Flight: Singapore Airlines SQ 452 from Singapore to Male and Singapore Airlines SQ 451 from Male to Singapore
Aircraft: A333 (Airbus 330-300)
Class: Business
Seat: 12 H (Window), 12 K (Aisle)
Seat Specification: Angle Lie Flat, Seat pitch: 60.0 “. Seat width: 24.5 ”
Singapore Airlines operates Airbus 330 in this mid haul route between Singapore and Male with flight duration of around 4.5 hours. There are 30 business class seats in 2 x 2 x 2 configuration.
To view the cabin layout and seat pictures, here is the flight review for the Singapore Airlines CCU – SIN flight with same Airbus 330 cabin and seats. There are also some cabin pictures on the return flight down this post.
Right after boarding we were given hot towels and pre-departure beverages. Next up was our dinner menu.
Singapore offers a“Book the Cook”service on select flights where you can choose from an array of main courses instead of limited pre-selected items on-board. This service is available only for First (and Suites Class) and Business Class. I will make a separate post later where I will talk about it in further detail.
Karen had preordered the Lobster Thermidor and I chose Seared Lamb Loin as our main course from “Book the Cook” service.
First they served Chicken Satay with sauce (Sorry no pictures !!).
Next up for appetizer was seared scallop and grilled vegetable. I liked the bread but I wasn’t too keen on the scallops.
Karen: The lobster gets an A+ for both taste and presentation. It was cooked to perfection and the meat was real juicy.
The seared lamb was tasty but nothing extraordinary. The mint jus really complemented the taste of the meat. I did not understand the purpose of the bacon bits in all this.
For dessert, they did not offer us any fruits or cheese plate and went straight to “Chocolate Brulee”. I was thinking…yummy. Only after seeing the bowl did we find out, its Chocolate pudding, no “brulee”. First world problems, I know :).It was definitely tasty and I had no problem polishing off the bowl.
By the time they removed the dinner plates we had only about 2 hours left for sleep before we arrived in Male. I reclined my seat to the max and went to sleep while Karen went about reading her kindle as usual.
No issue charging your devices.
Return segment from Male to Singapore:
The Male Airport is pretty small and only a few airlines service this airport. You get to the plane by just walking on the tarmac as there are no airport gangways.
After getting onboard we were offered pre-departure beverage and we chose orange juice. This was a big mistake for me. It didn’t sit well with whatever chicken I ate earlier in the Male Airport Lounge.
Karen: I don’t know why he blames the juice. I had the same juice and felt fine. It was the weird looking chicken he ate at the lounge I bet.
Feeling sick after drinking the juice, I opted to forego the dinner and just sleep for the rest of the flight. The cabin stewards did check up on me and inquired if I needed any medicines.
Karen: I don’t care much for lamb or Chinese noodles so that left me with the Kung Pao option.
Karen: Although the eggplant was scary looking (fish anyone?), it was actually pretty tasty.
Karen: Kung Pao chicken on the other hand was chewy and oily. I have had it better at even fast food restaurants here in the US.
Karen: After the very forgettable entree, I was happy to see some pineapple for the fresh fruit plate.
Bottomline:
Seat: ****
Service: ****
Food: ****1/2
The seats were wide and quite comfortable. As I mentioned in the other post, they really need to do something about them blankets.
We loved the “Book the Cook” service and definitely will use this service if it is available in our future Singapore Airlines flights. Too bad, they don’t release award seats on long-haul flights for their Star Alliance partners.