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Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN to LHR and back 2016

SQ flies from Singapore Changi Terminal 3. My flight was SQ 306, which departs 0110hrs. As I had completed my work for the day, I went to the airport rather early. Take note the roads in Singapore are more congested during the evening peak hours so the ride took a bit longer than usual, but still nothing too extreme. Taxi rides in Singapore are also fairly inexpensive, my ride cost about 30 SGD for a 32km run.

Check in for Business Class at Changi Terminal 3 is at Row 5. (common row for all Business class flights). It was empty when I got there, so check in was a breeze.
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Here is a short video of the check-in area.
 
Once through immigration, instead of heading straight to the lounge, I walked around a bit to stretch the legs first. Then I decided to head to the Long Bar by Raffles which is located above the DFS store. This place opened about a year back and provides complimentary taster cocktails. It was uncrowded - I think most passengers are unaware of this. See the screenshot.
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So I had a nice Singapore sling. It is a taster portion, so don't expect a large serving.
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In this short video, some footage of the Long Bar experience. Any passenger can get a free taster drink here, regardless of class of travel and you don't need to purchase anything.

Next, my lounge experience at the SilverKris Lounge.
 
The SilverKris Lounge at Singapore Changi Terminal 3 is SQ's flagship lounge. There are two sections within the lounge, one for Business Class and the other for First. I believe all Star Alliance carriers will use the SilverKris lounge. Take note that SQ sets up a separate KrisFlyer Gold lounge, for Star Gold members.
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The SilverKris lounge can get rather crowded during peak hours. SQ is in the process of upgrading her lounges all over the world, but the Singapore SilverKris lounge has yet to be upgraded. This is very noticeable when you compare this lounge with the newer incarnations in say London Heathrow or Sydney - there are very few power points available in Singapore Terminal 3. So I am looking forward to SQ revamping their flagship lounge, though I do not know when they will do so.

I planned to take my dinner at the lounge this evening, so let me show you what I ate. I told myself not to eat too much (since there would be more food on the flight) but the greedy me ended up having three rounds of food.

Here is the first round. Some fish, meat and ee-fu noodles. All very good.
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Second round, Pasta, chicken, some small dessert.
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Third round, I had rice with some of this braised tofu.
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In between, some sweet longan dessert dessert which was available in these nice small pots. Delicious!
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There was this Masala Chai Latte tea station which I hadn't noticed from previous visits. Maybe this was new, or I had just missed it. I didn't try it.
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Overall, a very pleasant time in the lounge. Also had time to catch up with more work, so that was fruitful. Here is the video I made of my lounge experience.
 
Now we come to the first leg of the flight - SQ 306, SIN-LHR. From the lounge, it could potentially be a fairly long walk to the gates that your SQ flight departs from so give sufficient time. One oft-repeated criticism of Singapore Changi is that they do the security screening at the gates, instead of earlier on. The feedback is that this adds additional stress that the point of departure. So here are the lines at the boarding gate. I do prefer to get all the security done earlier. My biggest bugbear with Changi's system is that I have to empty my water bottle at this point, though they do provide water coolers in the waiting area after the security.
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This being a late, red-eye flight, passengers went to gate early. Boarding commenced quite early too. I quickly got to my seat to relax.
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I use this app called FlightRadar24. Always fascinated by it. The plane I was flying on today was 9V-SWP, an 8-year old retrofitted Boeing 777-300.
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Now checking out what movies to watch on the KrisWorld system. You will discover that the handheld device is a touchscreen, however, the actual screen is not a touchscreen. Didn't matter to me. I usually catch up with movies on flights. I watched Deadpool and Kung Fu Panda on this flight.
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Takeoff was smooth and soon it was time for supper. Before that, these were the options for mains available. Seared Kurobuta Pork Loin with Bourbon Sauce, Lobster Dumplings Noodle Soup or Skinless Chicken Skewers from the newly launched Deliciously Wholesome menu. I had none of these since I booked the cook. Show you what I had shortly.
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And here were the choices for breakfast. Singapore Roti Prata, Griddle Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Baked Crepe with Scrambled Egg and Chives. Again I booked the cook for breakfast. Show you what I had later.
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Spotted this beautiful live Orchid in the toilet.
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Supper begins! This was the starter for the evening. Tuna Takati Greek Salad. The tuna was quite good.
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For my main, I Booked the Cook in order to try a dish from the new Deliciously Wholesome menu. The dish I chose was Citrus Steam Seabass with lettuce puree, legumes, radishes and sunflower seeds. I didn't expect the dish to look like this. On first look, it looked a bit like wild rainforest! Anyway, first impressions aside, now that I look at the picture it didn't look too bad. What I liked was a large piece of white fish (hidden under the green citrus puree). The fish and puree concoction was quite refreshing. Overall, if you like white fish and you are looking for something lighter, I think this is not a bad choice.
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After a good meal, I got some sleep and woke up some hours later. It was about 5 hours to landing when I decided to get a snack. On previous trips, I asked for noodles. This time round, I opted for a warm Ciabatta which was filled with pork in teriyaki sauce. The taste was decent.
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Breakfast service started about 2 hours before landing. Some fresh fruits and warm croissant to start.
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For my Book the Cook breakfast, I opted for the Nasi Lemak. This is my second time eating this and it was just as good. However, it is a rather heavy option for breakfast and I wasn't feeling particularly hungry this time round. Perhaps a lighter choice would have been better. I would keep that in mind for future flights.
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After a pleasant breakfast, we were soon to land in London. Landing was smooth and we quickly got to our landing gate. Overall another very pleasant and enjoyable flight on Singapore Airlines.
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Here are the video flight reviews of my flight, which I cover all of the above, in two parts.

Part 1 - Boarding and take off

Part 2 - Meals on board. Hope you enjoy the videos.
 
From London, I flew on to Washington DC on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. I have put the links in another thread. For this thread, I will just focus on the Singapore Airlines leg. Coming back from USA, I had a layover at Heathrow and spent some time in the SilverKris lounge.

From Terminal 3 (where Virgin Atlantic landed), I had to find my way to Terminal 2. I must have been rather tired because right now, I can't even recall what the process was like, though probably I had to take a bus to get to Terminal 2. All I remember was that the process was smooth and even though there was some walking to do, I managed to get to Terminal 2B quite quickly and found my way to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge. I also remembered that I took a shower in the lounge, before getting some light food to eat. They had 2 or 3 shower rooms, and all were empty when I got there. Felt better and more refreshed after a warm shower.

Here are some pictures (screengrabs from my video). Terminal 2 is the Star Alliance Terminal.
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There was a small bar area, but nobody was manning it. Perhaps too early for a drink?
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Copies of local Singapore papers (Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao) were available.
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This was breakfast time. There was a decent spread of hot food, including the usual western fare as well as Asian/Singaporean food - chicken congee and Nasi Lemak. I wasn't feeling hungry so I just had some congee, which was quite bland but that was the whole idea!
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Soon enough, the lounge staff made a final boarding call for my SQ flight back to Singapore. And a group of passengers, upon hearing the announcement, headed out to the gates together. Overall, I had a pleasant time in the lounge. Felt better after a shower. Here is a short video of the SilverKris Lounge at LHR Terminal 2B (Business Class section).
 
NEXT PART - LHR TO SIN SQ 305

The registration of the SQ Boeing 777 was 9V-SWK, a retrofitted Boeing 777 with the New Business class product. According to flightradar24, this aircraft first flew in June 2007
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I managed to snag seat 11K on this flight. Fortunate. For some reason, when I was choosing my seat, 11K was available. Perhaps somebody had just given up this seat! It is a window seat right at the front of the Business class cabin.
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Seat 11K (and the entire Row 11) has additional legroom because there is no seat in front of us. This picture shows you the additional legroom and space. Certainly felt like my own private pod.
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The cabin in front of us was the First Class cabin. 4 seats only. As the curtains had to be drawn for takeoff and landing, I could see the First class cabins from my seat.
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This is what I meant by plenty of room for me to stretch my legs.
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Spotted this Air Canada plane at another gate from my window. Brought back fond memories. About a year back, I flew on Air Canada from LHR to Ottawa. It was an enjoyable flight.
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Checking out the menu. A full meal service, starting with canape (the satay). For the red-eye flights, I have noticed that they skip the satay, for a faster service. Four choices for mains, but I had Booked the Cook.
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For breakfast, served before landing in Singapore, there were 3 choices for the mains.
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Pushback was on time. As we taxi-ied, I could see many aircraft movements, on tarmac, landing etc. Just managed to get a glimpse of this British Airways Boeing 747 land. Not sure when BA's Boeing 747 will be phased out. Anybody knows?
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Good weather and good visibility. A view of London after takeoff. See you again soon London!
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This is the video of the first part of the LHR-SIN flight, covering the boarding up till the take-off.
 
Time for some food! Lunch service would begin soon after takeoff. The Singapore Girl preparing my satay.
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For my main course, I had 'Booked the Cook' and it was the Hainanese Chicken Rice! Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of Singapore's most famous hawker dish. Yes, hawker dish. BBC wrote an article "A dish worth a 15 hour flight" - BBC - Travel - The dish worth a 15-hour flight. Quoting from the article, "Chicken rice is a full meal born out of the frugality that comes with strife and a battle to survive, as the Hainanese struggled to establish themselves in Singapore." And here it is.
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A closer look at the sauces that came with the chicken rice dish. Black sauce, ginger with oil, and the red chilli sauce. The butter looked so out of place here.
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Some readers (especially those from Singapore or Malaysia) may be wondering why in the world did I choose Hainanese chicken rice for my flight? SQ has so many wonderful gourmet choices, so why choose this chicken rice when I can easily get very good chicken rice from all over Singapore? Well, the answer was that I had wanted to try the SQ version of the Hainanese Chicken rice for a long time now. Yes, in all my previous flights, I had tried other dishes (e.g. Lobster Thermidor), but I think it was now time to try it and get it off the bucket list! No regrets. It was good! I like the white meat and I finished the chicken (goes very well with the chilli). I also finished the dessert, but didn't care too much for the cheese.

When I completed my lunch, it was about 10.5 hours to Singapore. By now, I started to feel tired (no chance to sleep much on the earlier Transatlantic flight) so it was time to convert the seat to bed mode, and go to sleep.
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Slept for about 5 hours and I woke up automatically. Quite expected, as I usually can't sleep for long extended hours on a plane. I asked for the Afternoon Tea service and this is what I got. It wasn't too bad, however, the spread certainly paled in comparison to the Afternoon Tea service on Virgin Atlantic (see earlier part of this review).
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After this snack, I tried to get more sleep, but I don't think I was very successful. Anyway, it was soon time for breakfast service. For the mains, I chose the Asian option, which was beef brisket noodles. Taste was good. Came with green chilli garnishing.
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When we touched down in Singapore, it was still dark, early morning. The sun didn't rise till about 7am. It was a very good flight and we disembarked very smoothly.

Getting through immigration was also smooth. I decided to visit the DFS store, which is just after immigration control, to buy a bottle of something. Taxes on alcohol are high in Singapore, so there would be substantial savings. I am only allowed one bottle of hard liquor (e.g. whiskey) so I chose the Johnny Walker Gold Label. Here is the video I made. Luggage came out quickly and I walked to the taxi stand (which was very near the exit) and got onboard a taxi to go home. All very smooth and fast, thank you Changi Airport!
 
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