For the novice travel hacker,ย ย flying Singapore Airline Suitesย is sometimesย viewed as a crowningย achievement, particularly for those of us based in Singapore. It was no different for me – the experienceย had been on my (frequent flyer) bucket list for quite some time, and having finally racked up enough miles on credit card spend to redeemย tickets for it, I’d finally managed to cross itย off my list.
Here’s a brief recap featuringย myย main impressions of the experience – I’d flown this route before ever intending to write for the public, so pictures are somewhatย sparse. Youย canย probably findย meatier reviewsย with a quick web search – on The MileLionย alone, there areย Aaron’s andย Jeriel’s (Suites, Private Room) experiences!
Procuring the tickets
I’d planned the whole thingย back in the dark days when I was slowly racking up miles on a general spend card (Citi PremierMiles) coupled withย some accelerated 10x earnย on aย Citi Rewards card. After a couple ofย years of accumulation, we were finally able to afford the 2x 91,375 miles required for a one-way trip from Singapore toย Los Angeles on Suites!
(Weย didn’t have enough miles for the return trip, unfortunately.)
Iย was able to make travel plans more than a year in advance, so I proceeded to make the redemptionย the old-fashioned way – camping at the computer and snipingย the two saver tickets as soon as they were made available, 350 days ahead of departure.
Onย hindsight, mileage earn couldย probably have been better optimised with deliberate choice of credit cards,ย and if youย can’t afford to make plans a year in advance, you can try your luck with waitlisting instead.
Theย Private Room
The premium experience actually starts at the airport, with theย separate dedicated check-in area. No biggy – just a more comfortable area where you could take a seat while waiting in line to be checked in,ย which wasย done pretty quickly anyway.
The next step was one I’d been anticipating a little more – a trip to the Private Room.
The Private Room is essentially a lounge within a lounge within a lounge (lounge-ception!) – a dedicated area within SIA’s first class lounge in Changi Airport (itself nestled within the business class lounge). The exclusivity is meant to reward actual SIA flyers (as opposed to those flying first class on airline partners, PPS members, etc.), I believe.
With such exclusivity we kind of expected the food to blow us away – unfortunately, we ended upย victims of our high expectations. I ordered someย Roti Prata (not onย the menu) and the wife ordered Egg Benedict. Neither really managed to impress.
Given that meals later in the day included itemsย such as foie grasย burgers, I’m guessing (at least, hoping) that theย food isย magically wonderful post-breakfast.
Theย Suites
Afterย lounging around for a while longer, we boarded the plane and entered our individual private suites.ย It’s incredibly spacious –ย with the screen between the adjoining suite down (effectively joining the two), there’s really an incredible amount of space that you feel belongs to you (poorly demonstrated in theย panoramic picture below).
The biggest feature of Suites is probably how the seat converts into a (double) bed – a revolutionary feature when it first came into the market, I believe. Competitors offer equivalentsย now, but it’s still a treat to enjoy.
It’s also perhaps not quite as awesome as it sounds – the ‘double bed’ is formed essentially by combining the two single beds side-by-side, and you can still feel a plastic divider between the two mattresses. If you’re flying on your ownย with an empty suiteย beside you,ย the double bed option doesn’t reallyย add very much to personal comfort, even if allowed to make use of it.
The Food
The ironic thing about having all this awesome hardware in Suites is that the delicious food is served course by course and this takes up aย lot of time. After dinner on the NRT-LAX leg, there was only about six hours left on the flight and we’d have had to wake just four hours later if we wanted toย have breakfast.
We optedย to skip breakfast in the end, which wasn’t such a big deal since we had already been very well fed throughout the flight.ย The food was really good – the journey’sย inflight menuย is viewable here. I’d opted to Book the Cook beforehand and had beef rendang and lobster thermidor on each of the legs of the flight.
Some highlights (various appetisers, mains and desserts):
Verdict
All in all, despite myย criticism above, Iย think flyingย SIA Suites isย aย greatย experience – although now thatย I’ve experienced it, I think I’d probably stick to business class in the future.ย That’s more than comfortable enough for meย – I’d rather spend my miles on moreย business class trips.
If you’d to cut back on mileage spend while still getting the chance to experience Suites on a long-haul flight, I’d suggest flying Suites one-way and making separate plans for the return journey. Since SIA charges the same amount for two one-way flights as a return journey (sometimes less, in terms ofย additional surcharges), there’s no real penalty for doing so.
Finally, if you’re the kiasu type and this is a must-do bucket list item, you might want to start planning soonย – with the recent news of SIA not renewing their A380 lease (althoughย they’re probably just maintaining the fleet size without growing it, since five new ones are on their way next year) and some murmuring about the unpopularity of the A380, who knows what’s in the futureย forย SIA Suites?
(ML note: That said, there will be a new suites product announced in 2017 so there’s still hope!)
