Comfy up there and Down Under

Thus did our fam trip group treated by Singapore Airlines to this singular experience keen in anticipation after first flying from Manila to Singapore to catch the much longer flight to Sydney. It isn’t on every flight that one gets to enjoy, indeed indulge in, the distinctive creature comforts of the widebody A380.

But it wasn’t to be, at least on that night. A rescheduling problem consigned us to another aircraft, much smaller, though also given to SQ’s exemplary treatment, from superb meals (served with actual cutlery in confident rejection of onboard paranoia) to the smorgasbord of up-to-date films available for viewing, thanks to the KrisWorld in-flight entertainment menu.

Our hosts would make up for the initial, inadvertent disappointment, however. We were assured that the expected treat would materialize on our return flight. And indeed it did, making the eight-hour portage in the skies something to crow about — if I may pay homage to the late National Artist for Literature Anding Roces, our former fellow columnist in The Philippine Star. Surely he, too, would have enjoyed the experience, and made much of it in anecdotal form as a delighted and delightful raconteur.

The wide seats can be transformed into sky beds for long-haul flights.

The first airline in the world to receive and fly the Airbus 380 super-jumbo, Singapore Airlines reaffirms its cutting-edge superiority while heralding a new era in civil aviation and redefining the experience of premium air travel.

The largest and most technologically advanced passenger aircraft ever built, the A380 is designed to accommodate 525 seats in a three-class configuration. However, the SQ A380 seats only 471 passengers in three classes, ensuring much more space and comfort. There are 12 Suites on the main deck, 60 Business Class seats on the upper deck, and 399 Economy Class seats on both decks.

Traveling Economy on the SQ A380 guarantees an unprecedented level of comfort, with the special seat design ensuring more personal space and increased legroom and knee room. Extraordinary features include a front-mounted footrest, adjustable leather headrests with side panels that can be folded for head and neck support, a 10.6-inch personal LCD monitor, and inseat power supply. And the fabric seat cover is designed by Givenchy.

The A380 began commercial service in October 2007, flying from Singapore to Sydney, and returning the next day. It was deemed most historic by aviation buffs, so that all the seats on both legs of the inaugural flight were eventually auctioned on eBay, with all the funds raised donated to charities in Singapore, Sydney, and a global humanitarian organization.

The next flights were from Singapore to London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Zurich. Soon Los Angeles joins these destinations. 

Apart from its wide body, the much-touted A380 happens to be one of the cleanest and greenest aircraft in current operation. Its fuel burn is considerably lower, using up 20 per cent less fuel on a seat-mile basis than most of other large aircraft. Carbon dioxide emissions per passenger are the lowest of any aircraft.

A dozen Singapore Airlines Suites turn into exclusive cabins, with sliding doors ensuring privacy, cocooning full-sized beds with plush mattresses and Givenchy-designed duvets and cushions.

With the latest innovations in aerodynamics, drag has been reduced to the minimum, further improving fuel efficiency, thus resulting in less emission of carbon into the atmosphere. Its airframe construction and engines also make the A380 the quietest large passenger jet ever built, producing half the noise energy at take-off and cutting the area exposed to equivalent noise levels around the airport runway by half. This means much lower cabin noise throughout, again improving customer comfort.

And all this we managed to sample on our return flight from Sydney, in Business Class where the seats are the largest in the industry, measuring 34 inches wide, with a generous seat pitch of 55 inches. A seat can also be transformed into the largest full-flat business class bed in the sky to accommodate flyers’ preferred resting positions.

This option I made sure to try immediately after take-off, reclining on the makeshift but comfy bed to start enjoying movies on the personal 15.4-inch-wide LCD screen.

Actually, our group of a baker’s dozen, mostly of travel agents, was also allowed a tour of the First Class section, or what is billed as the Singapore Airlines Suites, with its hallmarks of sophistication and luxury besides great comfort. The leather chairs, upholstered by world-renowned Poltrona Frau, are fully adjustable to fit any sitting or lounging positions.

Each Suite has sliding doors and roller-blinds for privacy control, making it an exclusive cabin in itself. The Suite’s unique design does not have the seat utilized for the sleeping surface, offering instead a stand-alone full-sized bed that measures 27 by 78 inches, with a plush mattress and Givenchy-designed duvets and cushions.

The iconic Sydney Opera House as seen in wintry weather while on a harbor cruise

A couple can actually occupy two adjoining Suites and seal themselves in double cocoons so they can play Chess or Scrabble in private. Or enjoy each one’s sleek 23-inch LCD screens, adjustable reading and dining lights, personal luggage stowage within the Suite, personal coat closets with wardrobe lights, and vanity mirrors with non-intrusive LED lighting. As long-haul flight customers, they also receive an exclusive Ferragamo amenity kit, featuring the latest fragrance, F by Salvatore Ferragamo.

We were happy enough in our Biz section, however, which also had smart stowage compartments, personal vanity mirrors for freshening up before touch-down, and most importantly, a large, height-adjustable table that remains in use even when the seat is transformed into a flat bed.

In fact, soon enough I found out I could even assume a lotus position, with my lower extremities comfortably tucked under the table. Only when I was into my second film meditation, and after a repast that started with chicken paté with orange cognac jelly and cornichon, salad of mesciun, cucumber and radish, and ended (past a choice of blue-eye cod, Singapore-style soya chicken or roasted herb-crusted lamb loin) with Tiramisu and gourmet coffee did I recline fully, burping to my non-jetlagging heart’s content.

It was certainly the ideal way to fly, appropriately capping our whirlwind tour of Sydney and environs for three full days and nights. Immensely convivial was the company, made even more engaging by the livewire presence of Gina Gaw of Australia Tours & Holidays, a Filipina with the most entertaining tour-guide patter that kept us all in stitches.

Complementing her was “Daddy” Barry, whose informative spiels as he expertly drove our coach also kept us awake despite the wall-to-wall itinerary. And our Singapore Airlines’ punong-abala, Corinne Tirona, proved most efficient and caring despite her challenging obligations as Den Mother (and despite being too young for that) — hurrying us all along in a most gracious manner, even ringing up our rooms to plead for punctuality.  

Echo Point in the Blue Mountains

Arriving at dawn on a Friday, we were taken straight to the popular landmark that is Bondi Beach for breakfast. The end of May signaled the end of autumn, so that toplessness was absent at the start of winter. In fact, that early in the morning, the long, wide crescent of white-sand beach only had joggers and walkers, while out on the surf was the usual insane band of surfers, albeit in wetsuits. 

Our next stop was at the Sydney Aquarium at waterside, where dugongs and manta rays obliged our cameras all around the usual glass-encased underwater tunnel.

Corinne and Gina managed to convince Holiday Inn at Potts Point to allow an early check-in, so that a catnap could fortify us for the full day out. First stop for the afternoon was at the Koala Park for a barbecue lunch followed by a half-hour of petting and photo-opping with Tassie, a male koala and the only one who wasn’t asleep atop a tree branch when we reached his habitat. We fed kangaroos from our palms, walked in the mini-forest past gaudy peacocks and pens with wallabies, etc. 

Dinner was early at the Star City Casino, where we had the privilege of having a long-table reservation at the otherwise queue-attended Garden Buffet Restaurant that drew families to SRO capacity for its variety of fresh seafood and prime cuts of meat. Then it was back to our hotel, which for the adventurous young bucks in our group proved well situated, being in the vicinity of King’s Cross, the city’s flesh center. I couldn’t join the unscheduled extracurricular trek through the tenderloin district, opting to connect with the Net and hitting the sack early. Honest.

Day Two took us to the Blue Mountains, a two-hour drive towards progressively interesting country scenery. Nostalgia harked re-acquaintance. Over a decade ago I spent over a week in fellowship at the Varuna Writing Centre in Katoomba, exactly the tourist and honeymooners’ town we went into to check out the rock formation called the Three Sisters at Echo Point along the Megalong Valley.

Popular Bondi Beach is nearly deserted on an early morning in winter

This time, however, the extra treat came as an I-Max screening at The Edge Cinema of a fascinating 45-minute docu about the primordial valley, and how an old species of pine was rediscovered in the area. It made us all even more appreciative of the series of spectacular rides we were to experience after lunch: the funicular that descended steeply towards the valley floor, the Scenic Cable ride that brought us back up, and then another that slung us slowly across the very valley, with twin waterfalls plunging below us across a rock face. 

The rest of the go-go itinerary included a pitstop at the Olympic Village, dinner at yet another revolving scenic restaurant (just like lunch at the Sky Brasserie overlooking Echo Point), this time at the Sydney Tower, a Magistic lunch cruise along Sydney Harbour on Day 3, despite the all-day rains that ushered in the wintry season, and the farewell dinner at I’m Angus Steakhouse Restaurant on Darling Harbour’s glittering waterside.

The Magistic cruise gave everyone opportunities to shoot the iconic Harbour Bridge, a.k.a. The Coathanger, as well as the majestic Opera House. But the last was certainly even more picturesque the night we caught a laser show targeting its famous “sails” and turning them into great canvases featuring changing geometric and colorful displays in time with music.

Sydney is always very much alive, creatively dynamic, with no season failing to come up with some festival or innovative attraction. This time, there was yet another entrancing laser show that targeted the heritage building that is the old Customs House, facing the Circular Quay. Its facade would be adorned with changing colors and set pieces, this moment assuming a watery surface, the next crumbling like sand — in a continuously evolving and looping display of antic imagination.

Singapore Airlines’ Corinne Tirona pats Tassie at the Koala Park.

Hours later, as we reclined on our sky beds in the A380’s biz class, those images would still appear when we tuned out of our personal movie screens. Sydney’s images and Singapore Airlines’ forward thrusts were parallel, at the cutting edge of all the echo points we were immersed in for five days in May — a continuum of realized desiderata.

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Singapore Airlines flies four times daily from Manila to Singapore, which conveniently connects to SIA’s Singapore to Sydney flights on A380.

For information, visit www.singaporeair.com, call Singapore Airlines at 756-8888 , or visit Singapore Airlines’ Makati office at the 33rd floor, LKG Tower, Ayala Avenue, Makati City.