Singapore Airlines business class Beijing to Singapore
Singapore Airlines business class Singapore to Hong Kong
Thai Airways A380 business class Hong Kong to Bangkok
Thai Airways Bangkok to Sapporo
Singapore Changi (SIN) is the main airport serving Singapore, serving a wealth of international destinations with over 100 airlines. Due to its strategic location in southeast Asia, SIN is a major transit point primarily for the kangaroo route between Australia and Europe. The entire airport is like a playground and a parent's dream as the kids will always be occupied. And for elite and premium class travelers, SIN offers 24-hour lounges.
Because my flight to Hong Kong departed at 7:35 am, I opted to take the final night bus to SIN at 11:51 pm to crash at the lounge for the night instead of booking a hotel and catching a taxi at 5 am.
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge
The SilverKris Lounge is Singapore Airlines' business class lounge at their primary hub reserved exclusively for business class and first class passengers. Star Alliance Gold members and passengers flying in premium cabins with other Star Alliance airlines are not eligible, thus affording the lounge with a private and ambient atmosphere.
Upon entering the lounge from the escalators, you're greeted by two lounge dragons, who will seemingly do anything to prevent ineligible guest from entering. While you wish their front desk was more friendly, this preserves the integrity of the lounge by keeping numbers low.
The lounge has everything that you'd expect and more. Food and drink offerings were ample, though the food items were removed after 2 am and breakfast didn't start until 5 am.
The seating area was huge, and vacancies wasn't a problem during this time of night. The lounge had an impressive spread of work stations offering PCs and Macs. However, printing service is limited, and the lounge staff needs to collect the electronic documents from you via a USB drive.
The bathrooms were the best I've ever seen for a lounge, with a dozen shower stalls and toiletries at every sink and a full supply of bathing accessories in every stall. An employee works full-time in the lounge to insure that every drop is wiped and every shower is stocked. After showing, I headed towards the sofas and napped until 6 am for breakfast.
Singapore Airlines business class
After breakfast, I headed towards the gate for boarding. SIN is very unique in that every gate has its own security check on top of the general security checkpoint required to gain access to the terminal. The plane was the same aircraft type used on my PEK-SIN route with wide angled lieflat seats and oversized AVOD screens.
Since the flight was only 2 1/2 hours, the flight attendants went to work right after takeoff, jotting down breakfast orders. I chose the salmon scrambled egg meal.
The food and presentation were definitely up to par, and the service was phenomenal as usual for Singapore Airlines. After breakfast, I leaned my seat back to the bed position and slept until landing.
Bottom line
Singapore Airlines (SQ) is king, living up to its slogan as "A great way to fly". Both at the airport and onboard, SQ possesses that magic touch to make your travels pleasant and enjoyable. The SilverKris lounge is one of the best business class lounges in the world, easily surpassing the ranks of JAL, ANA, and Korean Airlines. The problem for the flyer is that once you go with SQ, you never want to go back to the torturous skies of United.
SQ's new mind-blowing commercial
Next: Thai Airways A380 business class Hong Kong to Bangkok
Wtf does "ambient atmosphere" mean?
ReplyDeleteLooks like you were the only hobo in the lounge at 2am.
At some point will you actually write about what you did in each of these places, or will this just be a bunch of boring lounge and shorthaul flight reports?