Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Perth to Singapore in Economy

There were a few options for me to get from Perth to Kolkata, though there wasn't quite enough time this year to go anywhere interesting along the way. Singapore Airlines had a lot of very reasonable fares in the mid AU$300s/low US$200s but I couldn't be sure of the exact dates until around two weeks before it was time to leave, during which most flights went up. Singapore Airlines was still a fair bit cheaper than most other airlines. There were some options with Malaysia Airlines or two-stops through other Indian cities but nothing was really any better than Singapore.
Of the Singapore Airlines flights, only the evening departure to Singapore and then to Kolkata the next day was still a somewhat decent price. It was AU$483/US$315, not as excellent as the earlier fares but still decent. With 6,800 KrisFlyer miles it went down by another AU$80/US$52, which is a pretty bad redemption but I'm not sure when else they'd get used.

By the time I got to the airport it was a bit over 90 minutes until departure time. It would be a bit tight in most airports but Perth is generally efficient.

T1, where Virgin Australia and non-Qantas Group international flights operate from, was basically empty.

Singapore Airlines uses self check-in kiosks for economy. On the right side is bag drop for the Virgin/Qatar Airways flights to Doha.

The machine at the bag drop insisted that my baggage allowance was 27 kgs, even though on the booking and website it says 25. I've never even heard of anyone giving 27 kgs, it was a bit weird but I'm definitely not complaining.

International departures for this afternoon up to early morning.

Immigration was with e-gates and there was no line. There wasn't a security line either, through screening took a while.
And there was still some time to go before boarding.
The gate area was different to the usual international departuers area where my Thai and Cathay flights departures from. It was a bit less nice and uncomfortably warm. There was only a single gate.

9V-SHE, a 6.3 year old A350-900 that will be operating SQ214 today.

Lots of people got in line before boarding was called (boarding was late) but because they boarded by groups I was able to get to the front of the line. That line was for checking passports and further down they checked boarding passes.

It was a relatively long walk down to the jetbridge from there.

Jetstar from Denpasar. There weren't any other international planes that I saw.

Earbuds were available right outside the aircraft and weren't handed out on the plane.

Fuselage, kind of.

A rushed shot of the business seats.

And here's economy.

Missing seat, that would have been a nice place to sit.

And finally getting towards my seat.

The headrest was adjustable. Each seat had a pillow and blanket.

There was a video that started playing from all the screens just when I sat down. I didn't pay much attention to it so I'm not sure exactly what it was.
There was a screen at each seat plus a small storage area and a cupholder that folded out from the tray table. I wish more airlines still had these kinds of cupholders.

A few different compartments in the seatback pocket.

USB-A and AC charging. The USB charging was extremely slow.

There were personal lights, but not air vents.

The tray table had a mirror.

There was a shopping magazine, sickness bag, safety card and wi-fi information card in the seatback pocket.

Let's have a look at the entertainment on offer.

I had to darken it to avoid reflections but hopefully it's clear. There was a good selection of movies and TV shows, but games were only available on the phone.
I think on my A380 Sydney-Singapore flight when closing a movie there was a little section on the screen where the movie was saved and you could just tap resume. That wasn't there on this flight and in fact movies restarted from the beginning if they were closed and reopened.
There was also information about the food, amenities, and shopping which could be checked on the phone as well, but wi-fi wasn't available until take-off, so I couldn't look until then.

Amenities were mentioned later on though.

And of course there was a moving map as well.

And these are the earbuds that had been available when boarding.

And then, with the old journey through Singapore safety video we pushed back, passing an Air New Zealand 787 which had just come in.

Entertainment was interrupted for an ad about wi-fi, entertainment, and services on-board. This was in addition to the two minutes of ads before movies.

Another plane was landing just as we were about to take off.

I took out the blanket and discovered that it was already opened up, strangely.

There was a great sunset above the clouds for about the first hour of the flight.

After take-off the KrisFlyer wi-fi became available.

There was a full menu available.

Amenities as well.

And these are the games, pretty poor selection.

There is free internet for KrisFlyer members. All I had to do was put in my seat and last name, not even the KrisFlyer number, and it connected. Internet worked very well throughout the flight.

Service began with hot towels being handed out, one of the few more premium touches that Singapore Airlines has retained. After that my special meal order was confirmed.

After that came snacks.

The sun was going down in the meantime.

Around 10 minutes after the snacks, drinks were served and I got a sprite.

Trash was collected around 10 minutes later, and after another 10 minutes special meals were served.

Fairly standard.

Nice metal cutlery with the Singapore Airlines logo.

There was another drinks service shortly afterwards.

It was an average meal taste wise and good quantity. There was one extremely spicy chilli in there which I'd unfortunately eaten a little while before the drinks came.

Around the time I finished the crew asked any doctors onboard to identify themselves as there was a medical emergency. I'm not sure exactly what happened.
The regular meal service started 15 minutes after I was done and with that came ice cream (that I didn't get, since it had eggs) and more drinks, though the drinks were only offered to the people who were getting meals. It sounded like they were running out of options quite soon.
The trays were cleared in two rounds, first a few including mine and then the other ones a while later.
For some reason the galleys were all curtained off even though the seatbelt sign wasn't on or anything. The crew didn't seem to mind people going in anyway.
Cabin view.

I asked a flight attendent about amenities and she showed me a sort of hidden drawer in the bathroom with toothbrushes and gave me a whole stack of eye masks.

I also asked for the pea-cracker snacks and was given two packets.

The screen had an option for pairing with the phone, but it didn't actually work since there wasn't any way to do it on the phone. There was also a sign in option for KrisFlyer accounts which I did, though that didn't seem to make any difference.

Lighting was darkened, I guess for people to sleep although it was only evening.

There was no service for the rest of the flight, though flight attendents were walking through the cabin fulfilling drink orders throughout the flight.
Lights were brightened and darkened as we came into Singapore.

Wi-fi stopped working just before landing.
After a short taxi we parked next to an All Nippon Airways 787-9.

There was an announcement that medical personnel would come on board for the medical case and that everyone should stay seated. Pretty much no one listened and almost everyone got up immediately.

There was another announcement to stay seated and after a few minutes everyone got back in their seats. During the wait the entertainment stopped working and the screens all switched to this.

When everyone was allowed to start leaving it went a bit slowly since some people had blocked the way further ahead, letting me get some more pictures of the cabin.

And business class.

The crew were just chatting with each other on the side, they hadn't been particularly friendly the entire flight.

And there's our plane again.

Back in Changi after almost a year.

Immigration was at e-gates and took only a few seconds as there was no line.
I didn't have any baggage to collect, that would be in Kolkata the next day.

And with that, this part of the trip was over. Thanks for reading.