Eight minutes later, the seat belt sign was switched off. It was time for me to reach for my memory

On September 11, 2014, I returned to Britain for a few more years. As far as the flight was concerned, I had the choice of Singapore Airlines (SIA), Cathay Pacific (CX), Philippine Airlines (PAL), half day inn il Emirates, or Etihad. What drew us to Singapore Airlines was the flexible conditions attached with the ticket. It cost us around $900 ( 530) one-way for myself, and less than $1700 ( 970) return for my mom, with the ability to change the flight schedule if necessary without having to pay a rebooking half day inn il fee. Cathay Pacific charges slightly higher for similar conditions and PAL assesses a rebooking fee for all of its economy class tickets.
However, choosing Singapore Airlines half day inn il was not just about the flexible half day inn il conditions. It was also the opportunity to fly on board Airbus aircraft for the entire journey including the A380. I generally half day inn il have a soft spot for Airbus aircraft as they are known to feature a 2-4-2 configuration in economy class on wide-body aircraft -- unless of course you are flying PAL or a low cost carrier. I was also eager to use the new home of Singapore Airlines in Manila at Terminal 3 , and to experience just how fully operational the building actually is.
Given the bureaucratic hassle associated with buying international tickets online for flights departing the Philippines, I decided to purchase my ticket by directly visiting the Makati ticketing office of Singapore Airlines. The last time I did this was in 2011. This time, I was served rather quickly by the staff unlike in the past when I had to queue for at least 30 minutes before my number was served. All of this happened despite having half day inn il only two or three desks manned. On this occasion, the number of potential passengers queueing for tickets was actually quite small. I had to wait for the staff for a while before my ticket was processed. When the ticket itinerary receipt was issued, the staff no longer provided it in those signature ticket jackets bearing the Singapore Airlines logo. Choosing half day inn il our preferred seats was no longer available at this time, especially for Singapore-London flights but the staff noted our request that we wanted to be seated on the upper deck of the A380.
A few days later, I was able to grab a seat on the upper deck. This finally confirmed that I would enjoy a 2-4-2 experience for the entire journey. In addition, the economy class section on board the Singapore half day inn il Airlines A380 upper deck was small.
As excited as I was to commence my journey, the hours leading up to leaving the house was manic as I had to run last-minute errands. In fact, I didn t get to sit for a meal or even drink water. We left the house at around 2:45 pm, more than four hours before the flight. It was just as well because the traffic just outside our village was bad. School children were dismissed from classes and the lorries were putting things half day inn il at a standstill. However, the traffic improved once we reached the flyover.
We reached the airport at 3:50 pm. I was greeted half day inn il by new signs with the logos of various carriers shown at the curb. Singapore Airlines' station was #4 and the check-in desks were not far away. Security at the entrance was relatively quick.
We were ushered into the appropriate check-in lane by one of the staff. However, despite performing an internet check-in, the queue took a while -- about 15 minutes and they spent 10 minutes on one passenger alone. When it was our turn, we were directed to the lane normally reserved for Kris Flyer Gold and Star Alliance Gold members. It also took long, but that was because half day inn il my mom wanted half day inn il to sit next to me. We discovered that the flight was packed on this occasion and the staff had to consult with colleagues at another desk for a change in seat so it added more time to the process. Unfortunately, it meant that I wouldn't get to use the boarding cards that I printed at home in two different colours: one for each segment.
We proceeded to passport control. Along the way, we spotted a lot of Cebu Pacific ground staff on the lookout for passengers who would unscrupulously sneak-in half day inn il oversized half day inn il bags or bags in excess of their allowance. Once at passport control, we found that unlike Terminals 1 and 2, each desk had its own queue. So it took a minute or so for us to determine which had the shortest waiting time. Final security check also proceeded smoothly.
half day inn il After security, I discovered that NAIA's duty free pales in comparison to what you would see elsewhere. My mom and I were so hungry that we settled for the Great Man Han to have a really late lunch. I found the Korean Barbecue half day inn il Chicken meal that I ordered was rather bland. WiFi was also poor in this area.
I spotted the Pacific Traveller s Lounge. Although there was a receptionist to screen who was eligible to enter, it was a rather open space. I could in fact take a photo of it from where I was as everything was visible. Now I could understand why Singapore Airlines apologised for the inconvenience of not having its own dedicated lounge ready as passengers now had to contend with the noise.
When my mom went for a quick massage, I used this time to take even more photos of terminal 3. To my surprise, establishments were springing up the further down I went. My suspicions were also confirmed that one of the holding areas was cordoned off with glass from the rest of the terminal. These actually belonged to KLM and Delta, whose passengers had to undergo further checks.
However, there was better half day inn il news when it came to the establishments found in the facility. There were almost a dozen active establishments airside. half day inn il In fact, I found two competing brands here: Seattle's Best Coffee and Bo's Coffee. One of the cafes even served as a make-shift lounge half day inn il for All Nippon Airways at certain times of the day. But overall, there is still plenty of unoccupied space.
We arrived at the holding area at about 6:15pm. Despite the advice on our boarding card, the flight did not board until 6:25pm. It worried me because it could increase the risk that we could be delayed. As we assigned ourselves to the front seats, we were the last to be called. However, my mom insisted that we board. But I personally preferred that we board late since we would stand in queue for a long time. At the aerobridge, a bottleneck ensued. It took almost 5 minutes after entering the narrow passageway until we actually boarded the aircraft.
We got settled in our seat rather quickly. However, some of our hand luggage was stowed in compartments slightly away from us. I leafed half day inn il through the KrisWorld catalogue. Based on the collection of entertainment they boasted about, half day inn il I knew I wouldn t be disappointed. I had several films and TV shows queued up including the Lego Movie but I decided to view these selections instead on the longer flight as I wouldn't be interrupted.
Despite the rather late boarding, we were ready to go at about 6:50pm. At 6:55pm, the plane was push backed away from the gate. It took us 15 minutes to get from the gate to the runway as the plane was rather slow. There were a few planes half day inn il taking half day inn il off and landing immediately ahead of us. But what surprised me during this time was that KrisWorld was available. Picture was crystal clear. At the moment half day inn il we were to take off, I was playing music from the World Cup while viewing the live airshow.
Eight minutes later, the seat belt sign was switched off. It was time for me to reach for my memory stick and iPhone. I took more photos and tried to see whether my personal collection would work on the aircraft's IFE system and to my delight, it did. I enquired from the crew if there was a special cable to connect our iPhone to the IFE and unfortunately, they told me that they didn t provide it anymore. I tried the regular cable of my iPhone later and KrisWorld read it as an iPod. But I had some trouble setting it up. Perhaps it was because I used a later version of iOS.
We were also served with the obligatory hot towels and peanuts. I also used this time to visit the lavatory half day inn il and take more photos from the rear. Along the way, I found an empty block of chairs. Not bad so that one of the tray tables would be used for me to type parts of this trip report.
Approximately an hour into the flight, dinner service began. Despite moving a few rows to the rear, my choice of chicken was still available. And guess what? It was with pasta. So I was in for a treat after not having early lunch at all, and a not so scrumptious late lunch at the airport. I took my time finishing it off. The chocolate cake dessert appealed to my sweet tooth very much. However, that coupled half day inn il with the two glasses of Sprite reminded me to take it easy with the sweets. Whilst enjoying my meal, I continued listening to the playlist assembled from the in-house collection of KrisWorld.
Less than 75 minutes into the flight, I switched to the section of the IFE where I could get information on my connecting flight. I felt pretty unlucky on this count. When I monitored SQ921 in recent weeks, half day inn il it docked at Changi Airport s Terminal 3. However on this occasion, I was to be treated again to the sight of Terminal 2. Docking there does not help us especially on a tight connection.
As I set my seat to the reclined position and the lights were dimmed, I briefly watched some in-house videos by SIA. One of them involved SIA showing us an instruction video of how to set up the business class seat. After watching it, I found that it was rather complicated to set it up despite the tagline at the start of the video. As this flight was flown a month after Signapore s national day, there were some videos about Singapore. half day inn il I decided to watch some of them, including a programme that searched for ordinary Singaporeans who were part of news history. Needless to say, I did not finish the programme half day inn il (at least not without the audio as headsets were collected). half day inn il When the captain announced our initial descent, it was a signal for me to move back to my original seat so that I could disembark at the same time as my mom and help her gather our things.
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