Having scored the chance to visit the open house of Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4, I was looking of the preferred options on getting to the event. I stumbled on a set of SQ flight that was unbelievably on a deal. To make things even better, the flight departure time leave me with enough time to get to the airport right after work, and it is on an Airbus A330!
I know, that the Singapore Airlines A330 is quite common and it plies a lot of popular routes. However, it was the only type that SQ currently operates that I have not logged at all. Hence, booking the A330 flight was done without any hesitation!
Jakarta – Singapore
Singapore Airlines, SQ 965
Jakarta, Soekarno-Hatta (CGK) - Singapore Changi (SIN)
Airbus A330-343, 9V-STY
ETD: 1900 (GMT+7)
ETA: 2150 (GMT+8)
Economy Class, Seat 60B
Jump straight to the day of departure, it was a nice clear evening as I reached the Terminal 2D of Soekarno-Hatta Airport. With minimum queue on the SQ counter, check-in was a smooth and easy affair with both our bags checked-in for the city state.
Proceeding into a rather quick clearance of immigration and security screenings, we were about 10 minutes early of the gate opening time, which means we had to spend some time in the transit area.
Entering the gate near the boarding time, we managed to be one of the first few Economy passengers to board the 2-4-2 configured aircraft. Oh boy, I can never be tired of saying how much I love the 8-abreast seating Airbus configuration in economy. It fits perfectly when you travel in pairs, as a family of four, or even when you travel solo (you only get to skip one seat to reach the aisle).
As soon as the doors were closed, the crew gets into the pre-departure routine of distributing hot towels to everyone aboard, while playing the safety demo at the same time. Due to the congestion in CGK, we were eventually taking-off at around 19:20, about 15 minutes behind schedule.
The flight time to Singapore was approximately 85 minutes, with most of our cruising time over the Indonesian airspace went smoothly. That being said, there was a noticeable light bumps as we were on descent above the Riau Islands.
The attentive set of cabin crew were efficient in distributing every meal, which consist of a lamb with rice or fish with potatoes as main course, with chocolate cake as desserts. We spent the remainder of the flight time, catching up on the latest TV series on the Krisworld system, including our descent and arrival into Changi Airport's Terminal 2.
If you would like to see our visit into Changi Airport's Terminal 4, follow our journey here.
Singapore – Jakarta
Singapore Airlines, SQ 968
Singapore Changi (SIN) - Jakarta, Soekarno-Hatta (CGK)
Boeing 777-200(ER), 9V-SRM
ETD: 2155 (GMT +8)
ETA: 2240 (GMT +7)
Economy Class, Seat 54G
Well, who wouldn't love spending as much time as possible munching all the scrumptious delicacies the city-state has to offer. Therefore, where my schedule permits me, I prefer to fly back to Jakarta on the last departure out of Singapore, which was SQ 968.
Arriving into Changi Airport using the MRT, we had ample time to spare until our departure time of 2155hrs. Clearing the errands of GST refund, checked-in both our bags to Jakarta, and streaming through passport control, we still had approximately spare of 90 minutes.
Spending our time on the Terminal 2 McDonalds chain until our boarding time, we head to the assigned gate for security screening. By looking at the crowd of the passengers on our gate, suffice to say that it is going to be a full flight, with most of them consisting of Indonesians going home after the long weekend break.
Peeking out to the window, I noticed that we were flying on 9V-SRM, the same aircraft that flew me from Hong Kong to Singapore earlier in March!
Boarding was an organised affair, with the two friendly cabin crew members welcomed us on door L2. We made our way to the rear of the aircraft as one of the first few economy passengers to board. Other passengers soon joined us and it was time for the door to close.
We had a long taxi to the runway, as the pre-departure services of hot towel distribution and safety briefing were being carried. We had to hold before entering the runway, as a few incoming traffic were cleared to land on our runway, we roared off a rather long roll on the runway before lifting-off for a 90 minutes hop to Jakarta.
Throughout the departure, the Krisworld system seemed to be on the off mode, which was unusual as SQ have joined many other airlines on activating its IFE on a gate-to-gate basis. It was only after the seatbelt signs were off, that an announcement came that there were technical issues with the IFE and the crew is doing their best to fix it. Miraculously, they were able to restart the system halfway through the flight.
Given the rather short flight time, the crew sprung into action with their trolleys, conducting the meal service in an efficient yet friendly manner. We enjoyed our chicken curry with rice meal, along with SQ catering's ever-so-good pudding as dessert. With most of the passengers continuing to rest after the meal service, the cabin lights were kept at a minimum throughout the flight.
Catching up an episode of a TV series on the Krisworld system that has just been restored, it was already time for descent into Jakarta, and followed by a smooth touchdown at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. We were docked at Terminal 2D and disembarked at no time, thanking the humble crew that had been looking after us on this short hop!