Birthday surprise on your birthday ???

[milehighj]

You would be very fortunate to receive such inflight service today. Its gone.

We noticed.

[CarbonMan]

Birthday,Anniversay or Honeymoon cakes are available on most SQ flights. They are really the same type of cake.. depending on the station that upflited it, they are differentiated by the greeting card that accompanies it. Some stations may provide cakes with decorative words to announce the occasion.

Providing these cakes is not an automatic service, even though your personal data is displayed at any of the terminals either at check in or elsewhere.

Someone, somewhere ordered it.

It could be your office people, secretary, friend, or spouse. They would know your flight details such as date and flight number and SQ would verify it. The uplift would require at least 24 hours notice. Sometimes it can be last minute, provided the catering station have a cake in the cold room. This can happen if the station manager is aware and for some reason ( children,recovery or just plain PR ) may radio catering staff to supply one. These ad-hoc orders are not usual as it costs the station extra $$.

You could of course order one for yourself!
But that takes the surprise out of the event wouldn't it?

Some people do not like to be reminded of their birthdays, anniversaies or even their honeymoons. That is why, it may not be a good idea to celebrate the event publicly.
I have witnessed a couple who was surprised and not too happy about having to celebrate their anniversary.

There are discreet ways to approach this matter and less intrusive to celebrate the event. Some crew may organise it at door #2 where it affords some privacy and also create a kodak moment with a bottle of champagne ( not sparkling wine! ), corsages,linen,cake, dry ice effects and a pose from a willing and smiling Singapore Girl!
This would be very memorable and I feel very personalised.

You would be very fortunate to receive such inflight service today. Its gone.

Thank you for that insight, Inflight Sup (pun unintended)! Personally, being a relatively private person, I would be very embarrassed by something like this. It would be nicer, IMHO, if SQ gave me a birthday present in the form of Krisshop vouchers or free miles .... or an upgrade.

[KC*]

Since there can potentially be hundreds of passengers on a flight, there would likely be at least a few birthday or anniversary celebrants.

I am glad on-board celebrations are not "automatic". Can't bear to have to hear off-key happy birthday singing on every flight. Can be tiresome, no?

Perhaps a glass of champagne, brithday card and a discreet happy birthday, Mr/Ms xxx would be nice and adequate. Oh, and maybe an SQ bear to go with it.

I don't think we should even start discussing the problems created by upgrading birthday boys and girls...

[nickbot]

I've been fortunate enough to be the recipient of (IIRC) four or five cakes for various occasions over the relatively few years I've been flying SQ - each hold special memories and have made the flights even more memorable, especially when flying with loved ones and very dear friends (if I had the time to search, there will be two or three cake pics of mine somewhere here on the board!)

The first, back in 2005, was a complete and utter surprise, having flown LHR-SIN in 17H/K 744 on our honeymoon, mrs nickbot and I had been chatting to the FA seated in the jumpseat opposite us right from taxi at LHR, not only did he serve us Dom during the flight, but on our next leg SIN-SYD some hours later we were presented with a congratulatory cake and card signed by the captain and crew - he had obviously sorted this out after finishing his duty at SIN; this gesture and level of service blew us away

[SilverChris]

The first, back in 2005, was a complete and utter surprise, having flown LHR-SIN in 17H/K 744 on our honeymoon, mrs nickbot and I had been chatting to the FA seated in the jumpseat opposite us right from taxi at LHR, not only did he serve us Dom during the flight, but on our next leg SIN-SYD some hours later we were presented with a congratulatory cake and card signed by the captain and crew - he had obviously sorted this out after finishing his duty at SIN; this gesture and level of service blew us away

sounds like a CX advert to me

[Nick C]

I got a surprise.........

no b'day cake when it was noted in my boarding pass.....

Experienced this many years before as well. Planned my trip to coincide with my birthday.

No cake.

[nickbot]

Experienced this many years before as well. Planned my trip to coincide with my birthday.

No cake.

As earlier posters have noted, unless someone asks for a cake then no cake will be supplied - imagine the problems that could be caused by folk receiving a cake when they don't want to be reminded of their birthday? Also as KC* noted, it's highly probably that there are multiple birthday celebrants on each flight (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem) so the costs would become an issue.

[B727]

Some crew may organise it at door #2 where it affords some privacy and also create a kodak moment with a bottle of champagne ( not sparkling wine! ), corsages,linen,cake, dry ice effects and a pose from a willing and smiling Singapore Girl!
This would be very memorable and I feel very personalised.

You would be very fortunate to receive such inflight service today. Its gone.

Mmm, it may very well be gone, but thanks for taking us on a trip down memory lane though!

Last year, I was on an SQ flight on my birthday. I did not receive a BCAKE, but I received BBEARs! Two Singapore Bears presented to me by the lovely Ms A, one of the 20 most gracious green kebaya-clad Singapore Girls I have ever met over the decades.

And there I was thinking I was gonna have a quiet morning flight home on my birthday after a looong week in HKG, but the birthday surprises kept on coming! Earlier that morning, the JW Marriott Hong Kong had surprised me with a box of BCHOC upon checking out (which is prolly why they are in my Top 3 of JWMs worldwide ). And did I mention HKG catering also presented me with my BABAL birthday abalone dish on board?

All I want for my birthday is a BSQWEB aka a well-functioning SQ website please!

[9V-JKL]

All I want for my birthday is a BSQWEB aka a well-functioning SQ website please!

SQFG told me this the other day:

THere is NOTHING wrong with the website.

I mean, as long as i don't need to

1) book a ticket
2) make a seat request
3) change a flight
4) view a reservation
5) do any other manage my booking activity


It's perfectly fine Maybe your expectations are too high?

Happy Birthday B727!

[CarbonMan]

IAH-DME-SIN birthday upgrade

It was already a couple of days past my birthday but as I dragged my tired body onto SQ61 at IAH, I was told that I was upgraded to F for the IAH-DME sector; what a surprise! In return for my J IAH-SIN boarding pass, they gave me an F IAH-DME and a J DME-SIN one.

Great service in F as there were only 3 of us. Even managed to get the captain to alert me if he saw an aurora, which he did! Got my birthday cake of course, but I've to say it I wasn't really comfortable with the fuss. Even my colleague in J heard the commotion <hand-in-face>. One of the crew handmade a really beautiful card for me by cutting pics out from the menu and probably some mags and wrote in their signatures and wishes.

Then when I re-boarded at DME, I was again told that I was upgraded to F. This time only 2 pax in F, including me. More great service from this set of crew. Opened a Krug and shared it round the cabin and my pal in J. I told them that I was very appreciative that the previous crew gave me a birthday cake BUT they gave me another, BIGGER, cake after dessert!

Well all I can say is a really big THANK YOU (email gone out) to the senior ground staff at IAH and DME for upgrading me and for both flight crews for making this long 23-hour flight into the longest best in-flight birthday celebration I've ever had! But no, it's not going to encourage me from flying on my hatchday again.

[yflyer]

It was already a couple of days past my birthday but as I dragged my tired body onto SQ61 at IAH, I was told that I was upgraded to F for the IAH-DME sector; what a surprise!

...SNIP...

Well all I can say is a really big THANK YOU (email gone out) to the senior ground staff at IAH and DME for upgrading me and for both flight crews for making this long 23-hour flight into the longest best in-flight birthday celebration I've ever had! But no, it's not going to encourage me from flying on my hatchday again.

Great to hear! Glad that this still happens on SQ. And belated happy birthday, CarbonMan!

[9V-JKL]

Wow! Really happy for you

[mr_botak]

Good for you. Happy Birthday!

[chisquared]

As earlier posters have noted, unless someone asks for a cake then no cake will be supplied - imagine the problems that could be caused by folk receiving a cake when they don't want to be reminded of their birthday? Also as KC* noted, it's highly probably that there are multiple birthday celebrants on each flight (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem) so the costs would become an issue.

While it might certainly be the case that there are several passengers flying on their birthday on any given flight, I don't think this follows from the birthday problem/paradox.

The birthday paradox just says that in a large enough group of people, it's extremely likely that any two of them will share the same birthday. That birthday doesn't have to be today, which is where the cost issue comes from.

[CarbonMan]

Great to hear! Glad that this still happens on SQ. And belated happy birthday, CarbonMan!

Wow! Really happy for you

Good for you. Happy Birthday!

Many thanks, yflyer, 9V-JKL and mr_botak! A pleasant surprise indeed.