SQ Tips, Trips and Tales

[andy2015]

Can you post screen shots?

Googling Chicken Shahjehani that sounds like the pick of the bunch.

Book the cook:

Inflight:




Refreshment:

Warm Soy Linseed Sandwich with Gammon Ham and Emmenthal Cheese​

Fish Congee with Chinese Crueller​

 

[boomy]

Food options in F both inflight menu or book the cook out of SYD are dire. SQ need to step up their offering.

BTC is only good Ex-SIN.

 

[andy2015]

BTC is only good Ex-SIN.

Pre covid I could swear they had "deliciously wholesome" range BTC ex-SYD which were good combined with simply more options than now.

Wish they had just refreshed the old suites and put the money into food/beverage offering instead.

Also while I'm having a little baby whine I'll add another thing to the list:

SQ 12 SIN-NRT 9:20am departure..."breakfast" service? Cheap! Thank god ex-SIN BTC is good like you say but no full meal service.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Never had a prob with steak ex MEL - maybe boomy too fussy or just a sook? Prolly the latter Lobster (crayfish) on offer and is dire?

I am allergic to crustaceans so I could not Order that - but is it dire?

 

[stm1sydney]

Wow, looks to me like a fine set of choices, particularly given the small number of pax in F. This is peak first world problems.

 

[boomy]

Never had a prob with steak ex MEL - maybe boomy too fussy or just a sook? Prolly the latter Lobster (crayfish) on offer and is dire?

I am allergic to crustaceans so I could not Order that - but is it dire?

Lobster Ex SIN is better, don’t know why but Ex AU tends to be a bit dry. I’m happy to choose from inflight menu to SIN and BTC from there to experience best of both menus

 

[Peasant]

Lobster Ex SIN is better, don’t know why but Ex AU tends to be a bit dry. I’m happy to choose from inflight menu to SIN and BTC from there to experience best of both menus

And PER used to be the pick of the lot by quite a margin! Recent experiences ex SIN have been fine but they seem to get smaller and smaller.

BTC is only good Ex-SIN.

I agree that catering is still not back to pre-covid levels and I've had bad steak from both MEL and SYD in the last year. Not a fan of the BTC macadamia chicken either as it seems to be a soggy mess when heated in the onboard steam ovens.

The best steak in the network continues to be ex LHR - it never disappoints and they manage to do a perfect medium rare which is just how i like it.

SQ 12 SIN-NRT 9:20am departure..."breakfast" service? Cheap! Thank god ex-SIN BTC is good like you say but no full meal service.

Yes - I've already given feedback on this as it's very limited for an all-day flight that arrives into Tokyo at dinner time. Kyo-kaiseki has just made a return so i'm looking forward to it on my next flight aboard SQ 12 as it used to be great pre-covid.

 

[boomy]

The best steak in the network continues to be ex LHR - it never disappoints and they manage to do a perfect medium rare which is just how i like it.

Good to know. I have few SQ Ex LHR bookings this year and will make sure to try the the steak next time.

TBH I didn’t have a true medium rare steak on any airline so far apart from JAL which serves true restaurant quality wagyu in F. Will be very impressed if SQ can match that.

 

[Peasant]

I actually snapped a pic of the perfect cook on one of my ex-LHR flights last year...apologies it's by no means a good image and insists on being uploaded sideways here.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For those following along at home with the baggage allowance/interline question from before:

The short answer (from the ground agent)!is "I don't know, it's probably 40kg, but there's no definitive answer. I guess it works?".
More detail below. Keep reading for absolute mayhem in living form (exaggeration but I believe things did get astray at times).

Long answer? Buckle up it's a crazy ride ahead. I just caught up with my friend who asked this question, they've finally landed in Melbourne, all bags intact. What I'm about to write is a rough transcription of the events that occurred.

So, friend goes to the J check-in counter for SQ at BLR, hands over a passport and two e-tickets/itineraries.
One is a (VA stock, e-ticket number beginning with 795) ticket that has two segments: SIN-BLR and BLR-SIN, both in SQ J. SIN-BLR was 'consumed' in Dec 2022 so only BLR-SIN is relevant at this point.
The other is a (SQ stock, e-ticket number beginning with 618) ticket that has two segments: MEL-SIN and SIN-MEL. MEL-SIN was 'consumed' in Dec 2022 (which interlined onto SIN-BLR) so only SIN-MEL is relevant at this point.
Agent at the desk goes to town on the keyboard, saying "Madam you're going to Singapore today, do you have a visa?", to which my friend replies "I'm not going to Singapore, I'm going to Melbourne". Agent says "But madam system shows Singapore as destination". "Also if you're going to Melbourne show proof of entry allowance to the Australian country ".
Eventually after explaining the mechanics of the ticket purchase and after a few exasperated sighs from the agent, she eventually got two boarding passes printed, showing a journey all the way to MEL.

All good so far right?
Wrong. Damn wrong.

"Madam do you have any bags to check-in?" "Yes, I've got 2 here". They are placed on the belt. Turns out the big bag is 27kg and the small one is 8kg. Not sure if my maths is correct but that's a total of 35kg.
Agent chimes in "You can collect these in Singapore as you're going there as your destination". Apparently completely forgot about the entire issue from before.
"Umm, my journey is to Melbourne. Also, I know that Business class has 40kg and Economy is 30kg. Given that the first flight is Business and the second is Economy, am I allowed a 40 or 30 kilo allowance? Lastly, can these be checked all the way to Melbourne?". The response? "Yes madam I can check these all the way to Melbourne that's no problem". "But what about the allowance?" "Madam it's 40 kilos till Singapore then 30 for Melbourne". "But you just said it's going all the way to Melbourne". "Yes madam". "So is it 40 or 30 that's allowed by the rules?". "Yes madam". It eventually just got tagged and sent away for loading into the aircraft's belly.

At this point I figure my friend just gave up and got the boarding passes and got the hell out of there. I couldn't believe the level of incompetence after hearing this exchange take place. That too in the J line. Forget about any of this if checking-in in the regular Y lines. In the end I'm just as confused as when I was initially asked this question, and damn embarassed that they don't have an answer still. I really expected more.

Not only that, the seat assignments were stuffed up and bulkhead seat reservations were lost.

On another note, how do I get to learn more about these? I feel I know a lot hence the regular barrage of requests for help from family/friends, but I believe my knowledge is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg in terms of all there is to know about these regulations dealing with a GDS, check-in systems, etc etc.

Thanks for attending my TED Talk.

Much of the check in issue could have been resolved if your friend had arrived at checkin and said ‘my final destination is MEL, here is the PNR for the connecting flight’, as per CE’s suggestion.

The agent would have retrieved the second booking and checked the passenger in all the way.

I suspect the baggage allowance was probably limited to 30kg by virtue of the onward sector. It seems the agent may have been kind in waiving the excess

 

[MathNerd]

Much of the check in issue could have been resolved if your friend had arrived at checkin and said ‘my final destination is MEL, here is the PNR for the connecting flight’, as per CE’s suggestion.

The agent would have retrieved the second booking and checked the passenger in all the way.

That's the thing though - they did hand over colour printouts of both e-tickets with PNRs and itineraries completely visible. Even mentioned that they're going to Melbourne.

I suspect that the agent did what she was trained to do - search the manifest by pax name so of course would've only seen the current flight (BLR-SIN).

From what I heard, the agent was quite taken aback when my friend mentioned that the journey ended in MEL - given the computer didn't show any onward journey it was apparently set in stone that another flight can't be added on.

My friend even pointed to the tickets and dates and flight numbers, even to emails generated by OLCI (of both sectors).

Eventually a supervisor intervened and completed the formalities (however also didn't know about the baggage allowance but that's a different issue).

I suspect the baggage allowance was probably limited to 30kg by virtue of the onward sector. It seems the agent may have been kind in waiving the excess

As stated above, neither the regular agent nor the supervisor could clarify the allowable allowance given the situation.
Surely there's a function within the GDS or a rule somewhere that has this scenario as an example?

I can see the frustration experienced by pax when these things occur, and I felt it too when the events were being described to me.

My friend is certainly not new to flying, nor am I - we've never had issues such as this before when dealing with tickets within airport control, so all I can think of is a lack of training/willingness/effort from the agent; unless there's another explanation that I'm missing...

Thanks for the input @MEL_Traveller.

 

[dajop]

Maybe frustrating and it was ambiguous. Many carriers it would be a matter of policy that it is so sad, too bad, ……. And would require rechecking on separate ticket (here’s looking at you NZ, BA) and even more would strictly apply the baggage allowance listed in each separate ticket, so could charge for excess from SIN to MEL. Bottom line don’t expect favours when on separate tickets, although usually SQ and QR will oblige.

 

[Nam Taf]

Apologies if this isn't the SQ general questions thread...
For a weight-based baggage allowance, is there any limit to the number of checked items? Or could I take e.g. 6 checked items if they in total fit under my weight limit?

 

[dajop]

Apologies if this isn't the SQ general questions thread...
For a weight-based baggage allowance, is there any limit to the number of checked items? Or could I take e.g. 6 checked items if they in total fit under my weight limit?

No limit.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's the thing though - they did hand over colour printouts of both e-tickets with PNRs and itineraries completely visible. Even mentioned that they're going to Melbourne.

I suspect that the agent did what she was trained to do - search the manifest by pax name so of course would've only seen the current flight (BLR-SIN).

From what I heard, the agent was quite taken aback when my friend mentioned that the journey ended in MEL - given the computer didn't show any onward journey it was apparently set in stone that another flight can't be added on.

My friend even pointed to the tickets and dates and flight numbers, even to emails generated by OLCI (of both sectors).

Eventually a supervisor intervened and completed the formalities (however also didn't know about the baggage allowance but that's a different issue).

As stated above, neither the regular agent nor the supervisor could clarify the allowable allowance given the situation.
Surely there's a function within the GDS or a rule somewhere that has this scenario as an example?

I can see the frustration experienced by pax when these things occur, and I felt it too when the events were being described to me.

My friend is certainly not new to flying, nor am I - we've never had issues such as this before when dealing with tickets within airport control, so all I can think of is a lack of training/willingness/effort from the agent; unless there's another explanation that I'm missing...

Thanks for the input @MEL_Traveller.

Sorry my bad I somehow missed the sentence in your post where you stated your friend handed over the two tickets! (I got caught up in the explanation of the half and half!)

The SQ website lists baggage allowances and for ‘mixed class’ bookings it says to refer to the ticket for the baggage allowance on each sector of a mixed class ticket.

This case was slightly different, not a single ticket but two separate ones. In that event I’d probably default to the lowest allowance being the applicable one.

 

[MathNerd]

Sorry my bad I somehow missed the sentence in your post where you stated your friend handed over the two tickets! (I got caught up in the explanation of the half and half!)

The SQ website lists baggage allowances and for ‘mixed class’ bookings it says to refer to the ticket for the baggage allowance on each sector of a mixed class ticket.

This case was slightly different, not a single ticket but two separate ones. In that event I’d probably default to the lowest allowance being the applicable one.

All good. I guess it makes sense that the lower amount is applicable as it satisfies the requirements for both legs which each have thier individual requirements.
I guess it's one of those risks taken with separate tickets - unfortunately a real lack of through award availability led to this.
I myself try and avoid separate tickets (only did it once for LHR-ZRH on LX and ZRH-SIN on SQ and it had its own issues) and I advise my friend to do the same as much as possible.
This time though I thought why not, and advised that a separate booking such as this shouldn't be an issue as 1) It was all on SQ and 2) The layover was sufficiently long (>5 hours). I didn't anticipate any issues at check-in but I was being optimistic.

 

[get me outta here]

Before Covid I asked them in TPR where their lobsters came from. They said from America and I commented that Australia has very good lobsters and is closer.

 

[drron]

Before Covid I asked them in TPR where their lobsters came from. They said from America and I commented that Australia has very good lobsters and is closer.

Though the Australian lobster is not a real lobster nor crayfish but can be called a rock lobster as no one thought up any other common name. doubt SQ would be interested as they are dearer than true lobsters and the flesh is not as sweet.
Here from WA.

Lobsters, rock lobsters and crayfish | Western Australian Museum

museum.wa.gov.au

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Normality slowly but surely returning to SQ - just secured o/w J Saver MEL-SIN-PVG Feb 24 - wanted 25 but no availability as yet - still a month out so plenty time to massage if and when stars align - getting home on Mar 4 next challenge.

Back in the good ol’ days dozens and dozens of times I would book o/w Saver R, F or J into PVG or PEK and worry about booking a return once on the ground there and I knew what day would suit me to return - was pretty flexible and just never got stuck

 

[Quickstatus]

Australian lobster is not a real lobster

Yes basically the OZ "lobsters" don't have the massive claws that real lobsters have