Singapore Airlines will soon start offering its latest A380 inflight product on a route to the United States, which is exciting.
In this post:
New Singapore Airlines A380 flying to United States
Based on the latest schedule update, as of March 27, 2022, Singapore Airlines will fly its Airbus A380 with the latest onboard products to the United States. Specifically, Singapore Airlines’ flight from Singapore to New York via Frankfurt will offer this product. The flight operates with the following schedule:
SQ26 Singapore to Frankfurt departing 11:55PM arriving 6:45AM (+1 day)
SQ26 Frankfurt to New York departing 8:35AM arriving 11:10AM
SQ25 New York to Frankfurt departing 8:55PM arriving 10:40AM (+1 day)
SQ25 Frankfurt to Singapore departing 12:30PM arriving 6:50AM (+1 day)
This will be the first time that Singapore Airlines offers its latest A380 onboard product on a route to the United States. For context on this particular flight:
- This route was resumed as of November 2021, and is currently operated by a Boeing 777-300ER
- Up until now, the route was scheduled to be operated by Singapore Airlines’ older version of the A380 starting late March 2022; however, that seemed highly unlikely, given that Singapore Airlines has reconfigured almost all the A380s that will reenter service
- Now the flight shows as being operated by Singapore Airlines’ new version of the A380
Just a few days ago Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer released a lot of Suites award availability (including for multiple seats on the same flight) on this route, so I’m sure many people will be thrilled to find that this flight is now scheduled to feature the new product.
Singapore Airlines’ new A380 cabins
Singapore Airlines’ newest A380s feature 475 seats, in a four cabin configuration. The upper deck has six first class suites and 82 business class seats, while the lower deck has 44 premium economy seats and 343 economy seats.
I flew Singapore Airlines roundtrip on the new A380 shortly after it was introduced — I flew from Singapore to Sydney in the new business class, and from Sydney to Singapore in the new Suites. Overall I was reasonably impressed by both products, but not blown away.
Business class was a marginal improvement over the old business class product. I rank it as number nine on my list of the world’s 10 best business class seats. The seat is spacious, though still has the downside of requiring you to sleep at an angle towards the side of the plane in order to be able to fully stretch your legs.
On the plus side, one cool new feature is that the center seats in each row can form a double bed, which is nice if you’re traveling with someone.
Singapore’s new A380 Suites look amazing, and there are just six of them in a 1-1 configuration. Unfortunately I found that the design was somewhat style over substance, so parts of it left me disappointed.
Arguably the one major downside of Singapore Airlines’ new Suites is how much capacity is being reduced. While the old Suites cabin had 12 seats, the new cabin has just six seats. As you might expect, this also means that award seats are significantly harder to come by. So I guess that’s good for those of us who managed to recently lock in award seats. 😉
Bottom line
Singapore Airlines will begin flying its A380 with new cabins to New York as of late March 2022, which marks the first time that these planes will be consistently rostered on flights to the United States. This is especially exciting news for those who recently managed to score Suites award seats.
What a lovely way to fly between the United States and Europe on the carrier’s fifth freedom flight…
What do you make of Singapore Airlines flying its new A380s to the United States?
Curious to know how many jetways SA uses to load passengers on the A380-800. I'm only flying Economy out of JFK, but wondering if I should select a seat in the back of the plane, if there's a jetway to the rear.
Often you load the A380 with two jetways, one for the top floor and one for the bottom, but I've never seen them use a third jetway for the rear
I flew the new A380 Suites SYD to SYD pre-pandemic, and was not overly impressed - sadly. Yes, they look “nice” but functionally they lack elements of comfort. I found the recliner chair awkward to adjust and positions to relax and to eat were strange. I was in the first row and the bed, when folded down is on the same wall as the bed in row 2 - so in effect there is just...
I flew the new A380 Suites SYD to SYD pre-pandemic, and was not overly impressed - sadly. Yes, they look “nice” but functionally they lack elements of comfort. I found the recliner chair awkward to adjust and positions to relax and to eat were strange. I was in the first row and the bed, when folded down is on the same wall as the bed in row 2 - so in effect there is just a thin divider between the people sleeping in these rows. I was so embarrassed because evidently I was moving around in bed, not knowing I was disturbing the adjacent passenger - suddenly a knock knock knock came on the divider wall - informing me of this fact! Ugggg! Singapore went overboard with elements of style, but didn’t pay much attention in the usability lab for this product. I prefer they 4 across seating on their 777-300 in First as a result.
currently I'm seeing the seat maps for SIN-FRA-JFK (SQ26) to have 12 suites on SeatGuru. This would be the old J seats right? or is SeatGuru not updated? Thanks for any info!
It's same.. Nothing improved.. But less luxury..
Wow! Each passenger gets his own Portaloo!
Traditionally, how much did JFK to SIN in 1st class suites cost? Everywhere I read says up to 150k, but right now in July the only availability is 237k. Am I missing something?
Found availability for a flight I want. Called to book an award hold so I could transfer my points, waited an hour, and somehow I had been rerouted to commercial booking line. They tried to connect me to redemption line, but came back and said nobody was available, and that they'll call me back in 24-48 hours. Except the whole point of calling was so that the award doesn't get taken in the next 24-48 hours.
GAH!
FWIW if you're transferring from Amex, the transfer is immediate (just log out and log in your KrisFlyer account again). So you should't have to put it on hold.
Gah. Well, it's gone now anyway (At least at saver) Might revert back to original plan (fly to dubai from europe, then try J or F back to LAX)
Its always this way. Any changes are almost impossible to make these days. Try the chatline the moment it opens.
Btw, given this change, if flying inJ, woudl you recommend sin-ewr or sin-fra-jfk?
I saw the old seat map on my reservation before they changed to the new one. TBH I would have been happy either way. Never really looked at the old SQ A380 F cabin and said "That's not good enough, I want the new cabin."
Also was most surprised to find that my AMEX points transferred over immediately; I thought they usually took 2 maybe 3 days?
I'm searching SIN-FRA-JFK (both segments are SQ26) but seeing different seat maps for SIN-FRA than FRA-JFK. Does this mean one segment is old version (SIN-FRA) while the other (FRA-JFK) is the new suites?
No, they use the exact same plane, so probably they didn't load the updated seatmap for one of the segments. I'd keep checking and change your seats to your preference once it's updated.
I should have been more patient because there is no availability in April from FRA-JFK. I already had an open jaw in AA First JFK-CDG. Well I decided to book Emirates First Class MXP-JFK instead with Chase UR points so still pretty excited.
From my search the last couple of days, there's almost no availability at all for FRA-JFK except at the tail end of the calendar, so you probably didn't really miss out. There's plenty of JFK-FRA though (which no one is too interested in since it's a shorter red eye).
@ D3kingg -- I'd say Emirates first class is still a pretty awesome way to fly!
Amazing! There's still availability for 2 people in October/November 2022, just booked 2 seats from FRA to JFK which should make for a fun flight back from Europe. The seat map showed the new suites and I was able to select the double suite. That combined with the 20% Amex bonus transfer to KrisFlyer, worked out for the best!
@ Clem -- What a deal!
...and I just got an email that this transfer made me KrisFlyer Silver, woot!
Are these the same business class seats as on their 787-10s?
@ Trey -- Nope, that's a totally different product.
Given the configuration of the new suites, is there any reason to change seat assignments now? The new suites seem all the same where the old ones had seats without windows.
@ Christian -- There's not a big difference. The only major consideration is that the two seats behind one another in rows one or two can turn into a double bed. Go figure that for the flight I'm booked on, all seats show as taken, and Ford and I ended up in row three. Grrr...
That sucks!! Thanks to you I was able to log in and select row 1/2 for my lady and I. Thanks once again Lucky.
@Ben, I sympathize! I had initially booked 2 center seats for the double suite and they changed us to be on opposite ends of the aircraft 2A & 1F with all other seats taken. I hope either 1A or 2F will be willing to switch.
One other minor difference - it's difficult to look out the window from row 1 during take-off and landing. You have to position the rotating chair facing forward, so you end up facing the wall, with the windows a bit behind you. The giant TV where you can have tail camera view is also behind you at that point (there is a small secondary TV).
If you are in row 2, you can look out...
One other minor difference - it's difficult to look out the window from row 1 during take-off and landing. You have to position the rotating chair facing forward, so you end up facing the wall, with the windows a bit behind you. The giant TV where you can have tail camera view is also behind you at that point (there is a small secondary TV).
If you are in row 2, you can look out the windows and also see the TV screen.
I wonder what their service is going to be on FRA-JFK flight. I've flown SQ26 in old suites once, SIN-FRA had "late supper" service and FRA-JFK had lunch service. No caviar :) JFK-FRA is a shorter red-eye, but it should have the full dinner service.