Trip Report: SFO-TRV (SQ15, MI492), TRV-SFO (MI491, SQ16)

[SQueeze]

Hi, now that you finished your report.

I was earlier commenting that SQ15 arrival into SIN at 1am does not connect to any good flights to India except to DEL (which I feel is a lot of detour), and recently BOM just started a 2am flight.

The rest like BLR and MAA has timing 6-8 hours after that arrival and there is nothing at the airport at the time. For other cities, it will be much longer as most other departures are only in the evening,

So I wonder why would ppl want to take SQ between aThe USA and India. Unless the price is really good. It's more detour, and connection is not very good.

[yflyer]

Thanks for the report, SQfanatic!

I've always enjoyed the Indian vegetarian (AVML) meals on SQ. I think the strong flavours and spices work well as airline meals, as they seem to withstand the altitude and reheating process well. On some flights, but not all, you can even get proper curd and not plain yogurt (which is commonly substituted for curd on many airlines).

I am not a vegetarian, but at one point many years back I used to order AVML meals on my SQ flights to the US just because I liked them so much (And being served first was a nice perk too.) But I stopped doing that because I suspect that if you have a special meal on request, then you are ruled out from any op-ups because the upgraded cabin would be unlikely to have that special meal catered. Anyone know if there is any truth in that? Of course op-ups on SQ are almost as rare as being hit by a meteorite.

[SQGamespeed]

So I wonder why would ppl want to take SQ between aThe USA and India. Unless the price is really good. It's more detour, and connection is not very good.

My guess is that it must be a "prestige" factor, in which SQ seems to have earned a strong reputation among travelers to/from India, even if it means having to fly longer than on the competition that has one-stop (such as CX and in more recent years EK).

[SQfanatic]

The price is definitely one of the factors. And yeah I've had people ask me this as well. SQ definitely has better service than EK IMHO. Generally Singapore Airlines has excellent food as well. I would have gone for a vegetarian lacto-ovo meal, but due to a religious pilgrimage, I couldn't eat eggs, onions, or garlic (As far as the ice cream (Cledor ice cream upon departing from Korea both ways) and cake goes, I think I did break the rule, but for the next 4 days thereafter, I followed the rules).

I would have taken SQ1 like always, but decided to try out the daytime flight and explore parts of Singapore, which is a beautiful city. I don't regret taking a longer layover for a change and I definitely liked taking the afternoon flight as I got a good sleep at home the night before.

The other issue is that other than Etihad and Emirates that flies to Trivandrum (Such times I either go to one destination and come back from Trivandrum, or the other way around), going to/from Chennai can be a huge hurdle because of transferring luggages from from domestic to international terminal and v.v. can be a real pain (Never done this and don't think I plan to).

If Cathay Pacific (or any European Airlines) flew to Trivandrum, I would have no problem connecting through Hong Kong (or anywhere else of course). Chennai is fine, but as stated it's a pain.

[9V-SPL]

Yeah, because my parents are. And also many parts of my family are from Tamil Nadu (None of them live in Tamil Nadu, just a few other parts of India). My mother's side lives in Trivandrum which is why we took MI to Trivandrum. I mainly went for a religious pilgrimage to SabariMala, then spent the remainder of the trip with family. If my dad came with us, I would have come back from Chennai or Bangalore by Singapore Airlines itself. Moreover, besides English, my parents speak mainly Tamil (my mom speaks Malayalam as well) as well as Hindi and Bengali. I speak English, Tamil (understand most of it) and some Malayalam (I understand most of it at times). Don't know Hindi unfortunately.

And no problem. My pleasure for providing a trip report as well as some videos. I hope the next time I fly with Singapore Airlines (assuming August 2016 or earlier), I try out their newest Economy seats from SFO-SIN, assuming both ICN and HKG route have it on their 77W. I know ICN route is having it 2 weekly, but I hope it's on a daily basis by Summer.

I've been by Singapore Airlines multiple times for over 20+ years since I was a baby, so I know from experience they provide excellent service and meals are excellent (In almost all cases, they know how to make South Indian vegetarian food for passengers as my parents state). As a first time KrisFlyer member, I am blue, and have 20,000+ miles in my account. Hopefully I will achieve Silver Status next trip and maybe Gold Status 3rd trip with SQ and so on.

How about you? Are you Malayali too?

That's interesting, thank you for sharing!

Yes! I am Malayali too! I can only speak Malayalam though, cannot read or write it. I took Tamil as a second language when I was in school in Singapore.

My family used to fly on SQ to Chennai (in the SQ410/409 days), spend the night there and then take Indian Airlines (IC931/932) from Chennai to Trivandrum.

[SQfanatic]

That's interesting, thank you for sharing!

Yes! I am Malayali too! I can only speak Malayalam though, cannot read or write it. I took Tamil as a second language when I was in school in Singapore.

My family used to fly on SQ to Chennai (in the SQ410/409 days), spend the night there and then take Indian Airlines (IC931/932) from Chennai to Trivandrum.

Exactly the same with me. I can't read or write in Tamil or Malayalam. My mom does, but my dad knows how to read/write in Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. Yeah, exactly what I did in Winter 2000/2001. I took SQ15 to Singapore (back it was a 744 from what I recall), and of course had a 18-19 hour layover to catch my flight to Chennai (Operated by a Boeing 777-300 from what I remember).

The difference is that I spent 2-3 nights there for primarily shopping reasons, then took a morning flight on Indian Airlines to TRV. Was IC931 a morning flight? And coming back, we took a train back to Chennai, spent the night and of course went back on SQ that night to SIN, and connected back to SQ16 going back to SFO (I believe it reached early in the morning, I think more like 9AM), if anyone remembers the old SQ16 schedule from 99'/00'/01'.

[SQfanatic]

Thanks for the report, SQfanatic!

I've always enjoyed the Indian vegetarian (AVML) meals on SQ. I think the strong flavours and spices work well as airline meals, as they seem to withstand the altitude and reheating process well. On some flights, but not all, you can even get proper curd and not plain yogurt (which is commonly substituted for curd on many airlines).

I am not a vegetarian, but at one point many years back I used to order AVML meals on my SQ flights to the US just because I liked them so much (And being served first was a nice perk too.) But I stopped doing that because I suspect that if you have a special meal on request, then you are ruled out from any op-ups because the upgraded cabin would be unlikely to have that special meal catered. Anyone know if there is any truth in that? Of course op-ups on SQ are almost as rare as being hit by a meteorite.

I don't know what exactly you mean by "special-meal" (rather than anything outside of the menu confines)? I mean they still have the Indian selection. The only thing that concerned me this time around (compared to all other times I've flown with SQ) was:

While going on SQ15 and MI492, my mom had to tell the stewardess she had an Indian Vegetarian Meal on request. Thereafter, they went to check and still got the meal readily available. This did not happen to me as I got my Indian Vegetarian meal as promised. I wonder why my mother when not me in this case? They had a list based on seat number, name, meal. Not sure if it's true or not, but it seems like their list didn't have the meal listed, right?

However, the same thing only happened to me on MI491 and SQ16. Had to tell the stewardess that I had an Indian Vegetarian meal and as always they still had it ready for me. My mother booked the tickets at the end of March and we requested everything immediately (AVML, window, aisle seat, etc etc) which was all met of course.

What I'm baffled about is that this is something they never did until now. I always got my meal promptly. My dad thinks it might have to do with the number of pax travelling, but could it be something else? Someone please fill me in if this has happened to you on ANY meal.

[9V-SPL]

Was IC931 a morning flight?

Yup, IC931 was MAA-TRV which departed around 0900 and landed in TRV at about 1000, if I remember correctly.

[SQfanatic]

Yeah then that's the one I took. My mom is coming back Monday afternoon to SFO (Leaving Sunday night on SilkAir) on the same flights I took recently.

If she gets a reg other than 9V-SWE or 9V-SWS I would like to know if her A/C had Wifi equipped or not (Even if she doesn't use it).

Honestly this has been the longest time I've stayed without my mom other than 10 days she goes once every 4 years for Pongala for Feb/Mar (she takes Emirates at that time) and one other time in Aug 2013 (She felt bad I didn't go and wish I took that week off to come) which she did take SQ and the same flights I came from (Yes, SQ15 with a long layover while going, though she got very bored despite exploring the City).

[SQfanatic]

My mom reached back to SFO this afternoon (Mon July 13).

She got the same SilkAir reg as mine from TRV to SIN and 9V-SWM to Seoul and SFO which had Wifi like 9V-SWS I had a few weeks ago

[yflyer]

My mom reached back to SFO this afternoon (Mon July 13).

She got the same SilkAir reg as mine from TRV to SIN and 9V-SWM to Seoul and SFO which had Wifi like 9V-SWS I had a few weeks ago

Your mum tracks aircraft regos!

[SQfanatic]

Your mum tracks aircraft regos!

Uh no, I checked flightradar24. Even then like me, excellent service.