Here are some new codes I’ve been meaning to post all week including discounts on British Airways and Frontier flights, S$40 to spend any way you like in each direction during a layover in Singapore, and Alitalia sign-up bonus miles.

British Airways – BA has teamed up with Visa to offer $65 off World Traveller (economy cabin) and $130 off World Traveller Plus (premium economy cabin) when you book a round-trip flight from March 15 and April 30, 2013 for departures between March 26 and June 26, 2013. This offer is available for British Airways operated round-trip flights from select U.S. gateways to or via London. Economy class Iberia or Open Skies operated round-trip transatlantic flights from select U.S. gateways to Europe that are booked and purchased through this dedicated link are also included (much lower fuel surcharges than transiting via London). Use this link to access the coupon.

Frontier – Frontier is offering 5% off your next flight purchase (one-way is OK) using promo code SPRING5 when you buy by March 18th and fly by June 8th. The promo can be combined with their special green sale going on right now. Green Sale details here.

Singapore Airport Changi Transit Program - Receive a S$40 Changi Dollar Voucher when you transit through Singapore through June 30th. You must have inbound and outbound flights on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir (with the 13-digit e-ticket receipt number beginning with 618 or 629). The vouchers are valid for one-time use at all retail, food and service outlets located at the transit and public areas of Terminals 1, 2 and 3, excluding outlets in the Arrival Baggage Claim Halls. They can also be redeemed for one-time access to the Ambassador Transit Lounge at Terminals 2 and 3 for up to six hours. The offer is only valid for tickets issued October 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013. The S$40 Changi Dollar voucher is valid all the way until March 31, 2014. You will receive a voucher for each leg of your trip (outgoing and return) and multiple vouchers can be combined for payment. There are only a select number of vouchers so the offer is open until they run out. Full details and t&cs here.

Alitalia – Register with the MilleMiglia program between March 8th and March 30th 2013 and receive a bonus of 2,000 miles following registration, 2,000 additional miles for taking a flight by April 30th, and an additional 2,000 miles for any further transaction where you earn miles in the MilleMiglia program. Full details and registration here.

Virgin America – Don’t forget the Virgin America 20% off Outlook promo from the post earlier this week.

Singapore Airlines took to their Facebook page to announce their latest in-flight amenity, available to young customers traveling in Suites, First Class, and Business Class. These kids are pretty lucky, traveling up front on Singapore Airlines at such a young age and now additional goodies too!

Meet our latest male and female SIA Bedtime Teddy Bears! These adorable plushes are the new additions to our inflight amenities for our young customers. Limited pieces are now available first-come first-served on selected flights. In addition, we also have new inflight amenities from DreamWorks Animation for children traveling in all classes, including Shrek socks and pencil cases, as well as Kung Fu Panda coin purses and board games. 

The response from Singapore Airlines regarding the non-functioning TV, broken seat, and food incidents experienced on my first class IAH-DME-SIN-DPS 70k United MileagePlus award trip:

Dear Mr Adam

I am writing to follow up on my colleague’s interim email of 2January 2013, as he is currently away from office. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we carried out our investigations. From our records, we understand that you were booked to travel on flight SQ61 /10 January 2013. We are sorry to learn of the inconvenience caused on this occasion, when you had encountered some issues with our cabin products and inflight meal. Based on our investigation findings, we gathered that the audio function of your inflight entertainment system at seat 2F was not working properly,despite our crew member’s attempts to reset the system. Our crew member had then offered a seat change for you to 1A. We note your comments that you had, however, encountered some issues with the seat control at this seat thereafter. On a separate note, we are also concerned to learn that you had found a strand of hair in your entrée dish.

Mr Adam, we would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused. We would also like to take this opportunity to assure you that we do have established procedures in place to conduct pre-flight checks on our cabin facilities before the aircraft is deployed for operation. However, there are occasions where the systems do not show any tell-tale signs of defects during the checks and they may have developed during the flight. On the other hand, our appointed caterers are expected to comply with the strict quality control and hygiene standards imposed on the preparation and handling of our inflight meals. In addition, our cabin crew is expected to
prepare the meals onboard according to standard procedures which do emphasize the importance of the hygiene and quality of our inflight meals.

Notwithstanding the above, we acknowledge the inconvenience you had experienced in this instance. Mr Adam, we have forwarded your comments on the various aspects of your travel to our Engineers, Food & Beverage Manager and Cabin Crew Manager for their internal follow-up respectively. We will definitely take extra care to ensure that we meet a consistently high level of service and food safety standard.

In addition, as a token of our apologies for the disappointment caused, we would like to offer you a transportation voucher valuing SGD300 ($242). The voucher can be used towards payment of a future flight ticket for travel on Singapore Airlines and is applicable for bookings made directly with us (through our Reservations and Ticketing Office, or our website). You may bring along the voucher to any our Reservations and Ticketing Office for a refund of the value indicated on the voucher once you have a confirmed booking for your future travel.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to explain. We hope to be of service to you again soon.

Yours sincerely,
Customer Affairs Manager
Singapore Airlines Limited

Thoughts? It’s a very genuine apology and it seems like they certainly did forward the comments on to the appropriate departments. As I’ve mentioned, I’m happy I didn’t pay the average first class fare ($8000+) for this flight. If I had, a $242 voucher would not have made me happy. To put things in perspective, I’ve received $250 vouchers from Delta for non functioning TVs on short BusinessElite flights from JFK-Europe that were much shorter and cheaper. However, the rest of the service was outstanding, I loved many aspects of the trip, and I paid with miles. Hmm…

This is part four of my Singapore Airlines first class trip report to Bali and includes a review of the final trip leg from Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS) on a 777-200.

• United Airlines Business Class  Updated 767-300 Newark (EWR) – Houston (IAH)
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Houston (IAH) – Moscow (DME) Part 1
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Moscow (DME) – Singapore (SIN) & DME Transfer Lounge Part 2
• The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ SilverKris Lounge Terminal 3 & SilverKris Lounge Terminal 2 @ SIN
• Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS)
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The W Retreat & Spa Bali
• The Brand New Sheraton Bali Kuta
• My First Experience on Air Asia A320 Bali (DPS) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• The Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Cathay Pacific Pier Lounge HKG/Day-Break Rooms, connecting flight KUL – HKG
• Cathay Pacific First Class  777-300ER Hong Kong (HKG) – Vancouver (YVR) – JFK

This ticket (NYC-DPS) was booked during the UA website glitch and ensuing Singapore First Class booking extravaganza back in early July. It cost me 70,000 UA MP miles and $32 USD in taxes.

The two class 777-200 flight from Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS) was scheduled for a short 2 hours and 45 minutes. As there is no first class, I was seated in the front row of business with no one next to me. The plane is configured in a 2-2-2 layout in business. The seats recline old-school style (no angled or lie-flat) and each seat has a 9 inch monitor with looping videos.

There was a brunch and lunch menu that you could choose from or you could mix and match between the menus. I had “Booked the Cook“, choosing my own meal in advance of the flight, but the flight attendants said they had no special meals delivered. Add it to the list…

I went with the udon noodles and a fruit plate.

After lunch, I intended to nap for a bit before landing so that I could get in a full day on the beach. However, that’s when all hell broke loose (warning graphic). It started with a long line for the bathrooms and several passengers holding their stomachs. I then saw the line lengthen and flight attendants were handing out vomit bags and water bottles. I knew exactly what this was about…back in The Private Room (TPR), a few Point Me to the Plane readers who traveled on both the IAH-DME and DME-SIN legs, asked me if I was feeling OK. I said I was fine, though they said they were feeling very nauseous. They couldn’t even stand to look at food. I thought it was strange that more than one person was feeling ill, but I really didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until I saw several of the business and first passengers from the previous flights lined up for the bathroom, that I knew something was very wrong. I asked if there was anything I could do but the flight attendants were doing a good job of controlling the line and getting everyone help. Most passengers were vomiting in the bathroom but then felt well enough to head back to their seats. I thought I had made it through without catching whatever everyone else had (and my post from that day would have you believing so as I didn’t want to worry family back home), but about 30 minutes before landing it got me. I suddenly felt really warm, nauseous, and needed to get to the bathroom ASAP.  Like everyone else, I vomited, grabbed a water bottle, and then made it back to my seat. I was feeling better but did not think I would make it the rest of the flight, somehow I survived. Upon landing in hot and muggy Bali it only got worse. After seeing the airport bathroom and how hot and gross it was, I told myself that I could make it to the St. Regis. Luckily, the St. Regis has assistants that get you through customs in a matter of minutes and then others who escort you directly to your driver. Once inside the air conditioned Mercedes with cold towels and water, I thought I was going to be OK. That was until we were exiting the airport and I saw several of the passengers pulled over on the side of the road going at it again. I explained to the driver what happened and told him that we might be pulled over like them pretty soon. I didn’t even make it five more minutes before we were pulled over and my St. Regis driver was patting my back as everything left my body. I couldn’t even keep water down. Once at the hotel, I put on a good show for check-in and retreated to my room. At this point, there wasn’t much left to vomit but I couldn’t stop. After a few hours of the same, I felt so sick and dehydrated that I had to call the hotel doctor, I could not keep even a tiny bit of water down. They wanted to give me an injection to stop the vomiting and while it looked sterile enough, I opted for the anti-vomiting pill. The doctors told me that I had to make it at least 30 minutes in order for the pill to work. I somehow managed it and they returned 15 minutes later with dehydration packets for me to sip. Luckily, as horrible as the bug was, it was gone by the next morning. I emailed with the other passengers and they were experiencing the same exact thing and most recovered within 24-48 hours.

Flash forward two weeks, a chain email was started between a lot of the passengers who had exchanged emails on that last flight. Everyone was on the IAH-DME and DME-SIN flights as well. We ruled out the food on the SIN-DPS flight as several of the passengers were already sick prior to boarding. The IAH-DME flight and DME-SIN flights are both possibilities but based on timing, most think it was something on the DME-SIN leg.  I have not personally contacted Singapore Airlines regarding the sickness but several passengers on the email chain have.  They each received a very similar canned response:

Thank you for your patience while we investigated your feedback. We are sorry for the occurrence on SQ61 reported on January 12th.  Please let me assure you that Singapore Airlines takes all feedback from our customers seriously and for your case, we have initiated our In-flight Services Manager and our caterer to investigate the matters that you have raised. From the investigation, our caterer had lab tests conducted on food samples from the dish uplifted on SQ61 on January 10/11, 2012 and the result was found to be microbiologically satisfactory. A breach would show in the tests. As airline food is prepared in the batches rather than individually, another indicator of a breach is the incidence of several cases of food poisoning from passengers on the same flight. To date, we have received similar reports of food poisoning from only a few select passengers on this flight. Symptoms of food poisoning like vomiting and nausea can arise from a variety of causes like gastrointestinal flu, disagreement with ingredients in the meal or the general strain of long haul traveling. A few passengers could have received illness from eating at the same airport concession or contracted lounge. Again, we regret the unpleasant experience you had encountered on your journey on Singapore Airlines. We hope our explanation has restored your confidence in our in-flight food quality and hygiene.

Basically, it wasn’t us and even if there is more than one person sick it could be the stomach flu that’s going around, the airport vendors, or the lounges in IAH or DME. It’s a pretty unfortunate situation, I can say personally that I’ve never been that sick stomach-wise. It is also more unbelievable that it occurred on one of the highest ranked airlines for quality. I have no idea what caused it and I guess it really could have been the flu that is hitting the US hard, though it seems more likely to be a norovirus or food poisoning (everyone had a very low grade fever). This article seems to back up the fact that norovirus spreads extremely quickly on planes with similar symptoms possible in only a matter of hours.

In any case, the sickness, broken seat, inoperable in-flight entertainment center, hair in my food, forgotten “Book the Cook” meal, and horrible transfer process in Moscow, made the IAH-DME-SIN first class experience, very un-Singapore Airlines like. From the three reviews, you can see that there were a ton of positives (amazing service and crew, The Private Room, comfy bed and pjs, great in-flight food options, and a huge selection of movies and programs when the TV was operable). I also previously had a great experience on the EWR-SIN direct flight. I hold no grudges, this was just bad luck all around but hopefully these types of events are very isolated on a flight that costs $8000+. I’m happy I flew on a redemption award and I’m still waiting to hear from Singapore as to whether there will be any UA mileage compensation. Well, I guess at least this series of Singapore Airlines trip reports was different than all the rest

Until the A380 Suite experience…

This is part three of my Singapore Airlines first class trip report to Bali and includes a review of The Private Room, Silver Kris Lounge (Terminal 2), and the final leg from Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS).

• United Airlines Business Class  Updated 767-300 Newark (EWR) – Houston (IAH)
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Houston (IAH) – Moscow (DME) Part 1
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Moscow (DME) – Singapore (SIN) & DME Transfer Lounge Part 2
• The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ SilverKris Lounge Terminal 3 & SilverKris Lounge Terminal 2 @ SIN
• Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS)
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The W Retreat & Spa Bali
• The Brand New Sheraton Bali Kuta
• My First Experience on Air Asia A320 Bali (DPS) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• The Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Cathay Pacific Pier Lounge HKG/Day-Break Rooms, connecting flight KUL – HKG
• Cathay Pacific First Class  777-300ER Hong Kong (HKG) – Vancouver (YVR) – JFK

This ticket (NYC-DPS) was booked during the UA website glitch and ensuing Singapore First Class booking extravaganza back in early July. It cost me 70,000 UA MP miles and $32 USD in taxes.

My plan upon landing in Singapore was to head directly to The Private Room located inside the first class section of the SilverKris lounge in terminal three. I had a 3 1/2 layover until my flight departed for Bali from terminal two. However, due to the assorted hiccups on the IAH-DME and DME-SIN legs, I was directed to the customer service reps inside the first class section of the Silver Kris lounge in terminal two. Unfortunately, terminal two was a train ride and short walk from where my flight arrived in terminal three. I documented my meeting with customer service in the last report so I won’t repeat that again. Since I was already inside the SilverKris terminal two lounge, I decided to take a quick look at the first class section…but I’ll get to that at the bottom of this entry. First, let’s move on to The Private Room!

The SilverKris lounge in terminal three has a shared entrance for all classes including the business class, first class, and The Private Room (TPR). Getting into TPR was like getting into a club in NYC, there were “bouncers” all along the way. I first presented my boarding pass to the agent at the door in order to access the first class lounge.

Once at the first class lounge I was met by another agent who then checked my ticket again and then had a waiting server escort me inside to TPR, who also checked my ticket. This last agent looked like a bouncer at the end of a long hallway and was just waiting at her desk to check credentials.

So what credentials do you need to access TPR? The concept was originally designed for full fare first class passengers but later allowed for any first class passengers flying on Singapore Airlines. All first class passengers on alliance partners and Kris Flyer top level elite members are sent to the normal first class lounge. As I was walked into TPR, I was asked if I was hungry. I really wasn’t that hungry after two long-haul Singapore flights with a total of four meals, but it didn’t hurt to check out the private dining treatment. I was escorted to my own table and presented with a menu of nine items. You can order as many items as you like as well as any drinks. Choices included: fresh eggs (prepared to your liking), waffles, dim sum, eggs benedict, Shanghainese noodles with pork in hot & sour soup, Singapore french toast, duck congee, fried carrot cake, and roti prata. While waiting for your meal you are offered a selection of different newspapers and magazines, I opted for some online browsing instead (very fast wifi).

The tables are really nice and the room is very quiet, a Point Me to the Plane reader described it as “sophisticated cool”, I agree and in fact the whole lounge felt that way. There was another server who literally stood over my table with a bottle of Perrier, refilling my drink as soon as I took a sip. He never left the table for the entire length of my meal. I decided to go with the french toast which was citrus flavored with mango coulis. It was excellent! There is also a small buffet within the dining room where you can help yourself to assorted fruits, yogurts, pastries, meats, and veggies.

Once you are done with your meal you are escorted to an area of your choosing. All of the furniture is extremely comfortable and the lounge is amazingly decorated. I opted for one of the window areas which includes two leather chairs (each with 4 outlets), a table, two lamps, and a great view. My Perrier man continued checking on me every few moments. Additionally, the head server had a list of all passengers and their flight times. He came over to me twice to tell me I should start heading to my gate. He was very nice (and concerned) but I felt his timing was a little too conservative. I stayed about 15 minutes longer and he looked like he might have a heart attack. As I left, both servers walked me out and said goodbye (they both had my name down perfectly).

The bathrooms included multiple showers and changing areas.

There’s even a kids room in TPR.

I think this is the nicest lounge I have ever been to, it definitely is the best service I’ve ever had inside a lounge. My previous favorites were the Emirates lounges in Dubai, but I was only a lowly business class passenger on those trips

OK, so back to the regular SilverKris first class lounge in terminal two. The lounge was very nice and included a huge selection of breakfast items. If you are looking for variety, you may prefer the regular first class lounge over TPR.

There’s an omelet station as well, I ordered an egg while omelet with peppers, mushrooms, avocado, and feta.

Now, you must stay tuned for the Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS) review up tonight. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced on any flight. We are talking multiple sick passengers in the aisles as a result of the previous IAH-DME-SIN flights…

This is part two of my IAH-SIN Singapore Airlines first class trip report and includes the Moscow-Singapore leg as well as the Moscow transfer lounge. Part 1 was published earlier today.

• United Airlines Business Class  Updated 767-300 Newark (EWR) – Houston (IAH)
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Houston (IAH) – Moscow (DME) Part 1
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Moscow (DME) – Singapore (SIN) & DME Transfer Lounge Part 2
• The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3 & Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 2 @ SIN
• Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS)
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The W Retreat & Spa Bali
• The Brand New Sheraton Bali Kuta
• My First Experience on Air Asia A320 Bali (DPS) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• The Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Cathay Pacific Pier Lounge HKG/Day-Break Rooms, connecting flight KUL – HKG
• Cathay Pacific First Class  777-300ER Hong Kong (HKG) – Vancouver (YVR) – JFK

This ticket (NYC-DPS) was booked during the UA website glitch and ensuing Singapore First Class booking extravaganza back in early July. It cost me 70,000 UA MP miles and $32 USD in taxes.

We arrived into Moscow around 35 minutes late with a layover of 45 minutes instead of the scheduled 80 minutes. Before exiting, the lead flight attendant personally came over to thank me for flying and reminded me that all information regarding my broken in-flight entertainment system had been communicated to the ground staff in Moscow and that I should remember to pick up my new boarding pass with an updated seating assignment. Upon exiting, transferring passengers are given transfer cards and directed to the transfer area by very large Singapore Airlines transfer signs. However, the transfer area was locked and there was no one at the door. As one of the first ones off the plane, I headed back towards the gate and asked where we should proceed with the gate locked. I was told that if the transfer area was not yet open, I would need to proceed through customs. That did not sound right (especially since we had arrived late) so I looked for someone else to ask while I waited for the rest of the passengers to filter out. Sure enough, everyone was lining up in the customs line (which is adjacent to the transfer area). I did not enter the line, instead asking two additional Moscow airport workers. They too directed me to the customs line. I finally saw one of the flight attendants and told him that we were being sent through customs instead of the transfer waiting area. Within a few moments he was able to find someone and get the transfer area opened. No announcement of any kind was made and several of the first and business class passengers were already in the customs line. I walked over and informed everyone that if they were transferring they needed to get off the line. As the rest of the passengers continued deplaning, the line to enter the transfer area grew quite long. There was only one woman with a printed list of transfer passengers and upon reaching her, she would take your transfer card and ticket and then look very slowly for your name on her sheet. Once she spotted your name on the list, you were then allowed to proceed through to security check. There was one other woman who was in charge of crowd management and she was doing a pretty poor job. Luckily, I was near the front of the line and only waited 10 minutes. You next pass through a metal detector and your carry-on bags are re-scanned. You do not need to take your shoes off or take your laptops out of your bag. Upon completing the security check, you exit into the departure gate area and can proceed to the International Business Lounge (business and first customers). By this time there was only 20 minutes left prior to departure, so I darted to the lounge to quickly snap some pictures. The lounge was quite a distance from the transfer security check and a brisk 5-10 minute walk. It’s nothing great and if you are short on time, you are not missing much. There are uncomfortable wicker chairs and small tables (no power outlets), free wifi, assorted pre-made mini-sandwiches, salads, desserts, and assorted beverages. The highlight of the lounge is really the view outside.

After about 10 minutes in the lounge, I headed back to the gate area and it was already a disaster! People were lined up and it was clear nobody was going to be boarding by groups. I ducked under a roped off area to get to the gate agents who as promised already had my new boarding pass printed out. I was moved to a new first class seat with a functioning tv.

I was getting the evil eye from the crowd but there was no way I was going back under the ropes and into the chaos. Surprisingly, as they called for children and anyone needing special assistance, passengers actually stayed put. However, once they announced the first class boarding all hell broke loose. Everyone was trying to board and the ropes were placed back up. As I was already under the ropes, I got to enter the jetway and take a look back at the gate…

The poor boarding process was pretty surprising for Singapore Airlines, but the agents were clearly contracted airport workers. It definitely felt good to be back on board and away from the disaster of a DME transfer. There was a completely new flight crew and as I boarded, the flight attendants already knew my name (before handing them my ticket)…impressive. They came right over to my new seat and told me that they had read the crew remarks from the last flight and were very sorry for the TV and food problems. They promised that everything would be working on the flight. We even tested out the In-flight KrisWorld entertainment prior to takeoff and it was working.  I was then given another set of Givenchy pajamas as well as an additional Kiehl’s toiletry bag. I believe it’s standard for transfer passengers to receive another set of PJs, but not the additional Kiehl’s bag.

As mentioned in the last post, the PJs were soft and included a lightweight zip-up and drawstring pants. The Kiehl’s bag included ultra facial cleanser, calendula herbal-extract toner, ultra facial cream, lip balm, and ultimate strength hand salve. Here’s a closer look at the PJs and amenity bag…

The pilot announced that the flight would be a short 9 1/2 hours to Singapore with no expected turbulence once the plane was de-iced. The first class cabin was all but empty except for myself, two Point Me to the Plane readers, and four Russian passengers who boarded in Moscow. The dinner, snack, and breakfast menu was at the back of the previous IAH-DME flight menu and included some excellent choices (be warned though, you’ll still be full from the IAH-DME flight).

For dinner I went with the salmon with dill and Greek style veggies, Oriental clear chicken broth with spinach, and veal osso-bucco. Once again, I skipped the mid-flight snacks and stuck to water, fruit, and chocolate. For breakfast I had my first ever cooked on-board scrambled eggs with tomato and mushroom (prefect and not watery), strawberry yogurt, and a fruit plate. The veal osso-bucco was excellent and the eggs were fresh and warm.

 

After dinner I intended to recline my seat and relax a bit before trying to get back to sleep. However, there was a problem with my chair. It would not recline at all. The controls were not functioning and the seat had to be reset. They tried several times without any luck and then told me they could manually recline the seat or I could once again switch seats. I didn’t feel like moving again and already knew that one of the open seats had a defective in-flight entertainment unit. Instead, I had them make the seat into the bed and I went and changed into the PJs. Again, they were very apologetic and quite embarrassed. I said it was no big deal but asked that they document the problems. I was thinking once again, I’m happy this is an award flight and I didn’t spend $8000+ on two flights with defective TVs and seats.

As I mentioned in the last report, as someone who is rarely able to sleep on flights (no matter how long or comfortable they are), I was shocked to again be able to sleep. I loved the bed, each time I would get up to go to the bathroom, someone would come by and re-make the entire bed. It was very comfortable and large enough to fully spread-out. While the bed had three different pillows, I really liked the normal size pillow and was able to grab another two from some of the empty first class seats. In-flight KrisWorld entertainment was quick, responsive, and had great selection of new releases and all time favorite movies and tv shows.

Service was excellent and even better than the first flight. As the crew was now aware of the problems on both flights, they went above and beyond to make sure I was happy. My water didn’t go more than five minutes without being refilled. They talked to me about their favorite spots in Bali and other locations I should think about for future trips. At the end of the flight, the lead flight attendant asked if he could speak to me for a few moments. He told me that he had written up the problem with the seat and also attached the problems about the TV and food from the previous flight. He wanted me to know that he had contacted Customer Service at the Silver Kris Lounge at Terminal 2, where my connecting flight would be departing from, and that I should go and speak to them. He even offered to escort me there. I thanked him for his assistance and told him that the service on both flights was incredible.

I was planning on going straight to the Private Room @ Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3, but detoured first to Terminal 2. Upon arriving, an agent was already waiting for me and invited me to sit down. I didn’t need to do much as she already had reports from both crews. She wanted to know my email address, my United MileagePlus number, and how many miles I spent on the ticket. I provided all of the information and she told me I should hear back in 3-5 days. I received no response my entire time in Bali and for the first week+ back in the US. I then sent an online message to Singapore Airlines customer service and received this response:

VIA EMAIL
Email : Adam@gmail.com
Mr Adam
23 January 2013
130XXX11XX/CR/THx

Dear Mr Adam
I am writing to follow-up on a report that we received from our ground
staff at the SilverKris Lounge and your online feedback of 21 January 2013.
I am sorry to learn of your experience onboard flight SQ61 / 10 January
2013 from Houston to Singapore (via Moscow). Please be assured that we are
investigating into the matter and will get back to you as soon as we have
completed our findings. Thank you for your patience and have a good week ahead.

Yours sincerely
Alvin XXXX
Customer Affairs Manager
Singapore Airlines Limited

I have not received any response back but will send a follow-up message at the end of the week. If only these were the worst of the problems. Unfortunately, it all went downhill on the connecting flight to Bali. Several of the passengers (20+) including four Point Me to the Plane readers became extremely ill, apparently from the food on the DME-SIN flight (it only struck connecting passengers). The flight included passengers running back and forth to the bathrooms and sick-bags for all…more on that in the part 3 and 4- The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3, Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 2, and SIN-DPS, coming up tomorrow.

A word of advice…

When looking for first class awards on Singapore Airlines (via their website using MR or SPG points), the connecting flight in DME has the greatest availability. You might even classify it as easy to find a first class award on this flight (along with the ICN connection). I’ll have a trip report on the ICN connection soon (SFO-ICN-SIN-MEL), but in the meantime I’d say be a little bit more flexible and go for a non-Moscow connection. The TV, seat, and food problems could have occurred on any Singapore flight, but the connection problems and re-boarding process in Moscow were plain horrible. I’ve had much better connections on both US and European carriers all over the world. Meanwhile, I’ve heard only positive things regarding the NRT, HKG, and FRA connections. If you do have a DME flight scheduled, not to worry, the Singapore on-board service was still fantastic and definitely one of the best in the sky.

Whoa, this is going to be a long series of reports, here’s the first one which includes the first segment of my Singapore Airlines first class trip to Bali last month.

• United Airlines Business Class  Updated 767-300 Newark (EWR) – Houston (IAH)
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Houston (IAH) – Moscow (DME) Part 1
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Moscow (DME) – Singapore (SIN) & DME Transfer Lounge Part 2
• The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3 & Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 2 @ SIN
• Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS)
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The W Retreat & Spa Bali
• The Brand New Sheraton Bali Kuta
• My First Experience on Air Asia A320 Bali (DPS) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• The Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Cathay Pacific Pier Lounge HKG/Day-Break Rooms, connecting flight KUL – HKG
• Cathay Pacific First Class  777-300ER Hong Kong (HKG) – Vancouver (YVR) – JFK

Now, I had already posted an entry right after my flight titled, SQ First-Class Disappointment? Broken TVs & Seats, Hair in Food, & Very Sick Passengers, as there were some unexpected blunders, but there were also some amazing surprises. This was my first Singapore First Class experience, though I had flown with them before and had an excellent experience on their direct and all Business Class Newark – Singapore flight.

This ticket was booked during the UA website glitch and ensuing Singapore First Class booking extravaganza back in early July. It cost me 70,000 UA MP miles and $32 USD in taxes. I later changed my departure flight from LGA to EWR so that I could sample UA’s 767-300, which also resulted in a $2 credit in taxes.

United Club – IAH Terminal E 
Singapore Airlines has no SilverKris lounge in Houston, so upon arrival from Newark I made my way to the United Club at Terminal E. The Terminal E United Club is the largest United Club location and spans three full floors. It’s quite impressive for a US carrier based lounge and has all the regulars amenities including a concierge desk, baggage storage, complimentary snacks, and multiple bars with house and premium beverages. The lounge also features a family room, iPads loaded with the United App, and showers.

At the top of the escalator is the second floor and it seems like everyone settles there instead of walking up the staircase to the 3rd floor. Big mistake, the second floor was packed while the third floor was quiet. If you don’t have a gigantic carry-on, do yourself a favor and walk up to the third floor. There’s another bar and the snacks are all the same. The wifi was fast and each seat had multiple outlets to charge your devices.

Snacks are basic and include carrot sticks, fruit, chocolate covered pretzels, milano cookies, biscuits, and cheese and crackers.

I was able to meet up with four Point Me to the Plane readers who happened to be on the same IAH-DME-SIN flight and we had a great time waiting out the connection talking miles and points. About 35 minutes prior to departure we headed back to terminal D to board the flight.  The flight boarded very early and we were the only ones remaining, meaning we were able to board immediately.

IAH-DME

Upon boarding, I was warmly welcomed by name and escorted directly to my seat. While one flight attendant was taking my coat, another one was already bringing me a glass of 2003 Dom Perignon champagne. As I took my seat, a first class leather bound menu, Givenchy pajamas, and a Kiehl’s toiletry bag were all presented.

The PJs were soft and included a lightweight zip-up and drawstring pants. The Kiehl’s bag included ultra facial cleanser, calendula herbal-extract toner, ultra facial cream, lip balm, and ultimate strength hand salve. Here’s a closer look at the PJs and amenity bag…

I thought the PJs were really nice, until receiving my Cathay Pacific Shanghai Tang PJs on the return trip. Though, I did like that the Singapore zip-up included a Silver Kris zipper. It was soon time to depart the gate and the flight time was just under 11 hours to Moscow.

The seats were very nice and wide, at 35-inches, each seat is leather upholstered with mahogany wood trimming. It was the widest seat I had ever encountered, again until my return flight in the 36-inch wide Cathay Pacific open suite. For comparison sake:

ANA 777-300ER – 33.0″
BA 777-300 -  32.0″
LH A380/747-8i -  31.5″
Emirates A380 – 23.0″
Qantas A380 – 29.0″
Qatar A330/777300ER – 22.0″
Swiss A330/A340 – 22.0″
Thai 777-300 – 35.0″

The seats also include a 23-inch LCD screen with great resolution and a gigantic selection of movies and shows. The noise-canceling headphones were less impressive and seem to be the same ones that Delta provides in their BusinessElite cabins, no Bose products here. There was both in-seat power and 2 USB ports which allowed me to charge multiple devices at the same time.

There is a removal cushion (note the pen stain) that hides the seat controls and TV remote.

Once we hit 10,000 feet, the lead flight attendant came by to introduce herself and asked if there was anything I needed at that point. A few minutes later another flight attendant came by to take my dinner order, of course both addressed me by name without having to read it.

Here are the full menus for the IAH-DME leg, including Dinner, Light Bites, Breakfast, and Wine & Cocktails…did you every think you would see Doritos Nacho Cheese on a Singapore menu???

Everything sounded great and I decided to go with the warm clams and pesto sauce, chicken broth, salad, and beef filet. Overall, dinner was awesome and the portions were very generous. Unfortunately, there was one problem with my baked claims appetizer…a nice long piece of hair was added for extra flavoring. The flight attendant was extremely embarrassed and said she would have a brand new dish for me in a couple of minutes.

Clams with hair

New dish

The second dish of baked clams, the roasted pumpkin salad, and the chicken broth were my favorites from dinner. The fillet was kind of dry and well-done, though the potato definitely helped (I recently had an excellent medium-rare filet on a Swiss flight…trip report soon).  Even after dinner service, the flight attendants were in the aisles at least every 10 minutes to check if there was anything we needed and to refill water and drinks. The service was outstanding. After finishing the movie Ted (excellent by the way), I headed to the bathroom to change into the PJs while a flight attendant converted my seat into a bed. The bathroom was actually quite nice, with automated sinks and toilets, fresh flowers, and a foot pedal for the garbage disposal…you didn’t have to touch anything (important to reader ‘mando)!

As someone who is rarely able to sleep on flights (no matter how long or comfortable they are), I was shocked to wake up and find that I slept for almost 3 1/2 hours.  I loved the bed, each time I would get up to go to the bathroom, someone would come by and re-make the entire bed. It was very comfortable and large enough to fully spread-out. While the bed had three different pillows, I really liked the normal size pillow and was able to grab another one from an empty seat across from me. In-flight KrisWorld entertainment was quick, responsive, and had great selection of new releases and all time favorite movies and tv shows. Unfortunately though, after watching three more movies (Pitch Perfect, Arbitrage, and Taken), my TV suddenly stopped working.  The crew reset my unit three times and then tried resetting the entire system with no luck. The system came back on but would play everything in slow motion with no sound. Luckily, I was moved to the one remaining first class seat which had a working unit.  I was able to leave my belongings at my original seat, though the flight attendants were more than willing to help me move everything over. The lead flight attendant approached me to apologize and said that they had already informed the Moscow gate of the service problem and that I should receive a new boarding pass and seat number when I re-boarded for the Singapore flight.

I didn’t have many snacks in-flight as I was full from dinner, but I did munch on a snickers bar and some fruit. Soon it was time for breakfast and though I wanted to have my first ever fresh eggs prepared on-board, I  instead went for the warm belgium waffles with strawberries, blueberry and maple syrup as it was 2pm and I figured I’d sample the eggs on the DME-SIN flight. Also included was a fresh fruit plate, a choice of yogurts, and a croissant or danish. The waffles were excellent!

Overall, it was an excellent flight with a few hiccups. The staff were truly incredible. My glass of sparkling water was refilled every few minutes. You could tell that the staff really took an interest in each passenger and knew everyone’s name immediately. As someone who redeemed miles for the flight, it still was over and beyond my expectations. If I had paid $8000+ each way(IAH-SIN), I may have been upset with hair in my food, a broken TV, and a broken seat (yes, the replacement seat was broken…coming up in the DME-SIN trip report). I’ll cover Singapore’s reaction to the problems in that report as well. Based on this flight and the continuation flight to Singapore, I unexpectedly preferred my Cathay Pacific first class experience on the 777-300ER more so than my Singapore experience on the same aircraft. My preference might change though when I sample the Singapore Airlines A380 First Suite experience later this week (which was also part of the UA website glitch and ensuing Singapore First Class booking extravaganza).

Up next, DME-SIN in first…

I’ll have a full trip report next week but I wanted to write about the surprisingly non-amazing experience of SQ 61 connecting to SQ942 to Bali. First off, was the staff absolutely incredible? Yes!  Did everyone know my name within a few seconds of sitting down? Definitely! Did they check on me every few minutes? You bet!  Did I love the in-flight bed? Yes! More on the good in a few (and there was lots), but first the surprising blunders on my 777-300 journey.

IAH-DME
The dinner menu sounded awesome and the portions were overly generous. My appetizer was baked clams in pesto sauce surrounded by mixed greens..and a little bit of hair. Yes, there was a long piece of black hair in my dish. The flight attendant was extremely embarrassed, apologized, and prepared another clam dish right away. At this point I wasn’t even sure if she had mentioned it to the lead flight attendant as he never came over to apologize and I of course did not want to get her in any sort of trouble.

About three hours prior to landing (and 4+ movies in) my TV stopped working. They reset my unit three times and then tried resetting the entire system, no luck the TV was dead. Luckily, I was moved to the one remaining first class seat. The seat had a working TV but the chair would not recline. They were able to manually adjust the chair so that I wasn’t upright for the last 3+ hours.

DME-SIN
The connection in Moscow is an absolute mess. At first they routed everyone through the customs line,even-though SQ 61 passengers are supposed to be held in a transit area and are specifically given a transit tag. When a few other passengers and I started mentioning that this wasn’t right, someone finally opened up the transit area and we were removed off the customs line. There’s a decent lounge (more on that in the trip report) but you better hurry to the gate as boarding is a complete free-for-all.

The staff on the IAH-DME leg was replaced but they wrote up a detailed report about the defective TV and I was given a new boarding pass in Moscow. Unfortunately, the new seat was the temporary seat from the last flight which did not recline properly. Alright, no big deal as I intended to sleep most of the flight in the bed position. The new staff was incredible compared to the last. As I boarded, the head flight attendant and the two first-class attendants came to my area, already aware of my  name, and said they had read the report from the last flight and were so sorry for the broken tv, hair in the food, and defective seat. They were even able to restore electrical power to the broken seat after a few attempts, allowing the reclining functionality to work properly.

Upon landing in Singapore, I entered the KrisFlyer lounge and a customer service agent was already standing by. She said that she was emailing customer relations on my behalf and had already drafted a messaged with all the problems I encountered. She wanted to know how many United miles I had used for the redemption. She was embarrassed and there really wasn’t much discussion at all, I gave her my email and that was it.

SQ942was valid for the Book the Cook option and I pre-selected my meal, receiving a confirmation over a week ago. Well, the meal never made it to the flight and the crew had no record of any Book the Cook orders.

Wow, with some of my dreams of Singapore First crushed, could it get any worse? Somehow it did! I met a few Point Me to the Plane readers in IAH who were also making the trip to Bali. They too were in first class (thanks to the booking glitch) but had none of the same problems. There problems were even worse…sickness

While in the amazing Private Room area of the Singapore KrisFlyer First Class lounge two of those readers asked me if I was feeling OK. I said I was fine and just eager for the final leg after 30+ hours. They told me that they thought they had food poisoning and could not stop vomiting and going to the bathroom. They were not traveling together and had different entrees. There were also three Russians from the DME-SIN leg who overheard us and said they were sick as well. Wow, at this point I was just happy I was feeling fine. As we boarded SQ942, there were 20-25 passengers from SQ61 and none of them were looking so hot. While in air, there was a constant conga-line to the bathroom and several people were holding vomit bags. Could it get worse? Oh Yea! As the driver from the St. Regis walked me to the complimentary Mercedes waiting to take me to the resort, two of the readers were standing in a grassy patch in the airport parking lot puking their brains out as were several of the Russians. It seems very likely that some of the food on the DME-SIN leg was not properly prepared or cooked. I’ve emailed with the two Point Me to the Plane readers and they were not able to leave their hotel rooms the entire day.  They are extremely ill and are now taking antibiotics. Yep, a very unexpected first class Singapore experience today! At least there’s the Singapore A380 First Suite experience to look forward to next month…

A few words on the good (though these will all be discussed in detail in the trip report):

I loved the bed, each time I would get up to go to the bathroom, someone would come by and re-make the entire bed. It was very comfortable and large enough to fully spread-out.

The staff are truly incredible. My glass of sparkling water was refilled every few minutes. When re-boarding from Moscow, the completely new staff was already aware of my preferences from the last crew and a glass of sparkling water was waiting. They also asked if I wanted just the fruit again instead of ice cream or cake for dessert. Impressive! They really took an interest in each passenger and knew everyone’s name so quickly. They asked if I needed suggestions in Bali (without even mentioning that I was heading there)

Givenchy PJs and Kiehls products

Singapore KrisFlyer First Class T3 Lounge & Private Room (full review next week) – If you are heading to Bali, your connecting flight will be in Terminal 2 but don’t leave T3 until just prior to the connection. The T3 KrisFlyer First Class lounge far exceeds the T2 First lounge, including a sectioned off Private Room. The Private Room was incredible and I was only there for breakfast. The Private Room includes a dining area with a menu of dishes you can order that are cooked specifically for you. As it was early in the morning, I had a waiter, chef, and hostess assigned to me for breakfast. Another server was standing over me with a bottle of Perrier just waiting to refill my glass. The lounge area has big comfy chairs and a great view.

In-flight KrisWorld entertainment when it was working, quick, responsive, and great selection of new releases and all time favorite movies and shows.

I may redeem more United miles than any other points currency, but it’s actually been forever since I’ve flown with them on a domestic (or international) leg. I most often end up flying domestically from LGA on DL/AA and tend to redeem my UA miles for international partner awards.

I was originally scheduled to fly this morning on UA 1405 (a 737-700) from LGA-IAH, but made a list minute switch to UA 406 as I haven’t yet experienced the 767-300 product. Not only was the product very nice for a domestic leg, but the service was excellent. The BusinessFirst cabin(United First on domestic legs) has a 2-1-2 configuration, I sat in seat 4D, which is a lie-flat single seat in the middle . As it was in the middle, I had flight attendants on both sides assisting me.

They were amazingly pleasant and would refill my drink each time they walked by. They entire crew seemed to be legacy CO, though no formal announcement was made on their per-merger affiliation as others have reported recenlty. The lunch choices included a shrimp salad or a beef burrito, neither looked or tasted amazing but the standard asparagus soup was pretty good. When walking back from the bathroom each flight attendant asked me if I wanted another can of club soda or any more soup (more soup…I’ve never seen that before). There was a nice VOD selection as well (the plane came from EZE and was heading to Lima after Houston). I charged up my MacBook Air via the outlet and my iPhone via the USB connection.

The international United Club in terminal E is standard but nice and empty on the top floor at this time of day. Unfortunately, Singapore does not have their own lounge at IAH.

Now for an entirely different kind of experience, I’m patiently waiting for SQ61 – Houston-Singapore with a short stop in Moscow.  Though the luxurious Singapore experience certainly doesn’t start at the gate, they utilize D4 which is one of the oldest gates here at IAH.

PS – some additional thanksagain points…

PPS- Love how Worldcom is in the Welcome to Houston sign!

Listing of all trip reports from my Bali & Kuala Lumpur Trip:

• United Airlines Business Class  Updated 767-300 Newark (EWR) – Houston (IAH)
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Houston (IAH) – Moscow (DME) Part 1
• Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Moscow (DME) – Singapore (SIN) & DME Transfer Lounge Part 2
• The Singapore Airlines Private Room @ Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 3 & Silver Kris Lounge Terminal 2 @ SIN
• Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200 Singapore (SIN) – Bali (DPS)
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The W Retreat & Spa Bali
• The Brand New Sheraton Bali Kuta
• My First Experience on Air Asia A320 Bali (DPS) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• The Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Cathay Pacific Pier Lounge HKG/Day-Break Rooms, connecting flight KUL – HKG
• Cathay Pacific First Class  777-300ER Hong Kong (HKG) – Vancouver (YVR) – JFK

Wow, six months really flew by! On July 9th I was lucky enough to book Singapore First itineraries, taking advantage of award availability normally made exclusively available to Singapore Airline’s own KrisFlyer frequent flyer members. The glitch was most likely due to a system upgrade, though we still don’t have a definitive answer as to exactly what happened, though United and Singapore have honored all tickets. I booked two flights during the glitch, one to Bali and one to Melbourne. The Bali flight is this Thursday!

I plan to spend a few days in Bali and then head on over to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is one of the only countries I haven’t visited in Asia and will be my 67th country overall. I’m hoping to find a fun last minute First routing from KUL back to NYC . Points and miles at my disposal include AA miles, AMEX MR points, BA avios, Chase UR points, SPG points, UA miles, and US miles. I have tons of Delta miles at my disposal, though I’m aiming for an international first class seat (you cannot redeem SkyMiles for First Class on a 3-class cabin). I’ve been monitoring two routings on Lufthansa A380 and 747 flights as well as a Thai Airways routing, but I’m open to any exciting suggestions. I am more than comfortable waiting until the last minute in order to score an amazing ride! My backups will be Cathay, JAL, and ANA, though I’ve experienced each of their latest First offerings.

In terms of hotels in Bali, I have a few nights confirmed with a few more to be decided. Properties I’m considering are the St. Regis, W, Sheraton, Conrad, and Grand Hyatt. I already have two nights confirmed at the W and one at the St. Regis. Both hotels have absolutely ridiculous pay and redemption rates, yet after tracking the hotels daily, I was finally able to find non-refundable rates that dropped the prices by 55-60% off the regularly best available rates at each property. For my remaining nights I’m thinking of trying out the very recently opened Sheraton. It’s reasonable priced at under $150 for my dates or 10,000 points per night, plus everything is brand spanking new. I’d also take advantage of my SPG Platinum suite upgrades.  The Conrad and Hyatt certainly look very nice and are reasonably priced, but there have already been several trip reports published on both of these properties (Admittedly, I am very tempted to use my free HHonors Diamond status one last time before I’m downgraded). A nice and comfortable resort is important, though I don’t intend to spend full days on the properties as I love to get out and explore!

As far as hotels in KUL, I’m considering the Hilton (which actually looks nicer than most of the hotels but will require a quick train ride to most attractions), Sheraton, Westin, JW Marriott, and Grand Hyatt. Any recommendations?

Now, my other Singapore First flight to Melbourne was booked with the hope that the 777-300ER on the SIN-MEL leg would be swapped out for the A380 (something that happened last year), putting me in a Singapore Suite Class for over 8 hours!  Now I just need to work on return flights… For those of you who booked Singapore First tickets during the glitch, A380 swaps were also announced on the SFO-HKG-SIN and SFO-SIN-NRT routes effective December 28, 2012. However, the additions came at the expense of one of the JFK-FRA-SIN routes which went back to a B777-300ER. In any case, I’m very much looking forward to my suite class ride in February!

Check out this link for full video and pictures of Suite Class. Each individual cabin features sliding doors and window blinds, offering you the freedom to decide on the level of privacy you prefer. While the leather and wood finishes, created in soothing natural hues, enhance the sense of serenity. For the first time ever in air travel, experience the pleasure of sleeping on a distinctively designed, standalone bed; not one converted from a seat. Our signature turndown service, with fine linen and plush, full-sized pillows, ensures a restful slumber. The bed is separate for your seat and whether in our largest seat or on our most comfortable bed, you have countless ways to enjoy this unique, personal space.

The world’s longest commercial flights are set to disappear with Singapore’s newly announced A380 & A350 order.  One of the stipulations of the order is that Airbus agrees to acquire the five Singapore A340-500s currently in service, including those used on the EWR-SIN and LAX-SIN routes.  The aircraft will be removed from service in Q4 2013.

As part of the deal, Airbus has agreed to acquire SIA’s five A340-500s, which will be removed from service in the fourth quarter of the 2013 calendar year, in line with the Airline’s policy to maintain a young fleet. This will result in the cessation of non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles and between Singapore and Newark, in the absence of replacement aircraft in the SIA fleet with sufficient range and operating economics. Although disappointing that we will be halting these services, we remain very committed to the US market. Over the past two years we have increased capacity to both Los Angeles and New York by deploying A380 superjumbos on flights via Tokyo and Frankfurt. We will also continue to explore additional options to enhance our US services.

This also marks the end of Singapore Airlines service to Newark, even though it’s a hub for Star Alliance partner United. Instead, all New York flights will be operated from JFK.  The world’s longest flight title will also shift to Qantas’ SYD-DFW flight (7454nm) and Delta’s JNB-ATL flight (7334nm). See this post, The World’s Longest Flights – How Many Have You Flown to see what the updated list will look like with the first two flights removed.

Truly a sad day for aviation fans and aspirational award enthusiasts.  Remember, Singapore began releasing saver first and business class award seats to their KrisFlyer members several months ago and Star Alliance partners have had access to a few last minute award seats as well.  I was successful in finding award availability using United’s website about three days prior to the departure date. I would be on the lookout so you can experience the EWR-SIN all business class flight at 8285nm and almost 19 hours of flying time before it disappears into the record books! Related Post – Trip Report – Singapore Airlines EWR-SIN using UA Miles.