Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Fukuoka to Singapore in Business

Back to Fukuoka and we had a late dinner at a famous gyoza eatery near the hotel. The gyozas were good indeed.

And a bowl of warm ramen with a couple of sticks of yakitori at a local eatery joint. Nice…

4th day in Fukuoka, I explored more of the city.
Canal city.

Along the river, with planes doing the visual approach to the airport above the city.

Went to a local market.

Lunch was at a popular Japanese restaurant, Chikae, in the Tenjin area. It was quite a wait to get a seat, but was totally worth it with the very affordable and delicious lunch sets offered.

After lunch, it was more shopping along the streets of Tenjin.

Yatai along the riverside in the evening. We did not partake in it as we did not understand most of the stuff in the menus.

Dinner on the final day was at a local eatery right across the hotel. We decided to try it as it was totally packed the previous evening and did not allow more patrons. We were definitely not disappointed, both with the quality and price of the dishes we ordered.

And ending the night with a bowl of Nagasaki-styled ramen from another popular joint beside the hotel.

It was an early start on the day of departure back to Singapore. Having an early 0950am flight to catch, we checked out of the hotel by 0745am. Luckily Fukuoka Airport was only a mere 15min and 1400yen cab ride away. Having done lots of shopping, there was no way we were gonna take the subway back to the airport.
Reached the International terminal slightly after 8am and it was rather busy with the morning peak departure flights.

Check in at the Business Class counters was quick, pleasant and efficient, and the check-in agents were already at the baggage x-ray screening stations to guide J Class pax to the check-in counters.

Lounge invitation to Lounge Fukuoka was given upon check-in. Doing prior research, I knew that there is nothing fanciful about this contract lounge that SQ (and almost all other airlines) uses.

Interestingly, there were pictures showing the meal selection on today's flight.

Economy Class had a rather long queue. It appears that the flight would be very full (and more than full in Business Class).

Information on the Economy Class cabin layout and meal selection were also displayed.

Queues for immigration and security were long but moved fast and soon we were at the departure hall, where there were only very limited duty-free shops for last minute shoppers. Fukuoka airport is definitely one where you do not need to arrive too early for flight as there is literally almost nothing to keep you occupied at the international terminal.

Towards the gates area.

Went to Lounge Fukuoka, which was, well… a very very basic lounge. Some sofas and a small work area.

Food offerings were rather sad, with only packaged snacks, cup noodles and steamed rice with pickles available. Drinks selection was were decent though.

Only had a few packaged crackers with juice and was out of the lounge in good time.

Being a small terminal, the walk to the gate took just literally seconds. Boarding was in preparation.

Soon boarding was announced. Had to proceed one level down to the awaiting aircraft.

29 December 2015
Singapore Airlines
SQ 655
Fukuoka (FUK) - Singapore (SIN)
A330-300
9V-STO
Business Class
Flight Time: 6h25m
Near the entrance to the airbridge, a very creative make-shift photo stand was set up by the ground staff, with various colourful placards for you to choose to take photo either with the Singapore Girl cut-out or with the SQ plane parked outside. Definitely something innovative and different!

9V-STO operating the flight this morning.

Welcomed at Door 2L and directed to the left to Business Class. Settled at 14K. View of the seats across before the cabin filled up to the brim.

Boarding in progress and yes, Christmas is still in the air! Business Class was very full, and ended up with 32/30, including 2 kids. Wow, one of the very few occasions when Business Class is filled overcapacity! With the high load, 4 crew were dedicated to Business Class on this flight, with the Chief Stewardess from economy coming down to assist whenever possible.

View out the window.

When most of us pax had settled down, crew came round with hot towels and welcome beverages of juices, water or soya bean milk. Guess it was still too early for champagne. I opted for the soya bean milk.

The January issue of inflight magazines and IFE were already loaded.

Flight time was a long 6.5hr due to strong headwinds at this time of the year. Safety video played, post takeoff drink orders taken and we were pushed back.

Taxi to runway.

Short video of the taxi.

JAL B772 in a special livery just landed.

China Eastern A320 ahead of us.

Special-liveried JAL

And we had a very powerful departure with steep climb from Rwy16, due to a short runway and noise abatement requirements at Fukuoka airport.

Climbing out of Fukuoka.

Slippers, socks and eyeshades were handed out. No more of the weird looking sockettes.

Some nice scenery below.

Cabin service started with distribution of post-takeoff beverages.

My order of Singapore Sling was delivered shortly after.

Which was followed with the Satay course. 2 sticks of chicken and 1 stick of mutton for each pax.

Lunch would only be served approximately 2hrs after takeoff. In the meantime, a visit to the lavatory to check out the amenities.

View outside.

Unfortunately, my IFE system encountered some problems, with the movies and videos not playing. Only the flight map was available. The crew tried their best to rectify the problem and eventually had to do a major reset of my IFE system. Hence I could only watch the movies an hour later after the major reset was done after the satay service. However the crew were apologetic and tried to make up for the wait by offering more drinks and magazines, and even offered to allow me to select my choice of meal for lunch ahead of other passengers. Nice service recovery here, though not the fault of the crew.
One hour into the flight and waiting for my IFE system to reboot.

Nuts and a bottle of water were offered as well.

Lets take a look at the meal choices before the start of lunch service.

Lunch service commenced while I was watching The Intern.

I had the Hanakoireki meal, which consisted of cold and warm sets. First up is the cold set. Items were rather tasty. Refer to my posted menu for the list of items in set.

Ordered a sake to complement my Japanese selection. It was serve in a very nice sake glass.

After the cold set was cleared, the warm set was delivered with a miso soup and green tea. Very tasty as well!

Lets take a look at the normal selection. Smoked beef as appetiser, served with garlic bread.

Braised pork in miso sauce.

For dessert, there was the matcha pudding or the espresso with cookie ice-cream.

Cheeses and fruits to end. I am now really bursting!

And ending with pralines and a mug of mocha. It was a satisfying meal indeed.

Cruising somewhere above the Philippines.

Spent the rest of the flight on some mindless horror chick flick.

About an hour prior to arrival, crew went round distributing mixed nuts again and asked if we would like more beverages. Ordered an earl grey and was delivered promptly.

Nearing and descending into Singapore.

Short video of the descend over Batam, Indonesia.

Arrived in Changi Rwy02L, right on schedule.

Video of landing.

And we docked at Terminal 2.