Live Blog: Singapore Airlines unveils next-generation seats and cabin experience

10.05 a.m

How to participate

For years, The MileLioness has been nagging me to declutter my amenity kit and sleeper suit collection. 

“Sure I will,” I said. “As soon as the new SIA cabin products launch!”

Then I guffawed and walked away, but joke’s on me, because that day has finally come. Now I have to clear:

• 20x Le Labo Business Class amenity kits
• 11x Penhaligon’s Business Class amenity kits
• 2x Lalique First Class amenity kits
• 7x Lalique First Class sleeper suits

So let’s have some fun with this. I’m going to share some ways you can participate in today’s live blog, and if your contribution is featured, I’ll mail you one of these at random, while stocks last (sorry, Singapore addresses only please). 

Hey, with SIA unveiling new SISLEY and BYREDO amenity kits, these will be collector’s items soon!

Before someone asks, all of these are unopened and unused — though for a nominal fee, I will consider perfuming myself and rolling around a few times in the sleeper suits and/or performing Squat Cobbler. The reason why some are wrapped in plastic and others aren’t is because SIA did away with the packaging a few years back, as part of their go-green initiatives.

You can share your thoughts via this Google Form. Alternatively, you can join our Telegram community (please submit via Google Form if you want to take part in the giveaway though), which I’m sure will be extra lively today.

Let’s kick this off with a nice, easy one.

There will be a separate link for any questions you want to ask about the new seats or cabin experience, which I’ll share shortly.

9.53 a.m

Today’s schedule

Here’s a rundown of the order of battle for today.

Today’s event is called “The New Singapore Airlines Travel Experience” (yes, a catchier name like “thanks, Boeing” would have been better).

The event will be held at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre — ticketed visitors only, in case you were hoping to gatecrash — and will show off not just the new seats, but all aspects of SIA’s cabin enhancements including new dishes, new amenity kits, new sleeper suits and more.

The event will commence at 1.15 p.m, with opening remarks by SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong.

At 1.30 p.m, the media embargo will lift, and I’ll be able to share with you the full details of SIA’s new cabin products.

From then until the event concludes at 5.30 p.m, the media will have their first hands-on time with the next-generation cabin products, the enhanced KrisWorld inflight entertainment system, refreshed F&B offerings, new amenity kits and soft furnishings.

I’m going to do my best to keep this blog regularly updated, though there may be a bit of a slowdown in the afternoon as I do the hands-on. 

It’s my first time running a live blog, so go easy on me. Not exactly the kind of thing you picture yourself doing for a living when you graduate with an accounting degree…

9.45 a.m

Here we go!

Good morning everyone, and welcome to what is going to be an absolutely massive day for Singapore Airlines.

This is it. D-Day. Disclosure Day. The day the airline finally unveils its highly anticipated — and long delayed — next generation seats and new cabin experience at a glitzy event at Marina Bay Sands.

In a way, it’s an apt choice of venue, because the stakes could not be higher. At the risk of sounding dramatic, believe me when I say this is do-or-die time for our national carrier. 

Remember, if everything had gone according to plan, these seats and interiors would have been flying for half a decade now. They were originally supposed to arrive in 2021, on the Boeing 777-9.

No prizes for guessing how that turned out, with COVID-19 and the endless dysfunction at Boeing causing the timeline to slip repeatedly for the largest passenger aircraft ever built since the Airbus A380. 

Singapore Airlines waited, and waited, and waited — perhaps longer than it should have — before finally biting the bullet and announcing in November 2024 that it would introduce the new First and Business Class on retrofitted Airbus A350-900s instead.

But even Plan B ran into a snag. The targeted Q2 2026 introduction was beset by supply chain and certification issues, which pushed the introduction into Q1 2027. 

In the meantime, rivals such as ANA, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Qatar Airways and STARLUX are already flying impressive new Business Class suites with privacy doors. Even Malaysia Airlines — no disrespect — got doors in Business Class before SIA! Entire product life-cycles have been completed within the lifespan of SIA’s 2013 Business Class seat. United introduced Polaris 1.0 in 2016; Polaris 2.0 began flying in April 2026.

All this to say: today’s event has been a long time coming.

I’m incredibly excited for the big reveal, and I know many of you are too. So join me as I bring you all the latest from SIA’s launch event, complete with blow-by-blow updates, photos and videos, and irreverent commentary.

Bookmark this page and refresh it for the latest updates. I’ll also be sharing how you can participate in this live blog, with giveaways and internet points up for grabs.

Buckle up, because it’s going to be an eventful day!