For flights departing from Singapore, the trip to the airport was often uneventful, especially for flights departing in the early morning. Traffic would be light, cabs or private hire cars being in abundance, ensuring that I reach the airport in less than half an hour from the other side of Singapore.
This morning, however, was an exception, I had booked transport on Grab, and twice in a row the ride was cancelled. Unsure of whether it was a system error or the driver cancelling the ride, I panicked as it was only an hour and a half to departure and I would almost certainly miss the flight if I were to take the train.
Fortunately, staying close to a taxi refuelling point has its benefits and I managed to hail a cab at 6:40AM on a Saturday morning. Phew, and my heartbeat managed to return to a more normal pace as the the first rays of sunrise flooded Changi's tarmac as the taxi drove past airport boulevard.
Thankfully the drama stopped and it was a smooth process from here onwards. SQ premium economy passengers has access to a dedicated row of check-in counters (near to door 5 for departure from terminal 3).
As there was virtually no queue at the counter (well I seldom see long queues at SQ check-in counters anyway, even during my routine flying in economy class), I got the boarding pass in a minute and even had a priority tag fixed to my check-in luggage.
Singapore 802
Singapore (SIN) - Beijing (PEK)
Saturday, 17 Jun 2017
Depart: 8:30AM
Arrive: 2:40PM
Flight time: 6hr 10min
Aircraft: Airbus A380
Seat: 33K
Boarding was from gate B7, which is quite a distance from the immigration counters, instead of the centralised boarding areas just a few steps away after clearing immigration, and are often used for A380 departures to Europe and Australia.
As I had to do some last minute shopping and money changing at the airport, by the time I arrived at the gate boarding was well underway.
At the adjacent gate was a SQ B777-300ER painted in Star Alliance theme heading to Shanghai PVG.
Stepping into the cabin, I quickly realised it's going to be a great flight. SQ's premium economy cabin featured 36 seats on the A380 (in a 2-4-2 configuration), and only 4 were occupied.
Furthermore, the other three passengers were occupying the left side of the cabin, leaving the either right half of the cabin to myself!
Suppressing my excitement, I quickly settled down in my seat and began exploring the seat features, starting with the reading lights.
Followed by the footrests.
During this time hot towels was also offered to passengers. As I had used "Book the Cook" to reserve my lunch for the flight, the stewardess also came forward and confirmed my meal order.
At about 8:20AM the captain came on the PA to introduce the crew and thanked all passengers for boarding on time, before announcing that he expect to arrive in Beijing on time, barring traffic controls.
We pushed off on time at 8:31AM, though had a fairly long taxi before arriving at the runway at 8:45AM.
From here it was a smooth roll down the runway before pulling up at 8:48AM.
Although I had pre-booked the meal, it was still interesting to take a look at the menu, which was a special 70th anniversary edition.
Here's the menu for brunch, as well as the drinks menu, which is almost the same as the menu in economy class, except for champagne.
And the menu for the return leg (which I'm not flying).
In the meantime, the stewardess suggested if I would like to have some champagne, which was slightly on the dry side. So I passed the idea of a re-fill and opted for some riesling to go with the meal later.
Soon my meal was served. I guessed this shows how well Singapore Airlines differentiates its premium economy from economy in the details, by serving the meal on a tray covered with pressed linen.
The beef brisket had slightly more tendons than I expected, though was well marinated and braised.
After lunch I turned on the IFE, starting with the air show.
At this point we were halfway into the South China Sea, off the coast of Vietnam.
I decided to catch up on a movie, and was pleasantly surprised by the noise cancelling earphones.
At this point the cabin lights were dimmed and I ended up watching Emma Watson's version of "Beauty and the Beast".
At about 2:00PM the pilot came online to announce the beginning of our descent into Beijing, with an estimated arrival time of 2:45PM.
We touched down on time at 2:38PM, and given the size of Beijing Capital International Airport, it was a fairly quick taxi to the gate, arriving at 2:43PM.
The ground staff was pretty quick and in about 5 minutes the jet bridge was assembled and the doors opened. Since business class was on the upper deck, we only had to wait for passengers in suites to alight first.
While the crew did not draw the curtains between PE and economy after landing, unlike the usual practice for first and business class, passengers from economy quickly swarmed into the PE cabin lining up to alight the plane. Nevertheless, since the PE cabin was closer to the door, we got to alight ahead of most other passengers, which was a blessing at a crowded airport like PEK.
Coming out of the aircraft, it was a quick stroll in PEK's sprawling terminal 3 complex before joining a long queue at the immigration check point.
Conclusion
Premium economy on SQ is indeed a solid product and clearly differentiated from economy, primarily in terms of seat pitch and width, IFE, catering and priority luggage.
And indeed the bid to upgrade system is indeed a great move to encourage passenger to experience the its product and services.
However, looking at the load factor on this flight, I would guess perhaps Asian passengers are slightly slower in subscribing to the PE concept.
