TG vs SQ to Incheon (Lots of pics and vids)

[ycp81]

Disagree with TG's food being better than SQ's in Y (although maybe for this report/route, it does seem marginally so). My own experience makes me look forward to the SQ food selection, to be honest.

To me, the upper end of the food spectrum shows no comparison - when SQ has great food, they win hands down by a large margin, but TG almost never has truly 'great' food - with one exception in all my experiences, 'above average' was as good as it ever got.

Probably I am just lucky but I guess TG's food offering is more on the "safe" side, with a thai curry choice for most meals while SQ sometimes have "celebrity chefs inspired" meals (if i recall, some of the "celebrity" meals do not taste that great). Also, catering out of BKK seemed to be better than catering from other stations.

But what I like most with TG is their generosity with food and beverages. Wide range of liquors/wines/drinks are offered without the need to make "special requests", full cans of drinks offered every time, additional offerings of breadrolls (especially their croissants) etc.

[Kyo]

SQ's celebrity meals in Y and J are about 50-50 for me, half are better than expected, half I don't feel there's anything truly special about, tbh... I was scanning my memory banks for anything truly outstanding from a celebrity creation, and I could only think of one example where quite a bit of thought was put into it (congratulations Sam Leong)

Even that's fairly tilted in one direction as the routes I fly mean I don't get to try Murata-san or Kapoor's dishes quite that often, unfortunately. As far as Gordon Ramsay's inflight creations go, I haven't yet found one to be truly mind-blowing.

[soarbeyond]

. As far as Gordon Ramsay's inflight creations go, I haven't yet found one to be truly mind-blowing.

Agreed !

[flyguy]

will go for better seat pitch anytime for long flights if on EY - TG and MH EY seats are 34" pitch and definitely can feel the increased legroom.

[SilverChris]

Nice report! Especially the pics of Seoul Makes me itch for an ICN visit

IMO, I think the Thai Girls lose to the SQ girls, on most of my flights. Maybe on your flight, you got a more friendly crew onboard. Although for the short SIN-BKK hops, I do agree that TG beats SQ by a small margin

[ycp81]

will go for better seat pitch anytime for long flights if on EY - TG and MH EY seats are 34" pitch and definitely can feel the increased legroom.

Me too, got too pampered by TG with their great seat pitch on their long haul aircrafts.

[9V-SIA]

Thanks for sharing. A very intering & informative TR ycp81

The Y seats look just the ticket. More legroom and... are they soft?

Looks like I should consider TG when I travel together with the kids.

Pity they stopped the BKK-JFK flights.

Your Silkair flights TR are still refered to by me

http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8933

http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8933

[Nick C]

Superb TR ycp81!

Excellent comparison between the 2 regional giants!

I have found SQ's Y portions to be shrinking. When I started doing my SIN-SYD commutes back in 07, the portions were still acceptable; now I need 2 portions (Or I may I have swelled in size ).

Does OZ do the catering for SQ at ICN?

[ycp81]

Does OZ do the catering for SQ at ICN?

Well, according to the catering trucks, it is Korean Air that does the catering.

[ycp81]

I have found SQ's Y portions to be shrinking. When I started doing my SIN-SYD commutes back in 07, the portions were still acceptable; now I need 2 portions

I think SQ had significant cutbacks in economy class catering in recent years, most probably due to cost-cutting. The below are some that I can recall:

1) Removal of appetizers for meals on short-haul flights (BKK, DPS, SGN etc).
2) Scrapping of post take-off snack service on regional red-eyes, giving the excuse that pax wants more rest. TG has proven that it does not take long to serve a light snack.
3) Offering less selection of alcohols/drinks on meals/drinks trolley or only coming out with water/beer/juices on trays. Anything else is on "special request".
4) Offering only chocolates instead of proper desserts for some meals.
5) Removal of side dishes (such as kimchi on ICN flights) on meal trays and having it upon request. How would pax know that kimchi is available??

However, if SQ wants to cut cost, they could do away with the sugar and creamer on the meal trays and only offer them if passengers wants coffee/tea (not many pax would want coffee/tea anyway) , just like what TG/CX/MH are currently doing.

[sqdazz]

I agree with your last post completely ycp81. If SQ want to stay on top they should not be cutting those things, they seem like small things but to me it is what set's the flight apart from others.

Garuda seems to offer better meals than SQ now

[agmhkg]

interesting, I found SQ's A333 EY seat quite comfortable on my SIN/MLE/SIN 2 weeks ago (though beocs of the airbus, the window seat seems very close to windows indeed).....and surprised to see that there was the Bar-cart drink service on the aisle(frankly as long as they have what I want in the cart it's not necessary to put everything onto the cart top), after the meal service, crew offered pre-poured drinks frequently.... they also have the amenity kits on the return flight which depart near mid-nite and the flying was within 4 1/2 hours, (some airlines like SQ main competitor within the region don't even have this on their long haul service). and the crew service was as good as usual. Frankly, like it or not is very personal cos we have our own taste and standard.

Regarding, TG I havn't flown with them after I witness bad service from their crew 3 years ago on the HKG/BKK/HKG J class , the crew attitude was so bad that I nearly wanted to slap onto her face, of cos I wrote in my complain in stead...

Anyway tks for such a detail plus lots of pic report, enjoy reading it.. :-)

[ycp81]

interesting, I found SQ's A333 EY seat quite comfortable on my SIN/MLE/SIN 2 weeks ago (though beocs of the airbus, the window seat seems very close to windows indeed)

Probably I find the seats uncomfortable due to my long legs and that SQ's seat design do not allow one to straighten the legs under the seats in front, unlike TG's seats.

and surprised to see that there was the Bar-cart drink service on the aisle(frankly as long as they have what I want in the cart it's not necessary to put everything onto the cart top)

I am surprised too! Well, it just seemed not too generous of SQ to "hide" the choices from the passengers. TG's drink carts wins on presentation even if they may not offer as many choices as SQ.

Regarding, TG I havn't flown with them after I witness bad service from their crew 3 years ago on the HKG/BKK/HKG J class , the crew attitude was so bad that I nearly wanted to slap onto her face, of cos I wrote in my complain in stead...

Apparently TG has better crew in economy than biz. So far, I had only encountered 1 really bad stewardess on TG but also had fabulous ones too!

[TheFA2X]

Great report, i think i need to try TG because i have never ride on TG...,

but this report gives me an idea of how good is TG