Leaving Istanbul
Ming didn’t make it on to the 0145 flight to Singapore. If she had returned to the hotel to sleep, she would probably have arrived back around 0230 and been able to get only 4h sleep before having to wake and go back to the airport. I reckon she made the right choice to stay at the airport.
I left the hotel around 0815, straight after a quick brekkie. The streets were quiet and the tram got me to the airport bus at Beyazit Square (instead of Aksaray during busy hours) in just 5 mins, compared to an hour last night!
The ride to the airport took 45 mins only and I was at the terminal 4h before departure. I queued up about 45 mins prior to the counter opening at 1025 for departure at 1325.
Ming was still at airside departure and had to get help to exit to landside. It’s normal for airports with a single security screening area into departures to not have an exit as people don’t normally need to exit from departures to come back out!
I managed to see the Singapore Airlines manager while queueing and said that while I was a commercial passenger, my friend was on standby. She said that she would try to upgrade some commercial passengers so that colleagues can get on. How nice!
Once Ming had retrieved her bag from the luggage office, she joined me at the check-in area. I had just got my boarding pass by then, being the first in queue. I stayed with her to give her some moral support for a while before heading airside about 2h40 prior to departure.
Not long after I got to the lounge, Ming was already confirmed onto the flight with a seat. Awesome. It’s rare to be confirmed so early on a full flight. I had expected her to be sent airside with a standby pass like last night, with the possibility of not travelling again.
The lounge breakfast was like the one at the hotel for the last five days so there was nothing to keep me there for longer. I grabbed a couple of sandwiches and a drink for Ming and met her at our flight gate.
Flying to Singapore
I had been assigned an aisle seat for my flight but I shifted it to a similar one in the second row of the Airbus A350 economy cabin, praying that there wouldn’t be a screaming baby there. I ended up with the worst possible babe, that cried, screamed and threw his toys just to get his way with his hippie-looking parents who never said “Nyet” to him.
The Singapore Airlines crew on my flights were truly amazing on my last few flights but less so today. Several of them weren’t very chilled and were particularly rushed and abrupt in the way they do things, and for one of them it continued through the entire flight, eg:
- When giving out earphones, she just called out “earphones” and walked past people assuming they wouldn’t want them.
- When elderly Turkish passengers didn’t know to put their cups on her tray for coffee/tea, she said “Put your cups on the tray please … the cup, the cup, the cup”.
- She also went through the cabin telling people to put their tray tables down and seat backs upright in advance of the meal service. In the case of the second meal, in my area this was done about 30 mins before the meals, as service commenced from the back.
- Before landing, she called out to a young lady “Darling, can you please open your window shades?” in a tone that didn’t match the words.
- When a passenger wanted to hand her something to dispose of at an inconvenient time, she said “Ma’am, you can just leave it there.” in an abrupt tone and walked off.
- When encountering trays that weren’t properly laid out during collecting-in, she sighed loudly.
I think some of the crew were too focused on being efficient and forgot to relax, take things in their stride and be nice. I see it in how they march up and down the cabin briskly to do things, deliver drink orders rather than circulate and be there for whatever passengers need.
As for the actual inflight offering, it was pretty amazing for a flight of 10h20:
- Service commenced with a bar service straight after take-off, which was far better than the old days of a tray with only water, orange and beer.
- The meal service commenced quite late, about 90 mins after take-off, and took about 75 mins to finish including collecting-in for my row. That’s mightily slow compared to what I’m used to, even though they have more crew than other airlines. Seated in front, I had the tray in front of me for a long time. My meal choice, fish, was delicious and generous making up for the lack of an appetiser or salad. Dessert wasn’t preset on the tray but handed out in the form of a Cornetto ice-cream.
- Sparkling wine isn’t part of the product spec in economy class but it is for premium economy. So when the trolley came through from premium to normal economy, the bottle of bubbly was hidden in a stowage behind the last row of premium.
- Midflight, they did a drinks and snack service of instant noodles, muffins, fresh chicken or vege filled rolls, packaged filled buns (eg. ikan bilis), chips and chocolates. This was only about 2h after the end of the meal service but coincided with dinner time in Istanbul. In fact, I had asked for my snack before the service. I later realised that this was meant to be “on request” but the managed decided to officialise it so that crew don’t have to run back-and-forth with multiple requests.
- It was only about 2h later when they served breakfast, starting 2h prior to landing from the rear. I was pleased to see noodles after having Turkish (or similar) food for nearly a month.
- As free internet was only limited to 2h with my frequent flyer, I tried connecting in the last 2h of the flight. It never worked during that time.
I didn’t sleep a wink during the flight as it was through the day and evening, Istanbul time. That’s despite the landing time of 0430 Singapore time.