Review: Singapore Airlines A350 Business Class from/to Singapore

End of May 2019 Travel-Dealz founder Johannes took a business class round trip flight from Dusseldorf via Singapore to Bali with Singapore Airlines. On this route Singapore Airlines only uses Airbus A350-900 airplanes that are equipped with their latest business class.

We have booked these flights end of January 2019, right before the devaluation of KrisFlyer’s Star Alliance award chart. 106,250 Membership Rewards Points (=85,000 KrisFlyer miles) are surely not a bargain, however booking these flights with Singapore Airlines had one big advantage: Taxes, fees & surcharges were as low as €60 for this roundtrip.

This review is referring to the outbound trip from Dusseldorf to Singapore, however occasionally refers to the inbound trip from Singapore to Dusseldorf:

Check-in

Immediately after booking the flights we were able to choose our preferred seats. Since there are no seats that offer more privacy than others (contrary to SWISS f.e.), there are also no seats that incur extra costs when choosing them. You enjoy the same privacy from any seat.

Online check-in already opens 48 hours before the flight. My first attempt via the Singapore Airlines app failed since there was a problem with choosing my nationality. However via desktop browser it worked perfectly fine. Singapore Airlines does not issue mobile boarding passes unfortunately. Generally speaking their online services are ok but often errors occur and you have to re-do everything or you have to find another way to do whatever you wanted to do. A bit annoying if you ask me.

The employees at the check-in counters were extremely friendly and accompanied us to the business class check-in desk. There were no cues at any of the check-in desks (neither economy class nor business class).

For a moment we were getting very scared: The check-in agent asked us for our visa for Bali. Since we only planned on staying for a week, we explained that according to our research we didn’t need a visa for Indonesia. After some typing and a bit of consulting, she was able to confirm and we were able to drop our luggage and received our boarding passes.

Lounge

Dusseldorf: Open Sky Lounge

Singapore Airlines flies from the non schengen-area in Terminal C. Since Lufthansa doesn’t have any lounges there, we were invited to enter the Open Sky Lounge. Similar to the Hugo Junkers Lounge, food & drink choices are very limited. Also, unfortunately there is no nice view from there. The lounge is sufficient to wait for your flight but definitely not worth coming for earlier.

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Singapore: KrisSilver Lounge Terminal 3 A

On the inbound flight back to Germany we were able to use the KrisSilver Lounge. The lounge is located in Terminal 3 directly after passport controls on the left side above the departing floor. It’s the only lounge in Terminal 3 that you are allowed to enter as a business class passenger without a status. If you are departing from the E gates you will have to calculate in an approximate walking time of 20 minutes to the gates plus security check.

The lounge is relatively big and offers comfortable seats and a nice ambience. Noise levels in the lounge were quite low even though you may have thought otherwise because of its size.

The lounge offers a huge buffet with a big selection of asian and western food choices plus a live cooking station. A good selection of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages is available at the bar.

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Showers are available in this lounge and after a long day in the city of Singapore we decided to make use of them. The showers were clean and offered everything you need to freshen up.

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Conclusion: A very nice lounge for business class passengers with lots of amenities. But a second lounge closer the D/E gates would make a lot of sense.

Boarding

Boarding started about half an hour before departure. Since Singapore Airlines is not offering a first class on this flight, we as business class passengers were allowed to board first together with families.

We were greeted with a welcome drink. We had the choice between champagne, orange juice and a cocktail consisting of orange/pineapple juice and ginger ale.

Seats

The business class cabin comes in a 1-2-1 seat configuration. Every passenger has direct aisle access. All seats are behind one another. Therefore the business class cabin consists of less seats but each seat has a lot of space.

Overhead bins are only available on the side of the airplane and not in the middle. This results in a great sense of space in Singapore Airlines’ A350.

Seats are very spacious. They are extremely wide and leg room is huge as well. To give you a perspective: I think you could take a seat together with your child next to you in just one business class seat.

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In comparison to the widely used reverse herringbone design, Sinapore Airlines’ seats offer less privacy. However the layout has been designed in a way that you are kind of protected against looks from other passengers.

We have decided for window seats behind each other because the middle seats were not our cup of tea. One of the reasons is that you always have to lean forward in order to communicate with another when you site next to each other in the middle because of the design of the seats. Since our flights to Singapore was only at around 60% occupancy the flight attendants offered us to change our seats. I changed to the middle seat, so we sat right next to each other and were able to talk a lot easier.

The seats offer a lot of storage space. On the inner side of the leg room there’s a compartment where I was able to put my camera even during take-off and landing. Additionally in the seat in front of you there’s an additional compartment and a mirror. In the middle arm rest there’s yet another compartment as well as next to the head rest where you can store magazines for example.

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Additionally to the tray table there’s a small area where you can put up to two cups or glasses. A nice additional feature.

The seat features a warm and indirect lighting. Of course you can turn this off at any time by simply pressing a button. Additionally on the side to the aisle there are three different lights with different angles. On the other side there’s an adjustable reading light and at the top there’s another light that illuminates the whole seat.

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Contrary to other airline seats, this seat does not automatically go into a lie-flat position. The seat is infinitely variable but the fully lie-flat position can only be set by turning over the back rest.

In order to turn over the back rest you need to turn a switch behind the back rest. The flight attendants are offering to help with this but I wanted to try it myself. On the back rest is a thin topper. Together with the leg room the lie-flat seat offers a long and very wide sleeping area. I am 1.80m tall and at no point I had any problems with the space. I cannot confirm that the bed is too short as mentioned in many other reviews.

Unfortunately the cushioning of the seat is pretty hard. The hip does not sink in at all. As a side sleeper this is definitely a disadvantage. I almost thought that the seat in bed position was harder than in chair position. A positive point is that you do not feel any edges of the different seat areas as is the case with many other airline seats such as the one from Lufthansa.

One disadvantage with this seat is that you first have to stand up before being able to sleep. If you are already very tired and want to sleep this may wake you up again.

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The seat features the typical buttons such as requesting service but also has the unique feature of putting a do not disturb sign next to your seat number.

Unfortunately the cabin looks kind of worn off already and that only after 1.5 years of being in service:

Food

After the welcome drink we have been asked what drink we would like to receive after departure. After reaching 10,000 feet height, the flight attendants quickly served the drinks. Food service started very quickly and we got served our Singapore chicken and Beef satay with onions, cucumber and spicey peanut sauce. It was a treat!

After about 20 minutes we received our actual starter: Panacotta with white asparagus and truffle ham, frisee salad, green asparagus and tomato gelee. Asparagus was in season and I thought this was a nice feature. I ate panacotta with included white asparagus for the very first time. The green asparagus was fried for a short amount of time only and was still crunchy and very aromatic.

As a main we decided for the Pad Ka Prao Kung. Thai prawns out of the wok with basil chili sauce, vegetables and steamed rice. We have not been disappointed! The broccoli was cooked on point and the prawns were extremely delicious.

As a dessert we had the option between chocolate creme cake and aprikot sorbet. We chose the cake. What started well, ended well. We both rejected the cheese platter.

Afterwards we received tea and coffee as well as a small praline.

Between the main dishes you can also always order snacks. But since we were both pretty full from the food and tried to sleep the second half of the flight, we did not order any additional snacks.

Around two hours before landing breakfast was serves. We had the option between pancakes, omelette and Asian udon noodles. We chose the omelette and udon noodles. The omelette was not filled. I was more like scrambled eggs with vegetables.

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Book the Cook

From select airports you already have the choice to pre-order your food before depature. Dusseldorf is not one of the featured airports. Therefore we only tested this on our inbound flight from Bali to Singapore and from Singapore to Dusseldorf.

Up to 24 hours before departure you can choose between a wide variety of different main meals and breakfast options. Even in business class lobster is an option for example.

For the inbound flight I chose the ribeye steak as dinner and Eggs Benedict as breakfast. The steak was on point however I must say that I liked the beef filet on my American Airlines flight a lot more. Eggs Benedict were excellent although I would have preferred bread with it instead of the mashed potatoes.

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I was really blown away by the fact that the Eggs Benedict were so good 38,000 feet above the ground. Unfortunately the Dim Sum on our flight from Singapore to Bali was not that great but more about that later in my review about the Asian legs of the journey.

Service

The crew was very friendly and very attentive. Almost always we have been adressed with our names. Bevore even finishing our drinks we regularly got asked if we want more. Even particular drink orders were memorized and actively offered later on by crew members. Outstanding!

Even during the night the crew members did not disappear but always checked if passengers were awake. If you just woke up you were immediately offered drinks and snacks. I really appreciated the attentive service and think other airlines can learn a thing or two here!

Amenity Kit

Singapore Airlines does not offer amenity kits. Socks and slippers are already laying at your seat when you board. Other products are available in the lavatories and upon request.

This is a unique approach. If you are honest, I don’t think everyone uses all the amenities in the amenity kits anyway. Therefore I appreciate the fact that this produces less waste. However I can understand a certain disappointment if you were looking forward to taking the amenity kit with you as a memory.

Entertainment System

Every seat features a huge screen which you can operate with the associated remote. Additionally you can connect the entertainment system with your Singapore Airlines app through the airlines WiFi. I didn’t see any value in this but apparently this allows you to finish your movie that you started watching on another Singapore Airlines flight.

You have the choice between lots of new movies as well as a few series. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that most series only had a few episodes available to watch. Before every movie or series you will get advertisement. At least you could avoid most of it by fast forwarding. The selection of movies was good but not as good as with some of the Middle-Eastern airlines. For two 12 hour flights it was more than sufficient.

I missed a touch screen functionality with the screens. The screens were within reach from the seat position and it would have been easy to just navigate with your fingers. However you always had to get the remote and operate the screen through that.

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Of course every seat features a USB plug and a power outlet.

WiFi

Singapore Airlines offers WiFi in their airplanes. Every business class passenger receives 100 MB of data for free. At the time of writing this was limited to 30 MB. Every first class passenger now receives unlimited data through WiFi. After reaching the data threshold you have the choice to buy additional data. There are 3 different options: 20 MB of data for $6, 80 MB of data for $16 or 200 MB of data for $28.

To be honest I don’t find that up to date anymore. With 30 MB you can at most check your emails. My 30 MB were gone in minutes because Instagram was still running in the background of my phone. An hourly rate with a fair pricing would be much more up to date in my opinion. Or a rate for the whole flight. The speed doesn’t have to be super fast – just enough to browse the web. I don’t have to stream movies from the airplane.

Here are some photos from the flight via India including a thunderstorm plus the begin of the airplanes final descent:

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