Singapore Flights

Malaysian Airline offers a coach service from Johor Baru into Singapore. That means you catch your flight from wherever, into JB and the coach will take you south of the border for an additional 13RM. However, if you miss the bus (like us), then you'll have to make your own on the over crowded public bus, through the crowded immigration, back on the bus which will drop you of at a MRT. There you can pay the $2.70S into the city where cabs will be waiting..... FUN!!

If you are going to be based in Singapore for some time and want to make day/weekend/week trips to other countries in the area, check out People's Park Centre in Chinatown. The shopping mall is full of travel agents who advertise special deals for flights and package tours. You can pick up leaflets from them to compare prices.

People's Park Centre is located on Upper Cross Street, very near Chinatown MRT. It's best to visit on weekdays as some of the travel agents have limited business hours on weekends.

I was surprised to find that Singapore Air had the cheapest prices for airfare when I needed to book a flight. I had heard so many great things about the airline, so this suprised me, but from San Francisco this was common.
The flight attendants all looked and acted as if they knew the airlines reputation, walking very confidently and proud. The plane was nice and new, the seats fairly comfortable and I had enough room to stretch out...and this was in coach.
The biggest differences to me were the food, and the entertainment system. I didn't even think that the food would be different from the ususal airline food, but I was quite pleased. We had Korean short ribs w/steamed veggies and noodles for one meal. I had the Hindu breakfast for the morning meal; it had lentils, veggie curry, papadams and naan. On the flight back, I had the Korean ribs again.
The entertainment system kept me sane on the 18 hour flight. Each passenger gets a remote control, a guidebook, and a personal video screen.
There were almost 30 movie channels, with a large selection of Asian movies, plus TV channels, interactive video, games, and nintendo. And you control all of these with your remote. You start and stop shows when you want. You can pause movies too. It was great.

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A huge, efficient airport with plenty to do.
I had to go thru on 3 occasions, but didnt feel the drag.
Changi has often been voted as the best airport in the world, by different travel magazines and other associations.
Work started on this airport way back in 1975, and it commenced operations in 1981. Its been several phases of additions and upgradations to what constitutes the structure that stands now...

Many european tourists are going to Thailand on their holidays. And if already being in Bangkok you can get very cheap and easy to Singapore by Air Asia. A ticket can cost from about 30 SGD, and even though Air Asia is a typical low fare airline, it's ok since the flight is quite short.

My economy ticket with Singapore Airlines clearly stated that my baggage allowance was 20kgs. On calling the airline I was told that they would allow 25kgs, which was good, since I had bought a lot of stuff. On check-in my bags turned out to be 29kgs...ouch!...at 80NZ dollars per kg (I had checked that too) this was a small shock. Then...phew!...it turned out that they allowed up to 30kgs...at the discretion of the check-in attendant. So I wouldn't want to count on that, say, if the plane is smack full, but it's worth knowing.

P.S. This was on a flight from Christchurch, NZ to Singapore, August 2004.

If you go to Singapore, get in the the right mood from the start by flying there with Singapore Airlines. It's worth every cent, and if you do some research on the Internet some time ahead and if you don't get tired of trying endless combinations of outbound and return flights, you are likely to hit a good deal, even in economy class.
First, there's legroom, lots of it, unless you happen to sit at the seat that has the box for the video on demand in front of it. On my 12h flight from Frankfurt time simply flew by as I watched and endless arry of movies, listen to music of all kinds and played video games. Comfy seats (first time I ever slept on a plane without having my neck twisted).
For starters, a hot wet towel. Real cloth, not paper tissue.
Drinks, generously poured, not just one round.
Dinner: Go for the Asian choice, don't even consider the other option. You will be rewarded.
More generously poured drinks.
Throughout the night, chilled water to keep you from dehydrating, and even a mid-flight snack: sandwich.
Before breakfast, another wet towel.
Breakfast: a superbly done meal, say no more.
Arrival at Changi: Very efficient: the baggage was already waiting by the short time (15 mins max) I spent walking through customs to the conveyor belt.
And no immigration hassles. No lines, a quick machine-read of my passport, a smile and a "Have a great stay in Singapore".
So all in all, if you want to fly like a person and be treated like one, choose SIA. If you're a cheapskate and want to be herded like cattle, choose anything else.
OK, for the sake of fairness, there are a few more airlines that do it as good as or maybe better than SIA, but not many.
If I ever go back to S'pore, and I will, I promise, I'll definitely choose SIA again.

Definitely the most friendly and welcoming airport I visited on my trip was Changi. That says alot, seeing that I arrived at 2 AM. The MRT doesn't start working until 5:30, so I had some time to kill in the airport. Equiped with free internet and video games inside the passenger terminal and a Starbucks outside... lets just say if you give me coffee and video games and I am a happy man. The immigration personel reminded me of meeting a long lost friend they were so nice and happy.

The shopping is excellent, and the airport itself follows the route of Singapore in being about as cleanas you can get.