- Introduction: A Suite Way To Get To Sydney
- Review: China Southern Business Class A380 Los Angeles To Guangzhou
- Review: China Southern Business Class Lounge Guangzhou Airport
- Review: China Southern Business Class A320 Guangzhou To Singapore
- Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge Singapore Airport
- Review: Singapore Airlines New Business Class A380 Singapore To Sydney
- Review: Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney Airport
- Review: Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney Airport
- Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge Sydney Airport
- Review: Singapore Airlines New Suites A380 Sydney To Singapore
- Review: Andaz Singapore
- Review: SATS Premier Lounge Singapore Airport Terminal 3
- Review: China Eastern First Class 777-300ER Singapore To Shanghai
- Review: China Eastern First Class Lounge Shanghai Airport
- Review: China Eastern First Class 777 Shanghai To Los Angeles
Introduction: A Suite Way To Get To Sydney
Review: China Southern Business Class A380 Los Angeles To Guangzhou
Review: China Southern Business Class Lounge Guangzhou Airport
Review: China Southern Business Class A320 Guangzhou To Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge Singapore Airport
Review: Singapore Airlines New Business Class A380 Singapore To Sydney
Review: Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney Airport
Review: Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney Airport
Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge Sydney Airport
Review: Singapore Airlines New Suites A380 Sydney To Singapore
Review: Andaz Singapore
Review: SATS Premier Lounge Singapore Airport Terminal 3
Review: China Eastern First Class 777-300ER Singapore To Shanghai
Review: China Eastern First Class Lounge Shanghai Airport
Review: China Eastern First Class 777 Shanghai To Los Angeles
In the last installment I mentioned how I ended up using the Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney Airport first. That’s because the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge doesn’t correctly publish their opening times — the Singapore Airlines website suggests that the lounge opens at 5AM, while the Star Alliance website suggests that the lounge opens at 5:30AM. In reality the lounge opens at 6AM.
It’s quite a haul from the check-in counters to the lounge. I initially followed the signage towards lounges, and then eventually found myself in a central part of the terminal, where there was an escalator leading up to the lounges.
Sydney Airport Terminal 1
Escalator to Sydney Airport lounges
Sydney Airport Terminal 1
The SilverKris Lounge was the first lounge as you exited the escalator.
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Sydney Airport exterior
When the lounge finally opened at 6AM I was told “I’ve never had anyone show up this early,” and then I was directed to the first class section of the lounge. While the main part of the lounge is to the left in the below picture, the entrance to the first class lounge is the sliding door on the right. It’s pretty rare for an airline to have a separate first class section in an outstation lounge, so that’s pretty impressive.
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Sydney Airport reception
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney entrance
The first class lounge wasn’t huge, though was plenty big given how few passengers it serves (long term, Singapore Airlines will have only four first class seats on their 777s and six Suites on their A380s; the only other Star Alliance first class product consistently available to Sydney is on Thai Airways, so those passengers have access to the lounge as well).
The first part of the lounge had a dozen seats. This included eight seats around a table with some wine, and then a separate area with four more chairs.
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney entrance
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney entrance
There were three red wines on display, along with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney wine selection
There was also a selection of magazines and newspapers.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney magazines & newspapers
The next section of the lounge was the dining area. On one side were half a dozen dining tables with two seats each, and on the other side was the buffet.
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney dining area
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney buffet
The next section of the lounge had eight of the awesome semi-private cubicles that the airline has in several of their lounges. I love the design of these, as they’re comfortable, a great place from which to work, and private.
Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Then the last section of the lounge had six sets of seats facing the windows.
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney seating
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney seating
This lounge has incredible views of the apron and the runway. I spent hours watching planes land and take off, and also saw a Qantas A330 and China Eastern 777 pull into the gate immediately below the lounge.
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney view
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney Airport view
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney Airport view
The first class section of the lounge had separate bathrooms from the rest of the lounge.
Singapore First Class Lounge Sydney bathroom
There was also a shower room in the lounge, which had basic amenities.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney Airport shower room
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney Airport shower room
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney Airport shower room amenities
The lounge had a modest buffet, and over the course of my stay the selection switched from breakfast to lunch. I’ll be reviewing the business class lounge in the next installment, but the food selection was very similar on both sides. I’ll let the pictures speak mostly for themselves.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney buffet
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food selection
There was also a selection of self serve drinks, including beer, soft drinks, juice, water, wine, tea, and coffee.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney drink selection
The liquor and wine selection was reasonably good. They served Veuve champagne which is decent for a lounge, though not as good as the Dom and Krug they serve in first class onboard.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney liquor selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney liquor selection
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney wine selection
Perhaps my biggest disappointment was that they only had coffee drinks from a machine. In Australia that just seems borderline unacceptable, so if you’re into coffee, head over to the Air New Zealand lounge, where they’ll make you a fresh coffee.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney coffee & tea
In addition to the buffet, one of the nice advantages of the first class lounge is that they also offer a la carte dining.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney menu
The menu read as follows:
I decided to order some food during my stay in the lounge. Shortly after placing an order I was offered a warm towel.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney warm towel
I decided to order the shrimp laksa, which was phenomenal. It was spicy and extremely flavorful.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food — prawn laksa
I also ordered the chicken satay, which I enjoyed as well.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney food — chicken satay
I ordered a cappuccino in hopes of them somehow having a secret cappuccino machine in the back, though in reality they just used the one available directly to passengers, and sprinkled some chocolate on it.
Singapore Airlines First Lounge Sydney cappuccino
The servers in the lounge were friendly, though in general the service seemed to be more reactive than proactive, as they rarely came around to see if anyone needed anything.
I spent most of my time in the lounge working. For the first few hours the lounge only had at most a couple of other people in it. Eventually there were another half a dozen people, who were traveling in Thai first class.
Boarding was scheduled to start at 11:45AM from gate 61, which was just a short walk from the lounge. Obviously I was really excited to get onboard, so I headed to the gate at around 11:15AM. Boarding ended up starting at exactly 11:45AM, with a call for first and business class passengers.
Singapore Airlines departure gate Sydney Airport
Singapore Airlines Lounge Sydney bottom line
Singapore Airlines’ first class lounge in Sydney is intimate, and the fact that they even have a first class lounge at an outstation is impressive. The lounge has a nice variety of seating options and great views. The two things I sampled from the menu were excellent.
Other than that, this lounge isn’t that special, as the buffet is virtually identical to what you’d find in the business class lounge. This is a nice, quiet place to kill time, though it’s not that over the top in terms of the service or overall experience. My only real disappointment is the lack of proper coffee. So, overall, not the best airport lounge in the world, but definitely one of the better outstation first class lounges out there.
@Lucky
Odd that the F lounge had Pepsi products when SQ serves Coke products onboard.
It is noted that the Sydney F flyers are treated to a far superior Lounge to Melbourne F passengers.
As a very frequent first class traveller, I tried this one twice. However, I find oneworld first lounges FAR better. Qantas first in Sydney is one of my favourite Lounges in the world
I get to this lounge every month or two and find that the staff are really proactive, so your experience surprises me there.
The gate is about 30sec for the lounge, so appreciate you want to board first and take photos, but 30min before boarding does seem a little keen even for that :)
I wish you had tried the duck pancakes.
I did a similar thing when i flew ex-SYD in SQ C last year. SQ lounge, but NZ lounge when I wanted a coffee.
It's not just SQ & TG F passengers who can access the lounge. SQ PPS Solitaire can also access the lounge, which makes sense given the qualification is SG$50,000 (~US$38,000) in J/F spend on SQ alone over 1 year.
We visited that lounge in June 2016 when flying TG F to BKK. They had both Dom and Krug at that time. Also the staff checked on us quite frequently when we spent all our time at the seating on the area by the window.
My only complaint is they should have a bigger table so it has enough space to hold a drink and a bowl of Laksa.
The NZ lounge was like a zoo when we popped in and promptly backtracking to the SQ lounge.
I assessed that first class lounge last time when I took TG472 to BKK on Nov 2016. Not only the high-quality a la carte food and beverage impressed me a lot, but also the attitude of the staffs working over there touched me.