In the coming days, Singapore Airlines will be retiring its final Boeing 737-800, which means the airline will finally be offering a new level of consistency throughout its fleet. Thanks to Mainly Miles for flagging this.
Continue reading: Singapore Airlines Retires Boeing 737-800s: Major Flat Bed & Wi-Fi Milestone
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Good move. SQ's 737 Max is excellent. All Max operators should do as SQ did, by installing lie-flat, 2-2, 1-1, 2-2, etc., especially with those 'throne' seats. If you're gonna operate 6+ hour flights, include lie-flat for an actual 'premium' experience. American, United, Alaska, etc. could do this, but won't. Ugh.
United will have lie-flats on its MAX-10 aircraft.
It however makes zero sense for most of those airlines to incur the weight and space penalty of installing lie-flats, considering the typical stage length that their aircraft fly.
"cost-cutting justification."
Meh, they're only 2 of the 3 most profitable carriers in existence.
But of course they'd perform better by listening to the ramblings of an internet-nobody who disapproves of their current LOPAs. That's definitely the key to success.
Sure you're an "internet nobody" who approves of any current LOPAs that makes passengers waste their money. Such person is definitely the key to success.
Hey lucky,
For those not familiar, the backstory of Singapore Airlines operating Boeing 737s is interesting, because prior to several years ago, Singapore Airlines had an all wide body fleet (okay, at some point going back a long time the airline operated wide body planes, but let’s not go back that far).
Should that not be 'going back a long time the airline operated NARROW body planes'?
You sure make declarative statements, for someone that you don't know squat about. You have no idea what my "approval" of any given LOPA is, and seem too stupid to figure out that I'm just repeating what AA/UA execs have themselves said publicly on the issue.
Yet you're posting to internet groups about what (you assume) I do or do not accept? That's very strange dude.
1990, ‘Steady the Buffs’ now old bean. Your credibility is now in tatters following your revelations about SQ’s Max. I had you down as more Oxcart or Archangel than the low level Boeing Max …. 🙂
"seem too stupid to figure out that I'm just repeating what AA/UA execs have themselves said publicly on the issue."
A guy who takes what the top execs say seriously is talking about someone being stupid?
Take a look at a mirror.
The only thing that matters to them is the money their decisions will bring in, so they can keep their positions.
Lying is their job. Seen what "sustainable" have done to the world?
What do you think is making more money, offering actual great experiences or just advertise nonsenses as a complicated measure that took an inspiration from next-generation technologies.
The populace is never smart enough to understand the trick behind. You either seem to be one of those or just acting snowflake for idk what. Maybe you just don't want to accept it.
Wait... Max-10? When?? Because, it's starting to feel like 'when pigs fly'... so many delays. I don't even blame United; it's Boeing. C'mon. Once great American company. *sigh*
Cheer up, AeroB13a. I'm far more fond of the a321neo (and soon XLR) with it's 1-1 'business' class configuration, like on jetBlue's newer Mint, or soon to be AA's Flagship Suites (a nice replacement for the aging a321T). My entire pitch here is more lie-flat in narrow-body premium, less recliner, and no more 'blocked middle' nonsense.
Yes, you certainly know how to cheer up an old codger on a cool autumn evening. However, one is unconvinced that AA will ever do justice to the XLR.
It’s funny how the A321neo proved much more popular among full-service airlines in Northeast Asia than Southeast Asia, and many if not most of them — KE, CI, JX and likely BR in the future — have lie-flats on them, but not CX. Indeed, many airlines there operate the A321neo but not the A320 or any other Airbus narrowbody.
Yet, SQ, MH and GA preferred to stick to the 737 instead of adopting A321neos like KE, CI and MF — all historically 737 operators — did.
Clearly, SQ went all-in on the 737 MAX for its narrowbody fleet, and remains one of only four Star Alliance members (along with ET, LO and CM) not to operate the A320 family. In ASEAN, PR is the only one with lie-flats on the A321neo — but not for longer, since TG will take delivery of its first A321neo soon.
Boeing is still a "great" company, it's just that they've become great at losing vast swathes of money every year, rather than being great at booking profits. It's particularly bad since the United States withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the defence division can no longer prop-up the commerical airplanes operation.
As the next batch of A321neos for CX will be a separate order from the initial order inherited from Dragon, I would hope they come up with some sort of lie-flat seat that can be deployed to further destinations such as South Korea, Japan and further down to Singapre/Malaysia while the current recliners can be deployed to Manila/Cebu, Haikou, Phnom Penh and other regional destinations that are much closer.
I just don't find it acceptable for CX to use recliners to Singapore when you're up against SQ. At least have some lie-flat seats even on a narrowbody.
SQ's ability to have so few narrowbodies and use majority widebodies is extremely impressive. Especially with the very small population it has as a country.
If you look to its regional neighbors like CX or MH, they use tons of narrowbodies on similar routes, or even most aptly the very busy SIN-KUL route, SQ flies about half of the frequencies on widebodies, but MH is only able to use 737s.
Maybe they don't think it's worth the effort for 2.5-3.5 hour sectors? And the rusted-on Asia Miles devotees in HKG aren't going to be defecting to SQ any time soon.
"SQ's ability to have so few narrowbodies and use majority widebodies is extremely impressive. Especially with the very small population it has as a country."
And a big chunk of that comes through connections especially in between the Kangaroo Route. While Singapore's population is approx. 2 mil more than LA, Changi had 67 mil passengers just last year. CX along with EK and TG to a lesser extent all relied on an all-widebody fleet at for a while for connections in between.
Just gotta to admit - Singapore is the best. Without us, the passenger experience with EK and QR will be a laughing stock to the world.
Pete, Boeing has put 'profits' over peoples' lives. I don't think Boeing's lack of profitability is the thing that most folks are upset about.
Let's be clear: Boeing's reputation is tarnished primarily due to a corporate culture shift that prioritized profit and production speed over safety and engineering excellence.
So, you may try, but you cannot 'sane-wash' the horrors of those fatal 737 MAX crashes (2018 & 2019); or that mid-air door plug blowout on Alaska's Max-9 (2024). Yikes, man.
Skytrax 2025: Qatar 1, Singapore 2.
Conde Nast: Singapore 1, Qatar 2. (Seems like you prefer their 'take').
Both are excellent. But, I personally prefer Q-suite (a359) over SQ angled-business class, like on their a350ULR.