Talk about flying in comfort

The word is out and those who prefer to fly in utmost comfort, especially for long hauls, just cannot wait for the "biggest bed in the sky".

Ms. Rita Dy, the charming and pleasingly aggressive manager for marketing communications and services of SIA, Singapore Airlines Limited invited a limited audience of columnists and journalists from print and broadcast for a brief but thorough presentation about their latest products and services. Among us at the Makati Shangri-La last Wednesday were The STAR’s Boo Chanco, Inquirer’s Vic Agustin, Bulletin’s Frank Evaristo and Tita Cory’s "spokeslady", Deedee Siytangco, no less, together with STV’s (Sunshine Television Ventures) Jenny Bleza.

One of the interesting novelties being offered by SIA that has caught my fancy is the ‘SpaceBed’ – a new lie-flat business class product that is vaunted to be bigger and better.

Rita briefed us that, "The SpaceBed was introduced last June on the Singapore-London late night flight SQ322 & SQ317. It will be progressively installed on all of SIA’s B747-400 and B777-200ER fleet by mid-2003, enabling ‘Raffles Class’ passengers to enjoy them in selected flights to Las Vegas, Sydney, Frankfurt, New York, Tokyo and other major destinations". She added that, "Frequent Raffles Class" customers would be delighted to notice the more generous space in the cabin, resulting from SIA’s decision to reduce the number of seats onboard SIA’s Megatop 747s from 58 to 50 to make way for the SpaceBed."

A fact sheet about the "biggest bed in the sky" reveals that it is the longest and widest bed in business class. I suppose this means uniqueness among all airlines. It also boasts of having multiple seating positions, a lie-flat sleeping mode of eight degrees in-flight, it has unique cushioning that conforms to your individual body shape, retractable screens to provide extra shoulder space, adjustable privacy dividers, etc., etc., and the list of unique features goes on.

Those who have traveled the "long haul" flights to Europe or the States and other far-flung destinations can attest that there’s no substitute to a lie-flat sleeping position in these long trips. I just hope that it’s not going to be a long wait because I am sure a lot of air travelers would be eagerly looking forward to this new innovation of Singapore Airlines.

But that’s not all. Here’s a little bit more of interesting news for the text-crazy Pinoy air travelers.

Passengers on SIA flights will soon be able to send a text message of up to 160 characters to an e-mail address or a mobile phone on the ground using their personal in-seat monitor and handsets.

The new messaging facility, available on all three classes of travel, will be launched on the B772ER (Extended Range) inaugural flight to Las Vegas on Aug. 2, 2002 and will be offered free during a three-month promotional period on other selected aircraft as well.

Well, guys, "text till your fingers drop while in-flight", but then you’ll have to fly Singapore Airlines.

Now to cap the almost intimate presentation, Rita led us to the Shangri-La’s Island Café, the venue for the hotel’s on-going Singaporean Food Festival sponsored no less by Singapore Airlines. Who could resist this wide array of Singaporean dishes, diet or no diet? And with no regrets I willingly succumbed to the temptation. I zoomed in on their very sinful yet delicious Peking duck and their very tender grilled lamb.

I understand the food fest will still run up to the end of the month. There’s still very plenty of time to check it out yourself. Don’t take our word for it, just indulge yourself.

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We would like to thank Mr. Bols Rante and Tom Lynn, readers who wrote to thank us for our piece on Baguio City and Camp John Hay.

I intend to spotlight more local "leisure destinations" in this column in the future as part of our own little way of telling everyone, especially our fellow Filipinos that there are a lot of places to go right here in our own beautiful homeland. Touring and sightseeing need not be expensive as going abroad.

I also like to thank Ms. Winnie Arceo of the Department of Finance for the reference data on fiscal incentives, which I was sent. They are going to be very useful.

A welcome letter from California, USA came in courtesy of Ms. Elain Andoque, a regular visitor of our Philippine STAR website. She’s actually asking for info on possible past news about her scooter-racing and jetskiing daughter who has been winning local competitions. No promises. But will try to help. Thanks for writing and keep on hitting our site.

For comments: (email address) bl-star@sunshine-tv.com