Immediately after
landing the widows fogged up with condensation blocking any views during taxi
in. The trip was planned at relatively short notice and when I looked at Hotel
prices I was shocked at the results, the Crone Plaza was over £400 a night for
a non-airport view and the Changi Beach was over £300 and sold out before the
trip started. I therefore decided to take the non standard option of booking a
transit hotel and remaining airside for my 19 hour transit, the Hotel was £127
for 9 hours including a meal. It's worth noting the since covid Singapore has
introduced an electronic ETA that must be completed prior to arrival but is not
required for Transit passengers. They were landing on 02L and departing on 02C
throughout the trip and I used various locations in the terminal to ensure very
little was missed. After seven hours of wondering round was time to check
in to the Aerotel, in T3 which was simple enough, the rooms are small with no
window and paper thin walls, the room I had booked did not have ensuite
bathroom facilities but there were showers at the end of the corridor.
Following an incident a few years back of someone living airside you are
required to present your onwards booking prior to being allowed to check in.
Having dumped my bags I then returned to the windows for three hours to pick
off a bunch of needed 9V frames. By midnight I was down to just three in
service local passenger frames, all of which were either already in Singapore
or due in the next morning After four hours it was up and about to find my
missing 9V frames. At this point its worth highlighting the FR24 is very
poor for advance notifications of flights throughout Asia and the aircraft only
show their next flight when they start pinging, There are exceptions to this
such as when aircraft are filed for Australia and show in advance, fortunately
my Last Singapore Max was headed to Australia so I could walk down to the gate
and pick it off. With all my in service 9V frames cleared up it was time to
head to KL for the work element of the trip. Just a couple of final notes, the
Singapore Airlines B77F's don't frequent Singapore much and only one or two
will be seen in any 24 hour period,