We’ve finally reached the end of my “flying around Asia and Oceania on points” saga. This is the last flight I took in that batch that I booked with Singapore KrisFlyer points, which all together allowed me to spend the first quarter of 2025 galavanting around Japan and New Zealand while spending a total of $160.06 USD on international flights. Madness 🙂 .
This is a part of a series of posts where I wrote about a bunch of Singapore Air flights that I booked for me and my Partner with my points. Here are all of the other posts in case you’re interested:
- Review: Singapore Air Business Class – LA to Tokyo, Japan For $5
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Tokyo, Japan to Singapore for $37
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Singapore to Auckland, New Zealand for $37
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Auckland, New Zealand to Singapore for $18
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Singapore to Tokyo, Japan for $18
So let’s get into it!
Pre-Flight
A Portable Charger Aside
A few weeks before my flight, my Mom sent me this article from The Points Guy. It talks about how some Asian airlines are no longer allowing passengers to use portable chargers on their planes, and the list of airlines included Singapore Air 🙂 .
I always travel with my Anker portable charger and I thought that this announcement was a little ironic because it basically makes them useless. Also at times, the USB charger on the plane doesn’t work for me and a lot of planes don’t have regular chargers so I guess I’ll need to be more careful to fully charge all of my devices before long haul flights on Asian airlines.
Communications
The communications for this flight were strangely messed up. A week before my flight, Singapore Air emailed me twice saying to get ready for my trip. I heard you the first time 🙂 .
A few days later, I got an email saying my flight had been changed and that made my stomach drop, but when I opened it, the email said that we were going to arrive 15 minutes early. I feel like that should just be a fun surprise if it turns out to be true, not sent with an email subject line that freaks me out 🙂 .
And finally, I only got an email telling me I could check in, 30 minutes before the flight took off. Uh – it’s a little late for that guys. Whoever was in charge of their email communication might need to take another look at their plans.
Flights Details
- When: April 2025
- Where: NRT-LAX
- Flight: SQ12
- Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
- Flight Time: 9 hours, 55 minutes
- Seats: 59K
- Distance: 5,436 miles
- Points Used: 38,500 KrisFlyer Points
- Taxes: $44.02 USD
TOKYO NARITA (NRT) AIRPORT
My Partner and I checked out of the Crowne Plaza Narita Hotel to head to the airport. I booked that room with the help of the $50 Chase Sapphire Preferred annual hotel credit.
I also discovered that the Crowne Plaza’s free loyalty program has all kinds of great benefits, like free late checkout until 2pm, free Wifi and 10% off room service. I don’t usually mess with hotel loyalty programs since I rarely stay in hotels, but these perks for a free program that took a second to sign up for changed my mind 🙂 .
A benefit of this hotel is that they have a free shuttle to the airport that got us to our terminal in 15 minutes. So we exited the bus and headed into NRT.
Check In
Once inside the airport we followed signs to International Departures, which were split into North or South wings. There was a TV on the wall showing which area was for each flight.
The TV on the left showed flight numbers for the South wing, the TV on the right showed flight numbers for the North wing and there was a TV that wasn’t wall mounted further to the right that showed which airline was in which section. I found that last TV helpful because we were so early that our flight number wasn’t on the board yet.
From there I learned that Singapore Air uses the South wing of this airport so we headed there. The escalator floor indicated that South is on Floor 4 so we went up all of those escalators until we arrived.
After stepping off of the escalator into the South wing, we saw another TV. This one showed that each airline had specific letters you needed to find in order to check into your flight or drop your bag. On that day, Singapore Air was in Section E for check in and D for bag drop so we headed in that direction.
Check In
When we arrived near D, we saw kiosks saying they were for Singapore Air economy passengers to check in. So we did just that. We each scanned our passports and asked the kiosk to print our boarding passes and bag tags.
We then shuffled out of the way to put on our bag tags. We then headed to Singapore bag drop, but an employee there said that bag drop was only for a specific Singapore Air flight.
I suspect it was for the next flight to depart. The employee told us to go to E where there was a huge group of people waiting in line (lovely 🙂 ).
Bag Drop
The economy Singapore Air bag drop line was short when I was there about a month prior at a similar time of day, so this was surprising to me. We joined the line and asked around to make sure we were in the correct line (we were).
So we waited. The farthest left line was Economy bag drop with lines to the right of that for Premium, Business and First Class check in.
While we were waiting an employee came up asking to check our boarding passes and passports. They then asked questions about our bags and when they were happy with our responses, they gave us a stamp on our boarding passes.
In the end, we waited in line for 35 minutes. When we reached the front of the line we were able to drop off our bags before heading to security.
Security
When we arrived at security there was no line. We entered the security area by scanning our boarding passes face up to open the gates that let us into the area.
Then there were multiple security lines and an employee said in English to take out our laptops and take off our jackets. So that’s what I did and I got through security without issue.
Immigration
After that we headed to immigration, which was a machine that scanned my passport horizontally and then scanned my face and let me through.
The Gate
Phew! So all that was taken care of and now it was time to relax. On my walk to our gate, I passed a few vending machines and even massage chairs that accepted money from Suica cards (the Japanese transit card).
I had some money left on my Suica card so it was time for some random drinks and snacks! To charge my Suica I had to indicate on the vending machine that I wanted to pay with “IC”, scan my Suica to see how much money I had, press what I wanted and then scan the card to charge it.
Then I headed to our gate and got ready to chill while enjoying the airport’s free Wi-Fi. However, after a bit of that, I saw an airline employee go up to the group of people in front of us and say that our gate had changed. No announcement was made over the loudspeaker.
I guess eavesdropping for the win in this case because they didn’t tell us anything and I checked TripIt and the Singapore Air app and I didn’t have a notification about it. This made me miss TripCase since they would somehow always notify me about these kinds of changes even before the airline would.
So I headed to one of the TVs lining the corridor and it did say a different gate for our flight so we headed over there.
When we arrived at Gate 27 it looked like there was basically no seating, but I went around the corner to investigate and saw there was a fair bit behind a wall, but that meant you can’t see the gate agent or where people are supposed to board.
Whatever – we made it work and I got to watch planes taking off against the background of the sun setting with cherry blossoms in the distance. Nice 🙂 .
I was trying to relax before the flight and instead heard kids screaming for 30 minutes straight. It turns out this gate is right next to an indoor playground. Oh my 🙂 .
So the sound was appropriate for the situation, but unfortunate for me since I could no longer rely on my travel app to give me updates like gate changes, so I had to keep an ear out for any possible updates. I didn’t want to use my noise cancelling headphones for the same reason, but after I got a headache, I relented and popped on my Soundcore Space Ones. Hats off to all the parents out there because I am not built to listen to that nonstop.
Anyway, after some chill tunes calmed me down a bit, I used the TripIt Interactive Airport Map to find a bathroom and headed there for a last pitstop before our flight across the ocean.
THE JOURNEY
Boarding
Curiously, nothing was announced over the loudspeaker according to my Partner, but on my way back from the bathroom, I saw that people were boarding. So we drifted closer since we couldn’t see anything or hear much behind that wall. We then heard an airline employee announce Business Class and Premium Economy in English, Japanese and Mandarin.
However, when they announced Economy, they did so only in Japanese so we didn’t realize we were supposed to board. I went around to the TV to check and it said it was my group – Oops!
We got in a long line, which was nicely organized with different labeled lines for each group number. If you’re flying out of Narita at one of these gates where you can’t see what’s going on, I would recommend just getting into your labeled group’s line since it’s out of the way of people boarding and doesn’t move until your group is called.
While we were waiting in line, an employee came up to each of us and checked our passports and then said we only needed our boarding passes to board. When we reached the front of the line, an employee scanned our boarding passes and then we boarded the plane.
Before the airplane door there was a bin of headphones that you should grab because the TVs only work with 2 prong headphones.
The Flight
I got to my seat and saw that there was a pillow and blanket there with the latter in plastic. The pillow was strangely lumpy and not like other Singapore Air pillows I’ve had in the past – I have no idea what that was about 🙂 .
And my long haul flight ‘luck’ continued – there were two small children right behind me and one in front. I think this is a new record. But it was all good because I had lots of great movies to watch and wasn’t planning to sleep on this flight.
Shortly after I was settled, we pushed back from the gate and took off soon after that. So efficient 🙂 . When we were in the air, I connected to the free Wi-Fi you get by being a KrisFlyer member, which is their free loyalty program that I had to be a part of to book these travel hacked flights.
I started watching Sonic The Hedgehog 3 after fast-forwarding the 2 minutes of ads they show at the beginning of each movie, and I was surprised to see that that movie starts in Tokyo Bay, which was exactly what I was flying over at that moment – Cool!
Then the flight attendants came around with hot towels for all of us (nice!) and the child in front of me put their seat all the way back into me despite having tiny legs (alrighty then).
After that the FAs came around to take our hot towels, give us snack packs and take drink orders. I ordered a whiskey on the rocks, which turned out to be Johnny Walker Red (alcohol is free on Singapore Air international flights even in Economy).
Soon after I got my drink, we were served dinner. We were given the option between Chicken, Hamburg Steak or Matar Paneer. I chose the Roasted Garlic Herb Marinated Chicken with Pasta and it came with Japanese Cold Noodles with Soba Sauce and Ice Cream.
The chicken was less flavorful than previous meals I’ve had in Singapore Air economy earlier this year. Maybe I should have chosen the Hamburg steak (aka meat loaf) 😉 . However, the chicken was perfectly juicy and the penne sauce was flavorful.
If I had still been hungry, that wouldn’t have been a problem because there are always snacks like sandwiches, fruit, chocolate and chips available in the galley or by request.
The FAs then asked us to lower our shades so people could sleep. And in case you didn’t know, you can request an eyemask, earplugs and an amenity kit with socks and a dental kit on Singapore Air flights over 7 hours.
I went back to the movie selection and started watching Wicked, but couldn’t get through it so I tried the Twisters and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, I’ve watched it many times since – I can’t stop for some reason and wish I had seen it in 4DX 🙂 . Then I rewatched the OG Twister to compare.
About two hours before landing, our lunch service started. We had the option of Eggs, Chicken or Kathrikai Gothsu. I chose the Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and also received fresh fruit and Dorayaki (a red bean pancake). The FA also asked if I wanted a drink and I got a coffee and saw that there was cream and sugar on my tray already – nice!
After that meal, I fell asleep to the soothing sounds of tornado destruction in Twisters 😉 and when I awakened we were landing! We had a nice view of LA beaches and skyscrapers downtown on our way in.
LOS ANGELES (LAX) AIRPORT
Once we landed, we were let off the plane quickly and headed to customs.
Customs & Immigration
At customs there was a Global Entry Line with no one in it. So we joined that and stepped up to the machine when it gave a green indication and removed glasses and masks so it could take each of our pictures.
Then a customs employee called our names and said we were good to go. All of that took seconds. I love Global Entry so much 🙂 . After that we headed to baggage claim.
Baggage Claim
We waited for our bags for a bit. After they came out, we grabbed them and followed signs to “Connecting Flights” because our adventure wasn’t done yet. Our final destination was our beloved city Seattle.
I had heard that LAX is very confusing when trying to get from the international terminal to domestic so to prepare, I’d watched lots of YouTube videos and read articles with detailed pictures showing how to get through the confusing maze of LAX between terminals. However, when we were leaving, there were a bunch of employees there to help people (nice!) that said to just walk outside to the next terminal.
It was super easy and straightforward. Huh. We just walked to the right of the international terminal for 10 minutes and arrived at domestic T6. Easy peasy! And we were off on our next adventure!
THE REVIEW
So that’s what happened, but now let’s get into the actual review portion and what I thought of the experience 🙂 .
Seat
This flight was on a Boeing 777-300ER which I prefer over Singapore Air’s Airbus product. This plane configuration has a perfect little space for my foot between the window and the chair legs.
There is also a lot of room under the seats for bags because there is no chair leg between the window and middle seat. And there are USB charging ports on the TV and a small coat hanger on the seat in front of you.
I love that the food tray has two modes (a full one and a skinny one) and a separate drink holder so you don’t have to put down your tray just to have a drink. There’s also a mirror in the tray which is helpful 🙂 and a pocket on the back of the seat in front of you that’s a perfect small size for a phone.
I also like that the headrest can be moved up or down for your comfort. I had everything I needed to be comfortable on this long flight over the ocean.
Food
The food was good and filling. In fact, I was almost too full by the time I landed, which I didn’t expect given the sizes of the portions. That chicken could have been more flavorful, but I’m still impressed that I can get a hot and filling meal flying through the air. I also liked that the FAs came through the cabin regularly with glasses of water.
In-Flight Entertainment
My challenges with some Singapore Air entertainment systems continues 🙂 . But first, the positives. Singapore Air still has the largest selection of media I have seen on an airline, which I really appreciate.
The flights I’m on with them are often long and I love just having a fun movie marathon until I reach my destination. Some airlines have such a lackluster selection that I don’t want to watch anything they have and I end up reading a book or something, but not Singapore Air.
I can always count on them to have a wide range of new and interesting films that I want to see. So what happened to have me sighing over the entertainment system?
On the below flight I talked about how my TV was strangely increasing its own brightness every few minutes, which I found annoying on a night flight when I was trying not to bother people with my TV brightness. Well, that happened on this flight as well.
However, a new issue also happened where my TV stuttered every 10 minutes or so when I was watching any film or show. It was very strange. I first noticed it after the plane lights had dimmed and didn’t want to bother my neighbors who were trying to sleep so I just dealt with it.
However, when the lights were back on and people were getting ready to eat, I did ask a FA to restart my TV and they did. But, it kept happening.
So I just dealt with it, but it was annoying. It was definitely way better than not having a TV or dealing with the slop movies provided on other airlines, but I did want to point it out in case anyone else encounters it. Don’t be like me and ask an FA to reset your TV at soon as you notice it and before everyone goes night night 🙂 .
Customer Service
As always, the customer service on Singapore Air was fantastic. It’s one of the reasons I love flying with them so much and I’m always happy to see that their wonderful approach to customer service applies to Economy as much as Business and First Class. And after this flight, I got an email asking for me to fill out a survey and provide feedback. I love that stuff 🙂 .
CONCLUSION
And that was my experience on the last Singapore Air flight of this Asia and Oceania saga. I had a lovely time and I still can’t believe I’m able to travel for so little because of the points I accumulate on my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
However, just a heads up that like most airlines, Singapore Air is increasing the number of points they charge for flights. Luckily though they’re only increasing it 5-20%, not 100% like other airlines. But this change is happening in November so if you have some Chase or KrisFlyer points sitting around that you were planning to use, now might be the time to book before those changes go into place.
I’ve personally been surprised with how few points Singapore charges for these flights so it’s not a big deal for me and I still plan to use them as my go-to long haul airline. They’re still one of the best deals in the sky and I love their comfy seats, great entertainment options, nice cocktails and fantastic service.
I missed a flight home
From Mexico City to the states this year in part because I was wearing my noise cancelling headphones ( also a me flub being one gate over, but would have heard them calling me had I not been totally plugged in). Never again. Wear one headphone so you can stay a bit present was the lesson learned.
Oh no! I’m sorry that happened to you. And good to know – I’ll be careful with my ANC.
I’m impressed with your travel hacking skills. If only Australia had good credit cards for travel hacking. Our options are very limited.