Part two of Singapore Airlines’s only remaining West Coast Fifth Freedom route is up!
On May 24th of this year, I was driving to Imperial Hill for a planespotting trip from the Brentwood Farmers’ Market, when I heard the roar of jet engines overhead and saw a Singapore Airlines 777-300ER, later discovered to by 9V-SWG, swoop in on short final for LAX. Being that I’m a fan of unique routes, the 777 family, and Singapore Airlines, I immediately screenshotted the flightplans for both the LAX-NRT flight I’d just seen and the preceding SIN-NRT flight, which my previous trip report was based on. I’ve had it on the backburner, being sidetracked by a number of other things, but now that I got around to it at last, I hope you like this trip report as much as I did flying this route!
Server: Solo
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Origin: Narita International Airport, Narita, Japan (NRT)
Destination: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Flight Number: SQ12
Route: RJAA-KLAX
Seat: 33A (Premium Economy)
Time En Route: 9 Hours 32 Minutes
After quickly reboarding our aircraft at Gate 35, we’re resituating ourselves in our seat for the flight across the Pacific to Los Angeles. While our row was empty on the flight up here, the seats next to us are occupied by a couple traveling to SoCal, one of whom is an alum of our Bay Area university, and the other went to The Other School. We’ve been spending the past few minutes chitchatting about what’s changed in the Bay, if the local restaurants are still as good as they once were, and such as that. A real Romeo and Juliet-type of love story, if the people who actually care about school spirit are to be believed, but after one graduates, that stuff takes on considerably less import than it once did. Anyway, we’re excited for a transpacific flight in premium economy with Singapore Airlines!
In the middle of the evening rush out of Narita while the pre-flight safety video plays on the IFE screen. Since Narita has a seven-hour curfew from 11 P.M. to 6 A.M., traffic really bunches up in the evening as everybody tries to get out of the airport before it shuts down for the night. This can make for taxi times which, although not as long as JFK’s, are still pretty lengthy. Fortunately for ourselves, we’re in a comfortable seat on a widebody operated by a perennial contender for the world’s best airline.
Lifting airborne from Runway 16R into the evening sky. We used a bit more thrust than we did leaving Singapore earlier today, so the cabin is just that much louder. Nevertheless, it’s more of a deep rumble than a scream, at least behind the engines, and the big General Electrics convey a unique sense of power and solidity.
Turning northeast over the Pacific at twilight. As the last rays of sunlight are fading out, they’re casting a surreal patina of shifting colors on the port wing, which is mesmerizing to watch. Inside the jet, the cabin lights have been dimmed, and one of the passengers in our row has already nodded off to sleep. Can’t say we blame them; it’s a very relaxing atmosphere in the premium economy cabin this evening.
We’ve started dinner after leveling off at 37,000 feet. We picked the shogayaki, a Japanese dish that consists of sautéed pork loin infused with ginger sauce and served with green beans, carrots, edamame, and bamboo shoot-flavored rice. The meal was magnificently presented, and from the first bite, we’re hooked. Singapore Airlines’s premium economy meals, at least on this aircraft and this route, seem to be better than business class meals on a lot of North American and European carriers.
After several hours of sleep, we’ve woken up around two and a half hours out from Los Angeles. Sleeping in premium economy on Singapore Airlines’s 777-300ER is easy enough, with the only caveat being that one of the business class lavatories became inoperable on this flight, meaning a number of passengers from business had to troop past us back to the economy lavs. Nevertheless, we got a pretty restful sleep, and the promise of a tasty pre-arrival meal perks us right up.
Final approach into Los Angeles International Airport over the 110, the San Pedro Freeway, under the overcast that’s been with us since the Central Coast. We left Singapore under cloudy skies and now we’re arriving in L.A. under them. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Landing at LAX on Runway 24R by a busy Tom Bradley International Terminal and Midfield Concourse. It was a masterful arrival from our flight crew, considering the gusts of wind we were encountering on final. Seems to be a breezy day here in L.A.
Taxiing into the alley between the TBIT and the Midfield as a Japan Airlines A350-1000 comes in over the fenceline as JL16 from Haneda. Seems like the TBIT isn’t as full towards the north end as it is the south today, with the only heavy jets on this side being a Turkish Airlines 787-9 and a LATAM Airlines Perú 767-300ER. We’re right at the time of day when a bunch of arrivals from Japan come in, as we arrived less than 20 minutes after an All Nippon Airways 787-9 that we saw taxi out back in Japan came in from Narita as NH6.
Deplaned at Gate 154 while the ground crew unloads bags and cargo containers. Before deplaning, we asked on of the flight attendants why one of the business class lavs went out of service and the answer was almost comically mundane. They had run out of hand soap. Hand soap! This trip was our first time flying with Singapore Airlines in premium economy on its 777, and we’re well satisfied with our experience on it. Though it tended towards the economy plus end of the spectrum rather than the business minus end, it still was an outstanding flight at the price point, better than some business classes on other airlines, as we previously observed re: the in-flight meals. For passengers flying out of LAX looking for an upscale way to get to Asia without breaking the bank, Singapore Airlines’s premium economy is for you. We’ll definitely be coming back to this in the future!