Upstairs, Downstairs! First Trip on SIA's New A380 to Sydney: SQ221/232 SIN-SYD-SIN

[yflyer]

The next course was Spiced pea soup, one of Matt Moran's creations...



True to its name, this soup was slightly spicy, with a pleasant curry flavour. It was served warm, rather than piping hot, but I guess there are safety issues serving boiling hot liquids onboard a plane.

I had this with the Port Phillip Estate Chardonnay 2013, a smooth, buttery and fruity white wine...





The next course was a refreshing green salad...

[yflyer]

Rather than go with one of the menu selections for my main (Which I could preview online from my booking on the SQ website), I had pre-ordered a Book-The-Cook (BTC) selection: Boston Lobster Thermidor...



This was a wonderful dish, generous, perfectly cooked chunks of lobster in a creamy sauce.



I asked for another glass of Krug to go with the lobster, and when I finished that, moved on to the Paringa Estate Pinot Noir...



By that point in the meal, we were over the middle of Australia...



Close to Uluru / Ayers Rock, but still too far for this landmark for it to be visible from the air...



Dessert was Rum Baba...quite delicious...



And then the cheese course...





...which I had with a glass of 20 year Tawny Port...



By then I was ready to declare surrender, and didn't have any space to sample the fruit or even tea and coffee...

I could barely manage one chocolate truffle after that marathon meal...and these were absolutely delicious chocolates...



With the meal service over, it was time to take a rest, and maybe take a walk around the plane to help the food settle...

[yflyer]

But before that, let's talk about the bathrooms. There are two to share among the 6 Suites guests.

I had previewed the Suites at the launch event, and knew more-or-less what seating product I would be getting onboard.

But I had little inkling of what the bathrooms were like. I headed to the bathroom thinking it would be the regular sized cubicle with better fittings, and perhaps flowers.



But I opened the bathroom door, and could not believe my eyes. The new Suites bathrooms were huge. Heck, they were so huge they almost deserve their own TR...

A large, long room, with separate sections for sink, vanity mirror, table and stool...







Plush leather toilet seat cover...



And the two bathrooms are different from each other: This is a view of the other bathroom...

This one had a long bench, rather than a separate vanity table...







A full set of amenities available in the bathrooms...





Needless to say, both bathrooms remained spotlessly clean throughout the flight.

[yflyer]

By now the lights were dimmed, and the Suites' sliding doors were shut.



I strolled through the cabin, past the galley, into J to look around...

To be continued!

[Tonitan]

Great TR! Your pictures and narration truly convey the flight experience to the reader! Can’t believe we are so close yet so far again,I was on SQ221 on 08/02 in 1A (which arrives on 09/2 to perform your flight back) and your suite 1F was unoccupied and I took the opportunity to shoot away on my phone. The lavatory on the F side aisle is an truly amazing experience. And now in Sydney,I find myself already dining at the restaurants that you recommended! Thumbs up for the great effort for writing to share!

[HUGE AL]

Rather than go with one of the menu selections for my main (Which I could preview online from my booking on the SQ website), I had pre-ordered a Book-The-Cook (BTC) selection: Boston Lobster Thermidor...



This was a wonderful dish, generous, perfectly cooked chunks of lobster in a creamy sauce.

"generous"?!? It totally shank.

See the discussion: http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6011

What was the rational for for going with lobster from BOSTON?

Trust me, as mentioned many times, that lamb shank curry is OUTSTANDING!!

The new Suites bathrooms were huge. Heck, they were so huge they almost deserve their own TR...

"HUGE" should always be in all caps and bold.

[zilchster]

If you are into walking, I would recommend the Coogee to Bondi coast walk or Bondi to Coogee coast walk.

[vsepr]

1F seems to be the biggest Suite, 2F is the smallest and 1F has an extra TV? What is the extra TV used for?

[icn.sg]

Congratulations on your first Suite experience...!

And then it was time for my flight home on SQ232.

As regulars on SQTalk will know, I usually fly in Economy. While the occasional Business Class flight does happen, I have never flown Suites. Depending on your point of view, that would make me either the least qualified, or the most qualified person to do a TR on SQ's new Suites: Would you rather hear from someone who flies F on every occasion till it has become ho-hum, or somebody experiencing Suites for the first time. (Maybe only time!)

It doesn't matter whether you are flying a cabin class for the first time or a seasoned traveler, as long as it comes from yflyer, we can be guaranteed a highly detailed and entertaining review. Your attention to detail is incomparable, and that's what I (and many here) appreciate about your TRs.

Thanks for the detailed introduction to the 2017 Y class experience. You mentioned that the seat feels light. What did you mean? I've flown on the same seat on QR, and I was very impressed by the comfort. To me, the seat back felt taller, and provided better support.

One remarkable thing about the headphone socket...while SQ supplies two-pin plugs, if you stick a regular 3.5mm headphone mini plug in there, you get stereo. Now that's progress!

Never tried this on SQ's 2013 Y before as I use my personal adapter by default. TG's A350 IFE has the same feature that you mentioned. Use a single-pin plug on either of the 2 holes and you still get stereo.

Looking forward to the rest of the TR!

[yflyer]

"generous"?!? It totally shank.
See the discussion: http://www.sqtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6011
What was the rational for for going with lobster from BOSTON?

Well, that's the thing about the catch of the day, right? Real lobsters come in different sizes! I would be very worried if each lobster was a giant clone

"HUGE" should always be in all caps and bold.

Point noted!

If you are into walking, I would recommend the Coogee to Bondi coast walk or Bondi to Coogee coast walk.

Thanks, zilchster! I will look up that route the next time I am there!

1F seems to be the biggest Suite, 2F is the smallest and 1F has an extra TV? What is the extra TV used for?

Hmmm...They all seemed about the same size...but I didn't spend a lot of time in the other Suites so I am am not sure. That said, they are all HUGE.

As far as I could tell, the extra TV was used for the safety video and other miscellanous info...not sure if it mirrors the main screen.

[yflyer]

Congratulations on your first Suite experience...!
...
Looking forward to the rest of the TR!

Thanks so much, icn.sg! And thanks for reading!

You mentioned that the seat feels light. What did you mean? I've flown on the same seat on QR, and I was very impressed by the comfort. To me, the seat back felt taller, and provided better support.

It just feels lighter and less solid than the 2013 Y seat. Maybe advances in cushion design for weight saving. But it was still very comfortable.

[yflyer]

Continuing with the final instalment of the TR…

I entered the Business Class cabin and looked around.

The new Business Class seats, arranged 1-2-1 looked very elegant in the A380 cabin. The overall cabin ambience was excellent.



Compared to these new seats, codenamed "Monocoque", the old seats looked slightly chunky and bulky by comparison. While the previous A380 2006 J seats were groundbreaking, and very comfortable, these seats to me looked more refined and better engineered.



Both window and aisles seats have direct aisle access.

Because of the way the seat's shell is angled, each window seat has about one window obscured by the shell, leaving one window to look out of.





The middle seats have a partition (Shown raised here), that can be lowered so that you can converse and interact with a companion in the other middle seat.



The inside of the shell was nicely padded, and very elegant, with soft lighting incorporated as part of the design.



Retractable armrests…





Each seat came with bedding: A pillow, blanket and mattress topper.

[yflyer]

Unlike my earlier foray in to the J section on my outbound flight, where all I had was a quick peek before heading back down to main deck economy, this time I could take a slow stroll back from the R cabin and explore the J cabin at leisure, and take my time to check out a few of the empty J seats still remaining on this flight.

And this time, the J cabin crew had been tipped off that someone was visiting from R….

“How do you you like the seat?”, a friendly blue-kebaya clad cabin crew member came by to say hi…”How is it compared to the bed in Suites?”

“I haven’t tried the bed yet! I’m heading back to try it later!” I replied, “but this one looks very nice!”

She gave me an impromptu tour of the seat features, how it now reclined with a push of a button, rather than having to stand up to flip the bed, and how an additional section of flat space was available through a pull-out panel…





The footwell was fairly generously proportioned…



I lay down…while marginally smaller in external dimensions to either the previous A380 2006 J or 77WN/77WR 2013 J, I found the actual space lying down to be quite generous – no real difference I could detect in the amount of space between this seat and previous long haul J seats. I would be very comfortable sleeping on this J seat.

[yflyer]

A quick peek into the J bathrooms…





The passageway in the rear of the upper deck where the emex rows are…



A window-side bulkhead seat…



The front middle bulkhead J seats have the most legroom.



On this flight, I didn’t notice anyone lowering the partition and turning it into a double bed, though. Something to check out on a subsequent trip!

[yflyer]

Having done my tour of J, I headed down the rear stairs…



...for a back-to-front stroll through this massive whale of a jet.

First the Y cabin…





Then PEY…





Very pleasant cabin ambience in both Y and PEY. It occurred to me, as I padded down the main deck economy aisle in my Lalique bedroom slippers from R, that Suites passengers are the only ones onboard who were free to walk the full round trip through the upper deck, down the rear stairs, then forward through the main deck, and then back up the front stairs.

By that point, I was quite happy to return to Suites…