SQ called me on 27th afternoon, inform me that there's a seat available for 30th Dec. I was on the waiting list for one month by then. It was quite exciting to hear about it. On the other hand, it's time for me to decide to go home or stay here. I only have 12 hours to decide or SQ would give the seat to other people.
Me and my family had quite a lot of discussions over this issue. If I were to stay here, the living costs will be quite high and I can't get a PR unless I get State Government Sponsorship by state government. Even if I get a PR, I think it's quite far from home and I'm going to stay at a place with different culture. Is this the place where I really want to stay for a longer term?
Final Decision
Final decision was made, I boarded the flight Singapore 268 on 30th Dec 2006.
Flight SQ268 to Singapore Review
My friend, Peter came over to my place early in the morning. As I had the feeling that my luggage was going to overweight, I called him for a scale to weight my bag. In the end, I managed to throw away alot more not so important documents and cut down the weight to approximately 40kg.
As I had the approved letter from the International Student Services office to request for 10 more kg allowance, I hope the overall of 40kg luggage could go through. I walked in to SQ office in the city two days before flight, but the lady wouldn't accept it. Now, I could only bring this letter to the airport and hopefully the check-in staff or the supervisor would let me through.
I left Housing at 11:15am, after having stayed here for 4 years, with lots of laughters and tears left in the air.
Check-in
I arrived the airport at 11:45am, 1.5 hour before scheduled departure. I did a online-check-in as I always hate queuing. There was an express lane for the online-check-in and the check-in was fast. I handed in the approved letter to the check-in lady, and after consulting the supervisor, she was able to check in 40kg of my luggage at the most. Phew.. My luggage weighted 40kg. However, my hand luggage was 3kg over-weight. After all, she let me through. She congratulated me for completing my study here and smiled when she saw my Homer Simpson. I wouldn't left him behind, would I?
ADL airport
Long queue at SQ Check-in counters at ADL as contrast to the express lane for Online-Check-in passenger. (file picture, photo taken 29 Nov 2006)
Departure- Immigration & Customs Clearance
Customs clearance was slow and took approximately 20 min.
A SQ flight being pushed-back from the gate at ADL (file picture, taken 29 Nov 2006)
Boarding
Boarding has started when I reached the gate (gate 18).
Flight
Boeing-777-200. Flight registration: 9V-SRO, fitted with AVOD system.
Seat
60K.
Seat 60K on 9V-SRO
At 13:05, the flight was pushed back and airborne at 1315 from runway 05, heading NE, and then made a approximately 90 degree turn towards Singapore. Lunch was served just after airborne.
In-flight entertainment
AVOD was fitted on this flight. With the in-flight entertainment, the 7 hours flight passed very quickly.
Meals
Two meals were served (lunch & refreshment). I ordered for special meal- seafood meal. The food was nice and the portion was just nice.
My seafood meal served just before we arrived in Singapore.
The Singapore Sling
Cabin Cleanliness
The cabin cleanliness was good.
Arrival
The flight landed at 17:15 Singapore time, reaching gate E3 at 17:23.
The moment before touching down at Changi Airport, Singapore
Just after touched down in Singapore, followed by another flight at the back. Can you spot the flight?
Immigration/ Customs clearance
Immigration was quite busy at this time and it took me approx 15 min to pass the immigration.
Luggage Handling
The luggage was ready when I reached the belt.
Overall verdict
4.5 out of 5. Overall a very pleasant flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment