movetoperth

The rules with Singapore airliones re migrant baggage allowance are that you are permitted 40kg for your trip provided you have an unused pr visa, have prior authorisation in writing and your luggage is checked straight through to your final destination. So if you are stopping over you will not be entitled to the migrant allownace.

Lynn

ljj

We had the complete opposite when emigrating with Singapore Air.

After seeing us laden up with (just over our 40kg each) at Manchester Airport the staff bi-passed the check in desk to the extra baggage Point (you know the one where you put golf clubs/prams etc) and we did the whole check in there, took us about 5 minutes from entering the airport AND they didn't even weigh our extra baggage (ELC dolls house) and include it in out total!

After flying Air Newzealand, BA/ Quantas, Singapore (in our experience anyway) wins hands down and I would pay extra to fly with them rather than others.

BTW I breastfed no problems

LJJ

Amazulu

I had 40kgs printed on my ticket & I still had big hassles. They let me through after a big arguement. So having it on your ticket is no guarantee. SIA at heathrow were tossers, SIA in Singapore were great.

I think the system is a lottery.

OriginalSunshine

good to hear! I suspect it was more an issue for the stewardess but I am still yet to hear (after 1 week!) any kind of response or confirmation of my letter/email.

ljj

Honestly though how anybody can have a problem with it is beyond me . What can be a more natural thing?

I think a nice threatening letter about contacting the International papers may make them move a little quicker. Imagine the millions of breastfeeding women around the world who would boycott the airline over that - it had to be an inexperienced air steward, there must be people feeding babies every day on international flights.

Let us know how you get on I'm curious now.

LJJ

soonbethere

HI
Glad we are flying out of Manchester, after your post (if we ever get to that stage!) looks like Heathrow have a problem with staff, the age old story, customer service in whatever capacity is soooo important to get it right every time, word of mouth can destroy or build a company....
stil want to fly with Singapore though

Amazulu

The problem with SIA in the UK is that their staff are not SIA but rather agents working for SIA. In Singapore their staff are actually SIA.

Makes a big difference.

Dreamaway 10

Thanks very much for the for warning.We are due to fly out on the 20th May and are doing a 3 night stopover in Singapore.We will either e-mail the airline before hand or get trailfinders to get it in writing for us as we have gone through them before we fly.Good on yah for letting us all know.Valuable info.!!!

JackTheLad

It was terrible that you were told not to breastfeed in-flight. I hope you've got the stewardess' name written down and put it in the complaint letter. Did she explain why you shouldn't breastfeed at the time? No one should have the right to stop you from feeding and comforting your baby unless the environment was dangerous.

I've flown recently on Qantas and Cathay Pacific with my 4-month-old daughter. The flight attendants on all flights said the best thing to comfort the baby during take-off and landing was to breastfed her, and encouraged me to do so. During the flight from Brisbane to Hong Kong, the flight attendant sitting diagonally from me was male and there was a male passenger sitting near me - neither batted an eye when I breastfed.

Mrs JTL

Guzzler&Sas

Totally agree about the visa part, but we have been told we can have a stopover and keep the migrant allowance, this has been confirmed in writing.
I guess the staff all need to singing off the same hymn sheet?

Guzzler

zermanedz

That is terrible!!! Your poor baby! Surely they would rather have a peaceful baby than one crying the whole flight. Feeding them is a great way to unblock their ears. Have done that with both my children.

I did a long haul with Singapore 5 years ago and fed my son on the flight and had no probs but I suppose it must vary per the crew they have on.

OzTennis

So summing up it:

appears to matter/not matter whether you have confirmation in writing about the extra baggage allowance; it appears to matter/not matter which airport you check in at; it appears to matter/not matter whether you are stopping over or flying straight through - depending which experience you take into account. I would also add that an experience at say Manchester will probably be different if you get a different person on the check in desk to the one who bent the rules. Very clear!

FWIW we've flown SIA 3 times and Emirates more than that and it is Emirates every time for us, we even prefer Malaysia or Cathay to SIA but each to their own though. All the SIA flights we've been on have been overly full and stuffy, grub so-so and I don't watch movies or play games so the entertainment makes no odds to me; we were late in getting our connection in Singapore once and got put onto Emirates to Melbourne and it was a far nicer flight (but 'Singapore girl' is usually very pleasing on the eye).

OzTennis

CDT

We recently flew with SIA from Manchester to Melbourne and found every flight to be asolutely full. There seemed to be a lot of code sharing with Virgin Atlantic and Air NZ, although I know other airlines do that too.


I had wondered if it was just our particular flights or have many others found for SIA flights to be full?

Great service otherwise. Maybe it was because we checked in early but at Manchester check-in we only had to queue for about 10 minutes and at Melbourne about 2 ! I did commend the check-in clerks on the short queues.........didn`t get me an upgrade though

We`ve found Emirates to be less full but always had long queues at check-in. But otherwise good service.

Fionast

Lace is without Internet at the moment in preperation for the big move

OzTennis

Yes, almost identical experiences to you. We also do the Manchester-Melbourne route often but can now do Glasgow-Melbourne with Emirates. It doesn't seem to matter how early you are with Emirates, there are always lots of early birds already queued up, very swift with Malaysia and not too bad with SIA.

As I said we once were delayed from Manchester on SIA and missed our SIA connection in Singapore but we were put onto an Emirates flight to Melbourne and what a difference! Suddenly we had extra seats to stretch out on and the air in the cabin was much fresher, the food better and the service was fine. We've subsequently used Emirates 6 or 7 times and we've always found the same thing - never full, cabin air fresher, excellent grub and Dubai Duty Free can't be bettered anywhere. I can see why SIA is popular though because the service is very good, inflight entertainment excellent.

OzTennis