REVIEW: Singapore Airlines – Business Class – Singapore to Frankfurt (A380)

The initial experience of boarding the SQ A380 upper deck was pretty jarring…

Still, I had my private space, my sanctuary. The final row… all to myself

The extra high wall adds to the sense of privacy in the final row of the all J upper deck SQ A380

I love it when airlines break up the cabin by varying the colour of the seats

No prizes for guessing what happened to all those spare pillows

Given that this is SQ, I wasn’t worried about proximity to the galley

I know it’s been said before but how similar is this seat to First on the 777? No wonder SQ had to invent Suites. Having flown the 777 in First and then this within hours of each other I can firmly attest to the total similarity. The key differences in hard product are the overall size of the cabin and the lack of a permanent table under the IFE monitor in Business

My golden throne for the next 13 hours

The controls certainly look newer and cleaner than in First on the unrefurbished 777s

What other airline has the areas around the seat controls completely clad in high grade, super fine leather? Seriously impressive. Note the shaped area around the second headphone jack – designed as a storage space for when you want to hang your headphones whilst in bed mode.

I love the side bins upstairs on A380s. There is effectively unlimited space for hand luggage if you are in a window seat.

Plenty of other extra touches too. SQ always thinks of the small details. The nook for the water bottle is a perfect example.

Ergonomic fail on Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class

Shoe storage

The only downside to sitting in a bulkhead seat is that the IFE monitor is mounted higher than the other rows and it can’t be tilted.

Another storage space (seriously when you use all of the storage on the SQ J seat, it’s like checking out of a hotel when you land. It takes 20 minutes just to check you haven’t left anything behind!) Also: they even have a telephone jack?!

As soon as I was seated an FA offered to hang my coat, addressing me by name as she did. I was also given a menu and offered a drink. No surprises for guessing what I went with ?

I switched to white wine for the pre-meal drinks service.

An insane amount of space for a business class seat (pardon the manspread)

TPR = The Private Row

A huge selection of snacks available after the regular meal service.

The meal started with marinated prawns on a mesclun salad. Of course, I couldn’t resist the garlic bread!

This dish was a great start to the meal. The prawns were large and succulent and the salad wasn’t just leaves, which is good. I was a little disappointed not to get satay on this flight though, I had assumed that it was a standard appetiser on all long haul routes

The BTC lobster ex-SIN absolutely paled in comparison to what I got ex-LHR though. No wonder the crew gathered to admire that wondrous lord of Poseidon’s kingdom.

The chocolate mocha cake with vanilla sauce was ok but once again, orders of magnitude worse than the dessert in Business ex-LHR

The lights were dimmed shortly after my table was cleared.

I took this as my cue to make a pillow kingdom out of every pillow I could get my hands on. It ruled.

I snapped this pic in the morning, after a solid 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Luckily I woke up just as the sun was rising. Not often I get to see the back of a wing!

Amazing morning colours, the moon still visible in the sky

Seeing as I had the entire row to myself, I took the opportunity to actually look at the sunrise itself, rather than its repercussive colouration effects, over on the K side of the plane.

I will never understand people who close their windows and watch IFE when this sort of thing is going on outside

With around 2hrs to go before landing, the breakfast service began. I had actually pre-ordered eggs benedict but asked if it would be possible to switch to Nasi Lemak. A final bid to grasp a hold of SE Asia before I faced the inevitable fact, that I was currently on my morning commute to the office.

Not an obvious combination of fruits, although the plating was nice and I’m a big fan of pomelo

A pretty decent cappuccino, although I could have done without the 90s style chocolate topping

I started with a very good bircher muesli. Simple but effective.

The Nasi Lemak was superb. I loved the presentation, complete with pandan leaf underneath. Some mise en place had obviously taken place in the galley. This is not dish that was brought onto the plane pre-assembled. Crunchy, soft, hot, cold, spicy, sweet, savoury. All the elements were separate and ready for me to combine. This dish was really, really good.