Back from Singapore with Firefly

It's been a few years, so I sprung for a Firefly flight back home from Singapore in last week's day trip, because...

1. Subang Skypark is closer to home (important when you have family picking you up and don't want to trouble them too much). 
2. The included 15 kg check in baggage allowance was more than plenty for my needs and it was nice being handsfree to wander the terminal before boarding. 
3. The 9.40 p.m. flight back from Changi was the latest I could find headed back to Subang.

Left downtown on the MRT around 6 something p.m. so that I could pick the bag up from Left Luggage (downstairs by the cab queue and entrance to the Changi MRT station, $3.20 for cabin-sized luggage for first 24 hours), buy the second Peelfresh Yuzu juice from the Fairprice downstairs, and check in. At least Firefly is operating out of T2, so it's not too bad.

After all that, I had about 10 minutes before I could check in the bag and also for the flight, so kept myself occupied with posting some lame-ass pictures on Instagram and Facebook.

This guy was in the window seat in front of me on the plane

Once the counter actually opened for luggage drop and check in..

This was right before I finally joined the line, I think

Right after I checked in and got my boarding pass, the immigration line closest to the check in counter was suddenly swamped. Overheard someone said that the other side (the one servicing the non-budget airlines) wasn't as busy, so I quickly went over. Asked the security guard checking passports and boarding passes about it and he said it was because of TigerAir. By the time I got to the counter, it was shift change, so the lady was hanging on to my passport and boarding pass a little longer than the both of us were comfortable with (according to her, the computer was still loading - OMG Changi, upgrade those things already!). 

Had a quick dinner at (of all places) McDonald's - what, they had a grilled chicken salad mah - and after finding out that the gate is not open yet, spent some time with the closest OSIM foot massage machine to the gate where an Indian family was busy monopolising but the patriarch had noticed that I wanted a go at it. The quickie foot massage was quite a relief after a long day out.

They finally opened for boarding, and after the LAG screening, I had to walk down a couple flights of steps to this... 

I didn't know I had descended to the bowels of Changi. Luckily the WiFi works down here, so I put my feet up (luckily there were bathrooms and water fountain down there) and took more mo liew Instagram pictures with what little battery left on the phablet. It was also a codeshared flight so there were both MAS and Firefly flight numbers on a half-filled flight. 

Instead of walking on the aerobridge (not from down there) or walking outside on the tarmac, we boarded an airport shuttle bus to the plane. The ride was about a few minutes, but covered a lot of ground as the plane was parked (for what seemed to be) a kilometer or two from the terminal. There would be a revolt if we had to walk the distance, so I for one was relieved there was a bus to take us there.

Because it was half-filled, I had both seats to myself (yay). Because it was the last flight out, it was snacks and juice - macam kat kindergarten je, haha - apple juice with either chocolate roll (made by Delifrance, I noticed) and/or peanuts. I came right out and asked for both. 

I attempted to get some shut eye in the 80 minute flight back and failed miserably mostly because I couldn't breathe through my nose and everyone else was sneezing and coughing in the small plane. I should've brought my Ostrich Pillow with me to keep the light out.

Next time.