TANKS Travel Tales - a travelogue.......

This is a review of my experiences when I flew on Business Class (i.e. 'J' Class) onboard Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ163 from Siem Reap International Airport to Singapore's Changi International Airport in May 2022. I had just a week ago, flew the outbound sector on SQ164 from Singapore to Siem Reap. The flight tickets were redeemed using my frequent flyer miles accumulated through retail purchases during the pandemic-induced stay-at-home period between March 2020 and April 2022. Selfie of myself sitting at the Departure Gate waiting to board SQ163 from REP to SIN, Krong Siem Reap International Airport, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2022) Check-in Check-in at the SIA Business Class counter at the Siem Reap International Airport was a breeze. During the check-in process, I noticed that passengers in Economy Class were processed just as quickly. Probably because the flight was not full and most leisure travellers were still hesitant to travel because of COVID. As usual, the coun...

It has been a while since I last wrote a review of my inflight experiences. In hindsight, "inflight" is actually a rather incorrect term for this series of reviews because the experiences include pre-boarding and at times, disembarking from the plane. So, the reviews do not exclusively focus on just experiences that occur inflight.  In-between my last inflight review posted in this blog sometime in 2020, I had flown on a small number of flights, both for work and for vacations. However, during the period from Feb 2020 to May 2022, I stayed totally grounded because of worldwide travel restrictions due to the COVID pandemic. Thankfully, for everyone and especially for the industry, those days are over. This is a review of my experiences when I flew on Business Class (i.e. 'J' Class) on Singapore Airlines (SIA) from Singapore's Changi International Airport to Bali's Denpasar Airport in December 2023.  The flight tickets were redeemed using my expiring frequent fl...

After close to more than two and a half years of hiatus of air travel, I finally got to return to the airport to take my first flight in May 2022. Even though it was a short regional flight from Singapore to Cambodia's Siem Reap, finding myself back at the airport to take a flight had been a wonderful experience. Sure, there were things that were not the same as back then in November 2019 when I last took a flight. But there were also things that were still the same.  Let's start with things that were no longer similar. Firstly were the additional travel documentation to prepare before one is allowed to get one's boarding pass issued at the airport. These additional documentations include vaccinations records, permissions to travel (for some destinations), travel insurance (again, only required by certain destination countries and regions) and so on. For those who are usually well-prepared when it comes to dealing with paperwork, these requirements shouldn't present too...

Leisure travel....... soon? Sunday morning. As usual, I woke up late, preferring to sleep in on weekend mornings, just so to differentiate between the weekend and weekday mornings of my new work-from-home lifestyle. As I went through the motion of eating my quotidian breakfast of cereal, oats and eggs while browsing the news websites on my laptop, with a little check on the current Olympic medal tally (today, 8 August 2021, is the last day of the Tokyo "2020" Olympics), it suddenly dawned upon me that leisure travel may soon be possible again in this part of the world. Of course, a lot still depend on the "ifs" and "buts" but there is now a small glimmer of hope that folks looking to travel for leisure may be permitted to do so, subject to some minor inconveniences such as swabbing, re-swabbing and more re-swabbing for viral particles that may be hiding somewhere up in the deep recesses of the travellers' nostrils. Meanwhile airports, airlines and othe...

Seattle, Washington, United States A bucket list item can be anything that one wishes it to be. That is the beauty of it. It can be as challenging and adventurous as climbing a mountain or as laid-back as a luxurious cruise around the Mediterranean. It can also be as complex as traveling to every continent in the world or as mundane as reading a book under the trees by the sea in a secluded Pacific island. One of my travel bucket list item is to take a non-stop flight from Singapore to the United States. That dream came true in November 2019. Although the trip was a business trip, it nonetheless still fulfilled the criteria for a tick against that bucket list item. My passport and boarding pass, SQ28 from Singapore to Seattle, United States (2019) During the trip, I travelled on Singapore Airlines' SQ28 from Singapore to Seattle, Washington. It was a non-stop flight of about 14-hours. The longest non-stop flight I had ever taken before this trip was abut 12 hours f...

To travel or not to travel....... At the time of writing this blog post, the travel industry is roiled by the ongoing coronavirus, COVID-19, outbreak. This has caused much upheavals in the travel world, including trips and flights cancellations. The question I kept asking myself was, should I still travel at this time? As a matter of fact, the fatality rate of COVID-19, at about 2%, is much lower than the SARS outbreak of 17 years ago in 2003. In most cases, healthy adults who were unfortunate to be infected with COVID-19 typically displayed mild symptoms and recovered without much or any long term effects,. This is based on currently available data. Thus, as a healthy individual without any pre-existing medical conditions, I should be fairly safe even in the event that I caught the infection while traveling. That being said, I could also have easily caught the infection even if I am staying put in my home country. Unless, I barricade myself at home and cut off all contacts wi...

While waiting for the aircraft to pushback for my flight from Singapore to Seattle on a pleasant November morning, I took a photograph of this Singapore Airlines' Airbus A350-900 (also designated as A350-941). This plane was parked at the Gate adjacent to the aircraft I was seated in, allowing me to photograph its entire length. The Port side engine of the Airbus A350-900 close to my window seat at 19A in the J Cabin is clearly visible in the foreground of this photograph. I did not crop out the engine from the photograph because I wanted to share the actual view that I was seeing when I took this photograph.  Singapore Airlines' Airbus A350-941 at the Gate, Terminal 3, Changi International Airport, Singapore (2019)

The photo of this Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-300ER with Star Alliance Livery was taken in June 2019. The plane was scheduled to service the route from Los Angeles to Singapore via a transit stop-over at Japan's Narita International Airport at the time this photo was taken, showing it at one of the boarding gates of the Los Angeles International Airport. I am particularly attracted to planes with special liveries painted on them because they were definitely not common. The special liveries were  also usually interesting, artistic or simply awesome. More often than not, these planes only carried the special livery for a period of time before reverting back to the standard livery of the airlines. Thus, seeing a plane with special livery can be an exciting experience akin to a bird watcher spotting a rare bird species. :-) Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-300ER with Star Alliance Livery, Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, United States ...

Connecting Flights....... This coming weekend, I will be traveling to Taipei (TPE) via Hong Kong (HKG). Because my flights were booked on different airlines under different booking codes, I have to collect my check-in luggage upon arrival in HKG from SIN, clear immigration and customs, check-in again for my next flight from HKG to TPE, go through immigration again as well as the necessary security checks before I can emerge airside at the airport for my connecting flight. Departure Hall of the Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong SAR, China (2017) Sounds like a hassle? Not when I will be flying J-Class (a.k.a. Business Class) on both sectors from SIN to HKG via SQ (Singapore Airlines) and HKG to TPE via CX (Cathay Pacific) on tickets paid with air miles. Sure, there are hassles with the connecting flights on 2 different airlines with different booking codes but they are worth it.  In order to ensure that I have a seamless transit at the Hong Kong ...

I have always view air travel on Business Class as an exclusive privilege, one in which I can only indulge in on rare occasions. This is because the exquisite touches of Business Class travel on premium airlines made the flight itself a separate and unique travel experience.  This is a review of my experiences when I flew on Business Class (i.e. 'J' Class) on Singapore Airlines (SQ) from Singapore to Taipei in December 2016. Check-in While Singapore Airlines offer a seamless check-in experience both online and via its SingaporeAir app, I have always preferred and enjoyed the experience of checking in at the check-in counters at the airport in person. I loved the feel of that Boarding Pass in my hand. Add the fact that I collect my Boarding Passes as mementos of my trips and the reasons for my in-person check-in preference become apparent. As with all premium class travels, separate check-in counters for Business Class are allocated at the airport by Singapore A...

Inflight Magazines....... Whichever airline I flew with, I usually look forward with eager anticipation to reading their inflight magazines. Reading these magazines help me spend my time during the flights. This is especially true during long haul intercontinental flights lasting 10 hours or more. Of course, we can also watch the many movies available as part of the inflight entertainment system. But there is definitely a limit to the number of inflight movies I can watch whilst seated in an economy class seat on a long haul flight.  Reading inflight magazines allow me to enjoy a comfortable way to spend those long flight durations in economy class. It also serves to broaden my mind, help me learn more about places which I have not visited and provide me with inspirations on new travel destinations. And these magazines have the added advantage of helping me to cut down on the need to bring along more personal reading materials thus resulting in less weight and space needed ...

Air Miles, are they worth the hassle? We have all read and heard of folks flying premium classes on 5-star airlines without paying a dime. And there are loads of articles, many of which I believed are sponsored, which attest to the realities of these free-of-charge luxuries in the air. Are there any truths to these fairy tales of the air? If you noticed that I had used the words "fairy tales" to describe these stories circulating wildly on social media, then you probably would also have catch that I don't really believe in these tales. Truth is, I don't believe and here are the reasons why. My cup of gourmet coffee served onboard the Business Class cabin of a Singapore Airlines (SQ) flight from Singapore to Hong Kong (2017) First things first, there are no such things as "free stuffs". Air miles come with loads of terms and conditions and they are by no means easy to earn. To get those so-called free tickets on First or Business Class on a...