Seoul Food and ICN-SIN on SQ Y

[CarbonMan]

I had to hold on to my heart as I looked at the pics from your Korean BBQ.

[yflyer]

Desert Traveller: Thanks for the comment! Yes, the food on this flight was very good. Simple things made a difference, like the way the rice was still moist and not too dry.

9V-SIA: Thanks for the feedback -- appreciated! When I read your comment, I thought to myself and realised that is probably one of the reasons I enjoy writing these TR's...despite the occasional rough going (Yes, immigration and security! Overstuffed overhead luggage bins are another pet peeve)...there are many delights to be had in air travel, and it is nice to share and talk about some of these.

jbflyer: You are welcome and thanks for reading! I have flown a lot of UA and AA but not DL. Interestingly, I have had quite positive experiences on many (not all) of these AA and UA flights because, to be frank, my expectations for cabin service were not that high. Regarding expectations, I think SQ's track record (and marketing...) is such that folks fly SQ and expect nothing less than 5-star treatment and are sometimes disappointed when they receive "only" 4.5 stars. I also admit that when I flew SQ F for the first time on a mileage redemption (the old 744 SkySuites...unforgettable), it was great, but I was almost disappointed that cabin service did not happen in soft focus and slow motion, accompanied by soft music, like the ads.

[yflyer]

CarbonMan: For the thin beef slices, I was mildly chastised by the Korean waitress for separating and not eating the fat! After that gentle rebuke, there were several slices left with the fat intact and I tried these -- delicious. Much too delicious! But not something I could eat often without upsetting the doctor...

[yflyer]

Back in Seoul. SQ607 ICN-SIN One Year Later...

One year after this TR was originally posted, I found myself back in South Korea, on SQ Y from Incheon to Singapore, on SQ607 after a week in Seoul. This was the very same flight number I took a year back. What changed? What didn’t?

Well one difference is that I had Mrs yflyer with me this time. After hearing me rave about how wonderful Seoul was, and after watching countless hours of Korean television dramas, she decided she had to visit for herself.

We stayed at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas, in Gangnam-gu, right next to the COEX convention centre and shopping mall. More about the hotel, the sights, and the food in a separate TR, here.

Back to SQ. First some points of interest around our tickets. My flight was a corporate booking on SQ, and hers was a Krisflyer Economy Saver Award.

I consider economy class FF redemptions to be poor value, and prefer business/first redemptions. I would have liked to have redeemed a Business or First Saver award for her (and a Business Upgrade for myself from my corporate Y ticket), however business saver availability was near zero for the date range in question. It appears that SQ is having no trouble filling the J seats on either the A330 or the 77W to/from Seoul.

As we approached the date of our flight, two business saver award seats did become available on SQ15 ICN-SIN on Saturday, but by then our tickets had been booked (hers was a roundtrip Y redemption), and the online upgrade button for my ticket was greyed out on their website. Besides, the timings for that flight weren’t great, so I decided to stick with our Y seats for SQ607 earlier in the day.

On to seat selection…up till a week before my flights, online seat selection availability was very poor (mainly middle seats, and a sprinkling of aisle/window seats) for both myself (KF Gold) and Mrs yflyer (KF Blue i.e. Non-FF). However, at some point between 4-6 days before the departure date, there was a day when the online system suddenly opened up additional seats, and whole blocks of seats became available for selection.

What was also interesting about the online seat selection was that for Mrs yflyer (non-FF) the seat selection remained fairly limited (although some aisle and window seats did open up), but for me, there were much larger block of open seats for me, and whole empty rows to chose from. So for the same flight, seats which appeared blocked for non-FF’s were available to me as a KF Gold to select. A wonderful KF Gold perk, which I have not seen documented anywhere…

[yflyer]

Incheon Airport was incredibly busy at 7am on Saturday morning.

It seemed to be mainly Korean travellers, with a relatively small proportion of International travellers. Koreans are a disciplined bunch, and perhaps for that reasons, despite the huge crowds in the massive terminal, things were orderly and human traffic flowed smoothly through the airport.

This was the queue to enter the airside area, starting with security, then immigration.



There were long lines everywhere, however, the lines moved very quickly. Even the security lines seemed to flow at twice the pace of other airports. Whether it was the passengers, who seemed to have fewer pieces of hand luggage, and more awareness of what was allowed in them, or just very efficient staff, the lines moved fast.

Korean immigration was similarly efficient, with most pax cleared within seconds.

We didn't have time to visit the lounge, but headed straight to the gate, where boarding and push-back were bang on time.

[yflyer]

This was a flight about 70-80% full. The aircraft was an A330, with the old "new" seats (I still consider these to be the "new" seats, given that the latest product is only available on a handful of 77WN's.) with full AVOD.



After hot towels, an initial round of drinks and peanuts after take-off, brunch was served.

What surprised me was that, apart from the new menu cover...



...the menu was word-for-word identical to the menu from a year back.



Does anyone know if this menu is a permanent year-round fixture, or if they switch menus based on seasons, and I just happened to fly when they rotated back to the same menu?

[yflyer]

I ordered the chicken piccata this time, and it was excellent...



The chicken was moist and not overcooked. The vegetables tasted sweet, and the pasta had good texture, almost al dente.



I found myself comparing this SQ Y main course to recent BA J main courses I had, and in some respects they were almost comparable.



Dessert was the same cheesecake flavoured ice-cream. No complaints about the identical dessert as I find this ice cream quite delicious.



As usual on SQ, the meal was served with real metal cutlery, and accompanied by a warm bread roll.

[yflyer]

What was new was a redesigned Krisworld guide. Although it was the end of March, the April guide and Krisworld movies had been loaded.



The new layout appears to have more feature articles, with the movie and entertainment programme list in the 2nd half of the booklet.



I found this to be a little disorientating at first, being quite used to the old format, but I quickly found that I preferred this new format, where there was a lot more interesting reading about the programmes on offer.



The selection of movies, television and music options remains stupendous. I haven't seen a better selection on any other airline I have flown. Full marks there. Special mention must be also given to the wonderful classical music selection, both audio selections and video/television.

[yflyer]

One fairly new programme which caught my attention was a 45 minute feature named "Invite Mr Wright".



This is an episode from a series, where Ian Wright (who I had not encountered before) is invited by SQ to sample the inflight product as well as a behind the scenes view of SQ's training centre and catering.

This video has to be treated as an extended 45 minute video TR and covers material which would be of tremendous interest to your typical SQTalk reader.

[yflyer]

In this episode from the series "Invite Mr Wright", Ian gets to visit the SQ training centre where he observes cabin crew being trained in a cabin mock-up...



...how cabin crew are trained in personal grooming...



...including how even hair buns have to be a regulation size ()...



...and how BTC chicken rice is prepared (surprisingly similar to how hawkers do it!)...





...and even the gear for your satay starter on board would not look out of place at the Satay Club. I find it slightly amusing that in the middle of this super-high tech catering setup, you see an old-style satay grill. :-)



You also get a glimpse of the chamber they use to reduce air pressure to simulate dining at high altitudes, so that they can taste dishes as they would taste inflight.



A highly impressive catering setup!

[yflyer]

They even touch on a topic much discussed on SQTalk, what they term "one of life's great dilemmas":

When you are in First/Suites and you are offered "Krug or Dom Perignon", which do you choose?



Well the folks on SQTalk will tell you!

You also get a glimpse of the TPR, and a look behind the scenes at the latest cabin products, and the philosophy behind how they were designed.



For your typical SQTalk reader, this programme is worth a watch.

[yflyer]

The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed 10 minutes early at Changi Airport on runway 02L.

Here are a few pictures from the approach and landing at Changi. There are more pictures from the approach, and some shots of the view of East Coast Park, here.









To sum up: Not many updates on the aircraft, cabin, seat, amenities compared to the flight from a year back, because these were covered in the initial posts in this TR. The whole Y experience was excellent then, and it remained so on this flight a year later. An on-time departure and arrival 10 minutes early. The flight, equipment and catering were top notch (Even if the Y menu gave one a sense of deja vu...). The cabin crew were efficient, friendly, even spontaneous. This is the type of consistency we accept as normal on SQ in Economy, although almost any other airline would be challenged to do the same.

And to top it off, there was no queue at immigration, and by the time I got to the baggage claim after buying duty free on arrival, our luggage was out.

A poster was up advertising Changi's recent ranking as #1 airport on Skytrax. Who cares about Skytrax anyway, but based on recent experience, Changi (and SQ) still set the standard.

Yet another wonderful experience on SQ!

Thanks for reading!

[SQueeze]

Thanks for the TR.

Those tips to cope with with red-eye flights in Y are esp helpful.

[Kyo]

Thanks for this TR - Thumbs up for the Ian Wright in-depth commentary, I will definitely try to look out for this as soon as I can on my next SQ flight, which will at earliest be 12th or 21st April.

Thumbs down, however, for an exact replica of the same Y menu, something I thought just wasn't done on SQ. You should send in some feedback with links to your two different photos of the menu. That's just a bit slack on their part!

[yflyer]

Thanks for this TR - Thumbs up for the Ian Wright in-depth commentary, I will definitely try to look out for this as soon as I can on my next SQ flight, which will at earliest be 12th or 21st April.

Thumbs down, however, for an exact replica of the same Y menu, something I thought just wasn't done on SQ. You should send in some feedback with links to your two different photos of the menu. That's just a bit slack on their part!

Thanks, Kyo. Looks like you are flying a number of different airlines these days.

I'm not the kind of person who sends a lot of feedback to SQ. Apart from one long email exchange with SQ customer service to express my dissatisfaction with KF Gold benefits (and how KF Golds are treated as 2nd class FF's) which essentially got nowhere, all my other feedback to SQ has been around complimenting cabin crew who have exceeded expectations (There have been many!).