OK, so this is a first world problem, but here goes.

Last month needed to fly MEL/SIN at short notice. The F fare was only a little more than the J fare, so I thought "what the heck".

Booked on the flight departing MEL at 1am and was sorely disappointed with catering. Unbeknownst to me, this flight offered only SQ's "supper service". The meal on departure comprised a bread roll, BTC dish and a little fruit. That's it! Then crew disappeared early into the galley to leave passengers to make up their own beds.

The following morning, waking 45 minutes before arrival, the crew advised that because I had a meal on departure, it was not possible to have breakfast. I was offered an orange juice, nothing more. They also said it was too late to serve coffee.

The two crew serving the F cabin offered lots of "so sorry" responses and promised to "report to management". The inflight service manager, however, was conspicuous by his absence - he studiously avoided any interaction or eye contact with pax.

A very disappointing SQ F experience. I've written to the airline, and received a standard response, mostly explaining the flight only offered a supper service and promising to "impress upon the crew the importance of paying attention to finer details and delivering their service professionally". In other words, not a serious response.

May be time to give EK or QF a run on this sector.

 

Yep sounds pretty par for the course for SQ's short red eyes.

 

SQ is schizophrenic about their sleeper service. Either set up to maximise sleep, or keep the all singing-and-dancing service and irritate those who wish to sleep. Right now they say they want to do the former, refuse to retreat from the latter, and then reduce sleep time by waking one up too early.

BA does this very well on their transatlantic routes. They tell passengers up front it is a sleeper service and so:
- dinner is served in the lounge, not on board
- lights stay off after take off to maximise sleep
- cold supper available on board only if requested
- full breakfast if one wakes up early
- wake up call 40 mins before landing, with juice, coffee and bacon roll
- or doggy bag breakfast roll

By contrast SQ wakes J passengers up 2 hours (!!!) before landing in order to do the all-singing-and-dancing-breakfast-show. They deign to allow an extra half hour of sleep if all you want is a continental breakfast. This completely negates the objective of getting as much sleep as possible.

 

While this certainly sounds like a poor crew, why didn't you ring your call button and ask them to make your bed?

 

I'm just not a call button kind of guy. In F, I would expect the crew to keep an eye on the cabin and be attentive with their service... thinking ahead, checking people need service (rather than waiting to be called) and going the extra mile (in this case, the extra mile would have meant making the effort to serve me a coffee within the last 45 minutes of flight).

 

I totally agree. SQ crews are especially known to be intuitive. Waiting for the bell to ring is more a CX F type style of service.

 

In Singapore, that probably means the crew concerned has been taken out the back and shot (OK, maybe not, that's more a North Korea thing). But I wouldn't be surprised if this is PR speak for the crew has been disciplined for what is clearly substandard service delivery for either J or F. Usually they are very good at anticipating needs and even in J on supper services will often serve a second light breakfast if there is still food available. In J I've had OJ served 20mins out from landing, no problem, after waking following overnight. It sounds like you encountered an extremely lazy crew and although I did jest earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if the crew did receive some form of disciplinary action.

Maybe, but EK or QF won't give you the option of an overnight sector from MEL to SIN. So whilst it seems the SQ F service you experienced on the overnight sector was virtually non-existent, EK and QF F service at that time of day is literally non-existent Also EK/QF only offers F once daily - although that will soon be the A380 F on EK complete with shower - whereas SQ do have 3xdaily flights with F cabin.

 

Iam not sure though, but if I recall it correctly generally two meals are (were?) served on the MEL-SIN. Something must have gone wrong here.

The excuse with the coffee seems also quite strange, I have had crews which had absolutely no issues serving coffee 15mins before touch-down.

I honestly tag your experience mainly to the crew. The performance was sub-standard, no questions. Sadly, such occasions with SQ's crews delivery sub-standard are getting more frequent. I get the feeling that some of them worry more about their shopping at the destination than the passenger.

 

I agree that's what they should have done, but when the proactive service is not forthcoming, it seems a bit counterintuitive to not make specific requests (such as bed-making, which is absolutely crew responsibility in F) and then complain about non-fulfilment...

But all around, I agree it sounds like a very unusually poor service.

 

I can't imagine crew on a service-oriented airline telling a FC passenger that he/she cannot have any breakfast (even though food is available) because they consumed a light supper many hours earlier. Were they trying to save food for themselves? Or were they too lazy to bother serving the breakfast when there was time to do so?

 

Well, definitely no breakfast available, and they said it was not possible to get a coffee either... 45 minutes before landing. The only breakfast item was a single glass of OJ.

SQ write as follows:They seem to miss the point. The issue is not whether a "breakfast roll" was or was not offered (it wasn't), the issue is that a breakfast roll is fully inadequate as the F breakfast offering on an overnight flight.

Suspect because I had BTC, there was no standard menu catering loaded for me. And this is why they said I couldn't have breakfast.

 

It sounds like a poor crew.

I recently flew the short overnight SIN-NRT. Had BTC meal on departure, bed made up in adjacent empty seat. I awoke just over an hour before landing and was offered breakfast - anything you want from the menu.

 

I've noticed in the J cabin, SQ crew usually go out of there way to find something for breakfast if a passenger really wants it, as most pax do not seem to wake for breakfast, particularly on 218 which I've taken numerous times. I've actually been in the mini cabin on the 77W where none of the 8 passengers has eaten either meal - supper or breakfast (curiously though that seems to be a particular idiosyncrasy of those selecting seats in the mini-cabin).

If the crew wanted to ( and weren't being downright lazy), even if you were the only F passenger and the only meal loaded was your BTC, I am sure they could have catered to your needs using the J catering, and you probably wouldn't know the difference. Basically I am still convinced that this was a crew issue - either they were either being downright lazy or just following the Singapore dictum "CANNOT" if you ask for something that is outside the rules (which in most cases SQ seems to have overcome with its premium cabin crew when it comes to non-safety elements).

 

I've seen SQ crew take items from crew meals and offer to plate them on FC or business class dinnerware for passengers when there's a mistake or shortage in the catering.

 

I agree. It's unusual to come across lazy SQ crews, so maybe the latter. Alternatively perhaps SQ is cutting costs like mad by loading fewer meals...