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This excellent product can be found on the entire Airbus A350 and retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER fleet, which services a big chunk of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (gradually coming onboard between now and mid-January 2017) flights.
I redeemed 68,000 KrisFlyer miles and paid $361 USD in taxes to take this 16½-hour flight, the world’s fifth-longest, in September 2017 as part of a larger trip around the Pacific.
Note that Singapore’s A380 will progressively feature its newest Business Class seat from December 2017.
Singapore is also introducing a new regional Business Class product on new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft.
Also, some of the darker pictures in this overview are from a separate 777-300ER flight, which features the same seat.
Fleet & Routes
As of the start of October 2017, the airline has 18 Airbus A350-900s in its fleet with another 49 on order.
They are gradually replacing Airbus A330-300, Boeing 777-200 and 777-200ER aircraft, and the airline will be the launch customer of the ultra-long-range version of the jet, allowing it to restart nonstop services from Singapore to New York and Los Angeles, which ran from 2004 until 2013 and are slated to recommence in 2018.
Singapore Airlines A350 routes as of mid-October 2017
Ther will be a new Singapore – Seattle service starting 3 September 2019.
For up-to-date routes, see our Singapore Airlines A350 redemption guide.
The cabin: seats & seatmap
All Business Class passengers have direct aisle access and lie-flat seats.
It is a very spacious cabin with no overhead bins over the centre seats.
The seat was wide enough to for me to sit cross-legged and not once did I get any pains sitting in any position during this long flight.
I must say, though, that the airbag-style belt when in seated mode is annoyingly thick – you can see it can see draped on the left-hand side of this photo.
In bed mode, you get a turndown service with a cushion built into the back of the seat, an extra, quite comfortable pillow and a perfectly thick/thin blanket. Thankfully, there is a lighter, more comfortable seatbelt for sleeping mode.
Most other bloggers have complained about the small foot cubby but I found it fine sleeping on my side as a 178cm-tall passenger.
Each seat has stunningly tall partitions, providing a high degree of privacy.
Centre seats have a retractable privacy divider, depending on if you are travelling solo or with a companion next to you.
The seats and cabin have elegant, subtle finishes:
and I particularly enjoyed the do not disturb button and multiple reading lights.
Also of note were two USB outlets, one for fast-charging your smartphone and the other a regular port.
Seat choice
There are 42 seats in 1-2-1 configuration across 11 rows, with seven in the front cabin (Row 18 has only two middle seats and no window seats) and four in the rear mini-cabin.
There are four bassinets located in Row 19 in the mini-cabin, so if travelling without children, I would recommend travelling in the front cabin to reduce noise.
As the main galley and two of the three toilets are located in between the two cabins, there is less foot traffic in the first half of the front cabin, which also gives you easy access to the sole toilet at the front of the plane.
The bulkhead seats in Rows 11 and 19 are my pick of the bunch as they do not have the awkward foot cubby that all other rows have due to the seat in front. However, note that there is no space for the inbuilt closet or drink rest next to the screen like in other rows, only the mirror.
Spot the differences between the bulkhead seat, with more legroom but no closet or drink rest:
and a regular seat, with the seat in front protruding but the closet and handy drink rest installed:
Do note that if you choose a bulkhead window seat, the curtain will be draped over the side of your seat for take-off and landing, which is temporarily annoying.
If you are in a regular (non-bulkhead seat) and prefer to sleep on your left side, then seat A or F is right for you as you will face away from the aisle; if you sleep on your right side, then choose D or K.
Solo travellers will probably prefer a window seat (A or K) and couples/friends two middle seats (D and F) but that’s totally up to you.
Service: food & drink
The dining table is easy-to-access and has a useful diagonal angle depending on whether you are watching your screen or not.
I found the food to be overall acceptable but not outstanding.
One big gripe I had was that I had ordered a special vegan meal and received the exact same one for both lunch and dinner. Luckily, the cabin crew were happy to modify the à la carte menu to provide more variety.
Whilst the food was beautifully presented, the food service was quite slow (with the full cabin being a major factor) and the cabin crew dropped cutlery and other things a number of times. There is room for improvement here.
You can pre-order your meal up to 24 hours before departure using the Book The Cook service in Manage Your Booking on the Singapore website.
I would highly recommend using this service as you have a much wider variety to choose from and can probably order off the à la carte menu too or instead if something catches your eye.
On the ground, I enjoyed the warmest and most professional check-in experience I have ever had.
Inflight entertainment
You have a large 18-inch screen which is very responsive, once you realise it is not a touchscreen (which took me a while to figure out). It tilts down for when you are in sleeping mode, which is very useful.
The remote control is comprehensive and has an excellent search function. It also allows you to skip through the 90-second ads at the start of a movie/show.
The noise-cancelling headphones are of excellent quality.
Amenities
The amenity kit is basic, with only standard socks, slippers and eyemask.
Other products like toothbrushes and toothpaste, moisturisers, perfume and razors can be found in the lavatory.
Even though the cabin was full, I only had to wait for the lavatory once.
Wifi is available on Singapore’s Airbus A350, A380 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with a complimentary 100MB data allowance for First/Suites Class passengers and 30MB for passengers in Business Class. Paid data plans are available after the complimentary data allowance has been used.
You can use the same wifi pass across multiple devices but you do need to log out of one to use the other.
If you purchase a plan on one segment, e.g. Australia to Singapore, it will not be valid on subsequent segments, e.g. Singapore to Europe.
You can read more about wifi plans on the Singapore Airlines website.
I experienced acceptable speeds of between 2 and 4 Mbps for downloads and 1 and 3 Mbps for uploads over the course of the flight.
How to redeem points for this flight
I booked this redemption using 68,000 KrisFlyer miles + $361 USD in taxes and fuel surcharges.
Given that KrisFlyer devalued its award chart back in March 2017, this redemption now costs 20,000 more miles but as fuel surcharges are no longer applied to redemptions on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir flights, the taxes have dropped to only $28 USD.
Note: KrisFlyer announced another round of changes coming into effect from 24 January 2019, which include an across-the-board increase in the number of miles required for premium cabin redemptions.
Lounge access
Departing or transiting through Singapore Airlines’ hub at Changi Airport, you’ll get access to the SilverKris Lounge in Terminal 3.
Departing Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, you’ll also get access to the SilverKris Lounge.
The awfully poor SilverKris Lounge which I visited in San Francisco prior to my flight in September 2017 was thankfully closed a month later to make room for a new United lounge. In the meantime, passengers will access existing United lounges, moving to the new United lounge after completion.
Our Singapore Airlines reviews
Summing up: why choose this flight?
Singapore’s A350 Business Class really is an industry-leading product.
You’ll get a very comfortable bed with direct aisle access and a private seat, excellent customer service, a great inflight entertainment system, a quiet aircraft and good wifi coverage and speeds.
Whilst the slow meal service and mix-up with my meals were downsides, they could have been one-offs, so I’m still going to give the flight a five-star rating with the suggestion that the airline work on its foot cubby design for its next overhaul of Business Class in the coming years.
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Matt Moffitt
Hi Matt,..
Nice review on SQ Biz Class.
Im happy when you said you are 178cm in height and had no problem sleeping. Other bloggers always condenming SQ about this seat when turning to bed because they need to sleep Diagonaly. Then i’m now quite happy and will book SQ J Class on this A350-900. Thanks for the honest review Matt.
Regards
Looking forward to your Thai Airways First Class Review from Hong Kong To Sydney via Bangkok as we doing a similar flight next year need to book it before 1st November devaluation .
Thanks Matt for the great and detailed review
If I want to travel with my wife, are the middle seats okay for us?
I mean we still can see each other and not to separately?
Yep, middle seats would be the pick for you!
As I usually travel solo, the original seat recommendations I made in this post were for solo travellers, so I have updated it to take into account people travelling with someone else (which is a lot of people).
Have a look at the photo under text “Each seat has stunningly tall partitions, providing a high degree of privacy” which partly shows how the two middle seats come together.
Also, as an aside, redemption or award space from the US side is widely available , Krsiflyer Ex-SIN , want 155,000 One way and award space is next to zero
Good to know! I have found that First and Business Class award space on Singapore Airlines flights from the US is especially good on their LA – Seoul, LA – Tokyo and San Francisco – Hong Kong flights that then continue onto Singapore. The A350 flight from San Francisco can be a bit tighter (and doesn’t have First Class).
Sounds like the 155,000-mile quote is for a Standard award. Here is a post on the difference between Saver and Standard awards.
I flew this 2 weeks ago from HKG-SIN and found it to be slightly better than the 777-300ER in terms of comfort. I found the Book the Cook food to be quite good when you are happy to have meat and dairy too, maybe the lack of vegan options brought down your experience.
I do find these seats to be a cut above other business class seats, and agree the seatbelt is quite uncomfortable. Even when trying to sleep with the more comfortable belt, I find it in an awkward position too high up my body.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Michael.
I also took a retrofitted 777-300ER with this product from Singapore to Hong Kong four days after my A350 flight and, for me, there weren’t any noticeable differences except for the 777 being a louder plane. Can you expand on how you found the two to be different (for both my interest and that of readers looking at the comments)?
Great review! Love Singapore airlines and always read the pointhacks articles. Quick question, when you say you used 68,000 miles to redeem, what was your ticket that you purchased to upgrade from? Was it economy ticket or Prem economy? How do you know which legs only offer economy?
I used 68,000 KrisFlyer miles (now priced at 88,000 miles) to redeem an outright award ticket, not an upgrade.