With overseas travel still likely off the cards over the coming months, Singapore Airlines has unsurprisingly enjoyed great success with its latest ‘Discover Your Singapore Airlines’ event, lunch on board its Airbus A380 ‘Restaurant’, running over a weekend later this month.
We knew this would likely be the most popular of the three on-ground experiences offered by the airline, and it certainly proved to be so with only those who stayed up until midnight last night when tickets were first put on sale in with any chance of securing a booking.
26 minutes was all it took
There must have been hundreds of eager customers online at the KrisShop when the clock struck midnight. Within 10 minutes, all the availability in both Suites and Premium Economy cabins had been snapped up for both days.
By 00:26, less than half an hour after the tickets had gone live, all seats on both days of the event in all four cabins had been booked.
By that stage, only infant (on lap) tickets were available, with all regular seats gone.
Shortly after the midnight booking frenzy, the website reflected no further availability for both event dates.
What have we learned?
Well, we now know that hundreds (if not thousands) of Singapore Airlines fans are missing the travel experience so much they are eager to part with quite a lot of money or KrisFlyer miles to get back on board, even if the airline’s flagship Airbus A380 won’t actually take them anywhere on the day!
If you were successful, there were also some more details of the process from here.
You should have received a ‘Supplementary Details Form for Restaurant A380 @Changi’ email from KrisShop. It’s now important to complete the details and submit that form within two days.
You’ll need the personal particulars of those on your booking (it was possible to snag up to 5 seats at a time). This includes passport and identity card details, due to the ‘airside’ nature of the event.
As the event is held in the Transit Area of the airport, the following conditions must be met:
- All details in the Supplementary Details form must be accurate and reflect the details in your passport.
- All diners are required to bring their passports to the event for identification during registration (excluding infants below 2 years of age).
- Your passport will be temporarily retained by Singapore Airlines during the event.
- SIA reserves the right to reject reservations.
- In the event that your reservation is rejected, we will contact you to process a refund.
As processing time is required, entry to the event will not be permitted if we do not receive your supplementary details within the next 2 days and there will be no refund.
On this form you’ll also be able to indicate your preference to join the pre-dining aircraft tour, running from 9am to 11am before the lunch event, plus specify your meal preference from the menu.
Menus
Speaking of the menus, here’s how they look.
Suites
The perennial favourite Caviar makes it on to the menu as a starter. Let’s see if the mother of pearl spoon has been retained since our London trip in First Class last year (not that we’re being fussy!).
It’s great to see the Lobster Thermidor included in the Suites cabin, which Eddie enjoyed from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2018.
The Grass Fed Beef Tenderloin is also likely to be a hit, if it’s anything like the grilled version I had out of San Francisco in First Class.
Chef Shermay Lee’s selection includes a signature Nasi Lemak. For S$642, it better be a good one!
Here are the menus for the other cabin classes.
Business
Premium Economy
Economy
If you have special dietary requirements these will be catered for. Email RestaurantA380@singaporeair.com.sg for more details of those menus, or any other event-related queries.
Other details
Some more specifics were shared in the full Terms and Conditions for the Restaurant A380 @Changi.
- The event will be held at Changi Terminal 3
- Each participant aged 2 and above must be in possession of a valid passport
- Each participant will be required to present their confirmed reservation to receive an ‘Invitation Card’ to the event
- SafeEntry with temperature and bag checks will be conducted, at which point you will temporarily surrender your passport for the duration of the event
- Shopping in the transit area is not permitted
- Seats on board will be assigned by SIA in groups of up to five individuals
- You won’t be able to change your allocated seat(s)
- Mask-wearing is compulsory for those aged 6 and above, except when consuming food or drink
- Social distancing between groups and between individuals will apply on board
- One meal and two alcoholic beverages per person are included
- The aircraft tour is subject to availability
Will there be more?
Given the popularity of these events, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Singapore Airlines add some additional dates in the coming weeks, while most overseas travel still remains impossible, given that demand is clearly there.
The logistics of organising these events must be significant, however after they’ve done it once (or more accurately twice), it should be more straightforward to replicate.
We’ll be sure to let you know if any additional dates are added.
More dates now added! Singapore Airlines has added a second weekend for the ‘lunch to nowhere’, with bookings opening soon for 31st October 2020 and 1st November 2020, with dinner sessions also available on each date. See our article here.
Meanwhile, KrisShop will be opening a waitlist at 6pm today (12th October 2020) to accomodate additional requests, in case more space becomes available.
Summary
As expected, dining on board an Airbus A380 has proven to be probably the most popular event in SIA’s ‘Discover Your Singapore Airlines’ series of on-ground experiences, with all seats booked out in less than half an hour.
In the smaller 6-seat Suites and 44-seat Premium Economy cabins, it only took 10 minutes for availability to vanish across both event dates.
We managed to secure two Suites bookings on 24th so will no doubt see some of you on board! Given the number of people who’ve contacted us also holding a Suites booking on 24th October, it seems distinctly possible that two or more A380s will be used for the experience on each day.
If you missed out this time, cross your fingers for some additional dates. While nothing is confirmed, we think it’s a distinct possibility given the unserved demand. There’s certainly no harm in joining the waitlist on KrisShop, opening at 6pm tonight.
(Cover Photo: Grirk / Shutterstock)
Andrew, see you in the Suites on 24 October!
See you there!
This article was written before the KrisShop CSO got into action calling customers who were overbooked by the system glitch that caused rebooking and hence the waitlist. Why didn’t SIA come clean with the error is a mystery. Sweeping under the carpet trying to get away with its error.