My wife and I were lucky enough to win a pair of tickets on a budget airline to the Gold Coast, or so we thought. I have never been a big fan of budget airlines but decided to give them a try anyway. Being a true blue Singaporean, the prospect of free tickets was quite appealing :)
When we received the letter awarding the prize ticket, there were a list of terms and conditions. I have always believed that if you wanted to give anything away (especially a prize), please be gracious and not attach conditions which make the award seem like a half hearted gesture. I guess the folks at the airline are on a different page here.
Anyway, our adventure began when we went online to make the bookings. I realised that there were several "options". As this was a budget airline, we decided to pamper ourselves a little bit. We were not allowed to upgrade the economy class tickets to business class.....sigh. Anyway, we purchased meals, blankets, pillows, extra legroom and even checked in luggage! After adding up the extras, my wife and I paid more than S$800 for the trip. Oh, there is also an option to reserve iPads for entertainment but none were available at the time of booking. After looking st these extras, I was almost fearful that if I pressed the call bell during the flight, I would be charged extra for the cabin crew to attend to me :p.
For the uninitiated, I hope to share my experience so that you can benefit from it and save a few dollars in the process. To put it bluntly, I hope it will save you from disappointment too :)
As it was a red-eye (night) flight, we ordered breakfast. Immediately after the flight was airborne, the cabin crew came round dishing out our meal, which was a sandwich. I told the cabin crew that we ordered it for breakfast but she checked her list and said told me that we ordered the sandwich.....duh? Maybe it was her way to telling me,"Look pal, just take the sandwich now and you can eat it whenever you want." It was a weird tasting cold chicken sandwich - almost like eating cold chicken otah sandwich which had been sitting in the fridge for a day.
We also ordered blankets and pillows for both legs of the flight. Thinking that the blankets and pillows were hired items (like the iPads), we ordered a set each for both legs of the journey. I found out that we actually bought the items, like you would buy meals, checked luggage, etc. I only realised this when I saw the passenger next to me pack the blanket into his cabin bag when we landed at the Gold Coast. The blanket was small (smaller than the one provided by its full-serviced elder sibling airline) and the pillow was not even a regular pillow but an inflatable travel pillow. The eye shades were nice though. The blanket and pillow set was not cheap. On hindsight, I expected at least a regular pillow for the price we paid.
We bought 20 kg of luggage each for each way. Way overkill. Both of us could have done away with a total of 25kg on the outbound trip and possibly 40 kg on the return to buy the wonderful Australian chocolates, nougats and other shopping :) Chocolates are very heavy, but their weight is worth every calorie.
The extra legroom was really handy. It made the trip more bearable. Oh, by the way, don't expect lots of legroom. When you buy the extra legroom, you get a that of regular economy class seats, like on Etihad (not SIA). The seat was unfortunately not that good. The cushion was tired and had collapsed. I could almost feel the bottom of the seat frame. Dear Airline, if you charge passengers for the extra legroom, please ensure the seat cushions are of decent standard. Otherwise, I suggest that you sell an option for fresh seat cushions, but do tell your customer if they are allowed to take it with them at the end of the flight :p
The cabin crew were nothing to shout about. Frankly, I find SIA crew more warm and friendly despite having to do alot more during the flight. Do we have to pay extra for them to be warm and hospitable?
Overall, the flight was uneventful, thankfully.
Personally, I think budget airlines have carried this option thing too far. On medium to long haul flights, they ought to provide some basic creature comfort rather than take the approach of passengers having to buy extras, including water!
I'm scooting off ....... to another airline :p
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