Welcome back! Last week we went through my 19 hour flight from JFK to Singapore and today we’re finishing up the journey. Here’s what happened next:
SINGAPORE CHANGI AIRPORT
Ambassador Transit Hotel
We arrived at Singapore Changi Airport earlier than scheduled at 4:44am. My Mom and I had booked 6 hours in the Ambassador Transit Hotel, which is located right in the terminal. Our reservation started at 6:30am, which was about an hour after we were scheduled to arrive.
We chilled with my partner in one of the available seating areas before leaving him to head to his flight (he was lucky to be on a much earlier one than us) and we headed to the hotel about 15 minutes before our reservation started. They quickly checked us in and gave us our room assignment.
We went to our room, which was quite spacious and nice, but didn’t have a window. When I thought about it, that made sense since half the rooms face the terminal and that wouldn’t be conducive to sleeping, but it still surprised me. Regardless, it turned out to not be a big deal because I almost immediately fell asleep and awoke an hour before we were scheduled to leave.
Included in the reservation was a room service meal that we had picked beforehand. We chose Butter Chicken and unsurprisingly it was some of the best Indian food I’d ever eaten. It’s unsurprising because the best Indian food I’ve ever had was at the hawker stalls in Singapore’s Little India.
We had a quick issue when our food wasn’t delivered on time so I called the front desk to ask about it before hopping in the shower. By the time I got out of the shower, our food was there and more than delicious to make up for the delay 🙂 . After eating all we could (my stomach still wasn’t up for devouring a meal after awakening), we headed out.
SilverKris Lounge
Next we headed to the SilverKris Lounge, which is open to Business and First Class Singapore Air customers. Despite it being the middle of the day at this point, the lounge was blissfully pretty empty. It also had an abundance of food and drinks as well as places for us to lounge and enjoy the free WiFi. Before we knew it we had been there a few hours and it was time to head to our gate.
Flights Details
- When: February 2022
- Where: Singapore to Phuket, Thailand
- Flight: SQ738
- Flight Time: 1h 40mins
- Seat: 12J (Business Class)
- Distance: 609 miles
- Points Used: 99,000 KrisFlyer points + $13.90 (Flight 2/2)
THE JOURNEY
The Boarding Gate
One interesting feature of the Changi Airport is that every three gates or so have their own security checkpoint. The process was quick, but I was asked if I had any sprays in my bag, which I didn’t think I did. It turns out they clocked my asthma inhaler as suspicious on their scans, but once I showed the prescription container to them, they were fine with it.
We returned all of our items to our bags and walked a few feet to our gate. A few minutes later we were called to board (this plane also doesn’t have a first class cabin, just business and economy). While we were boarding, we were given an immigration card, which became key during the immigration process when we landed in Thailand.
The Flight
Our flight to Phuket has been changed many times, but during the final change when I saw that we would be flying on a new type of plane, I got excited 🙂 . And luckily my excitement was well placed.
This new plane configuration featured a “throne” seat that I was able to claim as my own and greatly enjoyed. It had 3 windows, more storage space than I knew what to do with, the ability to become a fully lie flat bed and was generally unique in a way I hadn’t seen before.
It wasn’t just the seat that impressed me though, similar to our last flight, the service was excellent and despite it only being a 2 hour flight, we got a full amenity kit, giant touch screen for movies and a full meal service. The only weird touches were that the seatbelt went across my chest like in a car – in addition to across my lap, one of the hatches that I used to house my bag wouldn’t stay closed and there was a black line through the TV (though that wasn’t very noticeable). The last two are just things I wouldn’t expect on a completely new plane.
Overall though it was a very impressive short haul flight and I’d be happy to visit “the throne” again on a longer journey.
CONCLUSION
So that was my experience on the new 737 MAX product on our final leg to Thailand! To see what happened next, feel free to check out my post about the immigration process when we landed in Phuket or my Instagram where I’ve been posting pictures and stories. Thank you for going on this journey with me 🙂 . Until next time!
What’s an airline configuration that surprised you?
Love these travel posts! I haven’t traveled in a bit and love reading these posts because I get to vicariously live through your journey!
I’m so happy you’re enjoying them 🙂 !!
Surprised to see issues like the messed-up TV or the hatch that wouldn’t close on a brand-new plane. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yep I was surprised too. Seemed like everyone else’s stuff worked fine so maybe it was just bad luck 🙂 .