Five questions with Philip Lim, PPS Manager at Singapore Airlines

You might be familiar with Singapore Airlines’ PPS Club frequent flyer tier. But for Singapore’s flag carrier, PPS – Premium Passenger Services – are about so much more than the membership itself. For instance, PPS also encompasses the airline’s lounges, especially at its Changi Airport hub.

To get a greater understanding of the airline’s lounge philosophy, we catch up with Philip Lim. He’s Singapore Airlines’ Premium Passenger Services Manager. And with almost one million passengers visiting the carrier’s Changi Airport lounges each year, it’s a big job!

Lim’s responses to our top five questions continue below. Scroll to the bottom of this story for the full video interview, along with a guided tour of the carrier’s lounges at Changi’s Terminal 3.

Why are lounges so important for Singapore Airlines?

Regardless of whether you’re an avid traveller or you are traveling the first time, traveling is actually quite a stressful part of the journey. You’re going to a place (where) there’s a lot of uncertainty. Even if you’re departing from your own country, you (could) get lost after check-in, after immigration. You don’t know where to go.

What we always aim for … is trying to make the whole entire airport experience as seamless and as comfortable as we can. And the lounge is an integral part of the experience itself.

Tell us about the design of Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris Business Class Lounge at Changi

What’s important is to give passengers choices. The choice to decide what they want to experience today in the lounge itself. On the left, it’s a bit more open space – a bit more open air, so you get a very lively experience when passengers walk here. And we have a buffet counter over there (as well). So if you only have maybe about 30-40 minutes before your flight and you want to have a quick bite, this is a place to go.

(On the other side of the lounge, there’s the bar.) This is also one of the favourite spots because it’s a bit more lively. You get the music in the background. Some people really enjoy the whole entire experience over here. One thing that we did … is make sure that every place that you are seated in today, you are able to do whatever you need to. So every table that you have, there’s power points down there. You can actually dine and work off every single seat that you’re in today. That’s very critical.

We also did quite a bit of research. In the old lounge, we had some people just lying on the sofas. So when we designed this lounge, we actually built a rest area for them. It’s quite a well-kept secret in the sense that not many people actually notice it. But a lot of people actually enjoy it and use it as well. And this has been very popular.

What’s your favourite thing to eat in the lounge… and how much do people drink?

I would like to be proud and say every single thing (is my favourite). But if you really must have one, I would think it’s the laksa. I think that’s a must-have here, definitely. Why? If you ask me, because we’re Singapore and this is Singapore. We have to do what is popular and we really need to do it very well, so we do receive a lot of very good feedback for our laksa here. You must try.

(As for wine,) on a daily basis, we run through close to 100 bottles. 100 bottles of wines and maybe about 100 bottles of Champagne in the day, yeah. (That’s about 150 litres just of wine and Champagne each day!)

Why is the entry-level lounge ‘Gold’ but the better lounge ‘Silver’?

We do get quite a lot of feedback regarding this. But we need to emphasise about the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge and SilverKris Lounge. The whole idea is not tied to the quality of the lounge itself, it’s tied to the brand in terms of the frequent flyer tier. So the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge is for our KrisFlyer Elite Gold members and Star Alliance Gold members. So that makes sense – so of course this should be called the Gold lounge, right?

Tell us about the private rooms within The Private Room…

Something new that we’ve included in the building and the design of The Private Room, as well as the First Class Lounge are actually four private rooms. Really private rooms of which two of them have bed and the other two have recliners.

We chose blue carpet (for a) calming effect. The whole idea is actually for you to just rest, especially if you come in from a long flight.

It’s a flagship lounge, so it has to be the best lounge – especially as this is our home ground. We have to be best. If you ask me why is it really the best? Because (there’s been) a lot of effort – a lot of time and attention to detail. The number of people and effort that comes into place to make sure that the end product, everyone will be able to enjoy it.

Catch the full video interview below.

Also read: Inside Singapore Airlines’ Changi Airport lounges

Videography and featured image by Tobias Venus. Additional reporting by Chris Chamberlin. Daniel Sciberras and Tobias Venus travelled to Singapore at Point Hacks’ expense.