The flight to Singapore was uneventful, with the lack of on board entertainment of any kind compensated for by the better than average food in the meals we were served (both the chicken and beef options).
The "transfer" process made it very clear that we would have had no hope at all of making the connection in 55 minutes if we had been stuck on our delayed flight schedule. For the "transfer" we had to clear Singapore Immigration (inbound), collect our bag, walk through customs, catch the shuttle to Terminal #2 (from Terminal #1), find the check-in desk for Scoot, check-in, clear Singapore Immigration (outbound) and walk over half a kilometre to our departure gate. Not possible even if the Scoot check-in counter didn't close an hour prior to departure.
Of course given that we were now well ahead of schedule we had to wait two hours, until 9:30pm, for the check-in counter to open for our 1:45am flight - unless we wanted to pay Scoot an extra $5 fee to check-in early. With Singapore in the same time zone as Manila we didn't yet have that adjustment to cope with, though we had been on the go since 4:10am this morning so we were feeling a little "jet lagged" anyway. By now we were quite experienced at killing time (having already spent 6 hours terminal bound in Manila) and at least Singapore's Changi Airport provides many more options for exploring and passing time.
Needless to say we were amongst the first to check-in when the time came. We were relieved that we were allocated the specific seats for which we had paid extra (window + aisle seats together near the back), because when we had bought them a couple of months ago Scoot had insisted at the time that they could not issue any receipt or acknowledgement of the transaction.
After passing through Immigration we found a whole new world on the other side, with shops, lounges and quiet areas abounding. We found a quiet area to settle instead of proceeding directly to our departure gate - which as it turns out might have been a mistake. We later found that opposite our gate there was a darkened area with sun-lounge style beds that would have made for a comfy nap. We'll know better next time! Meanwhile, with time to kill and Skype credit to use I rang a good friend in the USA (who happens to be the World's Worst Correspondent) and had a nice chat.
Nothing of note to report thereafter. Boarding went smoothly enough and we were on time into Sydney, though for some reason sleep seemed more elusive than usual during the flight - perhaps we were just overtired already after such a long day. For some reason the electronic gate for Immigration wouldn't work for Laura - not that the extra time for her to queue and pass through "manually" mattered since we still had to wait for our bag. The big treat was Sam was waiting to pick us up - a nice change from being the other way around (as it has been four times in the past).
Thus ended our Philippines adventure - hard to believe it had only been 18 days since we left as we had seen and done so much it seemed much longer. Which is the measure of a good holiday in my books.
The "transfer" process made it very clear that we would have had no hope at all of making the connection in 55 minutes if we had been stuck on our delayed flight schedule. For the "transfer" we had to clear Singapore Immigration (inbound), collect our bag, walk through customs, catch the shuttle to Terminal #2 (from Terminal #1), find the check-in desk for Scoot, check-in, clear Singapore Immigration (outbound) and walk over half a kilometre to our departure gate. Not possible even if the Scoot check-in counter didn't close an hour prior to departure.
Of course given that we were now well ahead of schedule we had to wait two hours, until 9:30pm, for the check-in counter to open for our 1:45am flight - unless we wanted to pay Scoot an extra $5 fee to check-in early. With Singapore in the same time zone as Manila we didn't yet have that adjustment to cope with, though we had been on the go since 4:10am this morning so we were feeling a little "jet lagged" anyway. By now we were quite experienced at killing time (having already spent 6 hours terminal bound in Manila) and at least Singapore's Changi Airport provides many more options for exploring and passing time.
Needless to say we were amongst the first to check-in when the time came. We were relieved that we were allocated the specific seats for which we had paid extra (window + aisle seats together near the back), because when we had bought them a couple of months ago Scoot had insisted at the time that they could not issue any receipt or acknowledgement of the transaction.
After passing through Immigration we found a whole new world on the other side, with shops, lounges and quiet areas abounding. We found a quiet area to settle instead of proceeding directly to our departure gate - which as it turns out might have been a mistake. We later found that opposite our gate there was a darkened area with sun-lounge style beds that would have made for a comfy nap. We'll know better next time! Meanwhile, with time to kill and Skype credit to use I rang a good friend in the USA (who happens to be the World's Worst Correspondent) and had a nice chat.
Nothing of note to report thereafter. Boarding went smoothly enough and we were on time into Sydney, though for some reason sleep seemed more elusive than usual during the flight - perhaps we were just overtired already after such a long day. For some reason the electronic gate for Immigration wouldn't work for Laura - not that the extra time for her to queue and pass through "manually" mattered since we still had to wait for our bag. The big treat was Sam was waiting to pick us up - a nice change from being the other way around (as it has been four times in the past).
Thus ended our Philippines adventure - hard to believe it had only been 18 days since we left as we had seen and done so much it seemed much longer. Which is the measure of a good holiday in my books.
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