Living The Good Life Aboard 70000 Miles of Planes & Trains (2024)

November 25, 2022
Singapore Airlines Newark to Singapore 945a –520p A350-900ULR Business Class

It’s a good feeling to wake up looking forward to a good long flight to an exotic destination. It’s an even better feeling knowing that you’ll be doing so in comfort, in this case via a Business Class suite aboard Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A350-900ULR aircraft.

The ULR stands for Ultra Long Range and so far as I know, the A350-900ULR is currently the longest range passenger jet in the world. It is capable of flying nonstop distances as far as 9,700 nautical miles (18,000 km). Newark (EWR) to Singapore checks in at 9520 statute miles (15300 km) or 8270 nautical miles, so we should have a bit of fuel left over if headwinds demand it.

It’s interesting to note that were I traveling from Newark to Singapore forty years ago when 747s and DC-10s ruled the long distance skies, this trip would have likely required stops on the west coast, Hawaii and Japan. Conceivably I could have done it in two stops since DC-10-30s were flying nonstop from New York to Honolulu, but I don’t recall any airline ever operating Honolulu to Singapore nonstop. Indeed, Singapore Airlines has always routed through Tokyo or Taipei out of Honolulu.

By 7:30am I was showered, shaved, checked out and ready to board the shuttle to Newark Liberty International. Thankfully the driver dropped us off right at the International Terminal rather than the P-4 hotel shuttle pick-up stop which would have necessitated an additional tour around the airport via the AirTrain.

Check-in was pretty basic – there was of course a Business Class counter and the check-in lines there were minimal. Interestingly, there was no check of my Covid vaccination card, which I recall the online check-in trying to upload a scan of. In any event, I was issued boarding passes for both my flight to Singapore and the onward connection to Denpasar. I was also handed a separate card that would grant me entry to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – my first visit to one of these highly regarded facilities.

Interestingly – though perhaps not surprisingly given my past experiences at Newark – there was no TSA Pre-Check lane or even a Premium Lane – this despite Newark being a fairly sizeable U.S. gateway airport. Even so, due to the time of day we managed to get through security in about 15 minutes. I’d hate to be here after 4:00pm.

Now then, where’s the Virgin Club? Ah, there’s a sign by that elevator. Right. On to the mezzanine.

Ding. The elevator doors quietly opened. At this point I always feel like a harp glissando, bright lights and a chorus from the heavens would be appropriate. Alas, there was nothing quite so dramatic. Instead I was presented with this view –

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Newark Airport
Photo courtesy of Virgin Atlantic

The receptionist greeted me politely, collected my lounge invite card while inspecting my boarding pass, and then bid me a pleasant stay in the lounge.

Now I’ve seen a few pictures of the Virgin Atlantic Clubs at Heathrow and JFK and I must say they do look quite large and swanky. This Newark edition was quite a bit smaller and seemingly a bit more subdued, but still a very nice lounge from which to commence this Premium Class travel experience to Singapore. Stylish furniture and tasteful artwork defined this lounge quite nicely. Unfortunately, most of the furniture was occupied with all manner of humanity. Were all of us flying Singapore Business Class to Singapore or did Virgin offer a morning departure to London in addition to the traditional evening departure?

The following pictures are courtesy of the Virgin Atlantic website, mainly because my camera just doesn’t have a wide enough angle lens to properly convey the size and attractiveness of this lounge. Plus, Virgin’s pictures look a lot nicer without the distraction of all these people milling about.

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Newark Airport
Photo courtesy of Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Newark Airport
Photo courtesy of Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Newark Airport
Photo courtesy of Virgin Atlantic

I never did find out about that possible morning Virgin flight. Instead, I busied myself finding a seat, which I ultimately did in the little dining area just off the bar. I could see from the people around me that breakfast foods – including eggs, potatoes, sausage et al – were available but, following a reconnaissance of the lounge I came up empty. A query to one of the uniformed staff revealed that ordering was done by scanning the black and white square code on the table, thereby revealing a menu from which you could order.

Ah… all very high tech and impressive – unless you’re a caveman like me who carries an old flip phone. Thankfully the waiter took pity on me and used his own phone to place me an order for something equating to the Classic British Breakfast.

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Breakfast

Afterward, I used the Club’s Wi-Fi to fire off a couple of quick emails before packing everything up and heading down to the gate to get a close up look at my aircraft.

Prior to the beginning of this trip report – fifty some odd thousand words ago – I’d never flown aboard an A350. I could have done so three years ago with Cathay Pacific between Hong Kong and Bangkok, but the aircraft offered only Economy and Business Class and I had – and still have – a streak going of thirty-one straight flights all in First Class aboard Cathay Pacific. That is to say ALL of my flights with CX have been in First Class. I’ve never flown with them in Economy or Business class. If I do say so myself, that’s a pretty impressive streak – one that I’d like to maintain as long as possible.

So then, my first A350 flight came aboard an A350-1000 variant on Qatar Airways between Houston and Doha way back in September. In any event, it’s nice to add another one and especially cool to do so aboard the longest range variant in the world. Let’s go have a look at that airplane!

My A350 awaits for the world’s longest flight

Singapore’s A350 inflight

It would have been nice to get a better view of the nose and co*ckpit windows, but unfortunately the position of the aircraft at the gate made such a shot impossible.

Boarding was called shortly after my arrival in the gate lounge. OMG! I have never seen a Business Class boarding line so long, but then Business Class does make up a significant percentage of the seating aboard this airplane. Still, it was surprising to see just a handful of Economy Class passengers against a comparative sea of Business Class folks. According to SeatGuru, the 900ULR variant of Singapore’s A350 has 67 Business Class suites configured in seventeen rows of mostly 1-2-1. Behind the curtain are 94 Premium Economy seats configured 2-4-2 with 38” of seat pitch.

A flock of Singapore Girls awaited us at the door, all looking very nice in their iconic Singapore Airlines gowns. I was warmly greeted and shown to my suite – 14A – three rows back from the very front of the forward cabin. At first glance, the suite looks quite spacious and inviting. The actual suite itself is about three and a half feet wide, made of light brown molded plastic with gold and silver trim. Inside is a beige leather covered seat that’s wider than most any other Business Class seat out there. The television screen or monitor looks to be about 20” diagonal. There’s not a lot of available flat space at the seat side level, but there are some nicely placed little cubby holes and storage areas suitable to place drinks upon or store an SLR sized camera.

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR Business Class Suite
Photo credit: Liveandletsfly.com
https://liveandletsfly.com/singapore-airlines-a350-900-business-class-review/

Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR Business Class Suite
Photo credit: The Points Guy
https://thepointsguy.com/news/singapore-airlines-business-premium-economy-airbus-a350-compare/

A large pillow, slippers, socks and a sleeping mask had been placed at each seat. Notably absent was any type of Amenity Kit. Truth be told I found this omission more surprising than bothersome. The Business Class lavs are well stocked with a variety of lotions, after shave spritzers, toothbrush kits, shaving kits, et al. On a positive note, the missing Amenity Kit is one less thing I’ll have to make room for in my luggage on the way home.

One of the Singapore Girls stopped by to offer assistance with placing my rollabord in the overhead storage bin but I kindly declined. With the laptop in there that thing weighs about 40 pounds and who knows, given the current state of my back perhaps I should have accepted her offer. She’s probably stronger than I am at this point. Still, I’ve always been a do-it-yourselfer on these kinds of things and it’s still no big deal to swing and lift that bag up into the overhead.

Sitting down, I can’t say my initial impression of the seat was overly positive. Though the seat looks inviting enough, like most lie-flat seats these days it’s designed to offer a firm sleeping surface more so than a soft, comfortable sitting environment. In this regard I much prefer the first generation cradle sleepers with their wide, soft well-cushioned seats.

Back in 2013 I flew Business Class aboard Singapore’s 777-300 between Beijing and Singapore. Although nobody liked the 2-2-2 side-by-side configuration or the angled sleeping configuration, those well padded, cloth covered seats were way more comfortable to me than these new fangled hard leather contraptions. Same goes for my first flight with Singapore way back in March of 1987 in First Class aboard a 747-200 Classic. It had the first generation sleeper seats with the 70-80° recline with leg rest and I thought they were fine. In fact, the best sleep I ever recall getting aboard an airliner – and I mean ever – was back in 1986 aboard a similarly equipped United 747SP flying between Los Angeles and Sydney. I slept a good eight hours undisturbed and if headwinds hadn’t forced us to put down in Fiji to add a bit of fuel, who knows how long I might have slept.

Another aspect of this seat that didn’t sit well with me was the space for your feet. First off, the foot well was not very large. For some reason it’s always bothered me to have my feet confined and nudging up against the side walls when I’m trying to sleep. Additionally, the foot well is not aligned straight with the seat. If you’re not too tall, i.e. about 5’8” or less, you might be able to position yourself diagonally and then lie flat on your back. For any of us any taller – I’m just a shade under 6 feet – the only option is to lie on your side in a slight fetal position.

There are two rows of seats – the ones up against the bulkheads in the front row of each of the two Business Class cabins – that do offer a wide platform equal in size to the seat for your feet. I had read about these seats – 11 D & F and row 19 in the second cabin - and tried to snag one in advance of this flight. No go. I can’t help but wonder if these are reserved first for Singapore’s elite flyers? Additionally, row 19 is rigged for bassinets so you might end up with a screaming baby next to you.

Bottom line – I’ve seen and sat in better Business Class seats. I’m mildly surprised that an airline of Singapore’s caliber - in shopping for Business Class seats for its longest range aircraft – settled on what I think is a rather poor design. But hey – ultimately you should take my assessment of these Business Class suites with a grain or three of salt. I’m the guy with the bad back and the muscle atrophy in back, legs and butt. Those of you with good healthy physiques might find these new leather covered seats much more to your liking.

A Singapore Girl stopped by with a tray of juices – orange or apple. I’ll have an orange juice, please.

Welcome Aboard Orange Juice

I noticed out my window that the jetway separated from our jet at 9:39am, and we pushed back five minutes later, i.e. one minute prior to our 945a scheduled departure. A British Airways 787-9 was parked to our left, while to our right was an Aer Lingus A330-300 looking quite nice in its latest livery. Taxiing out to the runway we also passed a good looking El-Al 787-9 parked remotely off the terminal.

It was a gray, blustery day as we began our takeoff roll at 9:53am. Forty-three seconds later, SQ 214 – the ten miles shy of being the longest flight in the world – took to the skies. It’d be another 9965 miles and 18 hours and 11 minutes before we’d return to earth again.

The upcoming flight stats

Back in 2016, I flew with Cathay Pacific nonstop from New York (JFK) to Hong Kong. Our route of flight initially took us due north up over Quebec and Nunavut, then past the northwestern edge of Greenland. I had expected a similar routing for this flight but was surprised to note via the flight map that our routing was taking us in an east-northeasterly direction, up towards Nova Scotia and out over the Atlantic as if we were bound for central Europe.

Please forgive me – I didn’t get a photo early on to substantiate this, but this post-flight photo, taken off the map portion of our flight statistics at FlightRadar24, provides good detail as to our overall route.

SQ EWR-SIN Route of Flight 11/25/22

So then, we’ve just eighteen more hours to go. When I was a kid, the longest flights were those from Europe to the west coast of the U.S. and maybe Buenos Aires to Madrid or Paris. Since the early 2000s I have flown both routes, especially London to the west coast. To be sure, ten or eleven hours is a long flight, but for any of you who’ve never flown anything longer, imagine adding another seven hours to your flight. For some, this might seem a hellish proposition. Those who feel this way are most likely sitting in Economy Class on a full flight. I remember once flying Economy Class nonstop SFO-SYD on a half full United 747-400. We left late at night, I slept through about 9 hours of the 15 hour flight and over all it was a great flight. Had I not had three seats to myself, crammed in amidst another hundred or so passengers, I might have felt differently.

Meanwhile, up in the pointy end of our pretty A350-900, the first round of drinks was being offered while many, like me, were perusing our menus. Singapore’s menu booklet covers both the inbound flight from Singapore as well as our return flight to Singapore. After the food listings come the wines and spirits. Since drinks are making the rounds, let’s start with the beverage listings…

WINE LIST

Champagne

White Wine
2021 Weinhaus Ress Riesling, Rheingau, Germany
2021 Chartron and Trebuchet Pouilly-Fuissé, Burgundy, France

Red Wine
2016 Clarendelle Medoc, Medoc, Bordeaux
2019 Dandelion “Lionheart of the Barossa” Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia
Or
2018/19 Teusner “The Riebke” Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia

Port
Kopke 10 Year Old

Spirits
Courvoisier XO Cognac
Glen Deveron 16 Year Old Single Malt Whisky
Chivas Regal 12 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky
Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey
Suntory The Chita Single Grain Japanese Whisky
Bombay Sapphire Gin
Grey Goose Vodka
Bacardi Carta Blanc Superior White Rum
Junmai Ginjo Sake

Liqueurs
Bailey’s Original Irish Cream
Cointreau Orange Liqueur
Choya Umeshu
A traditional Japanese fruit liqueur enjoyed straight or on the rocks

Beer
Tiger
Heineken

It was about 11:00am local time in New York, a bit early to be hitting the bottle – even for me. Still, the rules of imbibement are different when you’re on an eighteen hour intercontinental flight. Alright then, let’s start with a glass of that Clarendelle Bordeaux – just half a glass please. I just want to get a sense of the flavor.

Hmm… not bad, not bad… The description indicates a wine that has aromas of red fruit and blackcurrant alongside floral overtones reminiscent of violet. Clearly I need to refine my palate because while I caught the fruit, the violet overtones blew right past me. Still, a taste was all I wanted and it was good. The tannins were firm and the overall flavor strong and smooth. I could have easily enjoyed a full glass but the girls were in the aisle getting us set up for lunch and, with the first course being a trout salad, I knew I’d want to accompany that with the Riesling.

But hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s time to consider the luncheon offerings.

LUNCHEON
Newark to Singapore

APPETISER

Hudson Valley Smoked Trout and Aerofarms Salad

MAIN COURSE

Grilled Chicken Breast

Chinese Pork Rib Noodle Soup
Wheat noodles in pork broth, braised pork rib and vegetables

Braised Beef Cheek with Red Wine Sauce
Wild mushroom ragout, broccolini and crushed potatoes

Fried Cod and Prawns with Sam Ros Sauce
Stir-fried Asian vegetables and steamed rice

Book The Cook ~ U.S. New York Strip Steak
Tender rib eye is pan-seared to perfection and served with garlic-mashed potatoes. Accompanying it is a creamy sauce of red wine, steak jus, shallots and cream finished with a dash of green peppercorns. Roasted capsic*ms, red onions and eggplant complete this hearty and satisfying meal

FROM THE BAKERY

Assorted Bread Rolls and Gourmet Breads

DESSERT

Mocha Mousse Cake

Honey Salted Caramel Almond Ice Cream

Rouge Creamery Gourmet Cheese
Served with traditional garnishes

Selection of Sliced Fresh Fruits

HOT BEVERAGE

Coffee and Tea

ARABICA SELECTION
Gourmet coffees by Illy

Brasil (Single origin)
Ethiopia
Guatemala (Single Origin)

CLASSIC ROAST

Espresso Classico
Espresso Illy decaffeinato

TWG TEA SELECTION

1837 Black Tea
Vanilla Bourbon Tea
Chamomile
Silver Moon Tea
Breakfast Earl Grey
Royal Darjeeling
English Breakfast Tea
Moroccan Mint Tea
Rooibos

It’s worth noting here that as I understand it, the first meal is a set meal service. That is to say it’s not served on demand but rather when the flight attendants are ready to serve it. After that however, the mid-flight refreshments and the second meal are served at the passenger’s discretion.

As to the menu above, well of course I’m into trying as much of it as possible. I love airline food – especially Premium Class airline food. After reviewing today’s menu, I will of course start with the smoked trout salad. I was surprised however – this being Singapore Airlines – that there was not a separate appetizer and salad course. Oh well. I’m sure there’ll be plenty to eat regardless.

Table linens were laid, silverware and napkin placed, salt and pepper and butter delivered and a glass of ice water provided. A bread basket was then presented bearing a nice variety of rolls and my old favorite – warmed garlic bread. Now if it were up to me, I’d eat only garlic bread but in consideration of leaving some for other passengers, I selected just one garlic bread and one roll. I later learned that on this flight at east, enough garlic bread was stocked that I could have had a couple pieces – or more.

Hudson Valley Smoked Trout and Aerofarms Salad

Hudson Valley Smoked Trout and Aerofarms Salad

The smoked trout was quite a tasty little appetizer. I especially liked the flavor imparted from the addition of the lemon curd vinaigrette. I also enjoyed the semi-sweet Riesling which paired nicely with the trout. Suitably appetized, it was time for the main course.

Astute readers will have noted the addition of the “Book The Cook” New York Strip Steak to the Main Course listings. Over the years I have read countless trip reports extolling the quality of Singapore’s “Book The Cook” main course options. As I recall, for this flight there were nine “Book The Cook” offerings representing Asian, Western, Indian and Vegetarian options. Any of them can be booked up until 24 hours before departure. A few years ago I took advantage of “Book The Cook” when flying the short flight between Singapore and Jakarta. I was presented with an amazing and very filling lamb dinner that looked much nicer than anything I saw my fellow passengers being served. As such, since we were flying out of the New York area, I decided to go local and order the New York Strip Steak.

Book The Cook ~ U.S. New York Strip Steak

The plate of food I was presented looked pretty nice, but I think the caterers may have gotten confused and cooked up a “Newark” strip steak. Steak tastes like steak – it’s a pretty unique and delicious flavor – at least amongst the good cuts. What I was served seemed more like just meat. I mean, it wasn’t bad and at least it was cooked medium rather than airline style well done, but at the end of the day my guess is it was not a very good cut of meat.

When I was a kid, we always flew coach and almost universally the menu choices were beef or chicken. Beef was usually steak and I recall having some very tasty steaks in my day – all while sat back in coach. Yes kids, hard to believe though it may be, back in the day the service aboard U.S. airlines was arguably the best in the world – be it Coach or First Class. I logged my 1000th flight back in 1981, so I was fortunate to have enjoyed many flights of a standard not seen in America since the late-eighties.

But enough of the old guy reminiscing! Let’s have some dessert. In this case a cart made its way down the aisle bearing a choice of cake, ice cream, cheese and fresh fruit. The flight attendant assured me that it’d be okay to select more than one so I went with a cheese plate and a portion of the Mocha Mousse Cake.

Rouge Creamery Gourmet Cheese

Mocha Mousse Cake

I started with the cheese plate – a tasty sampling of a Stilton-like blue and maybe a hard cheddar. I’d never heard of the port - Kopke 10 Year Old – but it complimented the cheese well along with the grapes, walnuts and quince.

As for the Mocha Mousse Cake, well, see for yourselves. What a delicious little gem of a dessert! I wish I could’ve accompanied it with coffee but if I drink coffee now, I’ll never get any sleep. Back when I was in college, I could sit in the local Sambo’s Restaurant all night drinking endless cups of coffee while working on this or that assignment and then I’d go home and fall right asleep. Alas – not any more.

* * * ~ X ~ * * *

As I mentioned earlier, this flight routed more like a European flight, heading out across the North Atlantic and hitting land just south of Ireland and England. We were making good time, too as we sped across central Europe just six and a half hours after departing Newark. We passed just south of the Black and Caspian Seas before continuing across west Asia and India but I slept through all that.

Midflight flight statistics

My plan for this flight was to knock off six to eight hours of sleep – preferably awaking maybe 3-4 hours out of Singapore. Rather surprisingly, I managed to do just that. I say “surprisingly” because as we discussed earlier - although this suite certainly looks nice, I think it’s of an inferior design for a quality sleep.

Suite in bed configuration
Photo credit to pointhacks.co.nz
https://www.pointhacks.co.nz/reviews/singapore-airlines-a350-business-class-review/

For starters, the seat does not recline into a flat position. Rather, I watched with surprise as my Flight Attendant merely flipped the seat back forward and down. Thin padding on the back of the seat served as the “mattress” with the emphasis on thin. Two things were noticeable as I lay down. One – the surface was hard and not particularly comfortable. Two – the sleeping surface was uneven between the seat and the space for your lower legs and feet.

And finally, a feature I’ve enjoyed in many First Class seats was notably absent here – when the seat is in its full lie flat mode, the back end, by your head, will not raise up. I mean, that’s the perfect position to watch movies from and it’s not possible to adjust with these seats. Additionally, when I’m sleeping in these airline lie-slats, I like the back end raised just a little. Not on this flight. At least the pillow was of good size and density. That really helped.

That, and Ambien. I mean, situations like this are why they invented Ambien, n’est ce pas? Well, I’m sure there are a host of other more relevant reasons, but thanks to half an Ambien combined with the glass and a half of wine I’d drunk earlier, I was able to overcome this seat’s shortcomings and sleep pretty well for at least six hours, and then half way well for another one. By the time I awoke, we were speeding over the border between Pakistan and India.

Over the years in many trip reports, much has been about the quality of Singapore’s Inflight Entertainment System – KrisWorld. From where I sit, I totally concur. The system offers hundreds of movies, television programs and documentaries. The impressive collection of movies ranges from new releases to Hollywood Classics to Bollywood to regional Asian films. I spent about ten minutes perusing the possibilities and then settled on Nomadland, which I believe won the Academy Award for Best Picture a couple of years ago. Frances McDormand was great as always, but she will forever more be Sheriff Margie to me, ya know.

Well hey, how about a mid-flight snack to accompany the movie? I consulted the menu and considered the following options –

MID-FLIGHT REFRESHMENTS
Satisfy any mid-flight cravings with a variety of healthy and indulgent refreshments on board

NOODLES

A selection of La Mian or Rice Noodles with a Choice of

SNACKS

NYC Beef Pastrami Sandwich

Supreme Soy Sauce Fried Noodles
With chicken and vegetables

Soup of The Day
Assorted Nuts
Potato/Corn Chips
Cookies
Dried Fruit Snacks
Snack Biscuits
Chocolate Bars
Crunchy Granola Oat and Honey Bar

Oh – no question here. I’ve gotta go with the La Mian Noodles with braised pork and Chinese greens. I have no idea what La Mian noodles are and the flight attendant didn’t manage to shed any further light on their make up. No matter – I’m sure they’ll be tasty. And indeed they were! I accompanied the soup with a simple glass of ice water.

Midflight Snack – La Mian Noodles with Braised Pork

By the time the movie ended, many folks around me had woken up and the flight attendants were often in the aisles delivering various courses of the second meal service. Well, as much as I enjoyed Nomadland, my favorite form of inflight entertainment is by far the inflight meal service. No way I wanted to miss the second meal service, so after consulting with my flight attendant we agreed that she would start my meal service about an hour and forty-five minutes out from Singapore. Between my book and the menu, time passed quickly. Let’s check out the second meal offerings -

DINNER
Newark to Singapore

APPETISER

Citrus Grilled Shrimps Salad

MAIN COURSE

Smoked Fennel Duck Confit

Slow Roasted Salmon Fillet
Lightly sautéed Caponata with pearl couscous

Char Siew Pork Belly
Stir-fried Chinese vegetables and fried rice

Supreme Soy Sauce Fried Noodles
With chicken and vegetables

Book The Cook ~ Roasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Jus
With mint oil, seasonal vegetables and mashed potato

FROM THE BAKERY

Assorted Bread Rolls and Gourmet Breads

DESSERT

Yuzu Macaroon

Gluten Free Spiced Apple Cake

Rouge Creamery Gourmet Cheese
Served with traditional garnishes

Selection of Sliced Fresh Fruits

HOT BEVERAGE

Coffee and Tea

Once again, I opted to go with the “Book The Cook” options – in this case the Roasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Jus. I know, I know – I’m flying Singapore Airlines and I should try some of the Asian options. Well yeah, but this flight was catered out of Newark and besides, I’ve got three regional flights coming up on Singapore’s Business Class that will provide ample opportunity to sample the local fare.

Right on time, my flight attendant arrived with table settings and another glass of ice water. The Grilled Shrimp Salad was served first, accompanied with garlic bread and a half glass of the tasty 2021 Chartron and Trebuchet Pouilly-Fuissé Burgundy.

Citrus Grilled Shrimps Salad

I polished that off in short order and awaited the next course. Thankfully it wasn’t a long wait and the lamb chops I was presented tasted every bit as good as they looked on the plate. Kudos to Singapore for excellent presentation and cooking skills in the galley. The meat was indeed moist, tender and flavorful and I really liked the addition of the peppers on the side.

Book The Cook ~ Roasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Jus

Book The Cook ~ Roasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Jus

Dessert was a trio of macaroons – not a bad little ending to this meal. I accompanied them with a cup of coffee and consulted the flight map for our location.

Yuzu Macaroon
Chantilly cream and raspberry coulis

Ah… there we were, flying down the Malay Peninsula. As we descended toward Changi, I remained every bit as amazed today as I did on my first flight into Singapore thirty five years ago. I have never seen so many ships scattered about any harbor anywhere. It is an impressive sight.

Through my window I could see and practically feel the humidity outside. Singapore sits just 80 miles off the equator and it is perpetually humid. It’s an amazing city but in terms of climate, I’ll take a nice dry -10°F back home in Alaska any day! And of course what a lot of people don’t know is that summers in Alaska’s interior can be quite warm with temperatures in the 80s and even 90s on occasion.

Getting back to our flight however, according to the flight map our route of flight has translated to 17,490km, or 10,861 miles. Really? Could that more southerly European routing have added that much extra mileage to our trip? If so, this is far and away the longest flight I have ever taken, smashing the old record of 8,580 miles, set aboard a Qantas A380 between Dallas and Sydney back in 2017.

Complete Route of Flight via FlightRadar24

Finally, after a flight of eighteen hours and twenty-six minutes, we touched down gently at Singapore’s Changi International, one of the world’s great airports. It’s also one of the world’s larger airports with three large terminals and the new Terminal 4 which replaces the former Budget Terminal but also serves full service carriers such as Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines.

My connection time was only 45 minutes. I knew my flight down to Denpasar would be aboard a Boeing 787-10, and I watched with anticipation as we taxied past a number of 787-10s parked at their gates. Finally, we found our gate over at T2. Nearby were a couple more 787s. Hopefully one of them would by mine.

Exiting the aircraft, I bid farewell to the crew and thanked them for a nice flight. Overall, I thought they did a great job. As for the aircraft, I think Singapore would do well to trade out those hard cushioned suites for something better when it comes along. Either that or improve the thickness and quality of the seatback cushion that serves as a mattress.

Overall, given a chance in my recent travels to compare the Business Class products of both Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, there is no question in my mind that Qatar Airways wins hands down. Better, more comfortable suites – especially for sleeping, better meals (Qatar’s are on par with other airlines’ First Class) and a better home airport lounge. The Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge is in a class of its own. The one area in which I would give a slight nod to Singapore is it flight attendants – always superb.

The cachet that accompanies the Singapore brand is for the most part well earned, but Qatar has arrived on the scene with a new and superior Business Class product. Etihad and Emirates are also right up there. I look forward to Singapore’s response in the coming years. We’re all winners in this competition.

Waiting at the top of the jetway was a uniformed representative from Singapore Airlines holding a sign with my name on it. She bore good news, too. My connecting flight to Denpasar was only three gates down. By Changi standards, that translates to about 400 yards but with the assistance of a couple of people mover sidewalks we made good time.

November 26, 2022
Singapore Airlines Singapore to Denpasar 605p – 850p 787-10 Business Class

This would be my first flight aboard the longer -10 variant of the 787. Over all, this was only my fourteenth flight aboard a 787, with eleven of those flights having come aboard different airlines. It’s a pretty impressive and diverse collection of airlines if I do say so myself –

Air China -9
Air New Zealand -9
American -8
Avianca -8
British -9
Ethiopian -8
Japan -8 & -9
Qatar -8
Scoot -9
Singapore -10
United -8

So then, it’s always exciting to board a new airliner type – especially when you’ll be flying aboard that airliner in the best possible way. Although the 787 is a widebodied airliner, not many airlines offer a First Class cabin on it. From my experience, only British Airways though I’m aware of a couple others – notably China’s Xiamen Airlines and the U.A.E.’s Etihad.

Singapore’s 787 cabin hosts 36 flat bed suites, arranged 1-2-1 in a single forward cabin. Frankly, it looks and feels rather cramped. I apologize for not sounding more positive here – I know many people like these trip reports to be all sunshine and butterflies – but I’ve got to call ‘em the way I see ‘em.

Part of the problem is that I’ve been flying for a long time, especially back in the days when premium class cabins were uniformly spacious and far more comfortable. True, most of them didn’t include lie flat seats, but the seats themselves were larger, better cushioned and waaaay more comfortable to sit in. They also felt a lot more spacious compared to squeezing into one of these new fangled pods. Check it out!

Singapore Airlines 787-10 Business Class Seat

Not only was the seat hard and narrow, but the side walls of the pod were right up on me. Mind you, I’m not a large guy. Here – see for yourselves – a view in reverse of me in my room in Bali…

A rare Seat 2A selfie

There wasn’t enough room in front of me to comfortably cross my legs. Heck, Alaska’s older 737-800/900 First Class seats, with their 50” pitch and plush padding, feel nicer in terms of both comfort and space. And, these seats also came with those annoying shoulder harness seatbelts. Thank goodness this is only a two and a half hour flight!

But enough complaining. At the end of the day – or start of the flight, as the case may be – these seats are still better than most anything in back except exit row seats. And – we’ll probably get a much nicer dinner along the way. Here’s the flight map of our proposed route.

Sky Map Singapore to Denpasar

It was a typical Singapore evening – humid and hazy with a few clouds. We followed a KLM 777-300 out to the runway and watched as it commenced its thunderous takeoff roll. If I had to guess, that 777 is also heading to Denpasar. The timing is right. Last time I was here in 2017, I flew KLM Business Class from Denpasar back to Singapore. I liked KLM’s World Business Class seats a lot! The ones available in 2017 may be the most comfortable Business Class seats I have ever flown in.

Shortly after leveling off, the crew got to work taking drink and dinner orders. Drinks first. I’ll have a Chivas on the rocks, please. I was thankful to see the inclusion of the 12 year old Chivas on this shorter regional flight. I was afraid we’d be stuck with Jack Daniels – the Budweiser of American whiskeys. Below is the Wine List. The spirits on offer are the same as on the international menu.

WINE LIST

Champagne

White Wine
2022 Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand
2021 Dandelion “Twilight of the Adelaide Hills” Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, Australia

Red Wine
2016 Fattoria Nittardi Chianti Classico Riserva, Tuscany, Italy
2019 Dandelion “Lionheart of the Barossa” Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia

Fortified
Morris Classic Liqueur Muscat, Rutherglen, Australia

co*cktail Hour – Chivas and Mixed Nuts

co*cktail in hand, I suppose now would be as good a time as any to peruse this evening’s dinner offerings. Hmm…

LIGHT DINNER
Singapore to Denpasar

APPETISER

Sesame Crab Mayonnaise Salad

MAIN COURSE

Pan Fried Salmon

Singapore Style Roast Chicken Rice with Oriental Vegetables
Served with chilli sauce

Mee Siam Goreng
Malay spiced rice vermicelli tamarind gravy with prawns, fish cake, squid, egg and sambal

Book The Cook ~ Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice
Signature tender silky poached chicken served with rice infused with chicken stock and a unique blend of lemongrass, ginger and pandan, complete with their distinct in-house chilli sauce. Recommended in Michelin Guide Singapore from 2017-2019

FROM THE BAKERY

Assorted Bread Rolls and Gourmet Breads

DESSERT

Pistachio Cake with Sour Cherry and Almond Crumble

HOT BEVERAGE

Coffee and Tea

Some of you may be pleased to note that for this flight I pre-selected the Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice from the “Book The Cook” options. On flights departing from Singapore there are many more BTC options. In my pre-flight research, the Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice was described as a local favorite, so it was an easy decision amongst the many good looking choices. Here’s what I was served…

Book The Cook ~ Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice

Thank goodness for the additional spices and sauces on the side of the tray. The chicken, while moist and tender, was not particularly flavorful. After spooning in all of that chilli sauce and a bit of the soy, it was much more to my liking - as was the Australian Chardonnay that accompanied it.

The side dish was a tasty Sesame Crab Mayonnaise Salad. Delicious! As was the Pistachio Cake with Sour Cherry and Almond Crumble. The name alone sounds almost as tasty as the dessert actually was. Alas, my visual presentation is just a wee bit blurry but still more than sufficient to convey the quality of these dishes.

Tasty Sesame Crab Mayonnaise Salad

Pistachio Cake with Sour Cherry and Almond Crumble
Accented with a mixed berry compote

After dinner I was dialed in to one of the hundreds of movies available on the KrisWorld system, which appears to be every bit the equal of the one on the A350. Well as we all know, time flies when you’re having fun – even if your seat isn’t the most comfortable. All too soon it was time to return seatbacks to their full upright position and prepare for landing. Beneath us the lights of Bali winked with increasingly density and brightness as we made our approach to Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport. And… after a flight of two hours and seventeen minutes, we kissed the tarmac and headed into our gate. As with our departure, I watched out my window as KLM’s pretty blue 777-300 parked at the gate next to us.

Ahead – twelve days of bliss at the Bali Tropic Resort and Spa.