Conference bound

I am off to the annual Shindig of the IATA Ground Handing Committee, an umbrella body for the area of the industry that I work in. They usually have the conference in a nice “business” location, no Bali beaches for me. The conference traditionally runs from Sunday evening until Wednesday nights so inevitably I have to travel on the Saturday meaning another weekend away from the family. Disappointingly, to avoid a location clash with another industry conference, it is being held (again) in Kuala Lumpur where it was held in 2008. I would have much preferred the alternative location of Saigon in Vietnam. The flight schedule that I required meant that Singapore Airlines was the best fit, I have not flown Singapore Airlines since 2008 and I had forgotten how good they are. I spend an inordinate amount of time “up in the air” this flight (30^th April) will take me over 100 hours flown this year so far and I expect to finish up somewhere between 200 and 300 hours by the end of the year. Our company policy is the cheapest economy class ticket that fits with the schedule, regardless of flight duration, unless someone else is paying or we get a complimentary upgrade. As a result I consider myself something of an expert on airline service and Singapore Airlines top my list. The flight is 12:15 today, most long haul airlines would knock out a single drinks service followed by a meal, and they would then turn up the cabin temperature, hoping to send the passengers to sleep. The cabin crew would then retreat to the galley or cabin crew rest area perhaps coming through the cabin with a water service every hour. Before landing they would, if the flight is long enough, another meal would be served. Singapore Airlines is different..... After take off the crew distributed menus, we had two drinks services followed by a lunch service with three choices of main course. The water service is every half hour and they clean up the empty cups about 15 minutes later, there is a mid flight “movie snack” and finally before landing breakfast... with a twist. The breakfast choice is “Western” (full English) or Eastern (beef noodles). Given my body clock is coming up on midnight at “breakfast time” the beef noodles will go down a treat.

We are flying on the A380 today; it was once described to me as an A330 with another A330 stuck on top of it. Singapore airlines are the only A380 operator who has upper deck economy class; this is my preference as it is 2-4-2 and because of the curve of the fuselage there is a small hand baggage locker between the window and the seat. This time I was too late to get upper deck so I was relegated to the main deck where it is 3-4-3, I was in a window seat and fortunately the middle seat was empty; even more fortunately the passenger in the aisle seat moved after take off so I have a row of three to myself. The A380 is an engineering marvel and is my favourite aircraft type, it is so quiet and the Singapore In-flight entertainment is second to none, so far this flight I have managed to watch The social network, Get Carter and then listen to 101 hits of the 1980’s and we are only just approaching the Bay of Bengal. For a travel addict this is a good day.