Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class A350-900ULR Singapore To Newark

Since I had a room at the Crowne Plaza Changi, I only arrived at the airport just under two hours before departure. I reviewed the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge earlier this year, so didn’t even visit it this time around.

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Singapore Airlines departure gate to Newark

My flight was departing from gate A11, and the gate only opened at 11:30PM, 70 minutes before departure. That’s because security is at each individual gate in Terminal 3 at Changi.

Singapore Airlines departure sign for Newark

Sure enough security opened at exactly 11:30PM, and I was among the first through. Then my boarding pass was scanned and passport was checked.

Usually you’d expect the gate area to fill up for a longhaul flight, but given that the plane only has 161 seats, it wasn’t nearly as full as most longhaul gates. I also found it interesting how many people in the gate area were talking about what a special flight this is — it’s clear that word has gotten out about it!

Singapore Airlines departure gate to Newark

While boarding was scheduled for 12:10AM, in reality boarding only started at 12:20AM. I was excited to finally board the world’s longest flight, and a very uniquely configured aircraft!

Singapore Airlines 22
Singapore (SIN) – Newark (EWR)
Monday, October 29
Depart: 12:40AM
Arrive: 6:30AM
Duration: 17hr50min
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900ULR
Seat: 15A (Business Class)

The planes that Singapore Airlines uses on these ultra longhaul flights are specially configured, and don’t even have an economy cabin. So since I was the first passenger onboard, I quickly tried to snap some pictures of all the cabins.

There are a total of 67 business class seats. 23 of those are in the forward cabin, between doors one and two.

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR business class cabin

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR business class cabin

Then the main business class cabin is the one behind that (between doors two and three), and it consists of 44 seats. That’s a massive business class cabin.

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR business class cabin

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR business class cabin

Then at the very back of the plane is the premium economy cabin, which is mostly in a 2-4-2 configuration, with a total of 94 seats featuring 38″ of pitch.

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR premium economy cabin

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR premium economy cabin

While these looked like perfectly nice premium economy seats, I’m still not sure I’d want to sit in them for 18 hours.

Singapore Airlines premium economy seats A350-900ULR

The best premium economy seats were those in the last three rows on each side by the windows. Rather than having sets of two seats, there was only one seat in each row by the windows, and the seats had storage lockers next to them. How cool!

Singapore Airlines premium economy seat A350-900ULR

After a quick tour of the plane, I headed back to my business class seat, 15A. That’s the seat in the second to last row in the forward-most cabin.

While the plane as such is cool-looking, I’m disappointed by the seat that Singapore Airlines chose for these flights. It’s not a bad seat, by any stretch of the imagination, but I wish they would have come up with a new seat for a flight this long, since I don’t love Singapore Airlines’ business class seat.

For their A350-900ULRs, Singapore Airlines installed the same business class seats they have on their 777-300ERs, which aren’t that great — they didn’t even install their new A380 seats, which are marginally better.

Singapore Airlines business class seat A350-900ULR

Singapore Airlines business class seat A350-900ULR

There are pros and cons to this seat. On the plus side, it features tons of storage. That’s something they were really thoughtful about. To the side of the seat is a deep storage pocket where you could store a laptop, headphones, etc. Next to that is the headphone jack, power outlet, and reading light.

Singapore Airlines business class seat storage A350

Then at the front left of the seat is an enclosed storage compartment, where you could place a phone or glasses while sleeping. There’s a shelf beneath that where you can place a drink, but I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen drinks knocked off from that shelf, so…

Singapore Airlines business class seat storage A350

Then to the left and underneath the seat is another storage area, where you could place shoes or even a small bag during the flight.

Singapore Airlines business class seat storage A350

Immediately to the left of the seat is another storage compartment (where the headphones usually go), as well as an entertainment controller.

Singapore Airlines business class seat storage A350

Then to the left of the seat is the area where the tray table could be removed from. This is a pretty substantial tray table, and it’s a bit of a pain to raise and lower. I wish they would have designed it so that it could fold over in half, or something, which would make it a bit easier to use.

Singapore Airlines business class seat tray table

To the right of the seat were all the seat controls.

Singapore Airlines business class seat controls

Now let’s talk about the downside of the seat — the comfort. First of all, the seat itself is incredibly hard. I know some people prefer that, but I don’t. Furthermore, as you can probably tell below, the legroom is limited.

Singapore Airlines business class seat A350-900ULR

If you want to stretch out your legs (whether relaxing or sleeping), the only place you can put them is in a footwell to the left of the seat. On the plus side, the footwell is pretty large, so that’s good, but it’s just not ideal to have to sit and sleep at an angle in order to be comfortable.

Singapore Airlines business class seat footwell

In order to put the seat into bed mode you have to stand up and flip the seat over, but I’ll have more on that in a bit.

The seat didn’t have an individual air nozzle, which is something I generally find frustrating, but I was impressed that the cabin was kept at a cool/comfortable temperature the entire flight.

Singapore Airlines business class overhead console A350

While the bed itself may not be that comfortable, the bedding was exceptional. There were three full sized pillows, plus a comfortable duvet.

Singapore Airlines business class bedding

Also waiting at my seat were headphones. I find Singapore Airlines’ headphones to be pretty low quality, so I always end up using my own Bose headphones.

Singapore Airlines business class headphones

Also waiting at my seat was the menu for the flight.

Singapore Airlines business class menu

Anyway, once settled in the onboard service started. My gosh, I have nothing but great things to say about this crew. I don’t envy having to work a flight this long, but they were exceptionally professional and attentive, and just had that special Singapore Airlines touch.

I was addressed by name throughout the flight, and within a minute of settling in was offered a pre-departure drink, with the choice between water, orange juice, and champagne. A moment later I was offered a warm towel.

Singapore Airlines business class pre-departure champagne and warm towel

I was then brought a bottle of water, eyeshades, socks, and slippers. Singapore Airlines still doesn’t offer traditional amenity kits on these flights, though they do bring around some more amenities after takeoff.

Singapore Airlines business class bottled water and amenities

Singapore Airlines business class amenities

The boarding process was efficient, despite the business class cabin being completely full, and premium economy being mostly full (it’s impressive how well Singapore Airlines has done selling business class on this flight — though premium economy is a different story).

By 12:35AM the cabin doors were closed, and around that time the captain made his welcome onboard announcement. Based on the accent it seemed like the captain was Russian, which I found interesting. I remember a decade ago Singapore Airlines had tons of expat pilots, but nowadays I find that most of their pilots are Singaporeans.

The captain welcomed us aboard “our ultra long range flight of 17hr15min.” He anticipated we’d be pushing back within about 10 minutes, and should be arriving in Newark on schedule.

We pushed back at 12:50AM, at which point the safety video was screened. Then five minutes later we started our taxi, and by 1:05AM we were cleared for takeoff on runway 2L.

As we climbed our I first checked out the flight map for our journey.

Singapore Airlines business class entertainment

While I checked this throughout the flight, the small entertainment controller to the side of the seat also had the basics about our journey, which was useful to reference.

Progress to Newark

I then checked out Singapore Airlines’ entertainment selection, which is endless. After Emirates’ ICE system, I consider it to be the best inflight entertainment in the sky.

Singapore Airlines business class entertainment

Singapore Airlines business class entertainment

Singapore Airlines business class entertainment

Singapore Airlines business class entertainment

Singapore Airlines also offers Wi-Fi on the A350-900ULR. Business class passengers get 30MB of free Wi-Fi. They don’t hand out vouchers or anything, but rather you have to know to look for it. You simply enter your last name and seat number, and you’ll automatically be connected for your free session.

Singapore Airlines business class complimentary Wi-Fi

Beyond that the pricing is as follows:

• You can buy 20MB of data for $6
• You can buy 80MB of data for $16
• You can buy 200MB of data for $28

Singapore Airlines A350 Wi-Fi pricing

On the plus side, the Wi-Fi was reasonably fast. I ended up working most of the flight, so in addition to my 30MB of free data, I ended up buying four packages, meaning I spent $112 on Wi-Fi.

On one hand that’s really expensive, and I wish they’d just offer a single plan available for the entire flight. At the same time, I guess $112 isn’t that bad of a price to pay for up to 17 hours of productivity.

Do note that the Wi-Fi cuts out for around 2-3 hours during the middle of the flight (around the second meal service).

After takeoff the cabin lights were turned up in anticipation of the first service.

Singapore A350 cabin after takeoff

25 minutes after takeoff I was asked what I wanted to eat and drink, and then 30 minutes after takeoff I was presented with some amenities. Singapore Airlines doesn’t have traditional amenity kits on this flight, but rather they have a basket out of which you can pick amenities, and then a pouch you can place them in. I asked for one of everything.

Singapore business class amenities

After that the meal service began. The menu for the entire flight read as follows (you can see this post for why I think the meal service on this flight is rather illogical):

The wine list read as follows:

The rest of the drink list read as follows:

About 45 minutes after takeoff I was served my drink of choice (champagne, which was Charles Heidsieck Brut), along with packaged almonds and cashews.

Singapore Airlines business class meal service — champagne and nuts

Personally I would have thought the biggest meals on this flight would have been those served after takeoff and before landing, but that wasn’t the case. Instead the after takeoff meal was served on a single tray.

For the main I selected steamed lobster dumplings in superior sauce with Chinese greens and flower mushrooms. This was served with a side of fruit and a selection of bread. The dumplings were really good, though I was still sort of hungry (in fairness, I hadn’t eaten all day, as I was sleeping for most of it).

Singapore Airlines business class meal service — steamed lobster dumplings in superior soup

Singapore Airlines business class meal service — bread selection

After the meal I decided to stay up for a bit working, and then about 90 minutes after takeoff the cabin lights were dimmed. I decided to sleep about two hours after takeoff. I couldn’t figure out how to fold my seat over to turn it into bed mode (I know how it’s supposed to work, but my seat was really stubborn, and I didn’t want to break anything), so I asked a flight attendant, who gladly helped.

Singapore Airlines business class bed

While the sleeping surface is large, the only place you can put your feet is in the far corner, unless you bend your knees a lot.

Singapore Airlines business class bed

I was pretty tired at this point so managed to sleep, but I found the sleeping surface to be really hard. I get that different people have different preferences, but I really wish they’d offer some sort of an additional mattress pad for those who prefer that.

I fell asleep with about 15hr15min remaining to Newark, and woke up just two hours later, with 13hr15min remaining. I was wide awake. Ugh.

Progress enroute to Newark

It’s not often you take a flight where you have a meal and a nap, and you still have over 13 hours remaining. Since I realized I couldn’t go back to sleep, I decided to order a coffee and get some work done. I was also offered some cookies to go along with it.

Singapore Airlines business class coffee & cookies

As I said at the beginning, the crew was just fabulous. They were so friendly and hardworking and attentive, even in the middle of the night.

For those wondering how their breaks on this flight work, the crew splits into two shifts between meals — all crew get three hours of rest between the first and second meal (meaning everyone rests for three of six hours), and then they get two hours of rest between the second and third meal (meaning everyone rests for two of four hours).

At this point I also checked out the lavatories on the plane. Here’s something interesting. All the business class lavatories are located behind the first business class cabin and behind the second business class cabin (the ones at the front of the cabin are reserved for the crew).

This means that the forward cabin is really quiet throughout the flight, since there’s no foot traffic. The bathrooms themselves were fine — they were spotless, as the crew took great care of them, though they weren’t very large.

Singapore A350-900ULR business class lavatory

I worked for a few hours, and then we were just over 10 hours from Newark, and we were already past Japan. Ugh this is a long flight!! I think what was actually toughest was the light deprivation, since the cabin was kept dark the entire flight.

Progress enroute to Newark

Progress enroute to Newark

I worked a bit more, and then about 8hr40min into the flight, the next meal service began. While the meal is marketed as being on demand, in reality this consists of a satay service, and they do roll carts down the aisle and turn up the lights, so just about everyone eats at the same time.

Service began with juice, with the choice between cranberry, apple, tomato, or orange juice.

Singapore Airlines business class meal — orange juice

Next up a cart was rolled down the aisle with satay — yum!

Singapore Airlines business class meal — satay

Next up was the starter, which consisted of a salad of crab with witlof, frisee, and mache.

Singapore Airlines business class meal — salad of crab

The main courses mostly didn’t appeal to me, so in retrospect I should have used Singapore Airlines’ “Book the Cook” feature to order something I really wanted. I ended up ordering the Singapore chicken rice with fragrant poached chicken with pandan flavored rice, grated ginger, soya and chilli sauce. It was just alright.

Singapore Airlines business class meal — Singapore chicken rice

Then there was a choice of three desserts, including mango cheesecake with ginger cookie crumb, French apple frangipane tart with whipped ricotta cheese, and petite patisserie. I couldn’t decide which to have, so the flight attendant taking care of me insisted I try all of them. Hah.

Singapore Airlines business class meal — dessert selection

I was hoping to sleep a bit after the meal, so I ordered a cup of chamomile tea.

Singapore Airlines business class meal — tea selection

By the time the meal service was done we were just over six hours from arriving in New York, flying over Alaska.

Progress enroute to Newark

Progress enroute to Newark

Progress enroute to Newark

For whatever reason I just couldn’t sleep, so I then decided to watch a few TV shows. I finally managed to fall asleep about 3.5 hours before landing, and then woke up about two hours before landing, as the cabin lights were turned on for the pre-landing meal service (which was technically on demand).

The breakfast options on the menu are extremely limited, which I find odd, given that most people on the flight are having three meals.

For breakfast I had the parsley cheese omelet with chicken sausage, tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and gratin potatoes, the greek yogurt and granola parfait, agave lemonade, and a cappuccino. The breakfast was pretty good, though again, I was surprised by the lack of options.

Singapore Airlines business class breakfast — omelet & yogurt parfait

Once breakfast was complete, at 5:40AM New York time, the captain announced we’d soon be starting our descent, and that we should be landing at 6:40AM. We were then over Northern New York.

Progress enroute to Newark

Progress enroute to Newark

I guess we managed to get some shortcuts, because we ended up landing at 6:20AM, and were at the gate five minutes later.

Progress enroute to Newark

While the flight was perfectly pleasant, it was so nice to be off the plane upon arrival at Newark.

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR upon arrival at Newark

I passed through immigration quickly, and then got in an Uber to JFK, as I was taking the Kenya Airways inaugural flight from New York to Nairobi the same day, which I’ll be covering in the next trip report.

Singapore A350-900ULR business class bottom line

Let me start with the point on which I have nothing but good things to say. The crew was phenomenal, and they worked so hard. When you get a good crew on Singapore Airlines, they’re the best out there.

Other than that, I can’t say I loved the flight. It’s not that any one thing was wrong, but rather just that this is a really long flight, and things aren’t necessarily perfect:

• Being in darkness without a single window open for about 18 hours is really tough, regardless of whether you want to be awake or sleep; there’s serious light deprivation
• Singapore Airlines’ business class seats aren’t great, and the beds are really hard
• While the food was pretty good, I thought the actual process with which it was served was illogical
• The Wi-Fi was fast (which is great), though also not cheap
• The plane doesn’t have any sort of amenities or areas you can stretch your legs, so you really have no choice but to sit for virtually the entire flight

Being able to fly nonstop from Singapore to Newark is of course incredibly convenient, as I explained in a previous post. However, this is a really long flight, and I think there are still some kinks that Singapore Airlines should work out.

So I’d recommend the flight for the novelty, but I’m not dying to take this flight again… at all.