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SQ Suites, JFK-FRA-SIN-BOM

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  • SQ Suites, JFK-FRA-SIN-BOM

    Recently, in November, I booked a saver award for JFK-FRA-SIN-BOM for something like 126K miles + taxes. Pretty reasonable mileage for 3 sectors in Singapore Suites I must say. I would have preferred to book a round trip in business for few more miles, but the dates would just not work out. Instead, I chose to book this and a return award in coach on the SkyTeam alliance.

    This booking allowed me to make a day trip to Singapore to sample local specialties with the help of excellent recommendations made by members of this forum. I wasn't able to hit all the spots as intended, but the laksa at Katong 321 and dim sums at Din Tai Fung were especially memorable. Weather gets in the way! I am acclimatized to the north american climate and the equatorial weather took a toll on my body. I was drenched from head to toe as I made my way through leafy Orchard Road to Clark Quay, only to give up, get in a cab and head on over to Maxwell Food Center. Something about the chicken rice at the Tian Tian. I should have known this place is an outdoor food court, sans air conditioning! I was sweating a bucket, further lubricated by an ice cold cane juice from a nearby vendor. At this time my stomach was bursting as well, having splurged on numerous meals between JFK to FRA to SIN. But I just had to do it. In about 6 hours I spent in the city, I ate 5 whole meals! I swear, I polished them off! The Tian Tian chicken was good, but not a favorite of mine. Look, comfort food hits different spots for each recipient. Mine was the steamy hot broth in the chicken dumplings at Din Tai Fung. And what's with absence of tissue paper at food courts? Look, I would have paid 20 bucks if someone offered me a box of tissue, perhaps 50 bucks for a fresh, dry towel. I had none, and availed myself of my shirt sleeves to dry off. Once the sleeves were drenched, I had to reach the bottom of my shirt to further dry my lips. I must have made a scene worthy of a youtube moment, but the anonymity of a strange tourist in a foreign land allows one freedom from local civility. I kid you not, the hot sauce in the chicken would have taken my lower lip but for the dry end of my shirt bottom. Civility be damned, I will keep my lips!

    My ride from JFK. The visage of this matronly A380 just boggles your mind. How does it even take off? It's got 22 wheels, with a wing spans of 260 feet. Did you know, it's broader than it's long (239 feet)? At about maximum take off weight of 600 tonnes and >5800 sq. ft of real estate. That's like a suburban north american home taking off in the sky. Well, every now and then, homes here do fly off in the tornado season, but in the case of A380 it's routinely done with four engines with a thrust of 80,000 lbf! This bird's starting to show its age, but is fully serviceable nevertheless. Perhaps retirement is close by, but just not today.


  • #2
    JFK to FRA

    Evening flight departing at 8 PM. I was welcomed at the door and shown to my seat by a friendly FA. First impression of the interior? Looks like some first class cabins on European trains. Does not have the charm or thematic suave of Lufthansa, but the seat is certainly more private.





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    • #3
      Food JFK - FRA

      Evening started with the crunchiest of cashews I have tasted, almost as if they were hollowed out and skin roasted in open flames. Yummy! Sure, accompanied by expensive bubbly that I just can't differentiate. I was offered both of $150 retail variety, but the bubblies don't do much for my palate. A a good Scotch is another thing altogether.





      The caviar service on SQ is better than that of LH's.


      Next course, some crummy soup. Didn't like it.


      BTC'ed the lobster ex-JFK. Pretty darn good I say.


      Skipped salad and the cheese course, straight to desert. The ice cream gave me a brain freeze, but superb sweet course.


      I don't quite remember if I had breakfast or not, but this must be what I had prior to landing at Frankfurt.

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      • #4
        Did you mean Laksa Katong 328 or is there another one called Katong 321? ;-))

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        • #5
          Originally posted by SilverKrisSRG View Post
          Did you mean Laksa Katong 328 or is there another one called Katong 321? ;-))
          You are right, Katong 328 on East Coast Road. I landed up going to Din Tai Fung within about a block away from there at 112 Katong I believe.

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          • #6
            Thanks for posting, LifeInCHM! Always nice to read about what goes on in Suites.

            Speaking of Katong and i12, there is a corner coffee shop across the street from the i12 mall called Ali Babar. It is a regular kopitiam serving hawker food by day, but turns into a sports bar, with a very good selection of international and craft beers, in the evening.

            During the day, there is a stall there that sells really great fried hokkien mee sua. They do hokkien mee as well, which is very good, but it is really the fried hokkien mee sua that is outstanding, and very hard to find elsewhere.

            Something to try for your next stopover in SG!

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            • #7
              FRA - SIN

              As we landed at Frankfurt airport, no ground service (escort to lounge) was offered to Suites passengers. I believe all Singapore passengers went to the Senator lounge, but I chose to go to the Air Canada's Maple Lounge which is much nicer. They have really nice showers and a decent espresso machine to wake you up from that overnight flight from JFK. I dare say, the ground service at JFK was better as I was offered a personal escort through the maddening security checks all the way to the Virgin Clubhouse (nice, BTW) and subsequently as we boarded the plane, the same attendant who brought me through security also personally delivered me to the flight attendants to be seated.

              Early morning/afternoon alcohol is not my cup of tea. FA's were disappointed I turned down offers for early afternoon bubbly. They brought out a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon and later the Krug enticing me to imbibe. I politely declined and asked for an orange juice. The value proposition of freshly squeezed juice compared to a rather expensive champagne is time dependent on the body clock. At this point, it was early morning back in the good old US of A. Ask me after 6 PM, there's good chance I will not decline alcohol. Here I am settled in to the same seat as I had occupied on the JFK-FRA sector.



              At this point I managed to get a nice self-reflection of my matronly carrier in the glass windows of the Frankfurt airport. How appropriate?

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              • #8
                FRA - SIN Service

                The crew sprang into action roughly an hour after take off. The service on this sector was particularly impressive, certainly the best among 3 sectors that I flew. However, their hands were tied, either due to lack of equipment or training or both. There's no on-board chef, so while each courses were sumptuous on their own, there was something amiss. Either the heat, garnishes, or temperature at which items were served, were off. Take this satay for example. I have had this numerous times on the streets of Singapore, straight off the griddle. The street food version is far superior, simply because the meat is served piping hot off the grill, the peanut sauce has the perfect combination of heat and flavor. This one did not (I found the sauce bland). I think the idea is good in principle, but the execution falls behind. As I said, the FA's hands are tied either due to lack of training or equipment. Nevertheless, I will take SQ's food (any class) over that of LH. TK comes close though, especially in economy, maybe even surpassing the quality of SQ Y food.



                The caviar service was superb though. I am not much of a connoisseur when it comes to fish roe, but this I could tell was better than any other caviar I have had.



                Is this how it's done?



                Tom Yum Goong soup, very good, but as hot as I would have liked. Look, if those nostrils don't run as you slurp this, something's not right. I barely broke a sweat.



                Well here you go again! I BTC'd the lobster again. Nothing else appealed to my palate, not even the on-board menu. Pork's the way to go ex-FRA, but inside of this aluminum tube (25% composites) is no place to experiment with Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle). You want knuckle? Try Früh at Cologne or Haus Wertheym at Romerberg, Frankfurt. The lobster ex-FRA was different preparation from that of ex-JFK, much more cheesier and lot more meat in this crustacean. I preferred the ex-JFK version , but no matter, I devoured it!



                Aftermath...



                Unimpressive dessert


                Mid-night snack (pardon me, it was dark outside)



                Prior to landing at Singapore.





                Absolutely the very best course (YMMV of course) of the all 3 sectors. Prawn noodle soup.

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                • #9
                  SIN - BOM

                  Check-in was a breeze via the first class terminal. I was the only person checking in at the time, with about 10 staffers manning the counters. Boy, what an employee to customer ratio. Not sure how these employees contribute towards worker productivity. It was almost as if you were air-side as a bird sneaking through open windows! The immigration officer was super friendly, we chatted a bit about this and that. I headed on over to the Private Room, which in my opinion is nothing special. I dare say the First or Business class lounges are better as you can do people watching while consuming similar food/drink. I had no stomach room left after consuming 5 meals in short 7-8 hours in the city, and wanted to preserve any space I had left for the Sanjeev Kapoor fame food on the airplane. I spent roughly an hour just walking up and down terminal 3 watching people and appreciating the excellent Changi airport. Eventually, I got bored and headed over to Terminal 2 where my flight departed from. There is a first class lounge there which is equally nice and if pressed for time, there is no reason to show up at Terminal 3 just to avail first class check-in or the private room. I had to go there so I could pickup my backpack I had left at the Left Luggage room. Another perk for Changi transit passengers, a left luggage cost me only SGD 3.5 and it appears the charge is dependent on the weight of the bag and not the dimensions? Since security is done at the gate, class of flight not withstanding, I had to wait a good 20-30 minute for my turn. No preference given to SQ Suites passengers, NADA...

                  Once seated at the seat 3A I believe, I quickly noticed that this aircraft was in better shape than the one I took from JFK-SIN. There were quite a few knicks on that airplane, though the seats were decent as they were recently upholstered. However, SQ appears to be falling behind on the strides airlines from the middle east appear to have made. I have been on LH First couple of times, and LH has much better ambiance compared to SQ. I have said this elsewhere, LH almost appears like a posh living room in the sky. Meanwhile, SQ is very compartmentalized, and private. With suite doors closed, standing in the aisle, it feels like you are traveling inside a train coach. The seat itself has one major draw back. It's so far away from the windows that it's almost impossible to see outside without leaning over or await moments when the airplane is banking on your side. One of my favorite things to do on an airplane is to look outside the window and make a mental note of certain geographical feature, then upon landing look it up in Google Maps to try and identify that bend in a river, or shore line, or a small city somewhere. And then that leads to a dreamlike state whereby your mind ponders if your feet will ever bring you to these strange lands. There's so much between major point A to another major point B that the hub to hub air transport misses out on. A good window seat with clear views of the vista below and a free and able mind to imagine the possibilities of future travel to land(s) below is what makes air travel bearable. In first class even. If the process of getting there is half the fun for you, SQ Suites windows fails miserably in this regards. I hope any future redesign of Suites takes this weakness into account, so for you designers out there, beware. If I ever needed an excuse to deny myself from this otherwise luxury travel option, the position of the window vis-a-vis the seat will do it!

                  Service started with an Indian appetizer of kebabs and chutney. While the flavors were there, the meat wasn't heated properly. If kebabs are not served piping hot, I will deduct a full grade from my very partial review. The papad and the roti that was served with this was inedible, so take note Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor! Let me just go ahead and say it, Indian food does not travel well at 35K feet. There must be an inverse correlation between the time it takes to prepare food (Indian food takes quite a lot of time as any good cook will know) and the altitude at which it's served. If spicy Indian food is heaven on earth for you, up in the sky, it's a meh!



                  Next course was some broth in ginger. Meh!



                  Next course was my BTC Lamb Shank. Boy did I make a huge mistake ordering this? From plating to flavor to toughness of the meat, a complete disaster. Do yourself a favor and skip this.



                  Crew must have noticed I barely touched the lamb and asked if I would rather have another food main dish from the on-board menu. They had some Singaporean chicken, so I thought why not? Another disaster. The chicken was also not heated properly and it was tough to eat. For an airline of SQ's reputation, catering from its home base, two of my main entree's were complete failures. Stick to soupy entree's I reminded myself.



                  This, I could eat, despite the brain freeze! That glass of single malt (Macallan 21 I believe) was the best component of this otherwise disastrous meal.



                  Please excuse me if my comments appear over-entitled. I mean well. I will pay for SQ seats over any other airline if the routes are convenient. I merely hope some of my comments regarding food are found useful for other travelers. The service otherwise was fantastic, with crew making small talk while maintaining an smiling countenance.

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                  • #10
                    The Suites interior on the A380 hasn't changed sincce it was first introduced in 2007 (besides the color on some planes). Hope the next generation Suites on the A380s in the future will have some new innovation.
                    Flickr, Reviews, SIN Credit Card Usage Reference Table

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                    • #11
                      Interrsting review, never been to first class or suites, but interesting product. To be honest, first class is not my thing. The maximum i am willing to go is business class. I can't see myself on first class for some reasons. Like the caviar, it's a no no for me. From the alcoholic drinks, it's only singapore sling for me. SQ does need to consider refurbishment and retirement of those 772s. And sq airbus 380s do show its age imo. This is one of the reason i normally booked myself in 77wn on some routes. Prefer to avoid 380 due to its huge size means more passengers means longer immigration line

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                      • #12
                        i took the sin-fra-jfk route in november...

                        we had a ground staff escorting us thru security all the way to senator lounge.

                        i would say of the lobster i ate on 3 sectors (sin-fra, fra-jfk, sfo-icn), ex-fra was the best

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