The Flight to Da Nang
Our flight was early in the morning (at about 7am), and the agreed time to be at the airport was 6am! Since the
(first and) last time I missed my flight, I took extra precautions this time (e.g. more alarm clocks and waking up earlier) and they paid off. Thankfully, I actually managed to arrive at
Changi Airport 5 minutes before 6am!
Catching a cab to the airport at such an early time of the day was surprisingly a breeze and check-in was a painless process. From there with our blurry eyes we made our way to the boarding area to await our take off.
It is about a 2½ hour flight from Singapore to Da Nang (Vietnam), and with SilkAir being a full-serviced flight, it was pretty much worth it with the 30kg checked-in luggage allowance, entertainment (albeit limited) and food on-board. It might be a smaller (older type of) plane, but the experience was acceptable. Besides the generous baggage allowance (as compared to budget airlines) and included meals, the seats are also more spacious than budget airlines, which makes for happy feet!
It might have been an early morning flight, so the cabin crew (as well as the passengers) were a littler blurry eyed. It was a rather interesting flight as the aisle was really narrow and when it was mealtime, with the food/drink cart making its round and passengers trying to get to the toilet, it was a feat just maneuvering. So if you are seated near the aisle, do be prepared to some onslaught of "butts" brushing past your arm as passengers and flight attendants try to maneuver around the narrow space. lol
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| Handing out newspapers early in the morning |
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| Ample legspace |
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| Shared entertainment |
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| Breakfast: omelet with a sausage, a hashbrown and some broccoli. I was seated near the back of the plane so by the time it was my turn, omelet was the only option left, but it was not to bad. The meal that they ran out of was fried rice. |
Back to Singapore from Da Nang
Our flight back to Singapore was pleasant as the crew was more upbeat and smiley (must have been the time of the day - 7pm). Even the passengers were more chatty and we even had a crying toddler onboard. lol One flight attendant that stood out was Vicky, who was really helpful and amazingly seemed to remember the drink requests of the passengers seated upfront and convey them flawlessly to her colleagues to pour the drinks.
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| Storage for your carry-ons |
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| The seats - you have to request for blankets and pillows/cushions should you want one |
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| Once again, they ran out of the other meal option which was chicken something. But it was all good as I was happy with my Nasi Lemak :) It was actually quite nice |
Entertainment
Since it is a full-serviced flight there is entertainment, just that there is limited variety. To access the entertainment system, all you need is you iPhone or Andriod and you are good to go.
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| Instructions on how to connect to the SilkAir entertainment system on your iPhone |
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| Instructions on how to connect to the SilkAir entertainment system on your Andriod device |
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| The entertainment system with not much choices to select from |
Verdict
On average, a ticket on a direct full-serviced flight (e.g. SilkAir, Singapore Airlines) would cost about S$500-600, while budget would cost about an average of S$250-300 (e.g. JetStar) without any food or baggage allowance and have a stop over (taking a longer time to travel). Of course there is Vietnam Air as another option at around the same price as budget with one stopover at Ho Chi Minh City and approximately takes an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours more than the usual 2½ hours. Whichever flight you choose, there is one that will suit your needs.
Being a full-serviced flight, SilkAir might not have the cheapest ticket prices as opposed to budget airlines, but the difference might not be much and for the price you pay. After all, it’s not always about getting the lowest price, but rather getting the most of what you pay for and making sure it is worth it.
Overall, it was a positive experience flying with SilkAir. The flight experience was furthermore enhanced with the fantastic cabin crew on-board who were attentive and friendly throughout the flight. So would I take SilkAir again in the future (perhaps to another destination)? The answer would be yes! :)
When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.
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