We had to do a last minute trip to Wuhan for a few days. It was unfortunate that we had to give up the same ticket we redeemed in September using the 50% discount on spontaneous escape. I had wrote a brief review on Silkair Economy Class for our travel in June (exact destination) and let’s see how does Silkair’s Business Class stand?
After a hiatus, lets hear it again from CHC on his most recent trip on SQ F to PVG on the 77WR (using the 2013 F cabin, but spotting just 4 instead of 8 seats).
I decided to put both flights into one review since these are short haul flights. 2017 had been pretty hectic on many fronts and I decided that I needed a short getaway. I initially redeemed a pair of return tickets to DPS for 70k miles but unfortunately the Mount Agung situation forced me to make some adjustments. I topped up 10k miles to change my tickets to Hanoi instead (as I have not been to Hanoi before). About one week later, Singapore Airlines came up with their getaway promotion where 30% discount on redemption was given on selected destinations. Guess what, Hanoi was one of them! I still had to play around with my booking to enjoy this 30%. I converted more miles from my DBS account and did 2 separate one way redemptions. I was confirmed on SQ 175 but waitlisted on SQ 176 (while holding on to my original booking). 2 weeks before my flight, my waitlist cleared and I duly cancelled my original booking and got my 80k miles back within 4 days (with penalty of USD 30 per person for the cancellation). This is certainly worth the 24k miles savings!
This is another contribution by CHC who recently made a trip to South Africa utilizing the new Airbus A350-900 in Business Class.
I was quite lucky to be able to score another pair of Suites on SQ26 (which I guess could be the last as well). Suites / First class to North America is getting harder to come by (despite the recent devaluation). Instead of doing another post on SQ26 / Singapore Airlines Suites, I will focus on the difference from my previous flight. Paid about $900 for both tickets (compared to almost $1200 back in 2015).
I made a booking from Singapore to Tokyo with a connection to Sapporo as I would join up with my parents for a Hokkaido trip. Instead of flying from Malaysia, I decided to fly from Singapore on Singapore Airlines to Tokyo and connect domestically to Sapporo via ANA (using the very attractive domestic ANA pricing for tourist).
I had a choice of either doing the SQ 636 (which I chose) vs. SQ632. SQ636 have been flying on 77WN (which I have wanted to try last year on SQ1 but I didn’t manage to redeem it.) Being a night flight, it offered only a supper service (truncated meal service). SQ632, being a morning flight offered a full lunch service but is being served by the older 77W. After much consideration, I chose SQ636 for the sake of trying out 77WN.
SQ636 has been served mainly using 77WN (9V-SWU, SWV, SWY) but there was once the flight was served by SWF (data from flight radar 24). Although there is a small chance that a bird swap may occur, most of the flights were using 77WN.
My first Singapore Airlines premium class, do I need to say more? The step up from Economy Class to Business Class is indeed exhilarating! Back in 2012, I barely know much about the miles game, what more how to maximize it. Nevertheless, I decided to make use of what I had in my account to try out the Business Class.
My initial plan was to redeem SIN-TPE. I managed to get a pair of tickets to Taipei but I was unable to secure any return tickets. At 4.5 hours, Taipei is probably the best sector to fly to at 23,375 miles. However, availability is usually scarce (as compared to Hong Kong). Eventually I settled on Hong Kong as I was able to get the return tickets. I was initially booked on SQ860 (which uses the old 777-200 but with the regional business class seats). I managed to waitlist myself on SQ856 (on A380-800). One week out, my waitlist cleared and I managed to get myself on SQ856.
This will probably be my shortest flight review of the entire trip as by the ICN-SIN leg, I was just too tired and sleepy.
All good things must come to an end. After 5 cities (comprising 4 flights, 1 train ride and 3 bus rides), it was time to go home. What better way to come home than on Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines operates 2 daily flights to and from San Francisco i.e. SQ2/1 (SIN-HKG-SFO) and SQ16/15 (SIN-ICN-SFO). My initial intention was to travel on SQ1 with a short stopover in Hong Kong for one last round of good food before returning home. However, I was not able to get 2 First Class tickets on SQ1. Therefore, I had to settle with SQ15.
Date : 9 November 2015
Flight : SQ26
Plane : A380-800 (9V-SKQ)
Photo taken : iPhone 6+
Seats : 3C/3D
Duration : 13 hours 25 minutes
This is my 3rd experience in SQ Suites but my first long haul in premium class. Before i start, my apologies for the lack of photos as I have been pretty busy prior to this trip and hence I was pretty tired even before boarding the flight.
My flight was operated on a Singapore Airlines 9V-SKQ which is only about 4 years old (first flight was made only in early 2012).
That Time Of The Year! 