There are already a few outfits that rank airline performance so why are yours different?

I use a proprietary model that assigns numbers to 20 different factors of airline experience. These numbers make up a total score.

Planereality’s rankings compare apples to apples by using categories: i.e. comparing international business class to international business class. Comparing Delta domestic coach class to Singapore Airlines International Business class will tell you very little.

The person ranking the airlines, me, has experienced the airlines first-hand. These rankings are not a combination of tens of thousands traveler opinions

Only airlines I have flown are included in these rankings.

TOTAL SCORES: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CLASS
total possible score: 100
name of each airline links to its location on Planereality.com

1. Qatar Airways 92
2. Singapore Airlines 87
2. Emirates 87
3. All Nippon Airways 84
4. Cathay Pacific 83
4. Asiana 83
5. Malaysia Airlines 81
6. Swiss Airlines 78
6. Lufthansa 78
6. Delta Airlines 78
7. Korean Air 77
8. Virgin Atlantic 76
9. Thai 75
10. Air France 72
11. American 71
12. United 69

20 factors that make up score (last 3 are purely quantitative)
leg room
food quality
food quantity
service
schedule
value
frequent flyer program
reservation ease
check-in ease
entertainment
seat comfort
privacy
lounge
clean aircraft
beverage selection
boarding
amenity kit
average age of fleet
load- lighter the loads, better the score. based on 2009 & 2010 average
safety- based on number of fatal accidents

Hard to imagine that these flat-bed first class seats, at 35″ wide & with 71″ pitch, are not the most luxurious First Class Product that Singapore Airlines Offers, but they are not. The First Class Suites on the A380 are considered Singapore’s top of the line as they are private suites marketed as “a class beyond first.” The seats below were on the flight from Singapore to Auckland aboard ship 9V-SWS a Boeing 777-300ER. Many thanks to Tay Soo for letting me up front.
Enjoy.

business class cabin

singapore fleet

It’s pretty well known and/or accepted, that Singapore Airlines has one of the best business class products in the industry. Some would argue the best. But what about Singapore’s Economy Class product? Is there anything to be said for it? Or is it just run of the mill?
I decided to find out on SQ 285 from SIN-AKL. Of course I would have rather sat up front for this flight. I’d rather sit up front on any flight, but I was eager to see what it was like in Singapore Coach.

Boarding was quite chaotic considering I was boarding and deplaning outside the US. Boarding planes in the US is always more chaotic than abroad. Boarding on this flight, SQ285, was frantic, crowded and fast-paced, yet somehow under control. The gate agent called for boarding by the normal pecking order, but no one was verifying boarding passes. In theory, you could have boarded whenever you wanted. This may have had something to do with furor.

Ten minutes into the flight, I was already impressed. Hot towels were passed out, followed by headphones, dinner menus and a small amenity kit. And get this; the economy class menu included a drink menu! Shortly after reaching cruise altitude, packaged nuts and cocktails were offered.

It’s worth noting that in exit row 31, the door does not protrude into your leg room, even if you are seated in the window seat. Also, there are no bathrooms in front of row 31, jut a curtain that leads to Business Class, so passengers do not congregate in front of you seat. Despite row 31 being the very first row of economy, the flight attendant do alternated where they start meal service.

I chose the curry chicken for dinner and while it was tasty, it wasn’t exactly boneless, skinless chicken. Well, it may have been but there was plenty of fatty inedible pieces. An appetizer of duck came with dinner. I took one bite, but I am simply not much of a fan of duck. Liquor was not kept on the catering carts on this flight. This is consistent with all flights I have taken on international airlines. They are happy to fix you a drink, but it takes quite some time as they wait until they finish serving the cabin. This is 1 thing that US Carriers are much better at than international carriers- they always keep booze on the cart.

An hour after dinner service, flight attendants offered water and juice. An hour after that they offered apples despite 90% of the cabin being asleep. Two hours before landing, a second hot towel service was offered, just before breakfast was served. Breakfast was pretty standard airline fare including soggy hashbrowns.

Despite some food shortcomings, this was one of my favorite flights in economy class. The other being Etihad Economy Class I didn’t want this flight to end, at least for the first 6 or 7 hours. I would not hesitate to fly Singapore Economy Class regardless of flight length.

I have some pictures of the First Class Cabin on this aircraft which I will post next.

31 A,B,C

view into business class

amenity kit: socks and toothbrush

cheese, crackers, bread, chcolate, duck, curry chicken

personal tv’s in ext rows

amenities in coach bathrooms

breakfast (item on right is cereal)

9V-SWS

This is the lounge you will have access to if you are flying economy class and hold Star Gold Status or Elite Status with Singapore Airlines. Of course, I would have loved to see the Business Class class lounge, but this space offered everything you would expect of a top of the line business class lounge.

The space is divided into 3 or 4 sections one of which houses the main event: food an drinks. There were finger sandwiches, mixed nuts, snack mixes, chicken wings, fried rice, vegetables, cheese, salads and arguably most importantly, a wide selection of booze. One dish available which I have never heard of: chicken thighs Milanese. Didn’t taste it, but looked interesting.
There were also a few Apple desktops and televisions. Only about a dozen passengers occupied the lounge during my evening visit.

*** it’s a minor miracle that I got this post up with power that only became available last night and no Internet connection. Are you impressed yet?
Singapore Airlines economy class coming up as soon as possible.

Entrance to Silverkris lounge

If I am not mistaken, only routes flown by certain types of Singapore Airlines aircraft are eligible for upgrades using United Mileage Plus Miles. Of course, the newest of new business class seats, like the ones on the A380 and 777 are not eligible, but that is OK, I have experienced them previously. The A330′s and 747′s are eligible for upgrades (assuming there is space and you buy the correct fare class).

In my opinion, using miles to upgrade is the best utilization of frequent flyer miles. One of the best bangs I ever got for my buck (miles) was upgrading LAX-BKK flight on Thai with United miles. A very long flight and a relatively inexpensive “full fare” economy class ticket.

Today’s flight was on a Singapore Airlines A330-300 (9V-STKE) and so I used United Miles to upgrade to Business Class for the 5hr and 40min flight from Seoul to Singapore. Once I found my seat, 11K, I was offered various global newspapers, magazines, orange juice, tomato juice and water. There was no champagne offered, but the flight attendant gladly obliged when I requested it and I was happy to see I was not the only one partaking. Just before pushback, hot towels were distributed.
Once airborne, slipper/socks, eye shades and (oddly) the same pre-poured drinks were again offered.

Seats
They are short. They look short and they are. Meaning, when I was seated, the seat back only came up to my shoulder blades. When I reclined the seat to “lounge” position, the seat provided very little support without a pillow. Even with a pillow, there is not really anywhere for the pillow to rest. The seats are angled lie flat, but were very comfortable when fully reclined.
These A330 seats have a lot of outlets, including power, S-Video, 2 USB ports and audio/video jacks.

Food
Never had a bad meal on Singapore. Not even a disappointing meal. I was shown a menu with 4 main course choices: eel, Cantonese dumplings, a vegetarian dish and a beef dish. A salmon appetizer was offered as an appetizer. Singapore serves better salmon than I can buy on the ground. I think the menus may have been in the seat pocket, but I didn’t grab one. The Cantonese dumplings were outstanding, chock-full of fresh shrimp. After the delicious sesame ice cream a cheese plate was offered. After all of this, chocolate was offered, but I had already tapped out.

An hour after lunch, water was offered and hot towel service shortly before landing. Flying Singapore Airlines is always a treat. The service, food and comfort, of any of their Business Class cabins, are tip-top of the heap. But how is their economy product?

The other day I saw a tweet about the “World’s 5 Star Airlines.”  The tweet referenced Skytrax, an outfit that ranks the world’s airlines.  I checked out the Skytrax website and was surprised to learn that I had flown on 5 of the 6 five star airlines.  Now, as I learned in the mutual fund business, stars come and go, but having experienced the airlines firsthand, I am going to have to concur with Skytrax, with maybe the exception of Asiana.  Better still, I have written posts on 5 of 6 and they are posted here for your viewing enjoyment:

• ASIANA
• CATHAY PACIFIC
• MALAYSIA AIRLINES
• QATAR AIRWAYS
• SINGAPORE AIRLINES

SQ 15: SAN FRANCISCO to SEOUL: BOEING 777-300ER: BUSINESS CLASS

Surely I wasn’t the only one with mixed emotions.  The start of this trip was somewhat anti-climatic.  My purpose was to get to Asia in order to fly on All Nippon’s inagural ”Inspiration of Japan” from Tokyo to JFK which was subsequently cancelled.  I decided to travel anyway as it would have cost me more money to cancel the flight than go.  I am glad I went (shocking)

Check in for my flight was a cinch and I had some time to sepnd in the lounge.  The lounge review is HERE.  When I boarded, my first thought was: “Wow! This cabin is real high end…”
It was decorated with trim and wall art and was very appealing aesthetically.  I walked through the First Class Cabin while boarding and snapped a few quick pics:

At that point, a flight attendant welcomed me on board and escorted me to my seat.  I said “wow” again, this is the widest airplane seat I have ever seen.  I did a separate report on the seats HERE.  And a first for me: listening to passengers walk through the business class cabin oohing and ahhing.  Business Class Seat:

climbing out of San Francisco

Truth be told, as it always is on Planereality, the seats, upon close inspection, did appear somewhat worn out… nothing major though.  The leather was roughed up in spots and there was some blemishes on the ptv and the plastic that surrounded it. I asked the fa to give it a wipe down which she gladly did, but the results were mediocre.

Business Class was only 30% full. Champagne and juice were offered, menus passed out and hand towels (mine was cool at best) distributed. Food was very, very tasty; the fillet had a great sauce, but not overpowering the meat. Salmon 3 ways was perfect.  There was a warm towel service after dinner and dessert was ice cream and cheese. Surprising that no amenity kits were offered but rather just some sock that had a fixed semi-hard foot which made them more like slippers. The FA’s did hand out eye masks.

Singapore Sling

menu



salmon

fillet

slices of heaven

crab

short-rib

For entertainment, Singapore’s KrisWorld offers plenty of movies, music and games, but no airline I have flown comes close to Qatar Airways in terms of quantity of movies. On the flip side, the noise cancelling headphones provided were the best I have used.  Although UBS ports were at each seat I was unable to play my I-Pod through the KrisWorld system, but was able to re-charge it.

headphones, eye mask & socks

Perhaps it goes without saying that the service was excellent during the entire flight.  In particular, the flight attendants asked if I was “ready” each time, before serving me any food or drinks.  Flying on Singapore Airlines will never get old.

There is so much to showcase about Singapore Airlines, I decided to break the trip down in to two posts.  This one will focus on the new Business Class Seats, and the next will present the overall experience.  I was quite anxious to try Singapore’s New Business Class Seats, as they are widely regarded as some of the best in the sky.   I would not go as far as to say “brand” new, but they are still being marketed as new.  The seats can be found on the Boeing 777-300 ER (the aircraft I was on), A380 and A340-500.  Singapore Airlines website has a short video here on the seats.  I was not even anticipating any flaws, however, I found enough negatives that I made the following list and compared them to all the positives.

What’s “bad” about the seat?

• You have to get up out of the seat to turn the seat into a bed and vice-versa (the flight attendant assisted me) the entire back of the seat folds down flat, sort of similar to some car seats
• You lay at an angle; not an angle relative to the floor, but relative to the aisle.  The exception to this is those seats that have a wall (bulkhead) in front of them
• I found limited comfort while trying to work or watch TV upright.  If you are seated upright and want to put your feet up on the foot rest, your legs will be at angle to left or right
• Once the seat is made up as a bed, there are no adjustments that can me made

What’s good about the seat?

• Because the cabin is configured with a seat, an aisle, 2 seats, an aisle and then one seat (1-2-1), every business class seat is an “aisle seat”
• The seats are very private
• They are wide
• They are leather
• Plenty of storage compartments
• The seat lies fully flat

To be clear, none of the above would stop me from flying Singapore Airlines once again.  Enjoy the photos and please let me know if you had a similar (or dissimilar) experience with Singapore Airlines new Business Class Seats.

business cabin with mood lighting

vanity mirror, storage, a/v ports, drink shelf

the bed:

Make almost a full u-turn after security in San Francisco’s International Terminal and you will find the Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge.  As you present your boarding pass at the desk, you will notice that there are two separate sections in the lounge; Business Class to the right, First to the left.  A hot breakfast (eggs, potatoes and sausages) was available along with an array of instant noodles, fruit and cereal.  I did not eat the breakfast, as I am weary about powdered eggs and could not tell whether these eggs were of the powdered variety.  I opted for some toast, coffee and fresh fruit. 

The lounge is one of the smallest I have visited, but was not very crowded on this Monday.  It is a square room with a little triangle shaped cove at one end and a full wall of windows that face the apron.  Several unisex bathrooms, big enough to throw a party in, were very tidy and stylish.  Around 11am, finger sandwiches were placed at the self service counter.  Free wi-fi was available but there were also several computers for guests to use.

Every time I visit a foreign (non-US) airline’s lounge (regardless of country) I say to myself: “how much better can this lounge be than a Red Carpet Club or SkyClub?”, but foreign airline lounges are better every time.  Cleaner, friendlier and with more drinks and food.  Furthermore, even if you compare US carriers’ lounges to each other, they are always better outside the United States i.e. Admirals Club Heathrow vs Admirals Club JFK.  What gives?!

Views from lounge:
All Nippon 777 to Narita

United 747

The Singapore 777 that would take us to Seoul

In my next post I will share my Singapore Airlines experience en route to Seoul, South Korea.

LAX-NRT Singapore Airlines #11; Boeing 747-400Business Class

(3 class configuration)

depart Monday 2:40pm – arrive Tuesday 6pm

Duration: 11hr 20min; (+1 day)

*accommodating service*outstanding food*not all planes created equal

BEFORE:
There are separate check in lines for first, business and coach classes at the Singapore counter. Even though I had checked in on-line and printed my boarding pass before-hand, I still needed to check in at the counter, however, this only took a total of five minutes. After the cheerful attendant issued me my “real” boarding pass, she gave me a pass to the Star Alliance business class lounge (there was also a first class lounge attached), which entailed a walk up three flights of stairs. The decor was a bit drab, but there was a wide variety of champagne, beer, wine, sushi and sandwiches, available for self-service. Each bathroom was its own individual room (like in your own home) complete with a shower and fresh cut flowers. When boarding time was approaching, an attendant walked around with a sign and called out the particular flight that was about to begin boarding. There were separate boarding lines for coach and upper class passengers, but the gate attendants did such a great job, all was orderly and there really were no lines to speak of. I was greeted on the jet way by a flight attendant who escorted me up the stairs and showed me my seat. Another gracious flight attendant asked me if I would like to be seated downstairs, where I would have an empty seat next to me; I declined as I looked over my exit row business class seat on the top deck of the 747. I suggested that she offer the same option to whomever would be seated next to me and she assured me she would. As it turned out, I wound up spilling my champagne on the seat, blanket and pillow next to me and nobody wanted to sit there!

DURING:
Champagne, juice, water and a variety of newspapers were offered before take off. Our drink orders, for after take off, were also taken. Take off was fifteen minutes behind schedule, after which noise canceling headphones, eye masks and socks were handed out; there were no amenity kits in business class, only the aforementioned items. Immediately after that, our drinks and gourmet nuts were served. The food and drink menus were located in the literature bin with the in-flight entertainment guide and duty free catalog. The appetizer was a plate of delicious Asian seared scallops served chilled, while lunch consisted of three choices: beef, chicken or a fish dish; all prepared in elaborate fashion. In addition to the main entrees, “snacks” were available throughout the flight on-demand, including candy, sandwiches and crackers. Following lunch, a gourmet cheese plate and chocolate ice cream were offered; both were of the quality you would expect in a successful restaurant; not at 38,000 feet. After lunch, and after the attendants made sure all their business class passengers were fat and happy, the lights were dimmed and the flight attendants disappeared, but I am sure they were only a call button away. Throughout the night, the attendants sporadically, silently walked through the cabin to ensure their customers were comfortable. The business class seat on this plane is, good, not great. I do not believe it is Singapore’s newest seat (there was no power outlet); it lies almost flat but not at 180 degrees; as you recline the seat lowers closer to the floor of the plane and it is not quite wide enough for someone with broad shoulders, like myself. If be chance, you sleep on your side, as I do, the seat is quite comfortable and offers plenty of privacy with ample room in front of your seat (exit row). About two hours before landing, a “light” meal service commenced. Passengers had a choice of spaghetti with chorizo, braised beef noodles or traditional Japanese fare. In addition, the snack menu was still available; so, wanting a true light meal, I ordered the roast beef sandwich, which was fresh and tasty, but I have no need to eat another.Due to wind and traffic, we circled Tokyo’s Narita airport for 30 minutes, which the flight attendant told me was quite uncommon.

AFTER:
There was a large sign at customs that implied that anyone staying in Japan for less than 72 hours (shore pass for people in transit; like people connecting on a flight the next day) needed a special stamp on their passport, located at another desk, before reaching the customs official. I elected not to get that stamp (even though I was in transit) because I did not see the sign until after I had already waited in the main line for 15 minutes. Needless, to say, the agent did not mention this special stamp and he let me pass. The entire customs process took roughly 25 minutes. With nothing to declare, I was headed out into the cold, wind driven rain of Tokyo.The pick up location for airport hotels is at post #16 in front of terminal one arrivals and post #26 in front of terminal 2 arrivals.

FINAL THOUGHT:
Although this particular aircraft did not have the most up to date business class seats, Singapore Airline’s service provides an outstanding experience when crossing the Pacific.