SQ26/25 SIN-FRA-SIN A380 Biz & Suites: Frankfurt Xmas Markets & 2 Weeks in Portugal

[yflyer]

Those pics, just wow.

1. What's your motivation to write so descriptive and detailed in each of your TR and for every trip, Like every single piece is so well done, , I can barely write a line about each of my pic.
2. Your pics are of so good quality, what device do you use to click?
3. When you fly premium, how do you not get overwhelmed in the experience and still get time to click such beautiful pics?

Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks, balajih67!

1. Writing these helps me remember the trips. The vacation has ended but I get to relive it again as I sort photos and write up the TR. And years later, I come back to these TRs and revisit these treasured memories!

2. These days all photos are taken on my iPhone, and I just use the standard Mac Photos app to adjust colour balance etc, apply some minimal filtering, crop the pictures, and blur faces. Cropping and colour balance makes a lot of difference! In the past, for a small number of holiday trips, I did use an Olympus EP2 to supplement the iPhone, but these days I just use my iPhone.

3. It's become a habit! And so far cabin crew have always been happy to let me take pictures of the wine bottles, bread baskets etc when I request it. Many have offered to take a picture of me in the seat as well, though I usually decline as the subject of the TR is the plane, the cabin product and the experience, not me!

[yflyer]

As the boarding process continued, I took the opportunity to take a stroll through the upper deck...



I would have liked to head down the stairs to see how things were going in the Y cabin, but there was a barrier across the stairs. I guess now that there is no mini Y cabin on the upper deck, there is no reason for anyone from downstairs to come up, and vice versa.



There was a passageway and emergency exits ahead of row 96, towards the rear of the business class cabin.



That meant that the middle 96D/F seats also had full width legroom, and could be converted to a "double bed", making a total of three rows on the upper deck of this A380 that could be selected as "doubles": rows 11D/F, 91D/F and 96D/F.

I had tried to select one of these seat pairs before the trip, but they were all either taken, or reserved for PPS/Solitaire members. I even tried emailing SQ to request these pairs, but the reply was also that the seats were unavailable. In any case our seats in row 12 were perfectly fine.

A quick look into the restrooms before take-off...



Toiletries from Penhaligon's...



Toothbrushes and shavers in the restroom amenities drawer (Rather than in the amenity kit)...

[yflyer]

I returned to my seat just in time to for a glass of pre-departure Champagne (Yes! Pre-departure beverages are back!)...



I took a sip before continuing my exploration of this 2nd generation A380 J seat, first introduced in 2017.



There was a large widescreen IFE display in front of you. Super crisp and vivid. The front console had a coat hook, and 2 compartments where small items, could be stowed...



Just below the display was a flap that, when raised, revealed a USB charging port, and a universal A/C power socket.



The seat was upholstered in high quality leather and felt very comfortable to sit in.



The stylish side console had ample space for a drink and other items. There was also an adjustable reading lamp and a small IFE controller (Which I didn't use, as I found the touchscreen perfectly comfortable to use, even if I had to reach forward a little to touch the screen).




There was a 2nd USB charging port on the side console, as well as a powered headphone socket for the noise cancelling headphones provided. There was a night light integrated into the design of the the wall of the side console.

There was a fold-out vanity mirror...



Seat controls were on the side of the console. These were intuitively labelled, but I found that they required a lot of pressure to activate.



Note as well the fold-down arm rest, on the console side (Pictured above), and on the other side as well (See below)...



The tray table emerged with a push of a button...



Turn the table towards you...



...and unfold it to form a firm and stable dining table or work top...



The partition between the centre D/F seats was adjustable to 3 different positions. This was the mid-level position, where it was possible to chat with your seat mate on the other side.



You could raise it for full privacy...



Or you could lower it right down to seat base level as well.

The seat instruction video indicated that pax should call the cabin crew to lower it for you, but in reality all you had to do was move the lever on the front bottom of the partition to unlock the partition and allow it to move to the lowest setting.



This was easy enough to do yourself, after you saw how the cabin crew do it once. This was the lowest setting for the seat partition -- right down to the level of the seat base...

[yflyer]

This seat reclined fully to become a flat bed without pax having to get up to flip over the seat back (Which was the case for the 1st generation A380 seat, as well as even the 2013 J seat, still in use on SQ's 77WNs and long haul A350s).



For the centre seats, there was a pull-out section in front of the cubby hole that had to be extended in order to form the full bed surface.



There was also a do-not-disturb button on the seat controls...



...when activated a red light on the outside of the seat, under the seat number signage, would indicate to cabin crew that you did not want to be disturbed.

[yflyer]

Really high quality noise cancelling headphones were provided.



There was a little hook in the wall of the side console that could be used to hang the headphones...a thoughtful touch...



Safety card, Krisshop Catalog, and wifi card...



Wifi was complimentary for pax in business class...



There was a fantastic selection of Movies, TV and Music on the Krisworld IFE...



For this flight, the November programme selections were loaded...



The only omission on the IFE was live television, which SQ offers on some other aircraft, such as their newest long haul A359's.

Each J pax received a bottle of drinking water.

[yflyer]

We pushed back and took off into the night sky...such a quiet and smooth take-off...



Right after take-off, a further round of beverages...



Supper service began shortly after that...

There was a proper paper menu...



A range of amenities were available on request...



Today's supper menu...



Noodles and snacks were available in between meal service...



Breakfast prior to arrival...



Champagne today was Charles Heidseck...



The wine selection...



Kopke Port was on the menu...I would be looking out for Kopke when I was in Porto later in the trip...

[yflyer]

The cocktail selection...



Spirits and beer...



Non-alcoholic beverages...



A huge selection of coffee...



...and tea...



..including Chinese tea, green tea and Indian masala tea...

[yflyer]

Today's starter was crab mayonnaise salad...



I paired this with the Dandelion Chardonnay...



A selection of bread from the basket...I picked the garlic bread...



The crab mayonnaise salad was excellent!



Rather than go with any of the mains on the menu, I had pre-ordered a book the cook (BTC) selection, Beef steak...



I had this with the Clarendelle...



Steak is notoriously hard to pull off as an inflight meal, but this steak was quite superb...tender, and not overcooked, with a wonderful smoky flavour...



Mrs yflyer had ordered the seared lamb loin on the menu, and she thought it was good as well.



I gave Mrs yflyer a slice of my steak to taste, and she said the steak was even better than the lamb...

The cabin crew came by with a trolley offering dessert or cheese...I asked for both...



The pistachio cake with sour cherry and almond crumble was very tasty...



The cheese was fine too...

[yflyer]

Amenity kits were handed out. Before turning in for the night, I had a look at the contents of the kit...



Not a lot in there, but many other items such as eye shades, slippers, toothbrushes and a razor were available on request. Probably better from a waste reduction / green perspective...who was I to complain?

The pouch had a very attractive Penhaligon's print fabric inner lining...

[yflyer]

With cabin service done, the cabin was dimmed for rest, first briefly to shade of red (To simulate sunset, maybe?) before turning completely dark...



A view of the row 96 "double bed"...



A view of the "double bed" in row 96, with the base of the bed occupying the full width of the seat. The occupants on today's flight didn't lower the partition fully -- the partition could go right down to bed level if desired.

[yflyer]

I prepared my own seat for bed...

There was a thick, soft, fabric bed spread / cover that could be fitted over the headrest of the seat with the remainder of the sheet covering the rest of the leather seat like a bedsheet...



With that in place, the seat could be reclined fully flat, forming a comfortable sleeping surface (Just don't expect this to be the Westin Heavenly Bed (tm)...)...



The partition could be fully lowered if desired...



A pillow, and a fluffy duvet were also provided...



The cubby hole provided decent legroom to lie flat...



More than sufficient legroom for me to stretch out. I am not tall, but there should be sufficient room for fairly tall folks to stretch out as well.



I slept very well for several hours...

[yflyer]

About 6+ hours into the flight, I woke up, and decided to try a bowl of noodles from the "delectables" section of the menu...it was, after all, already early morning in Singapore...who could blame me for feeling hungry?



The noodles, which came with generous helpings of fish balls, fish cake, and minced meat, were quite delicious! I paired my noodles with a Gin & Tonic (Which infuriatingly came without a lemon slice...even in J! First world problems, I know.)

I went back to sleep after that.

Cabin ambience was great...dark and quiet. It was possible to sleep quite soundly on this flight, although some folks did remain awake, watching programmes on the IFE.

[yflyer]

2 hours 15 min prior to arrival, the cabin lights slowly came on, as the cabin crew prepared for breakfast service...



By then, we were over Turkey, and entering Bulgarian airspace...



...having flown over India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran along the way...



I took another stroll around the cabin to stretch my legs...



My tray table was set for breakfast...



Breakfast service began with fruit, bread and coffee or tea...



I opted for a croissant and jam, which I tucked into after eating the fruit...



Both Mrs yflyer and I had opted for BTC choices for breakfast.

The thing about SQ's BTC selections is that you don't have all choices for all meals. The BTC choices for each flight depends on the sector (ex-SIN flights have the largest selection), and the specific choices available for each meal service also depends on whether the meal is breakfast, lunch or dinner.

For breakfast on SQ26 SIN-FRA, the BTC options available were mainly breakfast selections, including both western breakfast mains and Asian selections such as noodles. But to SQ's credit, someone decided that Lobster Thermidor was a legit BTC breakfast dish on this sector. How enlightened and indulgent is that!

I couldn't resist pre-ordering the lobster for my BTC breakfast, and paired it with yet another glass of champagne...



This was tasty...better than the BTC lobster I had for a previous SIN-MEL trip in May.



Mrs yflyer had pre-ordered the Japanese-style Unagi with rice...



This was absolutely delicious...tender, tasty chunks of unagi on a bed of fluffy short grained rice....

[yflyer]

The rest of the flight went by quickly...



As I was seated in the middle block, with no window access, and as it was still dark outside, I followed the descent and final approach on the IFE...



Banking over the Main River, towards FRA...



Final approach...



We landed very smoothly (By A380 standards), at 6.39am in the morning, just 20 minutes behind schedule, despite departing from Singapore an hour late, at around 1am.

At the gate in FRA...



Overall this was a very good flight, with a strong cabin product and cabin crew well up to SQ's standards.

As always, on these overnight flights, where you spent most of the time sleeping, you didn't get to interact with the cabin crew as much as on daytime flights, but I thought the crew did a great job during meal service, and were always responsive when pax needed anything during the flight.

Catering was very good on the whole, with the BTC selections deserving special mention for their excellence.

Overall impressions of the cabin product?

I was quite impressed with the A380 Monocoque seat, first introduced in 2017. It is a solid product, with a sleek design and good ergonomics for sleep and as well as work.

Strengths included the fact that you did not need to get up to flip the seat over into bed mode, and the ideal 1-2-1 layout giving all pax direct aisle access, and a lot of privacy. I thought the quality of workmanship and finishing on the seat was excellent as well. There was a good sense of space available, and the layout made for a good work/dining experience as well as a comfortable sleeping surface, made even more comfy with the soft white pillow and duvet, and bed cover that SQ provided.

Is the A380 Monocoque seat the perfect J seat? Not quite: While the seat reclined full flat at the push of a button, the cubby hole was not as large as some competing designs. The footrest did not come up as high as I would have liked when the seat was only partially reclined. Also the seat control buttons on the console required a fair bit of force to press. But these were fairly minor quibbles. Overall, I would say this is a very good seat product that would not disappoint today's business class passengers.

Compared to SQ's other current seat offerings, I think it represents an incremental evolution over 2013 J on the 77WN, and was also preferable to SQ's latest regional J product on the 787-10 and regional A359, although the margin of difference is smaller than one might expect. (This is reflection of how superb the new SQ regional J seat is, that it can withstand comparison with a long haul J product).

How did this seat compare with V1 of SQ's A380 seat? To be frank, I found SQ's original A380 J seat to be very comfortable as well. I would have been quite happy even with the original v1 A380 J seat.

As for comparisons with other airlines, I would say Business Class seating is fiercely competitive. This A380 J cabin product is very good, but I would not go as far as to say it is the best out there at the moment. Seat design is an arms race, and some years have passed since this design was launched. Since that time, the competition has made some strides forward. I look forward to what SQ will come up with in their next evolution of J seat on their upcoming 777-9.

[yflyer]

We were among the first off the plane, and headed to baggage claim where thankfully all our luggage arrived safely.

We headed to the train station, which was within the airport complex itself, and caught the S-Bahn train into Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is one of those cities with a very well integrated and efficient public transport network. If your hotel or lodging in the city is close to one of the train stations, and you do not have too much luggage, I would highly recommend taking the train from the airport to the city, rather than a taxi. The time isn't much longer (24 min by train in our case, vs 18 min by taxi) and it is a lot cheaper, at EUR 5.60 per person, compared to about EUR 30+ for a taxi or Uber.

The only wrinkle in this plan is the fact that the automated ticketing machine (which accepts both cash and credit card) isn't the easiest to use, even with the available English translation.



First step, is selecting the type of ticket. "Single trip Frankfurt" was easy enough to pick...



But after that, you were presented with two options which cost the same, EUR 5.60, but had remarks which were totally unintelligible to English speakers...



"via ohne Umweg"? "Via Neu-Isenburg"? What on earth were those? I examined the route map and didn't find any stations corresponding to these on the route.

Some Googling later, I learnt that "ohne Umweg" simply meant "Without Detour".

In any case, both cost the same, so I just picked "ohne Umweg" and hoped for the best. In any case the S-bahn system in Frankfurt worked on the honour system, and there were no turnstiles or barriers at the train station. Anyone could board, and the only time your ticket would be checked was if you encountered a ticket inspector.

We followed the Google Maps public transport instructions and waited for the S8 train headed towards Hanau Hbf...



Trains came by very frequently...we didn't have to wait long for our train...



The train itself was fairly comfortable, and not crowded at that hour in the morning. There were no longer any mask wearing requirements in Germany, except on public transport such as trains. Most folks went about unmasked, except onboard trains themselves, were FFP2 masks were required. We had brought along a whole stash of FFP2 masks, so were well prepared for this (Although from the pic below, you can see at least one traveller blissfully unaware of this rule.)



6 stops later, we got off at Hauptwache station, in the heart of Frankfurt, near the Zeil, a major shopping street.



From there it was just a short walk to our hotel, the JW Marriott Frankfurt.