Took a hired car back to Baiyun airport. With the heavy traffic on the highways, the car journey was about the same as the subway ride. Reached Terminal 2, which is the brand new terminal opened last year, and SQ had moved to the new terminal shortly after the opening.
The check-in hall was huge and bright, though kind of sterile, similar to other Chinese airports.
Check-in was quick as there are no queues at the Business line, and boarding pass and lounge invite were issued.
Passed immigration and security into the departure hall. There was premium access for security, but none for immigration.
Headed to the Premium Lounge, which was managed by the Plaza Premium group. The lounge ambience felt like many of the Plaza Premium lounges, and was decent for an airport lounge.
Pretty decent buffet offering in the lounge.
Nearing boarding time, a SQ rep came around the lounge with a signage requesting SQ passengers to head to the gate, which was still a walk away.
China Southern whale.
A long boarding queue for our flight.
20 January 2019
Singapore Airlines
SQ 851
Guangzhou (CAN) - Singapore (SIN)
A330-300
9V-STY
Business Class
Flight Time: 3H53M
The flight would be operated by the A330 regional workhorse.
Boarding the aircraft.
Regional Business Class seat. A pillow and blanket were placed on each seat.
My seat at 16A.
View out the window.
A champagne as always to start the flight.
Departure preparations in progress. The crew were rather busy, with the cabin being 29/30 in Business this afternoon, and a few special requests (saw requests for wines and hot beverages) for pre-departure drinks.
The inflight magazines and menu.
Noise-cancelling headphones.
Doors were closed ahead of schedule, safety video played and we pushed back.
Flight map and taxied to Rwy01.
Departure from Rwy01.
Generous legroom of the old regional business seats, which are in the process of being phased out.
Visit to the lavatory, stocked with the usual amenities and Penhaligon's products.
View of the cabin from the rear.
After takeoff, packets of almond/cashew mix and beverages were served. I requested for the cocktail Skyhigh from the menu, and it was pretty refreshing!
Cruising
For the IFE, I watched a Chinese comedy.
Lunch service commenced shortly after.
With the very full cabin, there were 4 crew conducting the service in Business Class.
The menu selection for this flight.
For those interested, the selection for the SIN-CAN leg.
Beverage selection
I had pre-ordered the Shi Quan Wei Mei menu and was served the starter of Golden melon and Pepper chilli pork with kelp. Requested for a piece of garlic bread as well.
The starter was unmemorable.
The main of Pan-fried sea bass in orange lime sauce and egg fried rice was plated beautifully. However, the quality of the sea bass was definitely not premium. The meat was soft and mushy, compared to the flaky meat of the Chilean sea bass catered out of Singapore. The fried rice was very good though.
My friend had pre-ordered the Oriental Vegetarian meal, and was served some braised tofu as starter.
Main was some sort of stir-fried mock meat with vegetables and rice.
Desserts and fruits offered after the meal. As there were leftovers of the desserts, we were offered both. The Chinese dessert of purple rice porridge was similar to the Singaporean dessert of Pulot Hitam. There was no cheese course offered on this flight.
Ending with a coffee and pralines. Again, my preferred choice of Maofeng tea was unavailable, along with all other Chinese loose teas. Must be some catering lapses as all the loose Chinese teas were all unavailable on all my recent 3 flights to/from China in Business and Suites.
After lunch and movie, we were only 1.5hrs out of Singapore.
Remainder of the flight was spent resting, will we started out descent into Singapore.
Overflying the Indonesian island of Batam.
Approach and landing into Rwy02L.
Taxied to Terminal 2.
Disembarked.
