not very spotter friendly or photo friendly as once again there were little black dots all over the windows preventing a clear view of the outside world. I have never understood why airports opt to do this. If anyone does know why airports create their windows like this please let me know in the comments as I would be interested.

An SQ A350-900…

And an SQ A380 and A350-900 taxiing out.

The offerings within this lounge were much better than the previous offerings, with a variety of hot foods, pastries and fruit.

There was also a good selection of drinks on offer.

I opted for a nice strong cappuccino and some pastries and fruit for a light breaky. 

The lounge was nice and quiet still at this time of the morning, however it did get a bit busier towards the end of our time there. After breaky I took a bit more of a look around the lounge and found some showers on offer as well as a fresh Laksa soup station which I believe was made to order? 
I settled down again for a gin and tonic before it was time for us to head off an board.

The Flight - SQ308

A quick note for anyone departing out of Singapore is that security is completed at the gate so ensure you leave sufficient time to get through security before boarding. 

Our flight today was operated by 9V-SKN, a 14 year old A380-800. 

The aircraft is fitted with 4 classes across 2 decks with first and business on the top deck. 6 Singapore Suites, 78 Business class seats, 44 Premium Economy seats and finally 343 Economy seats.

Economy was fitting with Recaro CL3710 seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. There were 9 bathrooms to be utilised between premium economy and economy making it 43 passengers per bathroom.

Boarding went ahead on time and we got some good views of our aircraft nose in the aero bridge.

The seat was very similar to that of the A350 with just minor differences such as a phone holder under the screen and perhaps an itch more of width within the seat itself.

The other thing to note was that the entertainment offering was fractionally different to the A350, with no live team on offer and a few different shows and movies. I was disappointed to find that SQ does not offer any sort of tail cam or outside view of the aircraft. 

Legroom was very similar as well, although it did feel just a touch more cramped than the A350 was.

There was once again a pillow and blanket waiting for us on our seats and hot towels were offered once boarding had been completed. 

We pushed back on time and took off without a hitch.

Once we had reached cruising altitude the breakfast service began with the below menu…

The drinks offering was the same as the previous flight.

I went with the Omelette for breaky with a glass of juice to accompany it.

The omelette and veal sausages were a tad dry but had good flavour while the fruit was fresh and quite tasty. 

Following the meal service I settled in for a movie. 
Halfway through my movie I got a bit peckish and headed to the galley to see what snacks were on offer. 

The above photo was taken on the return flight, though majority of the snacks were the same on this flight.

I grabbed a couple of things and asked for a whiskey and coke to enjoy as well. 

Upon finishing the movie I settled in for a nap before being awoken not long later by some very noisy passengers in the exit row in front of us. It appeared that they had decided to use the exit row space as a social gathering point with other passengers in their group that they were travelling with. 
Now I would not normally be too bothered by this, except that this lasted for almost the entire remainder of the flight, except the second meal service and they had little regard for the passengers around them. By the end of the flight they were all quite soundly drunk on wine. 

The other area in which I was perhaps a little disappointed in was the timing of the second meal service which happened roughly halfway through the flight. This would not have been a bother usually except that after this meal service the snacks in galley were taken away so effectively there was nothing to eat for the remaining 6 hours of the flight unless upon request. 

I must say this before I get onto the meal service as well was that throughout the flight the crew were incredible. They were very helpful and happy to grab us anything that we needed. Upon finding out my wife was pregnant as well they went out of their way to ensure she was comfortable and supported throughout the entirety of the flight. 

 Now onto the second meal service which started with a drink and a small packet of crackers before the meal arrived. The menu for dinner was as below….

By the time we were served the chicken option had run out so I went with the fish which was rather good. Due to being pregnant my wife was unable to have the fish option so the crew went out the back and found some of the leftover vegetarian pasta for her to eat which was lovely. 

The remainder of the flight was rather uneventful and I just watched movies and read my book as it was far to loud to sleep due to the passengers in the row in front. 

We eventually started out descent and had a rough landing into LHR.

We de-boarded at the satellite terminal at terminal 2 and made our way along the underground walkway to the main terminal building.

Border control was a breeze thanks to our Australian passports and we were shortly on our way to our airport hotel. 

Thanks again for reading and see you for the next report!

A final look at the routing below….