Family time

Leaving Bali

Today I make my way from Bali to hometown Kuching for Chinese New Year and family time,  via Singapore.  Normally it is far more convenient to connect via Kuala Lumpur but with the  festive season ahead, the fares worked out better through Singapore.  Neither choice was that cheap but I still think I did fairly well for this time of year.

I was up slightly before my alarm set for 0600 and at breakfast at 0700.  My area of Seminyak does not allow online-booked transport.  So I had to walk about 2 mins to an area where it was permissible.  My ride to the airport was IDR68K on the Grab app instead of IDR185K through the local taxi mafia.

The 20+ min ride got me to the airport around 0810 and I was airside around 0830 for the 1050 flight.  That gave me over an hour at the lounge.  Having just eaten, I wasn’t hungry so packed a couple of sandwiches to take inflight.  Sshhh!

My Scoot flight to Singapore had been upgauged from an A320 to a 787 since the time I booked.  We left about 20 mins due to a delay to the previous flight from Nanjing to Singapore.  With 40 mins taxiing to the nearby runway due to heavy traffic (just like Jakarta) followed by being in a holding pattern due to bad weather, we got to Singapore only 45 mins late at 1420.  So I’m guessing that the long wait for the runway at Bali was already taken into consideration as the norm.

On the flight, I couldn’t notice a few odd things.

• The armrest design on the seat was particular bad.  The designers must have been asleep.  The crew call button is in the armrest and crew had a field day with people ringing them accidentally.  Now, there is a raised protection to minimise this.
• The dimmer for my window has worn out.  On my first 787 flight six years ago, the button had sunken into the wall from overuse or abuse.
• The wing on the other side of the plane (which I later found was only 4 years old) had several large patches of paint missing!  Poor choice of the brand of paint?  Much like the poor choice of carpet I had noticed on another Scoot 787 flight less than a year ago.

It’s good to see that not all design faux-pas are as deadly as the 737 Max!

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According to my bookings I had a 6h self-connect in Singapore.  With the delay I still have plenty of time of around 5h15.  Scoot doesn’t do mobile boarding passes.  So it was fortunate that I had a home-printed one which allowed me to stay airside … rather than to enter Singapore only to print one at the landside kiosk and then return airside.

I killed some time before heading to the Plaza Premium lounge as they officially allow only a 3h stay.  There were two others to choose from and today, I think I may have chosen the least favourable one in terms of food.  It was still plenty good.

I got to my gate holding room an hour before departure.  Airport security weren’t ready to let us in.  The previous flight had just departed.  This is Singapore, I guess.  Security is super-tight.  The security staff did a sweep of the gate holding room once passengers and staff had cleared off.  They even opened and check the drawer and cupboards at the staff desk.  Only then were the next shift of airline staff allowed to enter, followed by passengers.

I don’t know what they would find that’s not as a result of their own omission.  Everyone that’s been in the room would have passed through their security check.

It was interesting to note that Scoot doesn’t do 25min turnarounds at Singapore.  It appeared the aircraft arrived about 50mins before our departure.

Finally onwards to Kuching

My short 1h30 flight to Kuching felt long and noisy.  I was probably “over” the day’s travel.  I landed after 2100 and took a Grab car to my apartment for a two week stay over the Chinese New Year celebrations.