Singapore Airlines (SQ) may not be a great way to fly afterall.

Singapore Airlines (SQ) may not be a great way to fly afterall.

As a dentist I work within four walls of my clinic. Many of my successful friends and patients tells me of their enjoyment when they fly all over the world for work. They usually do so flying business class and more often than not Singapore Airlines superior service is mentioned.

As for me flying on Singapore Airlines is akin to doing national service. I am proud of our national carrier but I always feel they don’t treat me with reciprocal respect. Why do I say so?. When you buy a SQ ticket, it is always more expensive than any other airlines available on the Singapore market. Many of my foreign patients fly on SQ because of the service and reliability but they also mentioned a price that is a huge discount to what we can get here. From my patients who are staff of SQ they say this is due to their business strategy as they can maximise their profit. Erh, at the expense of Singapore residents? Do you mean all airlines in the world milk their own countryman?. As I dentist there is no need for me to fly unless I am going on a holiday.  Usually those destinations for holidays are not too far away, thus the differential cost of the ticket in economy class is not that high and I really don’t expect much of the service.

Recently things have changed. I am much older now and no longer need to worry about my finances. Like the wise sage taught, if I don’t spend the money I have earned it is not mine. Now I have the opportunity and time to travel to far of places. Why not fly business class? The internet has enabled us to check for prices of air tickets and also booked it directly. Thus in the comfort of our home environment I can compare the prices of the fares available. To reinforce what I have said earlier SQ charges are usually significantly higher as much as 30%. With the significant savings flying on other airlines both me and my wife can take off together.

SIA has many challengers on the market. The most notable is Emirates follow by Qatar and Cathay Pacific. The middle eastern airlines have been marketing themselves very aggressively. As they have grown in fleet size they are also flying to many destinations. There is one inconvenience. On all flights to Europe there is a stopover in one of the middle east country. However since I am flying on business class and on a holiday, it gives me ample time to enjoy the service provided.

Every year I need to fly to Australia once. This time I decided on Brisbane because I have not been there for some time and as June is a winter month, sunny Queensland should be ideal. Of my usual favourite airlines only Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly to Brisbane. Unfortunately Emirates fly on an unearthly hour i.e they depart Brisbane at 2.30am in the morning. On my last trip to New Zealand flying Emirates, there was a stopover in Brisbane which lasted for 6 hours. Yes it departed at 2.30am from Brisbane making it a bit difficult to sleep. So that leaves me with SQ. A check on the ticket shows it is 30% more expensive. Well just before I made the decision to buy the tickets a former Silkair staff came for her check up. As the conversation went, she being a very loyal staff was defending her company. So i need to check it out as I have not flown on SQ business class before. Well as it went SQ flights to Brisbane had the right timing.

So I went to SQ’s website to book my tickets. Easy enough but then I realise they were using the older Airbus on this route. On these older planes the business class seats are of the older vintage and not as luxurious as the new seats they had advertised. Too late I have already booked the tickets. SQ has one extra option. They have a button for meal selection and to my surprise there was an offer to choose your cook. Well when you select this option, it highlighted 2 offers on the outbound trip. A choice of either steak or prawns. OK so I selected steak for myself and prawns for my wife. For the return trip the offer was different. So I selected seafood meals for both.

A day before the trip I was notified by email and a sms message requesting to check in online. So I went online to check in but due to some issue I cannot understand, I could not do so. Thus I had to check in at the airport. What amazed me was the email and sms they sent to me did not highlight which terminal I had to go to board the flight. SQ flights take off from both Terminal 2 & 3 of Changi airport. I had to google the flight to find out. Check in was easy as we were early. So we made our way to the Kris flyer lounge. It was pretty crowded but we found our seats. The food selection was quite small granted they had such a big lounge and with so many people inside. Not really appetising for me and my wife. I was looking forward to my steak. The flight was to depart at 20 minutes pass midnight and as we were told that there were no boarding announcement we had to look after it ourselves. So just 20minutes before the closure of gates we walked towards our flight gates. To my horror we realised that the gate was on the other side of the Terminal 3 and we need 18 minutes to reach it. A quick step walked became a bit of run.

We were welcome on board in good time because there were other passengers still strolling in. Obviously SIA may be phasing out the plane as the cabin looks a bit dated. After the usual drinks the stewardess asked if we wanted our meals after takeoff or before it landed. As for me I would like my steak fresh. My wife chose the option before landing. My steak came in due time. As they say airline food is not too appetising. This steak was no different and really did not live up to my expectation. Never mind I made up for it by watching the movies and had some wine. I cannot fault SQ as they have a good selection of Asian movies. Before I went to sleep I went to brush my teeth. I took one of the toothbrush from the amenities cabinet. To my horror after a few strokes I can feel the bristles coming out in my mouth. Shocking that SIA can offer products of such quality.

When I woke up in the morning my wife was just served her big prawns. She was not too keen to eat big prawns at that time of the day. The steward asked me if I wanted a drink. So I told him that I wanted a glass of orange juice. Then I waited. Nothing else came. There was no breakfast for me but I did not know that. I had to ask for my coffee. Whoa this is the first time that nobody asked if I wanted breakfast on a night flight.

Time passed quickly especially with the wintry climate Brisbane was having. It was time for our return trip. It was an afternoon flight. So off we went to Brisbane airport. We had 2 carryon bags. We were very surprise when the counter staff asked us to weigh out carryon bags which were quite small. One of them weighed in at 8 kilos. She told us the weight limit was only 7 kilos and this was due to safety requirements. Again this is first time we have heard of it. All other airlines we had travelled on allowed 10 kilos. Don’t tell be the cabins on SQ planes are not designed for bigger luggage?        

Once again mealtime came. The stewardess came to inform us that we had ordered seafood meal. Since my wife had a stomach upset she checked with the staff to see if there was cream in the seafood meal. As the reply was positive she asked for Chinese meal. What do you think the reply was?. The stewardess said as she had ordered a sea food meal there was no other meals available for her. However if other passengers do not choose the Chinese meal then she can have it. Wow? Fortunately there were only 4 chinese in the cabin and she got her meal. I had my seafood meal. The starters were 4 prawns on a bed of salad. When the main course came it was really disappointing. There were prawns and pieces of salmon on pasta. The food cannot even compare to the pasta at Pastamania, a popular fast food chain. How can it be on a special menu? Better to send the chef to the fast food chain for some lessons.

One matter of interest. On all the other airlines we were provided with a toiletry bag. Some airlines have very elaborate bag designs. No doubt in this green world and especially for those who fly very often, there is no necessity. For those who are irregular flyers, it is a good token. The bags are very suitable as giveaways to friends or relatives. It is a very convenient toiletry bag. Isn’t it a good marketing giveaway?. At least give the passengers a choice if they want to receive it.

Let me share with all SQ or SQ related staff my experiences on other airlines.

Let me start with Cathay Pacific as this was the first airline I flew on business class. The seats are Ok just a bit tight but can recline fully i.e lie flat bed. They have all the seats arranged at an angle to maximise the numbers, a bit awkward for the ladies when other passengers move up and down the aisle. The meals came all together for every passenger i.e they still have mealtimes. However if you miss your meal you will have to make do as they will cook you a wanton noodle. No, you need not go hungry as they have a selection of sandwiches. When you go to sleep they will offer you a very comfortable duvet. The crew were always ready to serve. Breakfast is a given. Their business class lounge at HK airport is pretty large. They have a variety of food. The one I like best is the wanton noodles made on request. Well HK is famous for wanton noodles isn’t it? On my next trip to HK they upgraded my return leg to business class.

The next time I flew was on ANA. It was a trip to New York with a stopover in Tokyo. The plane for the Tokyo bound leg unfortunately had old fashion seats and thus not a big deal. However they had just introduced the new seats on the Tokyo to New York sector. They were very spacious and very comfortable with more privacy. The business class lounge in Narita was not much to talk about. They have a udon stall. Not my favourite Japanese food. The only setback flying on ANA is the air crew cannot converse well in English and thus I had difficulty in asking for any variety of food offered on board. To make things worse the movie selections were in Japanese or in the original language.

 Emirates came into my mind when I had to go to New Zealand and Australia on a business trip. I was surprised they have flights that cover so many cities of Australia. On their website I could book the different sectors, something new and called open jaw booking. The only problem was there will be a long wait in Brisbane on the return leg. On departure day a limousine came to our house to deliver us to the airport. This is a complimentary service. You should have seen their business class lounge at Changi airport. It was very large and not crowded at all. They had a very good selection of food and to top it all, the staff even came to serve you as if you are in a restaurant. When it was time to board the plane the staff walk by to announce it. There was a special gate that led directly to the plane. Literally we were boarding the plane as the gate closed. Service on board was very good and we had all our meals including breakfast. When we landed in Melbourne there was another limousine to send us to our hotel.

Our next leg was from Melbourne to Auckland. To our surprise the Emirates business class lounge at Melbourne is an exact copy of that at Changi airport. This is true for the lounges at the airports of Auckland and Brisbane.  Since they are very large lounges they do not feel crowded at all. Well the best part of my flight was we were upgraded to first class seats from Brisbane to Singapore. Wow this is the first time we are flying on Emirates and we were upgraded. Needless to say service in the first class cabin is overwhelming. Again there was a limousine to pick us at Changi airport.

Most recently we had to go to London on a urgent trip. A check with the websites gave us an idea of  the prices. Needless to say SIA’s fares were much more expensive. There was a technical difficulty on Emirates’s website. You see my son was travelling with us on this trip. Being a young person he wants to travel on economy. No matter how I tried it was not possible to put us on the same plane. So I went to Qatar Airways website. The fares they quoted were not much more than SQ’s economy fare. So we were booked as a family.

Qatar Airways do not have their own dedicated lounge at Changi airport. They do not provide the limousine service as Emirates. Their business class cabin must be one of the latest and most spacious with very large seats. It is their onboard service that is very impressive. There seems to be many air crew on board and they are always around to serve you. When it came to mealtimes we were offered the menu. There were many options available. To our surprise the stewardess told me I can have everything item on the menu if I wanted. Not only that, if I do not feel like eating now they can serve me when I choose. You should see how they serve you on board. It is like eating in a fine dining restaurant with many courses. Service on board was probably the best I ever had.

It is easy to converse with the crew on these middle eastern airlines. They all can converse in English fluently. The reason is at least one of the crew would have a connection with SIA. Inevitably one of them on board would have worked for SIA and joined these airlines. So you can see they have learned all the service qualities from SIA and improved on it.

Sadly SIA may have sat on the high pedestal far too long. As I exchange notes with my contemporaries who no longer fly on company trips but their own private trips, they all share the same conclusion with me. That is it is not worth paying the price of air tickets SIA charges as they can get very much better value on other airlines. Yes one can say we are still the minority but as you can see the numbers are growing. Bear in mind in all the wealth surveys recently Singapore is a very rich country. There is a big pool of silver hair folks who would like to enjoy a bit of life before we move on to the next world. Instead of taking advantage of the situation SIA is antagonising its largest pool of potential customers. If SIA’s countrymen refuse to fly on its national airline, what would entice others to fly on SQ?