Singapore Airlines 787 Business Class: Perfection

Aside from it being tight and narrow like you say and the privacy shield by the window, I'm not a fan of leather seats. It can get all sticky and sweaty especially during the summer time. I guess they've been using leather for the longest time to cut costs on cleaning and maintenance.

I flew this configuration on the A350 from Sidney to Singapore last Thursday. I found the footwell to be too narrow esp for a side sleeper like me. I'm 177cm tall and weigh about 75kg so i'm not that big.

Couldn't sleep well and found the seat to be generally very narrow. I'll be avoiding airlines with this seat in the future after the 8hrs i spent in that. Service was top notch though.

I have flown to LAX-SIN four times in the last year, and to parts near in SE Asia, and I still haven't been in this cabin. I will say that I really like the long haul business class seat Singapore Air uses.

I flew SQ's 787-10 in J when it first came out in 2018 to Bali. Great seats in business with multiple recline positions or flat bed for sleeping. The furthest they go is to Japan and Korea. However, no premium economy on these planes and I'll assume economy seats are pretty narrow in 3-3-3 config. If not flying in business, I'd rather seek out SQ's 777s or A380s.

IMO, the livery is nothing special. Everything else looks great!

Are the 787 seats as firm as their long haul aircraft? I find their J Class seat on the A380 to be like sitting on concrete they are so firm. I have started to avoid them on long haul flights as the seats are too hard.

787 with LOT livery looks way more impressive

The SIN long-haul hard product is not very good, IMHO. I got terrible sleep both ways. I've flown Turkish's version of this product many times, and it's *so* much better if sleeping for several hours is your goal. 🙂 Agree, it's a little tight in the shoulders, but I can deal with it no problem.

I’m not sure if I agree with your comments relating to KrisWorld. I actually find it rather scaled down and selection is nothing special.

As for the SQ product, again, the seats are nothing special but I do really dislike their longhaul flipping mattress seats which is so outdated and inconvenient to use.

As for the B787 and A350 Regional product, as you said, it feels right on the shoulder area and the unnecessary privacy design on the window side. Sometimes, the SQ team don’t look at the finer details when designing the product. They just need to look at QSuites to see how behind their product has become along with the meal service which has taken a huge cost cutting measure.

This is one of the most unsubstantiated reports I have seen from Ben:

Singapore Airlines is far from being perfect. Any other airline in Asia (MH, TG) has brought back hot towels and mixed nuts and SQ doesn’t even that in First.

The Regional Business Class seat has not made many friends either: too narrow, the shell even blocking the window and for overnight flights no decent amenities. Fly to Tokyo or to Sydney overnight and you get a flimsy blanket and one tiny pillow.

Maybe Ben is benchmarking his experience to US flights but if he was to travel more in Asia he would realize what a laggard SQ has become.

@ SMK77 -- A laggard compared to which airline? It seems you're cherry picking various aspects of each airline. Okay, Malaysia and Thai have hot towels and mixed nuts, but what's their product like otherwise?

Malaysia primarily flies 737s regionally, which have an experience similar to what you'd find in domestic first class. Heck, Malaysia is currently ripping TVs off its 737s, a la American Airlines. Meanwhile Thai Airways' hard product is highly inconsistent.

I'm curious what you consider to be the consistently best airline within Asia?

@ Rahul Oberai -- Interesting. You think it's scaled down compared to other airlines, or has it changed compared to what was offered before? What's your favorite airline IFE?

@ Pedro -- Yeah, not a huge fan of those seats either. The padding was better with these seats for sure.

@ Donna -- Hah, I think I might just be an SQ fanboy then...

Singapore Airlines is always awesome and you can "book the cook" even on regional flights.
The flight attendants are consistently top notch. People with only high school degrees, don't bother applying to be an SQ FA.

Although, SQ screwed up on these business class seats. My shoulders felt wedged by those stupid wings and then blocked the view out the window.

Singapore Airlines is always awesome and you can "book the cook" even on regional flights.
The flight attendants are consistently top notch. People with only high school degrees, don't bother applying to be an SQ FA.

Although, SQ screwed up on these business class seats. My shoulders felt wedged by those stupid wings and then blocked the view out the window.

And Malaysia Airlines doesn't have alcohol in domestic and regional business-class.

Singapore Airlines is the best airline in the world full stop. A 4.0 GPA student of an airline.

Is a 787 actually wide enough for a quality 1-2-1 biz class seat? It sounds like this flight suffers from the same problem as united Polaris.

Nice to see the 787 has a proper lie flat bed. Having just done 4 sectors on their A350s and 777’s I found their J seat ridiculous , not just for having to get up to unlatch it, but the coffin -sized hole where your feet go. As a result I had poor sleep, not ideal on a Rome to Sydney trip, and I wouldn’t choose it again. Usually I fly Qatar , Etihad, and Qantas (and a door on QR Suites too…not that this makes up for their shoddy handling if your flight is cancelled). For me QF win on food and wine - even their domestic lounges put BA to shame - but they still suffer a lot of service disruption.
Having had cause to reach out to contact centres, QR suck, QF are difficult, and SQ were at least easily reachable although I had to call back when nothing was actioned as promised after 48 hours, which cost me a hefty phone bill.
But contrary to another post, yes we got a pack of mixed nuts in each SQ pre-meal service, 2 pillows, and the blanket is not at all flimsy 🙂

I am so looking forward to my trip on Singapore Airlines this coming March.
If only I could afford a seat in Business Class. It looks amazing Singapore Airlines... well done

As a frequent flyer on Singapore airline business class the only missing essential is meals on demand. They take 2 hours to serve your meal and deprive you of a sleeping chance. If you dare to sleep you cannot claim your missed meal. What?????.

De service van Singapore Airlines gaat verder dan de gastvrijheid aan boord. Ik heb in nov/dec 2022 business class gevlogen van Amsterdam naar Sydney via Singapore. De terugreis ging helemaal mis, omdat ik vlak voor vertrek, vanuit de Krislounge, onverwacht naar het ziekenhuis moest. Dank aan de medewerkers in de Krislounge voor hun opvang en ondersteuning. Niet alleen kon ik alsnog vlak voor kerst terug vliegen (dankje Kavitha), maar ook iedereen aan boord was op de hoogte en stond direct klaar, als ik hulp nodig had. Ik heb zelf bij een luchtvaartmaatschappij gewerkt, maar deze klantgerichtheid overtrof echt alles.
Dankjewel Singapore Airlines voor een byzondere reiservaring!
Anke Groenewoud (Nederland).

MH and TG cannot compete with SQ, on hard or soft product, sorry. That's if your flight even takes off or you get the plane you thought you would when booking or checking in. I don't care how many mixed nuts I get or how delicious the satay is (and it IS delicious): if I have to fly a 737 with a crappy seat and IFE product for $600+ in J from KUL to BKK (or $1,300 from KUL to MNL), I'm not going to be happy.

The tightness problem isn't with the seat, it's with the cheap narrow 787. The same seat on the A350 is brilliant.

Even Air NZ with their two generations out of date, wrong way around, awful awful AWFUL, urinette stall sized, Business Class seating didn’t attempt four abreast in their 787 cigar tubes. Can’t wait for their “coming soon” (ish), “home designed”, similarly wrong way around (per pre release photos), and … oops … four abreast squeeze.

Flew from SIN to PER on January 9 on SQ 223 an A350. Possibly the most disappointing Business Class flight EVER. Seats were great but 2 issues with the flight. First, was served a breakfast of a vegetable omelet and veal sausage. The sausage was barely warm and the omelet consisted if a pile over vegetables (mostly green beans) topped by a unseaoned egg omelet remiscent of a Subway breakfast omelet. Breakfast was served around 11 AM. As am on vacation I thought I would enjoy an alcoholic beverage. The cabin crew never asked if I wanted anything so finally at 1 PM I asked for and received a beer. Simply could not believe it as had been told Singapore Air had one of the best Business Class products. With think twice about booking fights with them again.

So it is possible to do cherry picking for something that is "perfection"?

SQ has become an absolute laggard - I mean they were not even able to provide me hot towels on a flight in Suites from FRA to SIN this month.

TG had fully size champagne flutes on BKK-SIN (again nothing you get on SQ F) and the food presentation was much nicer than SQ J.

I am not aware of any TG hard product that is worse than SQ so I am not sure inconsistency really matters. It's a fact that SQ 787 product has no fans in Singapore and it was funny to see a Krisflyer Instagram campaign acknowledging that.

My pick for top airline in Asia is currently JAL (SQ should learn how to do Premium Economy from them) and comparing SQ and TG side by side on BKK-SIN vv - they are doing really good.

Cabin Crew on SQ are still stellar and the best but all other aspects of SQ are far from "perfection" so I am still irritated why you would gush over this flight while you have a reputation for being detailed and on spot for most of your trip reports.

I am always surprised about the extremely positive feedbacks about SQ. I have lived in Singapore for several years and find SQ is good but highly overrated. The hard product does not convince me at all, the bed is way to hard, the footrest too narrow and also on the shoulder part it is too narrow. When it comes to service the staff is friendly but not on top of things. Many times they forgot my water, I had to call them again and again. If you have any question out of the standard they are lost. I find staff at LX and of course Qatar and Emirates much more professional and efficient.
SQ is definitely a good airline, but given the strong competition in the Middle East they loose their top ranking in my opinion. But obviously they are still good at marketing as still many people praise them…. But as with everything else in live: to each his own!

These seats look so much better in TK color scheme(black and gold), but that's not bad either.

I was disappointed the first time I flew business in the 787-10 from Perth to Singapore. Having flown before on it's predecessor A330-300, I was excited when they announced the new plane as I had a trip planned soon after the introduction of the 787-10. But almost immediately the excitement faded as the narrow, hard and uncomfortable seat put an end to my notions that this would be a step up in luxury. In flatbed mode it's the most disappointing, almost coffin-like. Two weeks ago, I was reminded of this fact again when I returned on an overnight flight to Perth. Personally, I'd take the soft, wide and dated leather seats of the A330-300 any day. Fortunately Singapore Airlines 5 star service never fails to impress and balances out my seat issues a bit. Just wish they had at least made it a little softer.

That is nonsense. Airbus fanboy. Same seat is not narrower on a 787.

Will be travelling to Perth from Hong Kong with stopover in Singapore soon. Yes, Singapore Airlines business class. My major concern will be, out of the four flights, three will be with Boeing 787 Dreamliner. How about air vents and stuff? After all, I am much sensitive with air ventilation and stuff. Coolness, for me, is a must.