Sri Lankan Airlines from Singapore to Colombo. UL303 and UL308. This airline is definitely not worth the price of the ticket. First, the flight was 1 full hour late in boarding in Singapore and the ground staff never once made announcements about the delay. We were also boarded in a very chaotic fashion which produced further delay in the departure. The food is also very low quality and not at all tasty. Entertainment system is old and the guy behind me kept backing the screen to get it to work!!!
Return flight was no better. Slight delay again to board and again the chaos of boarding everyone at the same time created delays. The aircraft is old and needs a serious cleaning inside. I will say that the cabin staff are friendly. ztraveller rating: 4/10
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I fly China Eastern Airlines from Singapore to Shanghai (25-31 October). This was one of the worst airlines I ever took. So disappointed.
Flight to Shanghai: We boarded the flight right on time all seated and ready to go well ahead of schedule only to get a message from the flight crew that they are still waiting for their flight clearance and it will be a little longer. We left the gate exactly 1 hr. after our schedule departure time. Food on the flight was not at all tasty and makes you think who their chef is to dream up such food. The entertainment system is old and run down, poor sound quality. But they did allow small personal devices to be used so that was good. Flight from Shanghai: Again the flight was late on departure. This aircraft had no individual entertainment system, there was a central screen for the cabin. Really bad, bad, bad. Screen picture quality was small and bad, no sound, and thing showing was in Chinese (no subtitles!!!!!). On top of that, this crew had a different policy and did not allow small personal devices to be used, even if in flight safe mode. So, nothing to do for 5 hrs. The cabin is poorly maintained, the seats are dirty. The tray tables do not fold down flat and so the food trays keep sliding off. Food is awful. On the second flight I selected the spaghetti option only to find out that they only give a spoon to eat spaghetti, no fork or even chop sticks - HOW do you eat spaghetti with a spoon? It is very hard I tell you. The airline has an App for check-in, what a joke of an App. You can only use the App for check-in if you have a China mobile phone number. The Web site check-in is equally bad although it does function. One good thing I will say is the cabin crew are friendly and always smiling. I guess you need to when so much goes wrong on every flight. ztraveller rating: 2/10 19 September 2017. I flew SilkAir from Hyderabad to Singapore and I must say one of the worst flights I have had. Given SilkAir is part of the SIA group this is a shock.
This is a very short 4.5 hr flight overnight, departs at 11 PM and lands at around 6 AM in Singapore. Given the late time and short flight one would think they would let passengers sleep and only provide a light snack prior to landing. No no no, that would be too logical. In fact what this crew did was keep the cabin lights on and everyone awake (accept for business class!). The first two hours were spent serving drinks and food, 1 hr to sleep and the last hr with the lights on in prep for landing. Despite the fact that I was sleeping (or trying to) I was still shaken and woken up to ask if I want my dinner at 12:30 AM!!!!!!. I think the crew must have enough training to know if a passenger is sleeping they should let them sleep. The crew were also very unprofessional and in my opinion rude to passengers. Basically it felt like they were not happy to be working the overnight flight and their attitude was taken out on passengers. The family in front of me informed the purser that he had ordered the Indian Veg meal for himself and his wife. The crew proceeded to argue with him that his was ordered but not his wife and "see the list your wife not on so no veg for her". No sense of customer service or accommodation on the request. The crew also seemed not to care about any safety factors. We had several families with small children that even on final approach were still running up and down the aisle. No crew asked them to sit and be seat belted for landing. ztraveller rating: 2/10 14 September 2017 - I flew Vistara Airlines from DEL to HYD and was very pleased with this airline. This is a new budget airline, a partnership between Singapore Airlines and Tata. Excellent and efficient staff for check-in and at the gate. The planes are new and the crew well trained. Seats are comfortable and the food was top notch. The only downside was the lack of any entertainment system, not even basic music.
ztraveller rating: 8/10 Flew Silkair direct SIN-Wuhan on 9 April and then return on 13 April. Flight from SIN was OK nothing outstanding. Arrived earlier than scheduled in pouring rain. Would have hoped to arrive at the gate and walked right off to the terminal but not in Wuhan. In the pouring rain the aircraft was parked away from the terminal on the tarmac and we had to old school it. We had to walk down an uncovered ramp and walk into a but, all the passengers were soaked!!!! When we got the baggage it too was all wet. I guess they never get ran in Wuhan and this was a fluke occurrence.
Departure was horrible, boarded the aircraft old school way again and really felt like cattle. Surprised that we were all boarded and seated with the doors closed 30 minutes ahead of schedule. My joy was short lived because we then sat in the aircraft for another 1 hr (30 minutes late to depart) because they did not have their clearance. Now this is a scheduled flight, that boarded on time and was ready to go, why did the pilots not have their clearance? ztraveller rating: 5/10 Typically, Singapore Airlines cannot do wrong. Well on this flight it was less than what I expected, given its very high standards. Ground staff in HND were very good and we all boarded without issue and on-time. The flight even departed on time. What was wrong? The inflight entertainment unit at my seat (36G).
As soon as the aircraft started to move and had some vibration the sound quality of the my system started to become crackly, and it only got worst the more the aircraft pickup speed. OK, I can still hear the sound and can enjoy the movies and shows on the system. Till!!! The passenger in the seat in front (35G) decided to recline her seat. From that point, every time the seat was reclined my screen would freeze and the sound went off. The only way for me to keep the sound on and the screen from freezing was to tilt the screen back in, hence I really could not watch the screen at an angle that was remotely comfortable. No the best at all. I would think that the systems are checked as SQ boasts so much about how advanced its system really is. Second issue with the system that they need to look at: I was watching the progress of the flight on the flight path channel. SQ now has a cockpit view on the system. But guess what? Whoever was the brilliant person to program the system got something reversed. When the aircraft is actually turning left, the cockpit view shows it as turning right and vise versa. Wow, amazing that this was not checked before deploying. ztraveller rating: 6/10 Excellent flight with great service. Nothing to complain about.
ztraveller rating: 8/10 Excellent flight SIN-ICN. Boarding and departure uneventful and on time. The meal was amazing for economy. Typically the food, even in economy, is great. But today was even better. It was traditional Bibimbap. Build your own and just incredible! Rest of the flight was as usual.
Worst is always when you have a seat partner who feels they not only own the armrest, they hog it. Today was even worst, my seat partner not only hogged the armrest the entire flight, he also spilled over into my seat making it very uncomfortable. Why do some passengers behave like this? We allow have to sit and make the flight comfortable. ztraveller rating: 9/10... always room for improvement :) Power of the Blog, EVA Airlines contacted me and apologized, they also offered me bonus frequent flyer miles as compensation for the inconvenience. At the very least they resolved the issue and made me feel better. Way to go EVA.
revised ztraveller rating: 8/10 12 March 2017: Eva Airlines. flew EVA from Singapore to Taipei. flight was 45 min late to depart. poor cabin crew service. during meal service, flight attendant walked through the aisle with a tray of water and dropped it all into me. pants and shirt soaking wet and all they did was offer me paper napkins. To be fair the attendant appologized but that was it. no further mention or check up during the flight on how I was doing. the rest of the 3 hr flight was spent in wet jeans and a shirt. Way to go EVA Air.
Ztraveller rating: 2/10. |