Flight to Singapore

One morning, 5 days into the new year, Hubby sat at the computer checking airline prices. I had no idea then that 5 days later, my family and I will be back in Singapore. This unexpected trip surprised many of our friends and family, myself included. We had just been back to Singapore in Sept and I hadn't expect to be eating Char Kway Teow again so soon. It took me several days before the reality of the trip sunk in and I started packing. Luckily, the packing was really easy as there wasn't much difference between the weather in Melbourne and Singapore then.





The airline that attracted our patronage and confirmed our trip was Emirates. It was the first time I had taken another airline other than SIA. My verdict? I was pretty impressed with their cabin, inflight meals and entertainment system. However, their cabin crew, though appearing friendly and professional on the surface, lacks sincerity and are not as customer oriented as those from SQ.





Approaching the aircraft, there was a wide array of Australian and Singapore newspapers at the aerobridge for our selection. A Singaporean sounding cabin crew welcomed us at the door. Good start, I thought. Flight EK405 took off on time, however, there were NO drinks served until an hour after take-off. At the customs, the water in my little bottle was poured away, so my children and I were extremely thirsty. I pressed the call attendant button but no one came for a long time. I walked to the galley to get it myself and found the cabin crew having a briefing. No one paid any attention to my presence for a while and when I finally got someone's attention, they gave me the impression that I was interrupting them.





The children were so thirsty that they drank every drop of their apple juice. By the time, the drink service started, they ordered a 2nd glass and gulped down all of it as well. It was way past 8.30pm and I could see they were very hungry when they finished up all their biscuits given as a snack with the drinks and started eyeing mine.

When dinner was finally served, they were pretty substantial and the drinks were generous. I loved the mini bottle of wines and their ciabatta bread rolls. I only wished the bread was warmed. I was most impressed with their ICE entertainment system. The variety of movies and channels were comparable to SQ but the touch screens are so cool and the navigation of the system is more user-friendly.

Overall, the flight was smooth and I enjoyed the flight. I actually managed to watch 3 movies - Julie & Julia, Case 39 and a little of My Sister's Keeper. Enjoyed Case 39 especially. But that's really because the children were angels. They fed themselves, watch movies and went to sleep, waking up only just before arrival.