Singapore Airline Business class review


In February, I redeemed 2 business class ticket round the world from Perth to Los Angeles and back from New York to Perth. It is actually not expensive to fly business class, you just need to be flexible and think + plan ahead. In some cases, the tickets are cheaper or on par with economy class ticket.

Read the post below for tips and tricks to achieving this;
Do not forget to use the referral link for a bonus 20k krisflyer point


I have masked out my details for security reasons. Anyway, below was the route I took
  1. Perth(PER) to Singapore(SIN) with a stop over
  2. Singapore(SIN) to Narita(NRT) with a stop over
  3. Narita(NRT) to Los Angeles(LAX)
  4. New York(JFK) to Frankfurt
  5. Frankfurt to Singapore(SIN)
  6. Singapore(SIN) to Perth(PER)
The planes are A330, A777-200, A777-300ER, A380. I am going to review the 3 main type of seats on offer across the Singapore Airline range as well as the lounge and service.

Lets talk about seats

A330 and A777-200
Lets start with the A330 and A777-200 mainly used for shorter distance.


For a short day flight where you don't intent to sleep, the design of this chair is sufficient. The only real qualm I have is this is a very uncomfortable lie flat seat tilted at an angle near the floor as it slides out.  

Secondly, the lack of storage space to place things like my laptop, battery charger and headset is annoying as well. There is a slit on the side of the chair to slide your laptop in however, it looks dirty and I was worried it might scratch my laptop. The width of the chair might be an issue for REALLY EXTREMELY wide people.

A380
Now for the famous A380.


Normally used for longer range flight and has a very comfortable wide flat bed. It is flat parallel to the floor and makes for a wonder sleep. My tip for single traveller would be to choose the window sit for more storage place on the side near the window. The seats are in a 1 2 1 configuration therefore isle access for everyone!!!.

However, when you are not sleeping, the width of the chair really plays with your mind. Notice the slot where you leg is, I love stretching my feet in that hole however because of the width of the bed plus the angle of the feet slot, it makes your body rest at an angle.

The same problem I have as the A330 is the lack of a decent space for storing laptop and headset.

A777-300ER
The seats on the A777-300ER(extended range) has been retrofitted in 2013 and the design of the chair is by far the BEST.


The width is perfect and the side has plenty of compartment space. Again in a 1 2 1 configuration, every seat has aisle access. Controls can be made from a smaller handheld on the side therefore eliminate the need to stretch forward to touch the screen.

This configuration also has support for usb and hdmi although I did not try plugging in my hdmi :(

Lets talk about service

Flight service can be a hit and miss. The ones that generally excels are the inflight supervisor(purple) and chiefs(red). I prefer the 777 and 330 because I find the service more personal and attentive as compared to the A380 where the whole upper deck are filled with business class passenger and the service becomes "economy class ish" where the only time they address you by your family name is when they take your order and they had to refer to their notes. In the smaller planes, the cabin crew in my section always address my wife and I by name, greatly heightening our sense of self entitlement.


And because they were not rushing to finish their meal service, they actually had time to put in more thoughts into their service. I love the dry ice presentation in the dessert selection.

Food as expected is always good, below are some examples of the selection on offer. Note SQ also has book the cook concept if you would like to pre-order your meal. I always pre-order the chicken rice for any flights out of singapore







Now the lounge

Generally, I always prefer the SQ lounge as compared to their partners. By far the best lounge would still be the Silverkris Lounge in Changi Airport and it is only exclusive to business class and pps passenger.

SilverKris Lounge Changi

The worst lounge are those that can be access via coupons, vouchers or credit card. This is something that singapore has done really well. You cannot simply apply a credit card and gain access to any of their lounge. This makes Singapore Airline lounge really exclusive. The ANA business class lounge in NRT was worst then the waiting area outside. I see passenger flashing their credit card and gaining entry and the whole lounge was more like a market. We ended up walking and shopping around the duty free area.

In Conclusion

I can go through in detail the type of food served in the lounge, the pre-order drinks, the sparkling water served, the amenities given, the washroom. the priority queue and luggage however, I am not going to spoil it for you. If it is your first time flying on business class, my advice to you is not to read up on it in detail. Rather, experience it in person.

Victor

Programmer by day, couch potatoe by night. Born in Singapore, working in Perth Australia. Likes food, travel and all things nice.

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