Besides the main Silverkris Lounge in Singapore, SQ also maintains and operates a couple of them overseas, especially in key markets. Manila is one of them where you can find a Silverkris lounge in MNL airport terminal 3. This is not surprising given that Singapore Airlines flies 4 times daily to Manila, there is even a flight with First Class on it. Although this lounge is a shared first & business class lounge. There isn’t any particular space reserved for first class passengers as well. It is certainly great to have their own airline operated lounge since there are no good offerings from partners in this airport. For those who are interested in going on a lounge hop, there are a couple of contract lounges which you can access with Priority Pass in Terminal 3. None of them look particular nice. The only other interesting lounge I saw was the Cathay Lounge. The Silverkris Lounge is located one level above the main departure floor, there are clear signs leading to the elevators. SQ departing gates are usually just a short walk away from the lounge.
I had actually plan some time to check out the lounge as well as hopping to the other contract lounges to review them. Sadly the Taal Volcano situation totally threw me into chaos and frankly speaking I wasn’t in the mood after all the changes. This might be a fairly bare review also given that much of the time spent on the ground, I was busying handling issues from the flight delay and changes. It is also a rather unique situation since due to the volcano, the lounge mainly act as a rebooking desk as well for premium customers and tons of economy customers waiting outside the lounge for updates on the flights. It is my first time enjoying the lounge “for the practical reasons” when flights schedules are unpredictable and you can have a comfortable space to await news.
The decor of the lounge was largely kept in line with the typical SKL theme with existing lounges that I have visited. They were the renovated one. I find it so similar to the one in Hong Kong as well as the lounge in London. It is nice to see them keeping to the same theme. As mentioned it is a shared business and first class lounge. You can access this lounge if you are flying in premium cabin or with loyalty program from both SQ and Star Alliance.
The lounge is basically one huge rectangular space and you can see it right from the entrance. The entrance is rather open in a sense that it is not as exclusive as you might have wanted and it is rather noisy from the terminals as well. There are some seatings immediately towards the right by the entrance. Seats are almost the same throughout the lounge with typical couches. They are rather comfy although I will not want to spend more time than I need to. I also appreciate that outlets can be easily found between seats which is really commendable. Wifi is strong even when the lounge is operating in peak condition, much more passengers than in the normal situation.
Then after entering, and towards the left you can find a partition separating the refreshment area. Here you can find some high top bar seating as well as proper actual dining tables.
The is the refreshment, it consists of a small buffet line up! Food is rather good with a mixture of local and Singaporean style items! A little underwhelming and offerings are pretty limited. food quality is alright but definitely not gourmet. I had some food since I basically did not eat since breakfast. The salad station is decent too!
Drinks wise, it is all self served, there is no manned bar here in contrast to the lounge in Hong Kong. You can find some wine, liquor selections, beers such as Heineken. There are also a good choice of can drinks in the fridge. There is also a coffee machine and tea too. Weirdly, bottled water are available but only upon request from the staff and this is not stated anywhere as well. It is just a normal local brand and not something fancy like Voss so I find it really weird that they are doing cost controls on this.
The rest of the lounge are mainly filled up with the same couches. It is nice that the lounge opens up mostly towards the tarmac, so there are some opportunity for plane spotting and the natural light definitely helps to brighten the place. Sadly it is overcast on my visit and filled with ashes.
Didn’t really enjoy the space since I was so busy coordinating stuff caused by the flight delay! I had even thought of skipping reviewing this and the flight next. Overall it is a nice space to wait for your short haul flight back to Singapore and I will definitely enjoy it better in different circumstances. Refreshments can definitely be improved for an airline operated facility.
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