This is the second part of a very long post about my experience flying 33 hours in Singapore Air Business Class. It was a long and convoluted road that led me and my Mom to this surprisingly long, but enjoyable adventure. In case you want all those details, the first post is here:
So let’s get back into it! When I left off, I had just landed in Frankfurt, Germany from Singapore.
Flights Details
- When: October 2023
- Where: AKL-SIN-FRA-JFK
- Flights: SQ286 and SQ26
- Flight Time: 33 hours
- Seats: 20K (AKL-SIN) and 12K (SIN-FRA-JFK)
- Distance: 15,454 miles
- Points Used: 145,500 KrisFlyer points
- Taxes: $75.63 USD
FRANKFURT (FRA) AIRPORT
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge
Once we entered Frankfurt Airport, my Mom and I saw signs for the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, which was the lounge we visited on our trip to Australia in Singapore First Class.
- Review: Singapore Air First Class (JFK to FRA) – A $15,000 Flight For $27 [Part 1]
- Review: Singapore Air First Class (FRA to SIN) – A $15,000 Flight For $27 [Part 2]
Luckily right near the gate, I saw a small yellow sign above a desk that said “Lufthansa Business Class Lounge” so I asked the employee sitting there if we were qualified to enter while showing our boarding passes. They said yes so we were off! The employee scanned our boarding passes and let us into the lounge.
This lounge is designed as a giant circle and it has everything: nap rooms, a kids area, a large business area, cell phone rooms and of course free wifi, food and drinks!
We relaxed in the lounge for a little bit and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the gate.
Boarding
20 minutes before our plane was scheduled to take off, we arrived back at the gate. There weren’t many seats at the gate so most people (including us) stayed standing. 10 minutes before our departure time, there was an announcement that we were delayed, but they didn’t say how long.
At the time we were scheduled to be in the air, they started boarding and despite there being signs for different cabin classes, everyone just glommed together. We tried to help make specific lines and it didn’t work 🙂 . Interestingly there wasn’t an announcement for who should be boarding, but people started walking through. Alrighty then.
Then there was an announcement that they would begin boarding in a few minutes. Huh? The people that boarded previously weren’t dressed as pilots or FAs so I didn’t know what was happening 🙂 . Whatever. They then announced that First, Business and Premium Economy should all board at the same time. Understandably that was madness 🙂 .
When we got to the front of the glom, an employee checked our passports and boarding passes.
The Flight
Once I settled into my seat, I was offered a take off drink after the FAs introduced themselves, confirmed my lunch order, and said they would serve food after we were at cruising altitude. Awesome!
After we took off and reached cruising altitude, a FA came around offering slippers and socks, which I hadn’t been offered before outside those items previously being left at every seat in the days before you had to request amenity kits. I declined the socks and slippers (I have my own 😉 ) and asked for my final amenity kit of the trip.
I was then asked if I’d like the chicken satay pre-app and declined it. So I was brought the regular duck appetizer, which was yummy.
I then received the thai noodles I ordered before the flight on Book-The-Cook, which was also good. And lastly, I was given fruit for desert with a top up of sparkling water. Lovely 🙂 .
After filling my belly, I settled in to watch a movie until I got sleepy. Then I put down my bed and fell asleep before they even turned the lights off. I guess I was a little tired from taking in all this luxury 😉 .
I slept for about 4 hours and then 2 hours before landing, the lights came up and we were served a refreshment. I chose tea and a sandwich, which was good and filling.
And then we were in NYC! After my much longer flights 1 and 2, this 8 hour flight flew by. It was wild.
JFK AIRPORT
My Mom and I landed at JFK, said goodbye to the airplane that had become our home for 1.5 days, and made our way back to the real world.
Customs
When we reached customs, we headed to the far left lane that was designated for Global Entry. There were kiosks that asked us to take off glasses and take a picture.
We then got into an empty line and were told to go through. All of this took literally 5 seconds.
Baggage Claim
My Mom and I then headed to baggage claim. There was a bathroom by Carousel 1 that I slipped in to change into my NYC street clothes before heading back to wait with my Mom.
Interestingly bags started coming out on our carousel, which seemed to only be for our flight, but after 15 minutes only 5 bags had emerged. There was then an announcement that our bags were delayed, but we weren’t given an estimated wait time. However, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a baggage delay announcement so I appreciated it despite not knowing how long the wait might be.
And only a few minutes after that announcement, bags started coming out again and we got ours. We headed through the door that said Nothing To Delare and curiously there was a Beagle sniffer dog just like we’d seen at airports Down Under. Such a cute little worker. Anyway, we then followed the exit sign and walked out. Back to reality.
Transit
My Mom was heading off on a separate adventure so I walked her to another part of the airport before heading to NYC transit by myself.
I followed signs to the AirTrain, which is now $8.25 per ride. I then bought a new MetroCard at the kiosks. I almost bought an AirTrain 10 ride card because I thought it meant 1 AirTrain + 10 metro rides, but luckily an employee stopped me from doing that because that means ONLY AirTrain rides. Thank you stranger! That would have been a waste of money 🙂 .
So I bought a card with enough for 1 AirTrain ride and 1 Subway ride and reminded myself to top up more when I got to Manhattan.
On my way to the subway I was stopped by a woman and her daughter who seemed to mostly speak French. The mother was understandably confused by the Subway system coming from the airport, so I walked her to the subway, helped her swipe her metrocard and took her to her train’s platform. Good deed for the day done 😉 . After dropping them off, I jumped on my train and headed off to my next adventure.
THE REVIEW
So that’s what happened, but now let’s get into the actual review portion and what I thought of the experience 🙂 .
Customer Service
Singapore Air’s customer service continues to be fantastic. Checking into flights, going through gate security and boarding was always met with kind and helpful staff.
My only critiques are extremely minor and nitpicky and I understand that I only noticed them because I had come from experiencing Singapore Air First Class and understandably FAs taking care of the 4 people in First Class can be much more specific and attentive than the FAs that are serving 88 Business Class customers.
So I get it and that’s the only reason I noticed or pointed out when my hot towel was too hot or my bread wasn’t warm for example on my first two flights. These were tiny things that just make me appreciate the wildly amazing First Class experience even more while still being so grateful for the wonderful Business Class experiences I’ve had with Singapore Air.
Food
I mentioned in Part 1 of this review that I had some issues with Singapore Air’s Book-The-Cook function. I was sent a check in reminder 48 hours before my first flight and had to try multiple times to make my food selections. However, I persevered and was able to submit my selections eventually.
As I mentioned in Part 1, these selections didn’t go through for my first flight so I chose something off the menu. No big deal.
However, the rest of my selections did work on my subsequent flights.
As for the actual food and drinks on these flights, they were very good overall. My food ranged from delicious to good with one fine thrown into the mix. Everything I ate was way ahead of anything I have eaten in Economy and some of it was restaurant worthy, which I am wildly impressed by since it was made while hurtling through the air at 650 mph.
Seat
So I still love Singapore Air Business Class, but once again – those First Class and First Class Suites experiences spoiled me 🙂 . The main critique I’ve seen of these Business seats is that unless you’re sitting at the Bulkhead you have to position yourself diagonally to fully lie flat.
So when the regular seat is put in lie-flat mode, your feet go into that little section on the right below.
I don’t personally have a problem with this because I often sleep on my side or curl up to snooze, and this diagonal configuration works fine for that. However, First Class spoiled me because their lie-flat is straight forward instead of diagonal and I did notice the difference when I was back in Business Class. First is (in a surprise to no one) more comfortable, but Business still gets it done. This was still way more comfortable than Economy and even more comfortable than other Business Class products, such as Etihad.
- Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 1) – Phuket To Abu Dhabi On A 787 Dreamliner
- Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 2) – Abu Dhabi To NYC On A 787 Dreamliner
One thing that I found added to my comfort in Business was keeping the pillow that is at my seat at the beginning of the flight. When a FA does a turn down service, they often hide this pillow and give you a larger sized one for sleeping. But I loooove pillows so I asked to keep my original pillow and added it to the full-size pillow they gave me for sleeping and it was wonderful 🙂 .
These seats also have an abundance of seat controls, so I can move the seat however I want depending on what’s going on. I can sit fully up for a meal, recline a little while watching TV, and obviously go fully-flat when I want to catch some Zzzs. So many options!
One other tip is that if you don’t bring your own Eye Mask with you everywhere like me 😉 (#FullTimeNomad), you might want to ask for one from a FA (you have to ask for them now like the amenity kit).
The light from the seat numbers and seatbelt sign for example can get distracting if you’re sensitive to that stuff like I am when trying to sleep. Another option is obviously to cover your eyes with the blanket provided. No big deal.
Now let’s talk about storage! Because there’s a ridiculous amount of it 🙂 . These planes have overhead bins, but even if they didn’t, I could have fit my 40L Backpack, large canvas tote and big shoes in the storage available at my seat and still had a lot left over.
There are also a million spaces for smaller things, such as this one next to the TV that also reveals a mirror at my seat.
There’s also room in the armrest that already stores a water bottle and your headphones when you enter the plane, but I also like to put my phone in just in case we experience rough air while I’m sleeping.
The footwell itself can also be used for storage when the seat isn’t in lie flat mode. There’s storage upon storage!
All that to say, I’m still very happy with the Business Class seat. Trying Singapore First Class altered my perspective to knowing it gets even better than this, but I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable I was sitting in these exact seats for a day and a half.
It didn’t get old and I’m already excited to fly this product again…with my cute Business Class luggage tag 😉 .
Bathrooms
The upkeep of the Business Class bathrooms on these long flights understandably were determined by the FAs on the flights and their workload. For example, on my flight from Auckland to Singapore, the bathroom was always sparkling clean, but from Singapore to Frankfurt, it was clear the team hadn’t had time to clean it as often. At times there was a full trash can, trash on the floor or a lack of seat covers.
However, on the much shorter flight from Frankfurt to NYC, the bathroom was always immaculate. In fact, the toilet paper was folded in a fancy way when I entered like they cleaned the bathroom between each use, which is wild.
Anyway, those are just small things I noticed. These bathrooms were fancy and lovely as usual with cotton towels (except on the last 8 hour flight where there were paper towels) as well as toiletries like toothbrushes, lotions and face mists there for our use.
One thing that I’ll definitely keep in mind for next time and that I didn’t realize until my second flight is that most of these Boeing 777-300 planes have 1 bathroom on the right, but TWO on the left side of the plane. I didn’t realize that because there was only 1 indicator light on the left so feel free to check that out if you’re waiting for a bathroom spot.
In-Flight Entertainment
I was curious if Singapore’s in-flight entertainment would have enough content for me to be entertained for a 33 hour plane trip. And they definitely do 🙂 .
I made a list of movies I wanted to see while on this trip that were available on their TVs and barely made a dent in that list. The films I watched were wonderfully presented on the large screen at my seat and the mini controller next to the seat was very helpful.
The headphones provided were wonderfully plush and were comfortable on my head even for the entire flight, the longest of which was 13 hours. Impressive!
However, on my flight from Singapore to Frankfurt, I tried on my headphones and heard a weird rattling sound so I let a FA know and they quickly brought me new ones that worked perfectly. Fantastic!
The headphone cable is also the perfect length, which is something that hasn’t always been the case when I’m checking out Business or First Class products. It was easy to reach to any headphone jack even while I was sleeping and listening to the wonderful Relaxation playlist on my TV.
Also as I mentioned in my First Class review, Singapore Air now has unlimited Wifi once you reach 10,000 feet for anyone that’s a KrisFlyer member, which is free to sign up for. I had a great time using the Wifi on the plane.
It was surprisingly reliable while I was flying around the globe and only went out once (which is standard in my experience while going across different international waters) and it was back before I needed it. I have no complaints.
CONCLUSION
And that was my experience flying across four continents during 33 hours in Singapore Air Business Class. Despite the luxury, I expected that spending almost a day and a half on a plane would wear on me, but the time absolutely flew by in a haze of wonderful food, intriguing entertainment and fantastic customer service. I can’t wait to fly them again.
What’s your favorite airline?
Amazed at what you show here. All this for $75? How is that possible?
Curious to read about your new travel adventures.
Thanks – it’s just travel hacking. I’ve written a bunch of posts about it. Here’s the main one: https://apurplelife.com/2023/01/24/how-to-travel-hack-a-step-by-step-guide/
I read that post before. Two things are so foreign for me as a European. 1. The use of creditcards. We mainly use debitcards over here. Incidentially we use our creditcard. 2. What is the link between a credit card and an airline that it is a normality that you get points for purchases made by card?
Those two combined with the fact (although not investigated) that we fly far less in Europe because there is just no need to, makes the concept of point and creditcard something alien to me.
Maybe that’s the reason I love your blogposts so much.
Credit card companies partner with airlines to offer their miles as a perk and at times airlines have their own credit cards that they even advertise over the announcements on a plane. It’s wild. Yeah y’all have a lot of great ways to get around the country besides flying. I hope we get there one day. Thank you for reading!
It’s fun to live in the lap of luxury for a little while. I’m impressed that they can serve fancy custom meals on a plane! At first I wondered if they somehow fit a kitchen on board, but then I realized this is probably a choice of pre-made dishes that they load on board before takeoff.
I’ve read that airline food has historically been reviewed poorly because air pressure changes the way food tastes. It sounds like they’re getting better at compensating for that, like by adding more seasoning than you’d normally use.
Yeah it’s wild what they can do up there. And yes I think it’s all pre-made and then re-heated and arranged in the air – which is still impressive to me 🙂 . And great point on the seasoning – that’s another reason I can’t believe these meals are served in the sky. It’s like magic.