This business class ticket from Singapore to Vancouver on Singapore Airlines was booked on Aeroplan for 75,000 Aeroplan points. Typically, this flight would cost about CA$4500.
Changi Airport
To get to Changi Airport on rapid transit, take the East West Line to Tanah Merah MRT Station (EW4/CG), then transfer to Changi Airport MRT Station (CG2). Alternately, Uber is readily available. The terminal SQ48 flies out of is terminal 3.
To avoid spending money on a hotel for the night, you can arrive to the airport the night before the 7:25AM flight and spend time at the airport until the early morning.
Check-in was empty at around 11PM. As the hub of Singapore Airlines, you can check in much earlier than the standard 3 hour window before scheduled flight time.
At airside, the terminal was still a bit busy at around 11PM. All shops and services were open.
SilverKris Lounge
If you are in business class or higher, you can access the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge and stay there until the next morning in time for boarding.
Bar service was still available until 11:59PM as per Singapore law.
Both full serve and self serve bars were available.
Being late in the evening past 12AM, the buffet was still available. There were pasta, Chinese food, Indian food, salads, Singaporean noodles, breads and pastries.
A plentiful selection of sandwiches were available as a quick meal.
Around the clock coffee machines were stationed around the lounge for convenience.
The final flights of the evening were almost complete as passengers were starting to clear out of the lounge.
To use the shower room, book in advance. The attendant said the wait was 1 hour however, the actual wait time was about 30 minutes.
Between the hours of 1AM to 5AM, the lounge was mostly empty.
There were a few people sleeping in the lounge perhaps also on early flights.
If you’re lucky, you can find yourself one of these individual pods to get more privacy.
Breakfast was starting to roll out at 5AM.
A selection of Chinese and Indian breakfast foods were served.
Typical continental breakfast items were also served.
There was a made-to-order fishball and Laksa noodle station, a Singapore favourite.
Boarding
Most of the passengers were connecting from India and the line up was long even being in business class as there were agents checking on all the passenger’s visa and passport status and asking questions Canadian authorities should be asking such as, “Where are you going to school in Canada? What is your program of study?” Never have I heard such questions being asked abroad.
After about 20 minutes at the gate, passengers were getting boarded onto the plane on a Singapore cloudy morning.
The seat configuration of the Airbus 350-900 (359) aircraft in business class was 1-2-1 making the seats wide and comfortable.
This flight did not have many passengers in the business class cabin.
The seats were big and came with plenty of storage space with a leg rest on the side which can be used while the seat is in the upright position.
In-Flight Meals
As the departure time was 7:25AM, the first meal was breakfast. The breakfast selection has a choice of chicken sausage, stir-fried noodles, pancakes and continental breakfast served with fruit, muesli, a selection of pastries and coffee/tea.
The chicken sausage was chosen and was meaty and filling.
At any time during the flight, you can order snacks from their menu.
Wi-Fi was free throughout the entire flight for all business class passengers.
The mid-flight meal was served about 2 hours before landing and started with chicken satay.
What came after was a smoked salmon salad.
The choices for the main course was between Barramundi, Nasi Padang, stir fried beef and grilled chicken. Barramundi was chosen with asparagus, carrot and risotto.
The last meal ended with a cheese and fruit platter.
Arrival was on time to the typical rainy Vancouver weather.
Out of the many recent flights of over a dozen flights, the the time took baggage to arrive at the baggage carousel took much longer at the Vancouver International Airport. It may have been due to a lack of staff or incompetence.
Conclusion
What an amazing flight for an amazing deal. Consistently highly ranked with SKYTRAX, Singapore Airlines is a not-so popular carrier between Asia and North America. The best part is that the airline is part of Star Alliance so flights are redeemable with Aeroplan. A flight between Singapore and Vancouver is on Singapore Airlines is a memorable experience and is recommended to be flown at least once in a lifetime before the airline terminates this route.