After paying to fly out in First class, we flew home to London (“LHR”) in Singapore Airlines’ (“SQ”) Business class, using 240,000 miles (for 2 pax) earned in SQ’s Frequent Flyer Program, KrisFlyer, plus THB1800 in taxes (about £40).  I had not flown in SQ’s latest long-haul Business Class product before (all my recent flights were in First), neither had I flown on their Airbus A350 before, so I was really looking forward to this SQ Long-haul Business class flight.

But things didn’t start out at all well. We deplaned from our connecting short-haul flight from Phuket, with wheelchair assistance for me at the air bridge, and taken to the Premium Transit Area.  Because of Covid, transit pax at Changi airport were kept away from pax originating in Singapore at the time of our trip, and only the latter could use the real SQ Business and First lounges.  Transit pax had to wait in what was just a gate boarding area, with a scattering of various types of chair, none of which was comfortable enough for a long layover.

SQ’s website told me food and drinks would be available in this “premium” area but the choice available to order via an App didn’t interest me at all.  I just wanted a non-gaseous alcoholic drink and some nuts, but nuts were out and beer was the only option for booze.  I was not happy, but unfortunately no SQ staff were on hand to hear my complaint, and I got frustrated that the Changi airport staff were unable to help me, or to understand that I was not being aggressive, I was just having a mild Asperger’s melt-down. But then I remembered that Singapore has no laws at all to protect the rights of people with disabilities!

After three uncomfortable hours in the transit area we were taken to our boarding gate an hour before the 01:10 scheduled departure of flight SQ306 to LHR, and suddenly my experience changed.  It transpired that the crew had been informed of my unhappiness at Changi, so when we boarded at 00:40 the Cabin Services Manager greeted us by name at door 1L and escorted us tour seats in the second Business class cabin of just 4 rows (SQ had blocked off the slightly larger first cabin for crew rest).  This man, Patrick, proceeded to deliver us the most impressive service standards imaginable, right the way to LHR.  First off he checked that he was pronouncing our names correctly (he was) and then he offered to make me a bed up a few rows back because an infant was seated across the aisle from me.  But I had specifically booked the front of cabin ‘bulk-head’ seat because I was aware it had more legroom than those in other rows.  It’s to do with the Business cabin layout chosen by SQ, 1-2-1 with the window seats directly in front of each other, rather than in a reverse herringbone style used by some other airlines.  In order to provide a flat bed over 180cm long there’s a bit of a pokey hole to stretch your feet into, but it’s offset to one side, so pax have to sleep at an angle, which some aviation writers don’t like.  My front row seat 19K did have one of these footholes, but much smaller than the other seats, and I was able to sleep very well, in whatever position I fancied, because SQ’s Business class seats are so wide.

On the A350, SQ’s Business class seats are 28 inches wide (6″ wider than Qatar Airways’s A350s), and like on other SQ premium seats, they are converted into beds by flipping the seat back down onto the seat, which the Flight Attendants do for you, also adding a “mattress cover” a duvet and a soft pillow or two.  The whole process takes just a couple of minutes, and the reverse process occurs when you’re ready to wake up.

With only about 80 souls on board the doors of our 2 year old A350, registered 9V-SMW, closed ten minutes early at 01:00 and we pushed back from stand three minutes later. We had quite a long taxi out to the threshold of runway 20L, before taking off at 01:25.

At this late hour, my priority was sleep, so while I had a Singapore Sling before and after take-off, I declined ‘dinner’, and the FAs made my bed while I was in the lav changing into my First class sleeper suit (SQ does not provide PJs in Business class, but one does get slippers and eye shades).  My infant neighbour was very well behaved and thanks to the very spacious and comfortable bed, I managed a very good 9 hours of sleep!

On seeing me awake, Cabin Manager Patrick twisted my arm to have a Bloody Mary before serving my breakfast of veal sausages, potatoes and scrambled eggs, which was no more than “OK” (and not a patch on the Thai Business Class breakfast on my last Asia-LHR overnight flight).  In line with Covid protocols, breakfast was served on one tray, rather than each course being served individually, so I ate the warm food before hitting the fruit salad and yogurt.  I ordered a good cappuccino to go with my (quite dry) croissant.

I leisurely prepared myself for landing and enjoyed the views of Northern Europe from my window, which is my ‘go-to’ inflight entertainment.  But you can see in the images that because of the bulky seat architecture, Business class pax only have one clear window to look out of.  Although I didn’t make use of SQ’s entertainment systems, I did some Instagram posts on the free (to Business class) WiFi, which was a first for me because previous attempts on other airlines failed due to poor upload speeds.

With significantly fewer planes using LHR, even at this stage of the pandemic, we lined up straight to land without having to go into a holding pattern over Essex, and touched down 25 minutes early at 07:16 on runway 27L.

Once on stand at Terminal 2 and the seatbelt signs had been turned off, we had a little photo session with Cabin Manager Patrick, to remember him and his amazing service.  For this photoshoot Patrick insisted we all remove our face masks, which we’d been required to wear throughout the flight. SQ has a famously young fleet with a very good onboard hard product, but I’ve always found that the warmth and professionalism of their cabin crews is second to none, and a strong reason to choose to fly SQ.

Overall 9/10; one point lost for the lack of PJs and only one window. I’ve chosen not to mark them down for the transit shambles because technically that was before this long-haul flight, not part of it, and because Patrick made up for that disappointment.