After my first flight experience with ANA, I have increasing doubts of why SIA remain top year after year as the best air carrier. I don’t think the other flights lose out in terms of food quality, entertainment and definitely not in customer service.
If any, ANA probably "own" SIA for its customer service.
Previously when I fly by SIA, it’s quite difficult to get even a glass of water in the middle of the night to quench your thirst. Flights overnight have an odd dehydrating effect on me. On the contrary, the ANA flight attendants were seen carrying a variety of drinks, strolling up and down the aisle regularly, checking if the passengers needed another drink. And all these were done AFTER lights out.
There's a little down side to fly with ANA too. You know how it’s annoying when you finally manage to fall asleep on a very uncomfortable seat, only to be woken up less than an hour later by the sudden intrusion of lights and attendants peering right at you? I got that. :( They were serving me my breakfast because I didn’t put up my “Do Not Disturb” sign, so technically it’s my fault. Lol.
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| And I thought the Japanese are healthy people! Hahaha |
My supper was served at 11+, then 3 hours later I was abruptly woken up for breakfast! At 2.30 in the morning!
Nevertheless, I didn’t regret waking up because the breakfast was SO good. :D Plus, the in-flight entertainment system is awesome. When we’re flying with SIA, we have to switch channels using the remote and if you missed any parts of a particular show, too bad, you got to wait for it to finish before catching the replay.
Edit: I was told by a school mate that my info is not updated. When he flew by SIA last year, the entertainment system had video-on-demand and could watch anything they wanted, whenever they
wanted. There was also a very large library of shows and games too.
ANA, on the other hand, works on a video-on-demand system. We control mostly using our fingers (touch screen) and could pause, fast forward, and choose the language we want. All the programmes are very well-organized, making it easy even for my papa who isn't very English-literate.
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| Cushy earphones! |
Well I spent the rest of the night flipping and turning because the ANA flight didn’t have reclining seats. Instead, the seat will slide out about an inch or two, and that’s about it. No leg rest or anything. D:
By the time we actually started touring, I wanted to sleep so badly. And that’s after yet another domestic flight flying into Hokkaido. Sleep-deprived.
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The return flight was much better with reclining seats. Fell asleep almost throughout the entire flight. Had breakfast at 5am (JP time, 4am SG time) and dozed off while eating. Yeah, I dozed off while chewing pancakes, and also when eating my apple slice. :P
Tee hee.
