SQ A350 Regional J to MEL: Melbourne is Open for Business! (And Leisure!)

[yflyer]

Omg. I am so lazy these days (and also busy flying around).

This year, ....
I actually had a Finnair trip from Dubai to Helsinki in business class
And a Lufthansa upper deck 747-800 from Frankfurt to Bangalore
And a tiny E135 from Capetown to Namibia with gorgeous aerials of the Namib desert.
And Philippine Airlines flat bed from Manila to Sydney with gorgeous aerials of Sydney harbour.

but doubt any reports are coming soon in this lifetime. Haha

I'll just enjoy yours first.

Amazing experiences! I do hope you will write some or all of these up, especially the E135 Namibia flight and the 747-8 flight! Both sound like they would have been wonderful flights! At least with LH operating the 747-8 to Singapore, I might have an opportunity to try it out some time in the future...

[SQueeze]

Look forward to more of your amazing TR's too, SQueeze!

Omg. I am so lazy these days (and also busy flying around).

This year, ....
I actually had a Finnair trip from Dubai to Helsinki in business class
And a Lufthansa upper deck 747-800 from Frankfurt to Bangalore
And a tiny E135 from Capetown to Namibia with gorgeous aerials of the Namib desert.
And Philippine Airlines flat bed from Manila to Sydney with gorgeous aerials of Sydney harbour.

but doubt any reports are coming soon in this lifetime. Haha

I'll just enjoy yours first.

[yflyer]

Wow. Spectacular epic trip to Melbourne. And wonderful to see you have an SQtalker group meet up there.

Thanks very much, SQueeze! Appreciate the kind words! Yes we have quite few SQTalkers based in MEL -- all great folks!

also have family there, some of the places bring back nostalgia, especially Yarra valley tour. I think we visited most of them. never tried the lunch though, which was spectacularly beautiful

I only managed to visit 3 wineries in Yarra...so many more to go! And I didn't even get to the Mornington Peninsula, where there are also great vineywards there, some with wonderful restaurants. When I was with a previous company, one of my colleagues took me on a long drive there for lunch...unforgettable meal and views too!

By the way, initially I wonder if Mrsflyer is a vegetarian ... until I saw the beef cheek at the end. Haha.

Err....she is the opposite of a vegetarian :-)

Hilton properties look great, both with very interesting architecture. Are you a member with them? I am, and I have been happy with their programme so far. There are not many hotels, compared to IHG, but they tend to be better in quality.

I've been quite impressed with the Hilton properties I've stayed in recently too. I think it helped that the Hilton at Little Queen Street was a very new property. These days I tend to pick newer properties over older ones, when possible. Between a new 3 or 4 star property vs an aging 5 star property, I would rather go for the newer 3 or 4 star.

Now looking forward to more your 2022 adventures and sharings!

Travel is picking up again! Am heading to Copenhagen at the end of the September for work, and just finished up bookings for a holiday trip to Portugal (Lisbon, Porto and a side trip to Madeira, to check out Funchal airport!) at the end of November, so some interesting TR's coming up, assuming these trips happen!

Look forward to more of your amazing TR's too, SQueeze!

[SQueeze]

Wow. Spectacular epic trip to Melbourne. And wonderful to see you have an SQtalker group meet up there.

I also have family there, some of the places bring back nostalgia, especially Yarra valley tour. I think we visited most of them. never tried the lunch though, which was spectacularly beautiful.
By the way, initially I wonder if Mrsflyer is a vegetarian ... until I saw the beef cheek at the end. Haha.

Hilton properties look great, both with very interesting architecture. Are you a member with them? I am, and I have been happy with their programme so far. There are not many hotels, compared to IHG, but they tend to be better in quality.

Now looking forward to more your 2022 adventures and sharings!

[yflyer]

Just an additional comment re what you said about nuts — at a recent PPS event in Europe SQ did mention they are very conscious about the lack of little things like towels etc. They are “working” on bringing back service routines of yore, like serving nuts in bowls. As to when, it is very hard to say but if I had to hazard a guess, this would be dependent when the 2k new cc eventually come online. So, if I am going by what SQ management said, these service elements are far from gone!

The day they bring back hot towels will be cause for celebration! I never realized how much I missed those until my recent flights!

[yflyer]

Thank you for this wonderful report yflyer. I thoroughly enjoyed all the photographs and descriptions in your TR. Glad you were also able to meet fellow SQTalkers. SQ's regional A350 J product looks top notch for the routes deployed. Nice shots of your arrival into SIN!

Cheers

Thanks very much RedEyeflight! Always nice to meet up with fellow SQTalkers, whether in Singapore or overseas! Haven't caught up with most of these folks since COVID19, and hope that our esteemed founders will consider organising another get-together soon (Hint: MAN Flyer and StarG :-)

The SQ medium haul / regional J product certainly is impressive. I seem to be encountering it a lot on the routes I want to fly. Would be nice to try one of the other J products for a change, though. Fellow SQTalker 9V-SIA just tried out SQ's new J product on the 737 Max 8 (Brave man, I know :-), and he seemed to like it.

[yflyer]

Awesome review as always. Glad you had a good trip and good to catchup. Yes I have had the same steak dish many times on the flight, Decent for flight meal but can't compare to Rockpool haha

Thanks, SQ218, and great to catch up in MEL! Would be hard for ANY steak to compare with the Rockpool one! This visit was the first time I tried the 60 month Cape Grimm Dry Aged Ribeye. I usually go for the 36 month. Now that I've tried both, I think I will go for the 60 month from now on...both are good but the 60 month has an even richer, beefier flavour!

[yflyer]

Thank you, thank you for this is stellar trip report! Yours have always been great, but somehow this feels like one of your best, with the combination of destination, running, and food!

Looking forward to the next one -- selfishly, hoping its Perth (as that is where I will be heading next this fall).

Thanks for reading, SQ777, and really appreciate the kind words! Believe it or not, I had to exclude some meals from the report to retain some kind of balance in the content!

As for the next report, I do have a holiday to Portugal coming up towards the end of the year, where I redeemed a ton of KF points to fly there via FRA before the recent KF devaluation, so looking forward to doing a write-up on that one! Work travel seems to be on the uptick as well, so of those happen, we might have a few regional TR's too. Of course travel budgets are still quite restricted so not sure if those will happen.

I am envious that you are heading to Perth! I love Perth and that whole part of Western Australia! Would definitely want to visit, but no plans at present. I did do a TR on a trip from Dec 2018. Do check it out if you haven't yet!

[RedEyeflight]

Thank you for this wonderful report yflyer. I thoroughly enjoyed all the photographs and descriptions in your TR. Glad you were also able to meet fellow SQTalkers. SQ's regional A350 J product looks top notch for the routes deployed. Nice shots of your arrival into SIN!

Cheers

[SQ777]

Just an additional comment re what you said about nuts — at a recent PPS event in Europe SQ did mention they are very conscious about the lack of little things like towels etc. They are “working” on bringing back service routines of yore, like serving nuts in bowls. As to when, it is very hard to say but if I had to hazard a guess, this would be dependent when the 2k new cc eventually come online. So, if I am going by what SQ management said, these service elements are far from gone!

[SQ218]

Awesome review as always. Glad you had a good trip and good to catchup. Yes I have had the same steak dish many times on the flight, Decent for flight meal but can't compare to Rockpool haha

[SQ777]

Thank you, thank you for this is stellar trip report! Yours have always been great, but somehow this feels like one of your best, with the combination of destination, running, and food!

Looking forward to the next one -- selfishly, hoping its Perth (as that is where I will be heading next this fall).

[yflyer]

Final reflections...

Melbourne remains one of our favourite cities to visit. There is so much to see, do and eat there, and most of the time, the weather is wonderful too.



We could easily have spent another week or two there checking out more restaurants, bars and even wineries. There are also so many activities outside Melbourne that we could have indulged in, on day trips further afield. It was also nice to see that old favourite places, like Movida or Rockpool Bar & Grill were still there and going strong -- very different from Singapore where F&B establishments tend not to have a very long shelf life.

We were also fortunate to go during a time when the city was opening up again, after a long period of COVID restrictions. The evidence of this was everywhere, including closed shops and restaurant outlets. But it was heartening to see that the Melbourne I remembered from previous trips still existed, and that life had returned to some semblance of normality.

This will definitely not be our last trip to Australia...hopefully as the COVID situation continues to improve we will be able to return to the days of frequent travel between Singapore and Australia (and everywhere else for that matter...are you listening Japan? :-)

Thanks for reading!

[yflyer]

Overall, this was an excellent flight from Melbourne to Singapore: A brand new plane, very friendly and helpful cabin crew, and top notch catering and IFE. What more could you ask for?

The only minor blemish was the fact that Mrs yflyer had asked for a cup of coffee after her meal, which was never served. The cabin crew must have forgotten.

"Why didn't you remind them?" I asked her...

"I was waiting and waiting, and then they began preparing for arrival...", she replied.

"I would have just asked again..." I told her. Oh well...

But that was a minor lapse. In all other respects, this was a superb experience.

[yflyer]

It was nice to be among the first off the plane, for a change...



No immigration queues...



It was also nice to see that there were no longer special COVID measures in place for arriving passengers. Travel was starting to feel normal again...

At the baggage claim, we waited a few minutes for our luggage, which all eventually turned up on the carousel without any dramas.