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thing
7th Jul 2010, 22:13
Just noticed this bit of the forum.........:)

Me and the better half go to Brisbane every year to see the boy and his wife. We always go SIA and we thought we would try the 380 LHR-SIN, 330 SIN-BNE instead of MAN-SIN-BNE on the 777.

I must admit, they have done a good job on the styling because the 380 doesn't actually look that big from the outside. Anyway, we had booked two economy seats on the upper deck, row 75 a pair of window seats. If you ever fly on the 380, the upper deck is much quieter and feels less confined than the lower deck. There is storage space in a bin next to the window which is pretty handy. Seats and video stuff are usual excellent SIA quality. The thing that struck me most about the aircraft was how incredibly quiet it was at take off. I actually thought he was starting to taxy rather fast until I realised he was going for it. Very impressed. It rides the turbulence you always get over the Bay of Bengal excellently (as you would imagine being the behemoth that it is). All in all an excellent journey, well as excellent as it gets spending 13 hours in economy.

SIN-BNE was in the new 330. A pair of window seats again around row 50 as I remember. First impressions were that the seat is ever so slightly smaller, although my rear end might have expanded a bit after flying to SIN on the 380..........It was much louder on take off, you were certainly aware that take off power had been selected....Rest of the flight, some 7 hours, which for some strange reason always seems very short after the 13 to SIN, was very good. No complaints, seats comfy, service as usual with SIA, excellent.

BNE-SIN was business class on the 330, we usually accumulate enough air miles to upgrade this bit of the flight. Bizz lounge at BNE quite good for what is a fairly small airport, hot and cold food, plenty of internet access and endless shampoo if you want.

Bizz seat on the 330 is one of those '8 degree' seats, not completely lie flat as in the 380 but fully reclined there is a slight incline, although having said that I didn't really notice. Welcome excellent on boarding, knew our names without looking at the boarding pass (how do they do that?!!) and the first thing you notice as you take your seat is the smell of top quality leather. Drinks served straight away while economy board and the glass doesn't even have to be empty before they are there asking if you want a refill. I reckon the wife and I got though most of a bottle of champagne before they started the engines....Food was superb, service was superb, but the best thing about it is it makes the flight go so quickly. Just loll about in the chair watching the 15 inch video screen. I would fly bizz all the time if I had the dosh, it just makes flying more bearable and relaxing.

Back to economy for SIN-LHR on the 380. Always a let down of course but there you go, that's what you get for being poor.

We're off again in August, looking forward to the same aircraft. By the way, we always fly with noise cancelling headphones, if you fly a lot or long distance then they are without doubt the best dosh you can spend to make the flight more comfortable, the difference they make is astounding. We have JVC NC250's. Around £100 a pair but well worth it.

HXdave
8th Jul 2010, 08:30
from 01 sep, EK will be offering the A380 from man - dxb, and i'm pretty sure the connecting flight DXB - BNE is also A380. why not give that a go?

thing
8th Jul 2010, 13:06
Sounds interesting. We're sort of caught in the SIA air miles now though, apart from the fact that SIA is the best airline we've ever flown with. The current SIA flights from MAN land at Munich before going onto SIN which is a pain and why we fly from LHR now. The boy's mother in law is flying out on EK from MAN this weekend but there's an extra stop on the way. If the 380 flies in two legs it might well be worth a look I suppose.

HXdave
8th Jul 2010, 13:39
sorry mate, just had a quick check. whilst there is a very good connection available from the man - dxb A380 flight, the onward flights DXB-BNE are only currently operating on the B777's.

Rush2112
9th Jul 2010, 07:16
I actually prefer SQ's 777ERs. Although the 380 is a very impressive bit of kit, it's just too big and loading is a bit of a pain. Also with so many bags coming off, that can be a drag waiting for them, even with priority tags. It's OK at Changi but LHR or CDG isn't fun.

thing
9th Jul 2010, 10:16
I hadn't really noticed the baggage delay, perhaps I've just been lucky. I must say though that after several flights to Oz on the 777 that we were never disappointed, I just think that the 380 is even better. We always used to sit right at the back on the 777 where there are two rows of two seats, next to the galley. We were always well looked after there. Of course it's noisy down the back end but with the noise cancellers you could have opened the window and it wouldn't have mattered.

Just a bit of info on the 777, a mate of mine used to fly them for BA and he said that it was the only aircraft where they used to have a steady supply of water in the cockpit because the cabin air supply was so dry.