Business Class to Singapore/La classe affaires à Singapore

I discovered one of the advantages of having Elite Gold status with Air New Zealand is you can, if you book far enough ahead, use either airpoints or the gold reward to get a business class upgrade.  As the flight to Singapore was a night flight I asked for the guaranteed seats and we were lucky enough to get them. 

Our plane was one of the new Boeing 787s which I have not flown in before.  We had nice lie flat seats which I like because I can get my feet elevated.  Bev and I had had little to eat during the day as we wanted to banquet on the plane. The nice thing about the business class seats is that they have a little seat at which another person can sit and you then eat together.  So that is what we did.  Remarkably the food was rather good, or perhaps it was the company.  

After a champagne we had an entre, and mine was poached chicken with pomegranate that was delicious and was designed by Peter Gordon.  Bev had the sumac crusted snapper and that was equally as good.  We had a glass of Staete Lande Chardonnay 2014 to accompany.  For the main we had a braised roasted beef rib with a roasted caramelised onion and other vegetables.  There were a choice of two wines and we could not decide on either so we took a half glass of both the Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir 2013 and the Craggy Range Syrah 2014. Both were very good and went well with the main but the Pinot Noir was our favourite with ripe berry fruits that were soft on the palate but with a length that made you want to go back for more.  We finished off the meal with a Graham’s tawny port and a cheese board.  It was a wonderful meal made all the more memorable for the fact that it was had at 34,000 feet at between 1:30am and 3:30am.  Bev had a smile from ear to ear. 

Once we finished and I lay down I was asleep very quickly and managed a remarkable four hours of quality sleep. 

Before we knew it we were disembarking in Singapore, slightly weary, at 6:40am.

I was really impressed with the B787.  It seemed slightly quieter than the B777.  The other part was that I got off the plane not feeling as dried out as I have done on the other planes.  Apparently the new design allows for a lower pressure altitude and more humidity.