SATS Premier T1 Singapore Lounge
Firstly - are you sure you want to visit the SATS lounge, and not the SilverKris or the Gold Krisflyer Lounge? SilverKris is for Business, whereas the SATS lounge in Singapore Airport Terminal 1 is designed for a few other airlines that have no other dedicated lounge. Except of course for those people who want to use the Ambasador pay-per-use lounge, which has showers. It is very confusing.
Woe betide you if you arrive at Singapore after a 14 hour flight hoping for a decent rest in a quality lounge before your ongoing flight. While the SIA SilverKris lounge is top quality, if you are on some other airlines, you end up in the SIA Premier lounge. While it is brand new, and vastly better than the old offering, it is still one of the worst on the network.
Tucked away under the eves near to the Sunflower garden, you take the escalator up to the Raffles lounge close to the food court, and then take a sharp turn right, as if you were to be heading to the Malaysian lounge. As you walk over the hanging walkway this really emphasises to you that you are not going to be in a Raffles heaven.
The lounge can get very crowded. Seats are hard and uncomfortable. Thankfully there are windows, but even so it seems claustrophobic. The lounge is divided into two, with a sort of TV viewing area at the far end, while in the main area there is a TV screwed to the wall, although it is impossible to watch it without disturbing other people. It does however have BBC World. Newspapers are on the rack as you walk in the front door, although these consist only of the Straits Times and the FT.
There are three Internet computers which are brand new and quite fast in the business centre which is at the far end (and then turn right). Get the log on password of the day from the main desk. Beware that the machines are virus ridden and full of advert malware.
There are no screens in the lounge to tell you the status of your flight, nor announcements; instead you have to exit the lounge, and run across the bridge to the other side of the hall to see the screen. This bad piece of planning has resulted in many passengers missing their flight; alas Singapore also make a "final call" for their flights about 20 minutes before passengers start to board; the only fix for SATS cronic lack of foresight is to note the time your flight is due to push back, calculate how long it will take you to walk to the gate, subtract one from the other, and aim to be at the gate 15 minutes beforehand. Normally this works, although it tends to make the crew at the gate jump up and down.
Beware that the lounge is only open from 0630 to 2300, so fails to meet and greet the early morning or overnight flights. All in all its a waste of time, however there is plenty of Tiger beer in the fridge, so I often just swipe some of these and go and sit beside the open air swimming pool on the roof.
Food
Food is pretty limited. Early in the morning there are packets of Cornflakes and Rice Crispies, with full cream milk in the fridge. During the day on the left hand side is a fridge with packets of sandwiches - there are three types, all wrapped up tight in cling film. There is a small heated cabinet with some baked pastries in it, including miniture crossants (but not butter) and Dainish pastries. Late in the day fish soup appears. Meanwhile on the bar counter there are Pot Noodles and Pringles.
Bar
The Bar is ok. The wines come from Willowglen and Carpia, with two whites and two reds of each. The two whites are in an ice bucket which is tepid for most of the day, and the two reds are behind them, but there is no champagne.
There are nine bottle of spirits (Smirnoff Vodka, Gordon's Gin, Black Label Vodka, VSOP, and Baccardi among others), beer (Tiger, Carlsberg & Heiniken), mini pots of water, and a fridge with some fruit juice, including a terrible tomato (but no Bloody Mary mix).
Ice is under the tin lid in the worktop. There is a Nescafe machine, giving a decent cup of coffee, and a capochino machine next to it. There is also a most impressive array of tea bags.
Bathrooms
There are showers - often with long queues. Ask at reception for a towel. Incidentally, if there are two of you, and you both want showers - a better option is to go to the SATS Rainforest lounge, where for SC$30 you get a Hot tub, shower, and drink. It is a much better deal, and more relaxing.
Business Facilities
At the far end, behind the giant TV, is a small business centre with fast computers: however, it can be hard to get children to stop playing games on them if you need to work. There is no printer.
The lounge has free WiFi.
There is a Magazine rack in the centre of the lounge: for once it is pretty good with a large number of European newspapers, along with plenty of copies of the SilverKris magazine. There are however few other magazines.
Access
The lounge is open 24 hours a day, and indeed Singapore say that it is the only lounge open overnight: however the SilverKris lounge is unguarded and ungated from 1am to 4am, and you can pop in here to use the showers: it is also a much better place for a sleep. There is also the Thai Airways lounge in Terminal 1, which is quite a walk, but which has a better bar.
| SATS Premier T1 Lounge | ||
|---|---|---|
Loungeindex
rating:
4 out of
10
| ||
| Location: | Terminal 1 upper level | |
| Open hours: | 0630-2300 | |
| Lounge for: | ||
| Access: | ||