Why Singapore Airlines is so special… sometimes

Yep - have had meh service on 3 prior SQ flights similar to the type you describe today. That's why I go for foolish consistency and try and take Apology Airlines (aka ANA) when I can 🙂

The one SQ F I took was kind of like your subpar experience. The service while good at points lacked refinement and the worst was when the inflight supervisor walked around in a tank top in the middle of the flight. And something I thought was strange was that there was only one flight attendant serving the cabin. I thought the ANA F flight I took was so much better than the SQ flight. The bed was more comfortable, food 100 times better, and the inflight supervisor did some special touches that just made you feel warm inside. SQ on the other hand made me feel I was almost in a factory of sorts.

I think you and Gary take your luxury problems to an extreme too much, to the point where i wish the girlfriend from My Cousin Vinny would come out and say "What a f... nightmare"!

But I suppose being referred to as a pronoun is a bit much. I once actually had a disgruntled UA FA on a flight from Singapore to Narita refer to "us people" as human ATM machines.

WOW, “Did you stay at the casino hotel in Singapore? You people always seem to stay there.” - That is really bad and something I would never expect to hear on SQ even if the crew was not top quality.

Honestly, I have better luck with landing phenomenal crew with CX than with SQ. I really find SQ's crew overrated.

PS, Why didn't you take SQ12 back and enjoy a long trip in suites?

@ MEOW -- Because I was traveling with a friend and they only release one seat in Suites for routes to the US. Beyond that, had a very special FA working the leg from ICN to SFO. 🙂

lucky, now I see why you had an auditor in your flight: they just wanted to make sure you weren't getting an FA all to yourself 😉
BTW, when is she going to have guest posts around here?

First the "blow...ice cream sundae" comment and then the reply to @Meow about the "very special FA working the leg" on your spectacular flight to SF. Did you intend to be so suggestive about Singapore Airlines? Perhaps I misread this.

After getting all exceptional SQ treatment, got the Blah one, and its unfortunate but that one tends to stand out. Whereas on UA, its the rare exceptional that stands out.

I figured we might get an Janesis sighting in a trip report soon! 😉

SQ is really overrated. CX for the win!

I assume you were meaning 'blowjob' when you truncated up there, but as it current reads it could look like you meant 'blow' and you were complaining about inferior quality, um, blow, which is probably worse than just writing blowjob.

Traveling in first a lot as you do, you are able to discern the top notch crews from the "meh" FA's. Singapore usually sets the bar high so it must be disappointing to feel underwhelmed by the service.

Ha--so risque a comment. I love it but be careful as I recall your Mom reads this. 😉

I recently flew CX F from HKG to JFK and found it odd not to get a personal thank you note for flying the 15 hour journey with them (since the flight crew on the previous flight wrote one to me despite the flight being only 2 hours.) Also, I found it odd how the purser never introduced himself/herself during the entire flight until after landing!
Regardless, I enjoyed reading this post, especially the examples of your opinions on what makes an exceptional crew. Quite helpful.
How did you know there was an inflight auditor on the ICN-SFO leg? Do the FAs know there is an inflight auditor present or is he/she more like a ghost rider?

@ Joey -- They're usually good about passing out the cards on Cathay, so kind of surprised they didn't. Also, in my experience on Cathay Pacific the inflight service manager usually introduces themselves at the beginning of the flight when they hand out the menus. Sorry that didn't happen for you!

The auditor actually had a nametag that said "auditor," introduced herself to passengers, etc. She was oddly integrated into the crew, which is an interesting way of auditing.

I guess they would have been an exceptional crew to me.

How an exceptional crew does it: "They walk through the cabin every 10-15 minutes during the non-service parts of the flight. They use their x-ray vision to determine whether you might need anything"

Me: "Could you please go back to the galley? You are getting on my nerves ! "

This is why I love CX !

🙂

First. World. Problems.

@mark #17, why don't you go read oxfam or world vision's blog then? oh right, because you want to find out more about your first world traveling lifestyle and how to enhance it......

A fair post Lucky. When Singapore are good, they are great, usually on their A380 services. However, I had one flight in Business from Singapore to HK where it seemed I was on a different airline, a dirty plane interior with seat backs showing marks and a crew that were below SQ's usual standard. I had a feeling it was almost as if SQ had put such a crew together, ie, on a regional early morning run. The difference between them and their colleagues on the A380 was markedly distinct.

Had similar/worse experience just 3 months ago on sin-pvg flight, IFS never came out from the galley, and the leading stewardess was so busy sucking up with rich chinese family that she forgot to do landing announcement..

I find that you have better odds of getting exceptional crew when you fly suite, since afterall, not all crew can work in suites, they need to be specially trained.

Well do you feel offended by the "you people" comment?

Interestingly, I experience that same things!... it's almost up to 30% of my SQ F experiences that they were quite ... not upto SQ F Standard while the 70% they were spectacular!.... and everything is almost like what you described!!... Sometimes I had really nice crews while the inflight supervisor was the bad one... never come introduce him/herself, not smile much, etc. Even one of my suite experience, it was quite bad.

My bad experiences in F (both CX and SQ) also involve slow services during the meals. It took them so long to come and get my empty dishes or fill up drinks, I had to push the button many times to ask them to refill the drink.

@ mike -- I don't really get offended easily so it's not something I lost sleep over, but I thought the comment would certainly be offensive to some.

Lucky, one word for you about whether you can have a bad "ice cream sundae" - teeth.

Good observation. Whenever we experience a below-the-standard-service with SQ or other airlines, my husband always asks for the "C" form and their attitudes always and instantly change and improve. Have you ever tried that?

Lucky...I am from Singapore. I fly SQ if I travel for trips like to Europe etc. SQ service is like a hit and miss depending on the crew you get. I flew back from Amsterdam to Singapore. They ran out of the chicken option which my mum wanted. My mum did not want the other option. The FA who did the service was sweet enough to say she will check and see if there was extra of the chinese vegetarian and arrange for it. And true enough,she did and even came back and check on my mum to see if she like her meal.And not frogetting that my in-flight entertainment hanged thrice. The FA had to re-set it for me. Each time, she keep coming back and check on me to see if the in flight system was working which I felt was a nice touch.

In June this year,I flew back from Spain Barcelona to Singapore. My sister was on the way to the bathroom(She was about to go in to the bathroom) then we had an air turbulence. The FA plonk herself down and told my sister rudely that you ought to sit down. We are having air turbulence. My sister was like I gotta go.The FA told her, fine it's your own business. I think she could have put it in a nice way than that.

Looking forward to your next A380 SQ trip report. My aunt is a Leading Stewardess with SQ. Hope your next report I might get to see her in one of your report.