SQ118 SIN-KUL 29/APR B777-200, 14A, First

Okay, so you probably wonder what kind of a pathetic fellow this guy must be to just eat everything that he gets for free, because he can. Hear this: I had expected the feast in the lounge to be my dinner and was incredibly impressed when after a smooth boarding, the charming (and pretty as usual) Singapore Girls in their Kebayas not only offered me a drink, but also inquired about my meal choice! Turns out that First Class customers are served a choice of chicken or tuna (I think) canapés on this 35 minute hop. I, unlike Oscar Wilde, resisted temptation and to the eternal gratefulness of my stomach asked to be served but some herbal tea. No, dear Singapore Girl, no pre-flight glass of Champagne (it wasn’t Krug or Dom fortunately, otherwise Oscar Wilde might have won on me! ) and no dessert either, thank you.

This flight was so short that there isn’t much to say about it. We departed and arrived slightly behind schedule, for which several apologies were made. The seats were the old Raffles Class variant that I would not want to land in when expecting either the Spacebed or the Skysuite, but that were absolutely fine for this segment. My tea was served after the other F pax got their – fairly elaborate – canapé snack, which came on a tray, but using the standard china with the emblazoned “F”. Impressive! I was surprised that they didn’t go as far as to give out a menu. I’d love to see how “airlinespeak” would transform a chicken sandwich into a “mouth-watering wholegrain canapé topped with shredded premium free-range chicken, enhanced by Hungarian sweet pepper, garden fresh chives and parsley and accompanied by the cocktail or beverage of your choice”.

This was my first visit to Kuala Lumpur (and Malaysia for that matter), and as soon as I bid goodbye to the SQ crew and left the aircraft, I was amazed by the grandeur and beauty that is KLIA. Kisho Kirokawa definitely created a masterpiece here. The smart lighting and “jungle courtyard” in the satellite where astonishing, and the train to the main terminal was quick and efficient. I exchanged some Ringgit and bought a round-trip ticket for the KLIA Express train while waiting for my bag to appear. It eventually did, having made the transfer in SIN, but SQ did not add a priority tag to it. The CX one apparently was no good as my bag was one of the last one out. (Note that this is something I only pay attention to in Asia, as this seems to be the only place where baggage handlers even care about tags and such.)


<= previous page - p19 - next page =>