Getting from Singapore to New York in one hop is better than a layover—even if it involves taking the world’s longest flight.
That’s my jetlagged verdict after disembarking from Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s Flight 22, the return of the carrier’s Changi-to-Newark, New Jersey, journey after a five-year hiatus.
The final quarter of the 10,400-mile trek was tedious, I must say. By hour 14, somewhere over Canada, the fancy new plane (Airbus SE’s A350-900 Ultra Long Range) was starting to feel like a luxurious prison. My skin was parched, and I couldn’t help trying to think of other scenarios in which that many people in a confined space would collectively go so long without a shower. Even the thought of another mimosa couldn’t get me enthusiastic about still being airborne.
But traveling to the world’s opposite time zone is never going to be entirely painless. Doing it in business class, and there are no economy seats on this almost 18-hour flight, reduces a lot of the trauma. And in comparison with the other options to get from Singapore to the Big Apple—flying via hubs in North Asia, Europe, or the U.S. West Coast—this route is definitely preferable. I will choose it for New York work trips from now on.
Here’s what a coddled business traveler needs to know.
Planning
► Starting next week, flights will depart daily from Singapore late in the evening local time, and leave Newark for the return journey midmorning. This means you need to stay another night in the New York area compared with Singapore Air’s flight with the Frankfurt layover, which departs John F. Kennedy International Airport in the evening.
► SQ22 cuts about five hours off the trip compared with the route through Germany, which includes a layover of about two hours. More importantly, not having to get off the plane gives you more flexibility on when you sleep, eat and work. I stayed up for the first meal and fell asleep around 2:30 a.m. Singapore time or 2:30 p.m. in New York, slightly closer to the time zone where I was going.
► Booking a standard-fare Singapore-Newark roundtrip ticket in business class, leaving on December 1 and returning a week later, costs about S$11,000 (roughly $8,000). Premium economy costs about S$3,000.
The Cabin
► Regular Singapore Airlines business-class fliers will recognize the 67 comfortable and stylish seats from the regular A350-900s, which ply routes including Singapore-Melbourne and Singapore-San Francisco. They’re spacious, though not excessively so, with a width of 28 inches. The pitch—the distance between a point on a seat and the same point on the seat in front of it—is 60 inches, and the seat flips forward to convert into a 78-inch bed. You can keep a small bag near your feet and there’s a storage bin in the right hand console, as well as another next to the in-flight entertainment screen.
► I was in seat 12D. I would recommend booking as far forward in the first business class cabin as possible—being near the front galley is a minor issue as most of the food and drink service is conducted from the middle one. The middle front-row seats (11D and 11F) have more leg space, and those are my top picks if you can live without a window seat. Row 19 at the front of the second cabin has the same benefit, though that is also where the bassinets are located, so proceed at your own peril.