I have been traveling with Singapore Airlines (SIA) for 20 years, and I have been eye witness to the improvement in passenger travel comforts over the years. Krisflyer is their main in flight entertainment, and this is now standard across their airlines. There are small variations however.
This is my travel experience between: Melbourne -> Singapore -> Chennai, Chennai -> Singapore -> Melbourne. Travel time: 11 hours. Class: Economy.
My experience was that the flight between the Melbourne -> Singapore sector was far superior to the one between Chennai -> Singapore sector. I have flown this route for the last 20 years, and this has historically been accurate. For what reason, I am not sure. I would have thought the frequency between Singapore -> Chennai was much more than Melbourne -> Singapore, thus warranty better quality aircraft etc.
The service
Customer service is something SIA prides itself. Their website is informative, but there are some obvious coding errors which really needs fixing. Such a big airline cannot afford to get their website wrong. Initially the e-checkin service did not function, but this was a rare error but was corrected spontaneously the day of my flight. I had similar problems on my return, and once again it worked miraculously. In flight service is exceptional. Response times are adequate for Economy, and from what I heard its even better in Raffles & First Class. During my flight, I tested their service by asking for: more drinks, more peanuts, more blankets, and pillows and I wasn’t refused once. However, between Melbourne -> Singapore, the lady did say they had no more pillows left and gave me extra folded blankets instead. The food was bearable, then again most airline food is crap! So, no offence taken.
Singapore airlines takes good care of their frequent flyers, with the Raffles & First Class lounge and Premier lounge. You can find out more about this on their website.
The facilities
Krisflyer is exceptional. The Melbourne -> Singapore sector had far superior in flight entertainment than Chennai -> Singapore. They need to focus on standardizing their inflight entertainment to avoid customers from guessing. The in flight entertainment had major system errors in the Chennai -> Singapore sector, but I wasn’t too bothered because movies were still playing. The on demand style entertainment offered between Melbourne -> Singapore was great. All shows, movies were great quality, and the larger LCD displays made it that much better. The games were admittedly crap. I was surprised to see ethernet, usb facilities behind each seat which is great for the business traveller. What would have been great - and this is not necessarily a SIA issue, is to have charge ports for laptops so we can use them on the flight without the fear of losing battery life. This is something Airbus and Boeing should look at for their future aircraft, if not already in their A380.
Inside tips
* Always check in via the internet. Most airports have luggage drop off points for e-checkin customers. Avoid the rush, and also get great seats. I believe for frequent flyers, seats can be pre-requested so you will always get the seat you want. Also, if you’re lucky - the computer will give you the option of sitting in the emergency exit points, giving you much better leg room.
* Avoid choosing seats near toilets, frequent traffic and the potential smell will make your flight a night mare.
* Don’t be afraid to ask for drinks which they do not readily offer. From my experience, SIA offers other types of drinks - for example: tomato juice.
* Be courteous to your fellow passengers, put your seat back upright during the food service.
Suggestions
* SIA is a major airlines, so the website must be up to scratch. You cannot afford to have coding errors, or E-check in problems. The website loading times are slow compared to other major airlines, and this is something they need to work on to keep travelers happy.
* SIA should also have pay per service to use their lounges similar to Plaza Premium Lounge. I am not sure why this is not available for travellers.
* Standardise the entertainment systems. Krisflyer is a great service, but making it standardised will be even better.
Mr Feedback Rating - 7.5/10 (good, website really let me down)
My overall experience has been positive, but I see some areas which have consistently come as an issue for me. Their website is one of those. SIA is a premiere airlines, and I can see they are making efforts to keep it like that, with the new A380 aircrafts and upgraded entertainment services.
