To kick off our holiday in Thailand, my husband and I flew from New York-JFK to Bangkok via Singapore with Singapore Airlines. While we had flown Singapore Airlines before, most recently on the return leg from our vacation in Europe in business class, this time we flew premium economy in what is probably the cheapest ‘premium’ way to fly to Southeast Asia. While I previously I gave a quick look of what this was like (and some early vacation pics), here I will provide a full review of this flight experience.

Briefly, it was a pleasant way to fly. The seats are a step up from economy, and so is the food. Singapore Airlines’ service is friendly, though I didn’t like the ‘en masse’ vibe of it sometimes (‘please, can everybody extend their tray tables!’). I never experience this before on any airline and found it rather odd. Still, it was made up for with a generosity that is hard to beat. Overall, I’d be happy to fly this way to Southeast Asia again.

1. Introduction
   1. The key to this trick: the plane has no economy cabin
2. Singapore Airlines Premium Economy Seating
3. Departure from New York-JFK
4. Singapore Airlines Premium Economy Amenity Kit
5. Premium Economy Dinner Service
6. The In-between: Sleeping, Breakfast and Movies
7. Onboard Wifi
8. Breakfast service
9. The in-between 2: more movies
10. Arrival in Singapore
11. A note on the service
12. Summary

Introduction

How come we didn’t use points to buy business class tickets this time around? Well, there is a fairly cheap way to fly to Southeast Asia in premium economy. It’s not the lie flat seats you’ll get in business class, but it should be a comfortable flight at a lower price than you’d get with other airlines for comparable experiences. I’m talking about Singapore Airlines’ premium economy on their direct flight from New York-JFK to Singapore.

We ended up spending about $1400 per person on the return flight, departing New York-JFK and flying to Bangkok BKK with a 3-hour layover in Singapore (SIN). This was doubly exciting, as it was both my first time flying Singapore Airlines premium economy, and my first time transiting at Singapore’ Changi International Airport, which has won ‘best airport in the world’ year after year.

The key to this trick: the plane has no economy cabin

How come premium economy is so cheap on the direct flight from JFK to SIN? It has to do with the plane serving this route is in an ‘ultra premium’ configuration. Instead of the usual 3-class (or 4-class, if first class is offered) configuration, economy is lacking and both the business and premium economy cabins are about twice as large as they would normally be, as you can see on the below seatmap. This configuration is specific to Singapore Airlines’ A350-900ULR (which stands for ‘ultra long range’), which are deployed on these ultra-long flights (JFK-SIN is about 19 hours)

The lack of an economy cabin takes out the cheapest fare class that would normally be offered on Singapore Airlines, which brings down the price of premium economy. Interestingly, if you look at Singapore Airlines’ 777-operated flight (which feature economy) that make a stop in Frankfurt FRA on their way from SIN to JFK, you’ll see the usual price: premium economy on those flights can easily close in on the $2000 mark for a return flight. This is also about standard for Asian carriers on flights from the US to (south)east Asia.

Note: it’s not just the JFK-SIN-BKK route that offers these lower prices! I have seen this $1300-1500 price range to other destinations in southeast Asia, including destinations in Malaysia and Vietnam for example. If you want to fly a little further, e.g. Hong Kong, unfortunately prices start to become more similar to the competition, sio there’s not much of an advantage there.

Singapore Airlines Premium Economy Seating

Our flight at New York-JFK lef from gate A5 this evening. Singapore Airlines doesn’t grant any sort of lounge access for its premium economy passengers, so we got onto the wait list of the Chase Sapphire Lounge, since it also accepts priority pass, with some restrictions. To our surprise, it didn’t seem like Chase Sapphire card holders necessarily get any kind of priority over priority pass holders, since that takes away what I think of as a major reason to get the Chase Sapphire credit card.

The wait time was quoted to us as being at least 45 minutes long and we were hungry, so we decided to simply go to a restaurant. We happened to have a great view of our plane from that restaurant, see below. By the time we were done, we were called for the Sapphire lounge, so we had a bit more food there until it was time to board our flight.

Boarding proceeded in groups, and since there is no economy, there were only a total of 4 groups, I believe. First class was called fist, then a massive line of business class passengers (half this aircraft is business class), and then premium economy passengers were invited onboard.

We had selected seats 33A and C, which are toward the front of the premium economy cabin, on the left side of the plane. Upon arrival at our seats, blankets, pillow, bottles of water and headphones had already been provided.

Initial impression of the seat was good. It’s certainly more spacious and better padded than the economy seats. One the seat were a substantial, thick pillow and a soft blanket, and premium noise-canceling headphones were in the seta pocket in front. In-between the seats is a broad armrest, with at the front edge cup holders.

The recline of the seat is a nice compromise between standard recline seats and fixed shell-type seats, where the seat mostly slides forward. The seats appear to slide forward while also extending just a few centimeters into your space. I liked this, because as the person in front of you reclines, their seat for the most part does not impact your space, while still providing you sufficient legroom when you do recline your own seat. You can also adjust the pitch of the entertainment screen to match the recline of the seat in front of you, which is a useful feature.

To the back and in-between the seats are adjustable reading lights. A button on the light cycles through three illumination settings with increasing brightness, and then below the lights are special plugs for the headphones as well as USB-A ports for charging equipment. I will say that this is an odd location for such a port, since there is no convenient location to lay down your device while it is charging.

Then in-between your seats at the very bottom close to where your feet are are two universal power plugs, and in-between the seats in front of you is something of a cubby with bottles of water.

If we now look at the inside faces of your armrests, the armest on the left has two buttons to control the recline (top) and the leg support (bottom). That leg support I thought was borderline usefulness, by the way, as it really didn’t support my legs at all, bot even when fully reclined. Perhaps it’s designed for very short people?

On the right side, there is a controller with buttons to control some basic entertainment system features, such as the volume, but also to turn on the overhead light and call the flight attendant. You can remove this from its slot so you can work with it more comfortably.

There is foot rest that can be folded down from the seta in front, but I felt that this, too, was not too useful and seemed to be designed, again, for shorter people than me (and I’m 5’10). My feet would slide off and my knees would remain uncomfortably high and not in a particularly relaxed position. I usually preferred not to use it and stretch out my legs all the way, which was perfectly possible thanks to the sufficient clearance between the floor and the bottom of the seat in front.

Unfortunately there were no individual air nozzles, so you’re a bit at the mercy of the flight attendants. Fortunately I found that the cabin was kept relatively cold during the flight.

The tray tables comes out from the middle arm rests. So if you’re on the left the tables comes from the right, and vice versa. You open the arm rest, then pull out the tray table vertically and flap it down flat in front of you. You can adjust the position by sliding it front or back. The tray table is quite substantial and I found it of a good size to hold the fairly large tray of food that was brought out to me after takeoff.

I had mentioned these already, but the amenities available at the seat were a substantial pillow, a soft blanket and noise-canceling headphones. These are the same headphones that are provided in Singapore Airlines business class.

Overall this is a pleasant seat. It was plenty roomy for me, was well-padded and comfortable to sit in, even for a substantial length of time such as on this 19-hour flight. I appreciated the large and crisp entertainment screen and especially liked the way the seat found a happy medium between a standard backward recline and sliding forward, to ensure a generous recline without the seat going too far into the space of the person behind you.

Departure from New York-JFK

Singapore Airlines does a rather good job with boarding, and I was surpised at the pace at which boarding was completed. Although boarding was scheduled to start about 50 minutes in advance, in about 30 minutes all passengers seemed to be seated. That may be in part due to the premium configuration of the plane, which means less seats and less people to board. In the remaining time, flight attendants came by firts to provide hot (piping hot!) towels, which were nice freshen up a bit.

Next, they came by to confirm meal orders. My husband and I had both used the ‘Book the Cook’ meal selection option. Singapore Airlines provides this on select flights, and allows you to pick from a substantial menu that includes special picks that you’d otherwise not be able to get if you’d rely solely on what’s available on the plane.

We finally left pretty much on time, and enjoyed. 15-minute or so taxi. We were number two for takeoff, but didn’t wait long before we turned onto the runway, and then rumbled into the dark night. Taking off we turned right and flew away from New York in an easterly direction towards Europe, the middle East, India and then Singapore.

Singapore Airlines Premium Economy Amenity Kit

At Singapore Airlines you need to specifically request an amenity kit, as it is usually not proactively provided. Truthfully, the flight attendant on my business class flight earlier this year did provide it to me proactively after she saw me take pictures of the seat, but I was pretty much the only one that received that service.

In premium economy it’s no different, and I noticed that only those people that had requested an amenity kit, received one. We asked ours a little later during the flight, and were brought one each. As you can see, it’s looking a little crumpled: it turns out the puch is made of a thick paper, which is not so nice. The contents includes a very nice eye mask, softly padded; lip balm; and slippers. The later are a little flimsy and didn’t really fit my feet, but they were nice to have regardless.

Premium Economy Dinner Service

Dinner service started about 45 minutes after takeoff. However, already upon boarding menus were available in the seat pocket, see below for some photo from the contents. Note it contains both menus for the SIN-JFK and JFK-SIN legs, but I’m only showing JFK-SIN here. The menu includes the food loaded onto the plane, so the food that I pre-selected isn’t actually mentioned here. But, it does show the appetizers and desserts, which are the same for everybody regardless of the main dish that you pre-select.

Before the meals were brought out, the flight attendants passed by and asked everybody to bring out their tray tables. I can see why they’d do this, as it’s easier and more efficient for them to be able to plop down the trays with food if the tables are extended. That said, I thought the way this was done was rather off-putting, as the ‘bring out your tray tables please!’ felt rather forceful. Definitely a different experience from the courteous and generous professionalism I got to experience in business class.

The menu also includes a drinks list, and I was happy to see that champagne is poured in premium economy. Currently being poured is Charles de Cazanove Brut Tradition NV, which was quite tasty and seems to retail for $25-30.

45 minutes after takeoff the first meals started being distributed. First all preselected an special meals are brought out, and then carts come by to serve those that didn’t preselect. It seemed to me that 90% of passengers had preselected a meal, which surprised me: I thought only a minority would know about, or be bothered to, preselect their meals.

My meal came out about an hour after takeoff, and I had pre-selected the beef stew with mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. The appetizer was a tuna poke bowl and the dessert a pineapple cake.

I gotta say, the food was quite delicious! The tuna poke was fresh and good quality, and I loved the beef. it was tender and moist, with a great taste. Unfortunately some of the vegetables were oly so-so, particularly the broccoli. thankfully the pineapple cake dessert was also delicious. Overall I much enjoyed this meal. The portion size was very good and I felt full and satiated at the end. Singapore Airlines certainly delivered on this meal!

The In-between: Sleeping, Breakfast and Movies

By the time the meal ended I was starting to get very sleepy. I had started watching some Chinese film but stopped soon after because I could not make heads or tails of it, and started watching something an entertaining Christmas movie: Red One. Unfortunately at the end of dinner, but before the tray was even cleared, I got super tired and ended up falling asleep.

I do remember waking up a few hours later and realizing the the tray had been cleared and the lights turned down, so I took the opportunity to recline my seat to the fullest extent and get a little bit more comfortable. I then fell asleep again, and must have stayed asleep for a few more hours.

I finally woke up having slept 6 or 7 hours, and still having another 11 or so hours to go before arriving at our destination. This is when I simply started watching movies for a hile. I won’t go into much detail here because the interface and selection is about what it was on my flight earlier this year. Meaning it’s a pretty good selection with plenty of global movie and TV options, so you should be able to remain entertained. That said, also don’t expect there to be hundreds of options – it’s just a decent selection.

Onboard Wifi

After waking up, I decided to go online for a bit and work a bit on some posts for Points to Seats. These days, if you’re a KrisWorld member (Singapore Airlines’ loyalty program), you can login to redeem a full-flight Wifi voucher. You log into your account through the Wifi portal on any device that connects to Wifi, and you generate a voucher after filling in the required fields. The code is generated, you copy this, and immediately redeem it. After you do so, you should get a message that you’re online. This connection can then be moved between devices.

So how’s the Wifi? I thought it was decent, though the issue is that the flight does fly over numerous regions where there is poor or no Wifi. Two such areas are parts of the Middle East, such as Afghanistan, and then India. Unfortunately after India the Wifi never really got much better for me so I predominantly worked before we even reached the Middle East and mostly gave up on it later during the flight.

Breakfast service

An hour or so after waking up breakfast was served. Here, too, my husband and I had pre-selected our meals, and here we had selected the congee. This came with a fruit salad and a croissant. I thought the congee was very tasty. Mixing in the meat and vegetables and adding some pepper made it pretty good indeed, and I much enjoyed this hot and comforting breakfast. I also appreciated the fresh fruits, which were pretty sweet, though the croissant was just decent. Overall though, a solid breakfast that certainly holds its own in comparison to the business class variant – just not served or presented as nicely.

The in-between 2: more movies

As breakfast ended, I think we were somewhere over Afghanistan. As the plane flew onward, one cool thing I realized is that I’d never actually flown east of Israel, or west of Thailand before. So as I stared out the window and looked down on India, I came to the cool realization that this was the first time in my life I got to see India!

The rest of the flight was quite uneventful. As you may have seen in the menu, there is a ‘delectables’ menu, which is basically a snack buffet in the back galley of the cabin. Here you will find two trays of food and a tray of drinks. You can come here during most of the flight and grab some snacks or drinks, which I think is a great service.

I found the flight attendants to be very generous, and actively suggest particular snacks or offer drinks. I came back here to grab some chips, and was immediately offers popcorn and a sandwich, as well as a glass of water.

So the flight continued. Truthfully, the last 3 hours started to get rather boring, so I started watching another movie. About an hour and a half before landing, though, a final meal service was conducted. This was listed as a ‘refreshment’ on the menu, but in reality was just a pizza margherita. It was tasty, but I wasn’t so sure about the choice of food for a ‘refreshment’ right before landing.

Arrival in Singapore

Singapore Airlines tends to ready the cabin early, with flight attendants sitting down as soon as 30-40 minutes before landing. The approach and landing was beautiful though: we made an approach from the east, flying along Changi Airport to its south, then turning around and landing from the west, which provided a fantastic view of the morning skyline, given that the local time was about 6am in Singapore.

This was another first as it was literally the first time I got to see Singapore! Although the picture doesn’t quite do the moment justice, I was quite excited to see the skyline with the famous hotels and ferris wheel right in front of me as the plane sailed down to the runway and touched down after completing what is the longest flight in the world.

A note on the service

If you read my review on Singapore Airlines business class, you would have seen that I was particularly impressed with the service on the flight, which was essentially impeccable. I even labeled it ‘the best service in the sky’ and ‘the way to cross the Atlantic’. So I was aexcited to see how this service would carry over to premium economy.

I thought the flight attendants were generally still friendly and in some ways generous, courteous, professional, and helpful. Particularly when approaching the ‘delectables’ snack buffet in the aft galley, I was always treated with great generosity and was offered whatever I wanted.

However, I also felt that the service standard in premium economy was a noticeable step down from business class, and this frankly surprised me. Let me be clear: of course they have a lot more work to do in premium economy compared to business class, but you can still be friendly and pleasant while providing a less personalized service flow. Unfortunately I felt that flight attendants seemed to have a bit of an attitude, which is not the same as simply being a little more rushed and sacrificing attentiveness in the process.

That said, most interactions were perfectly fine, but I also wouldn’t say that Singapore airlines is particularly better than other airlines in (premium) economy.

Summary

So there you have it: the longest flight in the world. How is it to sit for that long in a plane? Because we were able to fly premium economy for a bargain compared to other airlines, we decided to give it a try. While I started getting bored in the last three hours or so, I thought it was a perfectly fine and quite pleasant flight. The premium economy seats are noticeably wider and better-padded than economy seats, and I appreciate how the seats have a happy medium between traditional reclining and fixed-shell slide-forward reclining seats. In all settings I thought the seats were comfortable. I also very much enjoyed the food, and for all meals both my husband and myself made use of Singapore airlines ‘Boom the Cook’ feature, which allows preselection of main dishes from a variety of options. While the service wasn’t as good as it had been in business class, it was still a pleasant experience, though I also didn’t think it was much better than other airlines in this service class.

Ultimately, I’d personally be quite willing to take this flight again, especially at this price point. However, my husband thought it was too long and boring, so will we actually take this flight again? Not so sure…