Good ambience, good value and plenty of perks
“Singapore is dense, and the airport is intentionally open and spacious, with a good ambience for both travelers and Singaporeans,” Changi’s corporate communications manager Lee Ching Wern explained during a walking tour of the airport. “We also want the airport to be perceived as a place of value.” To that end, the airport is loaded with a wide variety of useful and, for an airport, unusual amenities.
Many airports these days offer travelers free wireless Internet access. Changi does that too, but it also provides more than 500 free Internet stations throughout the terminals, making it easy to check e-mail one last time before boarding that 10-hour flight to Japan. To help travelers while away long layovers, there are free movie theaters, free computer games, free music video and CD listening stations, and a complimentary karaoke-style music studio, where I watched two grown men turn into giggling teenagers before they even put on their headphones. Live entertainment includes “meet and greets” with celebrities passing through the airport and, just last week, a series of performances by a Michael Jackson impersonator. Numerous themed lounges offer showers, massages, meals and napping suites at very reasonable prices, but foot- and leg-massage machines scattered around the airport are free, as are the napping and lounge chairs in quiet, marked rest areas.
For my money, though, the best amenities at Changi are the tranquil koi ponds and a series of five themed gardens, all free and all exquisitely well-cared for. Indoors, there’s a fern garden and an orchid garden displaying more than 15 species of the flower. Outdoors, there’s a rooftop cactus garden with more than 40 species of cacti and succulents, a sunflower garden that will make you feel as if you’ve stepped into a Vincent van Gogh painting and, my favorite, a colorful, two-story tropical butterfly garden with more than 1,000 free-roaming butterflies native to Singapore and Malaysia. Each day, new, “just born” butterflies are released into the garden.
Little, low-cost things make a big difference
Changi Airport may be unusual in that it’s got plenty of space, a hefty budget for amenities and promotions, and a mandate to make the airport an oasis for both passengers and local citizens. Few airports may be able to match Changi for the breadth and creativity of its complimentary amenities, but airports of any size can certainly take some tips from the airport’s approach to customer service. During my three-hour tour of the airport my guides, higher-ups from the corporate communications division, were approached by an exhausted-looking woman wanting to know if there was a place she and her husband could go to rest during a long layover between two extremely long flights. Not only did one staff member stop to explain that there were free lounge chairs in the adjacent terminal – with built-in alarm clocks – right next to the gate for their next flight, but she insisted on walking the tired travelers to the next terminal to make sure that they found those chairs. Inexpensive, but very impressive.
Even more inexpensive and impressive: upon my initial arrival at the airport at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning, a customs and immigrations officer welcomed me with a big smile and one of the airport’s complimentary breath mints.
Source: Harriet Baskas USAToday
Good ambience, good value and plenty of perks
“Singapore is dense, and the airport is intentionally open and spacious, with a good ambience for both travelers and Singaporeans,” Changi’s corporate communications manager Lee Ching Wern explained during a walking tour of the airport. “We also want the airport to be perceived as a place of value.” To that end, the airport is loaded with a wide variety of useful and, for an airport, unusual amenities.
Many airports these days offer travelers free wireless Internet access. Changi does that too, but it also provides more than 500 free Internet stations throughout the terminals, making it easy to check e-mail one last time before boarding that 10-hour flight to Japan. To help travelers while away long layovers, there are free movie theaters, free computer games, free music video and CD listening stations, and a complimentary karaoke-style music studio, where I watched two grown men turn into giggling teenagers before they even put on their headphones. Live entertainment includes “meet and greets” with celebrities passing through the airport and, just last week, a series of performances by a Michael Jackson impersonator. Numerous themed lounges offer showers, massages, meals and napping suites at very reasonable prices, but foot- and leg-massage machines scattered around the airport are free, as are the napping and lounge chairs in quiet, marked rest areas.
For my money, though, the best amenities at Changi are the tranquil koi ponds and a series of five themed gardens, all free and all exquisitely well-cared for. Indoors, there’s a fern garden and an orchid garden displaying more than 15 species of the flower. Outdoors, there’s a rooftop cactus garden with more than 40 species of cacti and succulents, a sunflower garden that will make you feel as if you’ve stepped into a Vincent van Gogh painting and, my favorite, a colorful, two-story tropical butterfly garden with more than 1,000 free-roaming butterflies native to Singapore and Malaysia. Each day, new, “just born” butterflies are released into the garden.
Little, low-cost things make a big difference
Changi Airport may be unusual in that it’s got plenty of space, a hefty budget for amenities and promotions, and a mandate to make the airport an oasis for both passengers and local citizens. Few airports may be able to match Changi for the breadth and creativity of its complimentary amenities, but airports of any size can certainly take some tips from the airport’s approach to customer service. During my three-hour tour of the airport my guides, higher-ups from the corporate communications division, were approached by an exhausted-looking woman wanting to know if there was a place she and her husband could go to rest during a long layover between two extremely long flights. Not only did one staff member stop to explain that there were free lounge chairs in the adjacent terminal – with built-in alarm clocks – right next to the gate for their next flight, but she insisted on walking the tired travelers to the next terminal to make sure that they found those chairs. Inexpensive, but very impressive.
Even more inexpensive and impressive: upon my initial arrival at the airport at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning, a customs and immigrations officer welcomed me with a big smile and one of the airport’s complimentary breath mints.
Source: Harriet Baskas USAToday
This post is tagged Best Airport, Changi Airport, Services Changi Airport, Singapour
