Flying: Shenzhen Airlines A320 Economy Class Guangzhou to Singapore 2016

My plan was to fly Singapore Airlines on the return leg as well, though I realised I could save about SGD 150 by trying my luck on Shenzhen Airlines.

The counter staff was proactive in tagging the monitor rack I checked-in as an fragile item, which was a nice touch.

Shenzhen Airlines 9025
Guangzhou (CAN) - Singapore (SIN)

Wednesday, 29 Dec 2016

Depart: 10:50AM

Arrive: 1:35PM

Flight time: 4hr

Aircraft: Airbus A320

Seat: 26D

Boarding was called at 10:15AM, and I was among the first few to board.

The  seat is fairly plain, lacking the neck rest that has become common even in economy class.

The legroom is fairly generous by economy standards, since I could slouch and yet keep a distance between my knees and the seat in front of me.

A point to note is that use of electronic devices are subjected to more stringent restrictions than elsewhere.

We pushed off on time at 10:45AM. The taxi however took about 20 minutes before we finally took off at 11:03AM. We experienced some turbulence soon after takeoff

The juice tasted more like concentrate.

Lunch was served an hour into the flight. There was a choice between a beef set meal and a fish set meal. I opted for fish, which turned out to be fishballs instead. Apart from the vegetables which was way overcooked, the food was actually edible and tasty, despite the presentation indicating otherwise.

Throughout the meal services multiple rounds of drinks were offered, though the selection is fairly limited, with only non-alcoholic juice available.

About an hour before landing, bottles of mineral water were distributed to passengers and mints were offered, both of which I appreciated. 

Flying: Singapore Airlines A330-300 Economy Class Singapore to Guangzhou 2016

I knew I had made silly mistakes in the past and paid a bit more than I should have by booking tickets at the eleventh hour. While I had originally intended to flying on a SGD 88 deal from Tigerair, circumstances arose and I had to delay my departure essentially voiding that ticket.

As such, given the last minute booking and the December travel season, almost all airlines only offer full fare tickets. Therefore, the lesser of the evils was at least ensuring the cash is well spent.

Check-in was uneventful since there was no queue at the counters. I got my boarding pass from the self check-in machines and dropped off the bags in the adjacent counters.

Singapore Airlines 850

Singapore (SIN) – Guangzhou (CAN)

Tuesday, 13 Dec 2016

Depart: 9:35AM

Arrive: 1:35PM

Flight time: 4hr

Aircraft: Airbus A330

Seat: 30G

This flight departs from one of the centralised holding areas in Terminal 3, which is just a few steps after clearing immigration.

Apart from occasionally subjecting myself to redeye flights on Scoot, I had become rather used to narrow bodies on the Singapore-Guangzhou segment. Hence, boarding took quite a while longer than I had expected, given the A330 seats 285 as compared to the 


This flight was exceptionally full, which probably explained the fare I paid. Fortunately SQ had a 2-4-2 configuration on its fleet of A330s which is much more comfortable than some of the 3-3-3 configurations. Though the Christmas decorations were a nice touch.

Perhaps due to the full load, we only pushed off at 8:25AM, though take off was fairly quick due to the light morning traffic.

Shortly after takeoff hot towels were offered along with the menus. Even the menu featured a Christmas themed cover.

Soon after drinks were also served. While the beverage selection was fairly extensive, I avoided alcohol this time round and settled for orange juice.

Breakfast was served on the outgoing flight from Singapore, whereas lunch would be catered for the incoming.

Breakfast was served together with a second round of beverages. The omelette was decent even by ground standards, though the hash brown was slightly soggy.

During breakfast the crew made several rounds offering refills of coffee, tea and juice. I had wanted a cup of green tea instead of black, and the steward immediately returned to the galley to get it, which I thought was exceptional.

After breakfast the cabin was dimmed to allow passengers to catch up on lost sleep. While I did lose some sleep trying to catch the morning flight, I figured that I might as well stay awake so as not to disrupt the sleep cycle. So I turned to the IFE and caught up with some movies that I missed during the semester.

Your Name was a good start, though I clearly overestimated my stamina by proceeding onto a second clip of War Dogs. I quickly dozed off halfway through the movie, even missing out on a visit to the galley.

We landed on time at 12:08PM. While Guangzhou is not really a place to catch aircraft traffic, we taxied past an Aeroflot A330, which is a beautiful bird.

Arrival at Guangzhou is a disaster, however, given the landing time. It appeared that there were at least 3 international flights landing at or about the same time.