CDM

[I already posted this as a reply to another thread but thought it might deserve its own thread so I'm re-posting it here]

Here's a brief review of my experience with Singapore Airlines from London to Melbourne:

OK, we just arrived 2 days ago, having flown with Singapore Airlines from London Heathrow to Singapore on the first leg and Singapore to Melbourne on the second leg.

We claimed our double (2 x 20Kg per person instead of 1 x 20 kg per person) baggage allowance which would have been a total of 160Kg (2 adults and 2 children). All the woman did to verify that we had unused visas was to kook for the visa itself in the passport physically. No further 'checking of validity' was undertaken that I could see. To our complete and utter surprise, all our checked bags came in at a whopping 181Kg - a full 21Kg over. At £35/kg as excess weight, we were stareing at a £735 excess baggage charge. One of our bags (21Kg) had food stuffs in it that we might have wanted to simply discard but it had already been whisked away by the baggage belt and the woman insisted that it was no longer retrievable once it had disappeared.

After some 'discussion' about the merrits of the various options, the woman eventually (and somewhat reluctantly) called over the supervisor to explain the situation. She had us weigh all our carry on luggage (each piece was between 8Kg & 12Kg - you're only allowed 7kg) but we only had 3 pieces. Even though we were still over the total allowance after adding up checked and carry on luggage, she ultimately decided to 'let it go this time' but was quite stern in giving us a good ticking off for being over the allowance. It was the narrowest of escapes for us but we managed to get everything checked through to the other end.

When we found our luggage on the belt in Melbourne, we did have a bit of a problem, as we had to push to tired children and 3 fully-laden trolleys full of luggage. There are no porters at Melbourne and there are no large trolleys either. Still we somehow managed to get everything through to customs. They scanned everything and wanted to look through just one bag (which contained only clothes). We had declared that we had food stuffs and that one bag was inspected but we were allowed on our way otherwise without hinderence or incident.

Singapore airlines are a fabulous airline to fly with. I'm not saying this because we got away with not having to pay a huge excess baggage fine but because of how well they handled everything from the check-in desks to the in-flight duties. We flew the Airbus A380 (the double-decker) for the first 13 hour leg and the Boeing 777-300ER Dreamliner on the second 6.5 hour leg. Both aircraft appeard to me to be brand new. The in-seat entertainment systems have very large screens and included a huge range of games, radio stations, TV programmes, movies and the geographic location system (the map that shows where you are, what the temperature is, how long to destination, time at destination and so on). I'd have to say the the entertainment systems are the very best I've come across and the staff were just fantastic - especially with our 3 & 4 year-old kids.

The power systems in the arm-rests do NOT accommodate the UK-style 3-pin plugs but they accommodate pretty much every other nations' plug style as far as I could tell. I had been under the impression that the UK plug would fit and so this was the only type of adapter that I had with me. As a result, I was unable to plug in my laptop so I can't comment on how well the power port did/would have functioned.

As far as the visa and the immigration stamp is concerned, our visa were NOT stamped but a separate page in our passports were. I did ask the immigration agent about this and she told me that the visas are not stamped and neither is this necessary. Although we arrived with shiny new permanent residency visas, we were treated no differently than anyone else that got off the flight. There was no obvious recognition of the fact that we had entered the country for the first time and neither did any immigration agent seem to care one way or the other. Apparently, everything is done automatically when our passports were scanned, just like everyone elses, and thus the fact that we had passed through the immigration border was somehow automatically recorded somewhere.

And so, after several years of contemplation, nearly 2 full years since the actually application, many months of preparation and many weeks of actually going through the motions, we're now here in Melbourne and acclimatising. And now if only the kids will stay asleep through the night ...

- CDM

fish.01

Really enjoyed reading that.Thanks.

Stilletto_rebel

Good post.

I hadn't considered the power port for the laptop - will look into that when I book my flight.

Kath & Graham

Did you get a lot of turbulence we are coming over soon but I was worried about being on that double decker, kids and OH quite fancy it!! Well I do have a real fear of flying

Kath

Janna and Nick

glad you made it! Kids sleeping would be wonderful..... that's the only thing that worries me about the whole trip.....our 3 year old

Thanks for the info..... I am swaying towards Singapore.... Although Emirates offer 50kg's, I am not sure we need that much....

bcworld

...which is odd because I'm fairly sure Singapore (and Malaysia) also use the UK style plug.

katsmajic

We used singapore too and found them to be fantastic.
Good luck with the beginning of your new adventure and lives.

CDM

Turbulance was minimal. I'd say that, generally speaking, the larger the aircraft, the more tolerant it is of turbulance (more inertia to overcome). The seat-belt signs did come on once or twice but nothing really significant by way of turbulence. I'd say you have nothing to worry about.

- CDM

CDM

With luggage, there comes a point where your ability to move from A to B with so much luggage starts to become the limiting factor. You have to get it into the car, into the taxi, into the bus, through the terminal building from the car-park, etc. We were barely able to move with everything we had. Having said that, we did ultimately manage to get 2 kids, 2 buggies and 181Kg of luggage (7 large suitcases and several smaller sports-bag sized ones).

- CDM

CDM

It should be noted that Singapore Airlines told me at the time I was making the booking that it would NOT be possible to charge laptops in-flight, which I took to mean that you didn't have the option to plug the laptop in. I thought this strange, however, in light of previous posters telling me about the EmPower outlets in every seat (also further confirmed by their own web-site as well as others) but it turns out that what's not allowed is the charging of laptop batteries. You apparently get enough power from the outlets to operate the laptop itself, as this requires less wattage, but not enough to also charge the batteries. As I said, however, I wasn't able to confirm any of this as I only had a UK-style plug.

- CDM

Kooky.

You sound like you're still flying high as a kite, CDM Welcome!

Singapore does indeed have UK style sockets but most of what you buy there has 2 pin (China?) plugs. Total PITA. We now have 3 different types with various adaptors and trailing sockets here in Oz.

CDM

Thanks :-) I've been here 2 days and have heard a heaty welcome to Australia soooooo many times already :-) The people here are really friendly.

Now, if only I could get a nice IT contract, life would truly be sweet! :-) Anyone know where a 20+ year UNIX expert might fit in as a contractor here in Melbourne?

- CDM

JCSUPERMOTO

Good arrows dude!
Jammybugger with the luggage

coolerkingcooler

That's some achievement!

Hope we manage as well,
Cooler

blackbag

thanks for the useful information, we fly to melbourne next wednesday with singapore.