The writer often travels on the kangaroo route and occasionally on regional flights in South East Asia - mostly for business reasons.
In those years, SQ was in a league of their own. They had really delicious inflight meal, innovative entertainment System.. And lets not to forget the SIA girls in those day when they wholeheartedly served the guests with the highest standards ever seen- great care and high level of adaptability to the guests behaviours, and also their attention to details.
Fast forward to today, where should I start?
SQ girls
Downright rigid and robotic, like IATA police. Chaotic crew management. When it was 45 minutes before landing, the cabin crew already began to diligently enforce all passengers to draw the window shades open and put seat back upright. And they will go around checking with such great efficiency that would have made Hitler proud. One crew member even asked me to take off the sq earphones for landing, and the plane hasn't descended. Some crew in red kabaya were a few times seen to talk down loudly at the junior crew to get something done. Truly shocking for the passengers around. I still haven't even touched on the topic on the vast disparity in the way they treat passengers of different races.
Now come on, why are we forced to be so uptight with following the IATA rules? What's worse - they enforce the rules like a policeman. One can easily get the impression that SQ is institutionalising their past best practises. Every moves of the sq girls are subjected to ISO9001 audit! I can reveal that the crew do this much differently on other competing 5 star airlines!
Inflight meal-- absolutely horrendous, especially economy class meals. Regional meals replaced with bento box meals? Sure, the porridge taste OK. But the pasta and chicken rice don't. Pasta and vege were often overcooked when served. Haagen Daaz ice cream are gone. The wines taste cheap.
Seats-- seats definitely feel harder and less comfy. On the 380 and 777, the Y seats are fine. They feel reasonably wide enough. But beware of their 787 dreamliner. Their Y seats are incredibly narrow. Many friends and family members commented the same to me.
Inflight entertainment and WiFi
Do not be fooled by their seemingly many choices on offer. The movie choices seem good, but many top-rated Hollywood movies and Netflix Shows are missing. OK, they try to make up for it by adding the krisflyer login and playlist option. Sounds like a nice touch, but if guests aren't looking forward to your entertainment options on offer, who will bother? Even kids movies feel cheap. And now SQ is trying to win back frequent flyers by offering unlimited WiFi only to krisflyer members registered on this flight, but not to passengers redeeming miles on other frequent flyer programs. Yikes! Sound like a trap.
Krisflyer
In general, award space availability for kf members have fallen. It also costs more miles to fly the same route as compared to other competing airlines. One glaring example is on the Singapore-Sydney route. I will leave it to you to do the research on the mile redemption costs.
Overall, you can feel that SQ management is tweaking around with the onboard and on-ground experience in the face of greater financial pressure and competition. The overall experience feels cheaper, manipulated, and less premium than before, and they no longer justify the high airfare traditionally quoted by SQ. Standards have fallen. Frequent flyers loyalty deserves better elsewhere.
I am so glad that I switched my airlines loyalty.
The writer is a former PPS club member and former Krisflyer elite gold member, both membership of which have since expired. He is now proudly a gold member of 2 competing 5-star airlines which also flies to Singapore.
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