So you’ve finally accumulated the miles needed for your first-ever Business Class redemption on Singapore Airlines. Congratulations! Now there’s just the small matter of making sure you get the best possible experience, and that all starts with picking the right seat.
This guide will orientate you to the different types of Business Class seats available on Singapore Airlines, and how to identify which one you have.
How many different Business Class seats are out there?
Singapore Airlines currently uses fiveย different types of Business Class seats across their fleet. Here’s a brief summary of their key traits, and which aircraft you’ll find them on.
The year in front of the seat name refers to the year the product was introduced. If you’d like more details on each individual seat, have a read of The Milelion’s Seat and Fleet Guide.
Here’s my general preference of seats, from most favored to least favored:
- 2017 Business Class (excellent privacy, recline to flat and spanking new)
- 2013 Business Class (excellent privacy and comfort, but requires you to flip the seat to convert to bed)
- 2018 Regional Business Class (brand new product that with good privacy and comfort, higher density and somewhat narrow)
- 2006 Business Class (full flat and very wide, but ageing badly with low-res screen)
- 2009 Regional Business Class (angled flat, no guaranteed aisle access, little privacy)
Look at your aircraft type
The simplest way of telling what Business Class seats you can expect on your flight is to look at the aircraft type. You’ll be able to find this in your booking confirmation, or during the booking process.
Once you know the aircraft type, you can refer to the chart below:
As you can see, in most cases simply knowing the aircraft type is sufficient to deduce what kind of seat you have.
However, there are two types of aircraft where it’s slightly less clear- the A380-800, which has a mixture of the 2006 and 2017 Business Class seats, and the A350-900, which is predominantly fitted with the 2013 Business Class seat but has a handful of regionally-configured airframes with the 2018 Regional Business Class seat.
If you’re flying the A380-800…
Go and look at the seatmap for your aircraft, which you can check out under the Manage Booking page or during the booking process, before you make payment.
If your seatmap looks like the one on the left in green (with the double bed symbol in 11 D/F), you have the 2017 Business Class seat. If your seatmap looks like either one on the right in red, you have the 2006 Business Class seat.
As of February 2019, the 2017 Business Class can be found on the following routes and flight numbers. All these flights operate daily:
Hong Kong
- SQ856 SIN-HKG
- SQ861 HKG-SIN
London
- SQ322 SIN-LHR
- SQ317 LHR-SIN
Shanghai
- SQ830 SIN-PVG
- SQ833 PVG-SIN
Sydney
- SQ221 SIN-SYD
- SQ232 SYD-SIN
Zurich
- SQ346 SIN-ZRH
- SQ345 ZRH-SIN
If you’re flying the A350-900…
If your seatmap looks like the one on the left in green, you have the 2018 Regional Business Class on Singapore Airline’s new regional configured A350. If your seatmap looks like either one on the right in red, you have the 2013 Business Class seat on either the long haul or ultra long haul configured A350.
The 777-200 confusion
Although checking the aircraft type is generally sufficient to help you deduce which seat you have, be careful when you see “Boeing 777-200”. That’s because SQ operates two different types of aircraft: The Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 777-200ER. Both are, very unhelpfully, labelled as “Boeing 777-200”.
In these cases, you’re going to want to view the seatmap to be sure.
A 2-2-2 configuration confirms you have the B777-200 aircraft with the 2009 Regional Business Class seat. A 1-2-1 configuration confirms you have the B777-200ER aircraft with the 2006 Business Class seat.
Conclusion
A given route can be operated by a mixture of aircraft, and different aircraft may mean different seats! Assuming all departure times are equally acceptable to you, be sure you pick the aircraft that gives you the best possible seat.
If you found this guide useful, be sure to check out the guide for First Class and Suites seats.
The seat map I see on their website appears different to the screenshots for the A380-800. Any other ideas on how I can check whether I have the 2006 or the 2017 business class model? I am flying SQ from SIN to FRA.
You have the 2006 model
One has to flip to go to the aisle on 2006J ? Think you have a typo in your first table Aaron
updated and fixed, good spot!
nice reference! I will spent my Air China miles on Business class and save the SQ miles for the first and suite.
Great overview and happy to see those A333 and 772โs retire soon as per some of your earlier posts.
Iโm on the 2017 version Business Class to Sydney next week.
Managed to get 11D which apparently has the bigger foot bench.
And Suites on the way back!
(Albeit the 2007 version, almost impossible to redeem upgrades on the 2017 version on that route.)
Thanks michael! The 2017 j is fantastic- I know some people hate the “sleep diagonal” thing but it never bothered me. Better press those seat control buttons with a lot of force though, they’re hard to press!
Thanks!!! Itโs my 2nd time and will let you know how it was.
I flew 11A last time on the new A380 and quite liked it but now I traded the window seat for the apparently slightly bigger seat on 11D.
Smart choice or not?
i’ve only ever flown the new a380 once, didn’t even know 11D was bigger than 11A. what i love the most about the new product is that you’re able to pick various angles rather than just full flat.