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I am writing this trip report before I can upload any pictures, so bear with me and I will put them up as soon as I can get my laptop connected correctly to upload all the pictures I took. (Well, one has already been kindly posted in another thread)
This trip is a trip I had planned a long time ago, before SQ loaded the A380 in the LHR-SIN schedule. I had bought an F ticket on SQ317 (and SQ322 for the SIN-LHR trip back) well in advance so that I hopefully would not have to pay for an outrageous suite class fare....
The morning started in London at the Andaz hotel. It is a new brand of Hyatt hotel and will start appearing soon in other cities. Very nice high end hotel with breakfast, Internet, local calls, minibar (though only water and juices) and laundry all included in the rate.
This hotel is on Liverpool street near the train station there.
SQ317 leaves at 11:55AM and we thought that by leaving at 9AM we'd have a reasonable amount of time to spend in the VS Club House. So we went for Breakfast around 8:20AM.
Unfortunately, though the hotel is very nice, the breakfast place is not efficient at all. They are very busy and it looks as if the wait staff keeps running randomly in all directions and we had to wait quite a while to get a table...
So we ended up leaving the hotel around 9:20AM and the tube and Heathrow express took overall more time than expected. Still we arrived around 10:25AM at the SQ check in desk. Suite class check in was busy with one passenger so we went to the business class desk. No problem there, the nice agent did everything except that he could not get the FQTS/FQTV thing quite right. Eventually, I did not ask him to print the boarding pass yet one more time but decided I would get the SKL staff to do it instead.
To my surprise, he did however offer that we get an escort to the lounge and I gladly accepted, hoping this would allow us to jump lines at the security.
Well, at the customer service desk, nobody wanted to escort us, so he ended up becoming the designated escort. The whole process to take that decision and then having him go back to the check-in desk to get his things took another 10 minutes or so. He took us to security, but unfortunately we lined up with everyone else.
However, after passing the main check, we did get around the shoe check... so we did save some time there. Then we did the long walk to the SKL (By then, there was not enough time to go to the VS CH) and got in and he said he'd see us again at boarding.
Boarding started 15 minutes later, but the SKL agent said the boarding area was congested and advised to wait in the lounge. So we did, and I got my FQTS/FQTV thingy done. It did take however several requests as the first lady I asked seemed not to know how to do it.
But to my surprised, as we were about to leave the lounge, the check-in agent had come to the SKL to escort us to the boarding.
This was very nice of him. In fact, when we got to gate 7, all the doors to the jetways were closed and nobody was boarding. But as soon as he reached the gate agents, they let us through and he used his badge to open the door to the lower deck jetway. I was pretty happy about that service!
Well, of course, when you get on an A380 for the first time, and you do it with a suite boarding pass, it is of course like being a kid in a candy store!!!
Had to explore everywhere....
We had seats 3C/D and from the seat-map the same morning, it looked as if the number of passengers in suite class might be just 4. I asked the IFS and he did confirm there were only 4 passengers. He said that until the night before, there were supposed to be 11 passengers, but that 7 had canceled!!
All the better for the remaining passengers of course!
I can say that the interior looks a lot better in real life than on any picture I have seen!
One little disappointment about the boarding is that I did not get a "Welcome back ..." greeting. Instead, the IFS said "Welcome to the A380".
It's really a minor point, but as has been mentioned before, it is so much better when you get that little recognition.
Well, I will give installment 2 of this TR very soon
This trip is a trip I had planned a long time ago, before SQ loaded the A380 in the LHR-SIN schedule. I had bought an F ticket on SQ317 (and SQ322 for the SIN-LHR trip back) well in advance so that I hopefully would not have to pay for an outrageous suite class fare....
The morning started in London at the Andaz hotel. It is a new brand of Hyatt hotel and will start appearing soon in other cities. Very nice high end hotel with breakfast, Internet, local calls, minibar (though only water and juices) and laundry all included in the rate.
This hotel is on Liverpool street near the train station there.
SQ317 leaves at 11:55AM and we thought that by leaving at 9AM we'd have a reasonable amount of time to spend in the VS Club House. So we went for Breakfast around 8:20AM.
Unfortunately, though the hotel is very nice, the breakfast place is not efficient at all. They are very busy and it looks as if the wait staff keeps running randomly in all directions and we had to wait quite a while to get a table...
So we ended up leaving the hotel around 9:20AM and the tube and Heathrow express took overall more time than expected. Still we arrived around 10:25AM at the SQ check in desk. Suite class check in was busy with one passenger so we went to the business class desk. No problem there, the nice agent did everything except that he could not get the FQTS/FQTV thing quite right. Eventually, I did not ask him to print the boarding pass yet one more time but decided I would get the SKL staff to do it instead.
To my surprise, he did however offer that we get an escort to the lounge and I gladly accepted, hoping this would allow us to jump lines at the security.
Well, at the customer service desk, nobody wanted to escort us, so he ended up becoming the designated escort. The whole process to take that decision and then having him go back to the check-in desk to get his things took another 10 minutes or so. He took us to security, but unfortunately we lined up with everyone else.
However, after passing the main check, we did get around the shoe check... so we did save some time there. Then we did the long walk to the SKL (By then, there was not enough time to go to the VS CH) and got in and he said he'd see us again at boarding.
Boarding started 15 minutes later, but the SKL agent said the boarding area was congested and advised to wait in the lounge. So we did, and I got my FQTS/FQTV thingy done. It did take however several requests as the first lady I asked seemed not to know how to do it.
But to my surprised, as we were about to leave the lounge, the check-in agent had come to the SKL to escort us to the boarding.
This was very nice of him. In fact, when we got to gate 7, all the doors to the jetways were closed and nobody was boarding. But as soon as he reached the gate agents, they let us through and he used his badge to open the door to the lower deck jetway. I was pretty happy about that service!
Well, of course, when you get on an A380 for the first time, and you do it with a suite boarding pass, it is of course like being a kid in a candy store!!!
Had to explore everywhere....
We had seats 3C/D and from the seat-map the same morning, it looked as if the number of passengers in suite class might be just 4. I asked the IFS and he did confirm there were only 4 passengers. He said that until the night before, there were supposed to be 11 passengers, but that 7 had canceled!!
All the better for the remaining passengers of course!
I can say that the interior looks a lot better in real life than on any picture I have seen!
One little disappointment about the boarding is that I did not get a "Welcome back ..." greeting. Instead, the IFS said "Welcome to the A380".
It's really a minor point, but as has been mentioned before, it is so much better when you get that little recognition.
Well, I will give installment 2 of this TR very soon
Looking forward to the rest of the report.
thus need to recharge immediately prior to heading for Heathrow. 
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