My return to North America was on Singapore Airlines Business Class on their newest Airbus 350-900. Much like my flight into Singapore, the flight had many highs and lows. The highs included a great food and beverage list, world class service and great entertainment. Whereas, the low points included a very cumbersome and dated seat, along with ergonomics that were just simply challenging and puzzling.

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This post is one chapter on a trip with my 82 yr old mom from Canada to Singapore. For informaton on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Singapore Airlines Business Class A350-900, Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Terminal – Singapore Changi International Airport 

“Singapore Airlines Business Class delivers hallmark terrific service, an engaging wine list with great ground amenities in Singapore Changi International Airport. “

Through some dedicated research, I was able to get to business class saver reward seats through Air Canada’s Aeroplan program. I booked Singapore Airlines Business Class San Francisco – Singapore returning on Singapore Airlines Business Class Singapore Los Angeles for even less than Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer’s own frequent flier program offered this ticket.

This review marks the second leg of our Singapore Airlines flight segments.

Checking Into Singapore Airlines:

I travelled from the family house up to Singapore Changi Airport. It was a bright sunny afternoon as we headed to Changi International Airport.

We arrived to the Singapore Airlines First and Business Class Check in Row 6 at Changi International Airport. There was no wait this afternoon. We were promptly served by the first available agent.

Singapore Airlines uses the “piece” concept for checked baggage to Canada and the United States. Singapore Airlines offers a 32kg baggage allowance of two bags, with an extra piece if you are a Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer Gold or Silver / Star Alliance Gold Member, or two extra pieces if you are a Singapore Airlines PPS Club Member. Our checked bags were tagged through without any challenges and promptly sent on their way.

The Lounge: Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Lounge

After passing through immigration, we headed to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Lounge in Terminal Three. There is quite a bit to this lounge and I’ll invite you to read the separate review for more detail.

The Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge is located to the left on the secure side of the concourse, and is located up one level through the escalators.

The Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge represents the best business class lounge Singapore Airlines has to offer throughout it’s three terminals at Singapore Changi International Airport. Access was provided on a complimentary basis courtesy of our departing Singapore Airlines Business Class ticket.

The Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge offers a wide variety of seating and food available. It’s well worth a visit prior to any Singapore Airlines departing international flight.

Boarding Singapore Airlines:

After enjoying the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge, we had a twenty minute walk to our departing gate of B9. We ended up leaving the lounge at 7:40 PM for a posted boarding time of 8:10 PM.

Singapore Changi International Airport is a little unusual in that they complete security screening checks right at the gate. We had a short line, which was not separated by class, at the gate.

Once we got to the secure side hold room, I collected my secure duty free. We didn’t have too long a wait before boarding was announced. There were a few children running around burning off steam prior to the long international flight, which was quite entertaining.

When boarding was announced, we had a combined priority boarding announcement consisting of all groups, including Singapore Airlines PPS Solitaire, PPS Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold, Business Class all at once.

Singapore Airlines
Business Class
SIN – LAX (Singapore Changi Airport Terminal Three – Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Terminal)
SQ 38 – Business Class (I) 
8:45 PM – 9:40 PM
June 12, 2024
Booked: Airbus 350-900
Flown: Airbus 350-900

On Board Singapore Airlines Business Class:

Singapore Airlines Business Class offers a proprietary seat that is exclusive to Singapore Airlines. Despite this Airbnus 350-900 entering service in the year 2019, Singapore Airlines opted to install a business class seat that has been around since July 2013. The seat configuration is a bit dated. This easily shows after you spend fifteen hours seated in the product. It especially pales in comparison when you compare it to new products like Qatar Airways Q – Suites Business Class, which offer a more intuitive and passenger centric experience.

The Singapore Airlines Business Class cabin is set up in a 1–2–1 configuration, split across two cabins of business class. I had assigned ourselves seats 14 A and 15 A on the left hand and shady window side of the aircraft. We self led ourselves to our assigned seats.

The beige and dark brown hues of the Singapore Airlines Business Class cabin, together with other calming hues go well together and create a superb first impression. According to Singapore Airlines, the seat has an expensive appearance since it is handcrafted from Scottish leather with diamond stitching.

The Singapore Airlines Business Class seat offers a reasonable amount of privacy compared to reverse herringbone business class seats. However, it doesn’t offer anywhere near the same amount of privacy as configurations with a private door such as British Airways Club Suites or Qatar Airways Q Suites.

The Singapore Airlines Business Class cabin lends more towards the functional side, as opposed to being aspirational. The dark brown colours are subdued, in contrast to some middle eastern carriers like Emirates and Qatar that “bling out” their cabins. The Singapore Airlines cabin speaks understated opulence, versus over the top

Sinking into the seat itself, a traveller is surrounded by a high wall space. The space offers several storage compartments. I found the space to be a little “tall” for my liking, and would have preferred a more open environment.

The seat controls were through a number of icon buttons on the console. Most of these looked a little challenging to figure out; or at least to the point where I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time figuring out how to make this work.

The seat offered Empower in seat power, along with USB – C charging. However, in showing the age of this seat, there was no where to actually store the computers, laptops and smart phones while they were charging, other than perhaps on your lap or on the thin magazine storage next to the charger. Many current in seat power configurations offer a convenient place to store your devices while they are being charged.

The forward console offered a small storage compartment with a sliding door. The storage space was for small items only, as the set up of the door led items to fall out. There was also a small shelf, which was intended to be a drink cupholder. The shelf didn’t have much stability and was located in a place where you had to “reach” for it.

The foot well of the Singapore Airlines Business Class seat was among one of the oddest features of the seat. The footwell is off centre and tucked into the corner of the seat. For seats on the left, the footwell is left oriented, versus seats on the right, the footwell is right oriented.

If you are a side sleeper, this didn’t bother me all to much but it was slightly odd for general relaxing.

Overall, the Singapore Airlines Business Class seat is showing a little age. While it offers much of what you’d expect from a business class seat, there are some conveniences that are starting to appear a little dated. The lack of space to charge electronic devices, the drinks’ holder that requires a long reach, and the off set foot stool are all minor design flaws in the seat that take away from general seat comfort. Despite this, the Singapore Airlines fully flat business class seat still remains mostly comfortable and a solid business class product to fly long distances in.

Pre Departure Beverage Services:

As the cabin settled in, the flight attendants came around with pre-departure beverages. Today’s choices were water, orange juice, guava juice mixed with champagne and champagne.

I ended up mixing it up a little bit and going with guava juice mixed with champagne. Since this was my last few hours of experiencing a tropical climate, I decided to try something a little fruity.

While I was enjoying the pre-departure beverage, our dedicated flight attendent “Rachel” came around to introduce herself. Our flight attendent indicated we had a flight time of approximately fourteen hours and forty five minutes. Rachel also confirmed my book the cook meal selections.

I also took the opportunity to check in on my mom. Mom seemed quite peaceful in her seat as a travelling 82 yr old. Flight attendant Rachel was kind enough to snap a quick photograph for the memory books, prior to take off.

During this time period, we also had a captain’s announcement from First Officer Fong, along with an introduction of the in flight service manager “Dave”. The First Officer announced that we were expecting a mostly smooth flight. There was also a courtesy reminder familiar on many flights to the United States of reminding passengers not to congregate near the lavatories.

The Amenity Kit: Penhaligon’s of London

Singapore Airlines typically stocks most business class amenities in the business class bathrooms. Recently, Singapore Airlines has started experimenting with amenity kits, which are available on request for flights over six hours in length.

During the initial flight attendant introduction, I requested an amenity kit which was promptly delivered. Singapore Airlines is presently partnered with Penhaligon’s of London who have a number of royal warrants for toiletries for the British household.

The Pehaligon’s amenity kits contained lip balm, facial mist and some hand lotion. The kit itself was rather small in size. However, it’s always useful to have a little lip balm available for travel.

The In Flight Entertainment System:

The Singapore Airlines Kris World in-flight entertainment was quite robust. Although I didn’t feature as many movies as emirates, it featured a substantial amount of films as you might expect from a predominantly long-haul carrier.

The audio was provided through a noise cancelling headphone, that was of reasonable quality.

Navigation of the entertainment system was, rather irritatingly, through a wired remote situated in the side console of the seat. Unfortunately the screen was not a touch screen, which made navigation slightly more complicated. The seat really starts to show its age through the lack of a touchscreen, which has become the predominant navigation interface with everything from tablets to entertainment screens.

The flight also featured a next generation flight map that included three-dimensional flight movements, a forecast of our estimated rude and 360° displays. Unfortunately the plane was not equipped with tail cameras, which was a feature that was missing from other like aircrafts in this category.

In one of the more modern features of the Singapore Airlines business class is that Singapore Airlines now grants all business class travellers complementary access to the Internet.

Connecting to the internet required providing your surname and seat number in order to connect. There was no limit on data useage, but I did fin the internet connection to be quite spotty and not as reliable as you might have hoped. If you have something important to send, make sure you do it before you actually get on board.

Departing Singapore:

During our taxi out towards the runway, we had the inflight safety video. The Singapore Airlines featured Singapore Airlines sarong attired flight attendants featured around exotic locations around the world.

We had a dark departure leaving the island city of Singapore. With efficient Singapore style, we were underway approximately five minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time.

Our track for departure was on a southern direction over the water, with an eventual turn northbound over the Indonesian islands.

The First Meal: Dinner

Our flight departure was shortly before 9 PM, which meant that dinner was served fairly promptly.

In addition to the printed menus that can be seen below, Singapore Airlines offers a digital menu that is available on their website about two weeks before your flight.

Singapore Airlines pairs with several regional celebrity chefs, in addition to featuring a pre-order “Book the Cook” option. The chefs are focused on the Pacific Rim area, and I didn’t happen to know of any of them prior to travelling on this flight.

While I initially went for an off menu “Book the Cook” option, I ended confirming an order of Braised Chicken in Tomato – Saffron Sauce with medly vegetables and potatoes from the original menu for the celebrity chef Matt Moran of Aria Sydney.

The menu offered in flight refreshments, along with snacks for those that were looking for something a little lighter.

The second service offered a light lunch, which was served around supper time in the arriving Pacific Time zone.

Singapore Airlines puts a substantial amount of effort into its wine program and tastes hundreds of wines at altitude. The wine list sparkles and is among the better business class wine lists in the world.

In addition to an outstanding wine list, there were a number of cocktails and apéritifs available.

There were also upscale Illy coffees and TWG teas.

The back of the printed menu offered a hint that the amenity kits were available on request. You would miss out on it if you weren’t paying attention.

I ended up starting off the dinner meal service with a Piper Heidsieck champagne. This was delivered and placed on the oddly shaped console table, featuring the drink that you had to “reach for”.

The signature Singapore Airlines Chicken Satay with onion, cucumber and spicy peanut sauce was presented as a Canapé. In a strange service execution, this was presented prior to the usual white table cloth being set down for dinner service. I enjoyed the satay, but it did not have the fresh tasting hawker stall grill taste for it.

After the satay was served, the white table cloth was placed down, representing the full start to meal service. Next up on the menu was the appetizer, Smoked Chicken Salad with Roasted Apples. I found this course to be quite tasty and enjoyable, with the smoke adding a unique flavour profile to the chicken.

For the main course, I went with a “Book the Cook” confirmed dish exclusively created by Matt Moran of Aria Restaurant, Sydney. I had high hopes for the Braised Chicken in Tomato-Saffron Sauce with medley vegetable and potatoes.

Unfortunately, I didn’t care much for this particular dish. I ended up finding it a little bland despite the accompaniments. Unusually, I didn’t end up finishing this particular dish.

I ended the dinner service with Honey Semolina Cake, an indulgent honey-sweetened semolina cake with coconut yogurt and ginger-poached pear. Despite the elegant title, it was also quite simple in taste.

Much like my inbound flight on Singapore Airlines, the portion size was about 60% of what I’d expect a normal portion size to be. While the portions were a little bit smaller, this would normally allow travellers to experience more different taste and flavours. However, the meal wasn’t all that exciting this time around.

The Singapore Airlines Bed:

Shortly after dinner, I requested the seat get made up into a bed.

Singapore Airlines has an unusual seat configuration in the fact that the seat folds forward from the top headrest towards the base. This is opposite from most other business class seats that just recline straight back.

This unusual requirement of being reliant on a flight attendant is a bit inconvenient in my humble opinion. In my case, I’d rather just drop off to sleep undisturbed rather than chase cabin crew to set up beds.

The bedding consists of a gray sheet, plush blanket and two pillows. While there is no specific sleeper set, the bedding is pretty comfortable.

Somewhere between the less than inspiring meal, some mild turbulence and perhaps the lounge food, I felt a little sick. Unusually so, I ended up getting sick in the bathroom. After that, I ended up turning in for a solid nine hours of sleep.

I ended up waking up about three hours before arrival in Los Angeles to the sound of an Indian Traver seated behind me watching videos on his smart phone with the volume on. The volume was loud enough that it woke me up over top of the engine noise. I think cabin staff must have had a word with him because it stopped after a while when I was still in the groggy waking up mode.

After waking up (or getting woken up by the charcther with the smart phone), I ended up ordering a café latte in order to wake up. This was indulgently served with a Kit Kat chocolate bar.

The Second Service:

Unlike our inbound flight, Singapore Airlines places it’s second meal service in the last third of this 14.5 hour flight. Technically that means that the service is about two and a half hours from landing at Los Angeles International Airport. This is a much more sensible meal timing placement unlike than on our way in, allowing for the traveller to maximize rest.

The second meal was presented from the menu as follows. I ended up confirming through “Book the Cook” the Exclusively created by Georges Blanc, Fresh Salmon with Garden Vegetable in Pesto Sauce which sounded nice and light for a pre-arrival meal.

After a towel service, the appetizer course for the second service was a sesame crab mayonnaise salad with grilled egg and pickled ginger, paired with a 2021 Joseph Drouhin Saint-Véran, Burgundy, France which was delightful.

The second main course was a Fresh Salmon with Garden Vegetable in Pesto Sauce with Risone pasta with diced artichoke, pea and baby carrot. The salmon was a nice treat, and even though it was “fish on an airplane”, it was well put together and tasty.

The dessert portion consisted of a Bakewell Mixed Berries Cake – an Almond based cake with vanilla Chantilly cream and berry compote. While it was pretty simple tasting, it wasn’t super decadent or exotic.

Afther meal service, we had a public address annoucement from the First Officer. He indicated we were approximately forty minutes ahead of schedule from landing at Tom Bradley International Terminal. It’s always great to arrive early and get time back into your day.

Arriving to Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Terminal:

Dusk was just starting to set in as we arrived over Los Angeles. We had a turn over land and headed into Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Terminal. Los Angeles doesn’t normally look this pretty, but it’s sure spectacular at sunset.

We arrived to gate next to a Turkish Airlines B777-200, which had arrived from the opposite end of the world. We descended into Tom Bradley International Terminal where I used Mobile Passport Control App to get my mom through Customs and Border Protection fairly quickly since she doesn’t have Global Entry.

After collecting our bag, we transferred over to the Marriott LAX hotel for an overnight layover. Since I’ve reviewed that property before, and not much has changed, I won’t be reviewing it again.

We left the next morning for. ourlast flight home on an Air Canada Business Class Los Angeles – Vancouver.

Our experience on Singapore Airlines Business Class A350-900:

Much like my flight out, the Singapore Airlines flight was filled with highs and lows.

Like my outbound flight, the food and wine lists were very good to exceptional. However, the Singapore airlines catered food wasn’t as exciting as I might have expected. The in flight service remained outstanding, and welcoming.

The Singapore Airlines Business Class seat is looking a little tired and dated. When comared to modern Club Suites, it’s looking exceptionally tired and even, at times, difficult to navigate through. Getting staff to make up a bed seems completely coubnter introuative for people looking to maximize their rest.

Still, travellers could do a lot worse than flying Singapore Airlines. Thanks for a great Aeroplan redemption, this marked an excellent way to get from Singapore to the United States. I’d happily repeat this experience again, anytime.

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If you’ve flown Singapore Airlines Business Class Long Haul, did you enjoy the catering when departing Singapore?

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