Garuda Indonesia 777 Business Class Review (CGK to LHR) [2021]

Garuda Indonesia has had fun with their London route by changing the schedule almost every year or canceling the route entirely for a month to then reintroducing it. Luckily, I was able to fly Garuda Indonesia business class between Jakarta (CGK) and London (LHR) when the route was still operating.

Could a finally unstable airline like Garuda still live up to its questionable name on a long-haul route between South East Asia and London that is so competitive? Find out in my full review of Garuda Indonesia 777 business class from Jakarta (CGK) to London (LHR).

The trip routing

This flight was the first flight of my trip to position myself to Europe from Indonesia for a quick visit as I booked Singapore Spontaneous Escape from Rome and to Singapore for 38,000 KrisFlyer miles in business class.

As I booked the Singapore Spontaneous Escape redemption from Rome to Singapore, I jumped on the opportunity to try out Garuda’s London route before it could randomly get canceled. While I could have also flown their Amsterdam route, that one is more stable, I wanted to fly the London route just because it won’t be existing forever.

After arriving in London, I wanted to actually leave London and found there is a late flight to Athens, a great opportunity to visit Athens as I have never been. After Greece, I had to make my way to Rome but decided to arrive 3 days before my flight so I can enjoy some Italian food.

CGK->LHR: Garuda Indonesia 777-300 J
LHR->ATH: Aegean Airlines A321 J
ATH->FCO: Aegean Airlines A320 Y
FCO->SIN: Singapore Airlines A350 J
SIN->CGK: Garuda Indonesia 737-800 Y

My spontaneous trip to Europe. Image via gcmaps.com

Similar to Daniel’s recent trip, I booked my trip pretty close to the departure date, about 4 days before departure. Unlike Daniel though, I am typically booking flights the same day as the departure or the day before, so I am somewhat used to these spontaneous flights to somewhere I might have no idea about.

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Flight details

Here are the details for the flight:

Route: Jakarta (CGK) -> London (LHR)
Flight No: GA 86
Aircraft: 777-300ER
Registration: PK-GIE
Date: February 26, 2019
Departure Time: 12:05 pm (actual: 12:29 pm)
Arrival Time: 8:00 pm (actual: 8:26 pm)
Flight Time: 14 hours 57 minutes

Booking Garuda business class with points

Garuda Indonesia had good availability between Europe and Indonesia, but since the London flight is cut and Amsterdam flight is reduced, which are their two EU destinations, they have very little availability now. Still, you can find availability on their Amsterdam route, but not much last minute availability.

Back in February, I only searched once and I found availability along with the surrounding days that had availability. So, I booked it right away a few days before the departure. I booked it through Delta as I usually have too many Delta miles from credit card welcome offers and flying Delta enough to be a Gold Medallion.

From CGK to LHR, this one-way booking in business class required 80,000 Delta SkyMiles for $16.40 USD. In comparison, AA would want 75,000 miles one-way. In my eyes, this would be a great way to use your SkyMiles if you’re ever in Europe or Asia and want to visit the other region.

Edit: Sadly, it’s not 80,000 SkyMiles anymore for Garuda nonstop routes to Europe. It now requires 95,000 SkyMiles. Fees are about the same, but the mileage price increase just shows why you should always use your SkyMiles when you see a good redemption.

CGK to AMS redemption price using SkyMiles. (Note that nonstop redemptions are more expensive than multiple stop redemptions.)

My redemption back in February only required 80,000 SkyMiles.

Heading to the airport

I was staying at the Keraton at the Plaza, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Jakarta (one of my favorite city hotels in the world) and it took me about 45 minutes from the hotel to CGK as it was noon with less traffic than usual.

However, it can take up to an hour and a half during peak travel times of certain days. So make sure you check Waze (usually more accurate than Google Maps for ETAs in Indonesia) before you leave.

Check-in

Garuda Indonesia has a nice empty premium check-in area where SkyTeam Elite Plus, business, and first class passengers can visit counters or have service at the seating area.

I was the only passenger in the check-in area making it feel very exclusive. Within minutes I checked in and made my way to the SkyPriority security and customs right across from the check-in counters.

The lounge experience

Garuda Indonesia business class lounge is alright. It’s worthy enough for a visit if you have time, but not worthy for arriving to the airport extra early for the lounge experience.

It has everything you would need with extra stuff you might want like a buffet with hot and cold foods, massage chairs, tables, regular lounge chairs that are just okay, prayer room, showers, kids room with PS4, nap room, and a mini theater with specific times for screenings. None of it is impressive by any means, but there are enough amenities to keep you occupied.

Sadly, the lounge is somewhat hot in some areas. It seems like the AC doesn’t work, so there are standalone AC units scattered around the lounge.

If I had to compare it to any other business class lounges, it offers more amenities than Singapore KrisFlyer Silver lounge but doesn’t feel as premium as it should be. It will sometimes get crowded during the day, but during this visit, there were a handful of people.

Boarding

Boarding proceeded from gate 10 in terminal 3 of CGK with a slight delay without notification. There is plenty of seats, benches, and lounge chairs. However, in no time ground staff came around handing out waters and then proceeded with boarding.

Flight attendants were welcoming passengers during the boarding process and escorted some people while helping with bags. Even though I declined the help with my carry-on bag from the boarding door, I find it great to see the crew asking if you need help with your bags in business class.

My first pre-departure drink watermelon juice, something that more airlines need to offer. The watermelon juice was accompanied with a warm towel.

Pre-departure warm towel and watermelon juice

Then the crew asked if I wanted more to drink and I decided champagne. Whenever my glasses became empty during boarding, the flight attendants came over to refill the glass with more watermelon juice or champagne.

Pre-departure 2005 Castelnau Cuvee Brut Millesimee and watermelon juice

Plus, I got a cute mini cheese tart to accompany my pre-departure drinks during the boarding process.

Pre-departure tart, 2005 Castelnau Cuvee Brut Millesimee, and watermelon juice

Garuda business class seat

Garuda Indonesian 777 forward facing fully lie-flat business class seats are configured in a 1-2-1. They are staggered, which means A and K seats are true window seats closer to the window with more privacy. While C and H seats are closer to the aisle even though it’s a window seat.

I chose seat 11k, which is all the way in the back of the cabin and I found that this seat has more counter space than other seats.

Notice the left thin armrest when facing the seat. It’s small and I wasn’t that comfortable when using it. Even when it’s padded, I still felt like it was there just to check off a box on a seat spec list. Luckily that armrest goes down when you go into lie-flat bed mode.

When it comes to storage in the seat, the seat has very little as the only true storage pocket is the compartment under the right armrest. If you want to store your laptop anywhere, the only places would be on the counter or inside your bag under the footwell.

The tray table is stored up against the wall, which allows you to move the tray table out of the way when eating as you can push it back towards the IFE.

As you get closer to the seat, you might notice some of the places on the seat, like the armrest, are getting worn down. However, most places, like the controls, counter, and the seat itself are still in good condition.

Seat comfort

I prefer forward facing seats as the seat feels wider than reverse herringbone seats, especially when you’re reclined and not having to go into a “V” shaped footwell when seated in a reverse herringbone seat.

The padding on this particular seat is kinda lacking in seat mode, but when you’re in lie-flat bed mode the padding was just right for me. The width of the seat felt constricted when sitting upright or relaxing, but width for the footwell (shoe size is US 11 size) and waist is better than other forward facing seats. Once in lie-flat bed mode, the width wasn’t an issue.

Yes, these aren’t the best seats, I prefer other business class seats like Delta One Suites or Apex Suites. I have no complaints relaxing or sleeping in the seat. I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly this hard product, but the soft product is a different story.

In lie-flat bed mode, the seat isn’t the longest when compared to other seats. It felt shorter in length compared to other business class products that measure longer in length. So, I am guessing anyone taller than me, 5’10” (179cm), will be less comfortable than I. When I compare this to my flight back to Asia from Europe flying Singapore business class, the Garuda seat felt longer in bed mode.

Privacy

As it’s a staggered forward facing seat, this makes every other seat different in terms of privacy. A and K seats will have the most privacy.

I was seated in 11K making me extra lucky for one of the coveted seats. Why?

C or H seats you will be exposed in the aisle. E and F seats will be honeymoon seats as they are right next to each other, great for people wanting to be right next to someone. Then there is D and G seats, which are the worse seats in business class as there is no window and exposed to the aisle. Therefore, A and K seats, if you’re traveling alone, are the best-lettered seats in Garuda business class. Here are some pics for reference.

For my seat, I had no issues about privacy in the upright or in bed mode positions. I also got extra lucky as no one was across from me in the middle seats. In bed mode, it’s more private as you lay down below the counter making it hard to see anyone else.

In terms of privacy though, these aren’t as private like Delta One Suites, Q Suites, or Apex Suites.

Amenities

Sitting at the seat you will find a pillow, a nice soft blanket, slippers, headphone, bottle of water, and an amenity kit.

Garuda 777 business class amenity kit, slippers, and blanket

Garuda 777 business class headphones and water

Garuda doesn’t go all out with their amenity kit. It is a proper kit, yet kinda ugly casing. It’s filled with Clarins products with all the basics like toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, eyeshade, earplugs, lotion, creme, and lip balm. I liked the lip balm, but wish it was bigger. I do wish the kit offered me when it comes to tissues as they always come in handy.

The slippers aren’t anything special but aren’t bad either. They are big enough for my feet (size US 11) while not feeling like paper slippers as they had enough padding and were soft.

I found the blanket just big enough while keeping me warm. Not too thick, but not too thin.

The pillow, on the other hand, could be slightly thicker, but the size wasn’t too bad as it was wide enough. So, I ended up borrowing a pillow from another seat.

Garuda IFE screen isn’t that good, as the seat is a couple of generations behind when it comes to tech. However, you can easily find a movie you want to watch with a good selection in many genres from a good amount of countries. You can easily find Hollywood movies and TV shows.

While I barely use the IFE for anything else than the inflight map, I found it okay when it comes to quality. The IFE is controlled by the touchscreen or the remote.

At the seat, you will also found an international power outlet with 2 USB ports and headphone jack located by the IFE controls.

Take-off

After drinking a few glasses of watermelon juice and champagne, it was ready to take-off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Absolutely beautiful view. Never gets old.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fQ2zogUBOo[/embedyt]

Garuda business class wifi

Garuda Indonesia uses T-Mobile Hotspot for their wifi, which is also used by other airlines like JAL and China Airlines.

I find T-Mobile Hotspot lovely as it has no data caps and the price isn’t too bad. I ended up paying for the full flight without data caps for $21.95 USD. It allowed me to stay connected and even watch YouTube easily. I could also use a VPN without issues as the connection was stable for most of the time.

Garuda business class drink menu

Garuda Indonesia offers a unique drink menu that I love because of the extensive selection of juices, coffee (Indo coffee, espresso, and French press), tea, and alcohol.

If you have never tried Indonesian coffee, it’s yummy and worth a try as the bean varies between regions of Indonesia.

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Garuda business class dining

Unlike Garuda Indonesia’s domestic routes where the food is somehwat questionable, like HokBen served in business class, luckily on their long-haul flights you get more legit catering.

There are a few airlines that offer great long-haul business class catering and Garuda Indonesia offers some of the best catering. However, you will have to like Indonesian food as those dishes will be their best options.

Their menu reads as followed:

This flight was one of my favorite dining experiences in business class. From the beautiful presentation that reminded me of first class with the quality and taste served. I loved it as I was always full because of the tasty food.

Dinner service (after take-off)

After take-off, the crew walked around asking if we wanted to eat dinner. I was hungry, so I was happy when the lovely flight attendant was taking my order. I was able to choose everything I wanted from the exact starter, main course, and dessert. Plus, if I wanted to eat more, they offered me to order more.

They first started to set my tray with a white table cloth, bread basket, salt, pepper, and individually places the cutlery down on the tray. Seeing them carefully place all the items down verse coming out on a tray makes it somewhat a first class dining experience.

They then brought me some more watermelon juice and champagne. I love how the napkins were always placed with the logo facing me.

For my starter, I ordered Soto Sulung. Soto is always yummy and I was happy to see it on the menu.

It had lots of flavors while still being light. On the side they include sambal. If you can handle spicy, you must add the sambal into the Soto adding more flavor and spice. However, I found their sambal not that spicy, but maybe I have a high spice tolerance.

For the main course, I ordered Nasi Kuning. (Fun fact, nasi means rice.)

The Nasi Kuning was my favorite dish out of everything I got on the flight. It was super filling but also left me wanting more food as it tasted so good. The rice wasn’t dry or too wet, just right. The prawns were cooked correctly and weren’t chewy. I would say, this dish put to shame some first class catering I got in the past.

For dessert, I ordered the Chef’s Cheese Board.

It had brie, blue cheese, with dried fruit, and crackers. When it comes to a cheese board, it was standard, but blue cheese as one of the options was surprising. Luckily I like blue cheese.

Overall, the dinner service was fabulously done and felt like I was eating food made and served to me on the ground.

During the whole meal, the crew made sure my glasses were always filled with water, watermelon juice, or champagne. They promptly removed all plates as I finished them and served me the next course when I desired. After the whole meal, I put my seat into the lie-flat bed mode and began to relax. When I was lying down, the crew still made sure I had enough champagne in my glass without me asking.

Mid-flight snack

During the middle of the flight, I started to get hungry and wanted to try their sate jepang dan kecap and bakso sapi.

I started off with the sate jepang dan kecap, or in other words, Japanese soy sauce satay. Again, everything was carefully set down without using a tray.

This was the one dish I didn’t care for. I am not a big fan of fatty meat, and I should have known, but this was fatty meat. It tasted fine to me, but I didn’t finish it.

Next up was the bakso sapi.

The bakso was super good. Again, lots of flavors and I really enjoyed this dish. Bakso is meatball soup with noodles. The noodles had a nice firmness. Bakso is usually served with something crunchy, like crackers, but I wasn’t given any crackers. Either way, the dish was very good, even though I had bakso the day before my flight.

For a mid-flight meal that can be served on demand at any time, this was good. I just would skip the sate and just get lovely bakso.

Refreshment (pre-landing meal)

I wasn’t too hungry before landing, but whenever there is food ready to be served I will automatically get hungry.

Again, they set up the tray table just like they did during dinner service with a bread basket and no tray. They also gave me more champagne.

For the starter, there was only one choice and it was smoked duck with mango salsa.

For a starter, it was fine. I like duck, but only having one non-soup choice is somewhat disappointing. Luckily if you wanted soup instead of duck, you can get soup. The duck was very light with greens and mango on the side.

For the main course, I had yang chow rice with diced chicken and sliced beef blackpepper sauce.

Again, this dish had lots of flavor with tender beef and fried rice that was in good condition. I enjoyed this dish, like many other dishes on the flight, this was a good ending to the flight.

For dessert, they had a talam ubi with pineapple compote, which is an Indonesian dessert.

Not too sweet, this Indonesian dessert was a good farewell to Indonesia while I visited Europe for the week.

The pre-landing meal was a delight, along with all the other meals I had on the flight. I would fly Garuda long-haul again to enjoy the dining experience as the crew makes it so personal with quality tasty food.

Garuda business class service

Garuda Indonesia won the best crew in the world award from Skytrax for four years straight. However, this is their first year not winning that award.

This flight, the crew was super attentive and really wanted to be there. They made sure I was always full and asked if I ever needed any food. They let me dine at my own pace and whenever I desired making it somewhat a dine-on-demand service. The crew always made sure I wasn’t thirsty and answered to the call button within seconds. I truly loved this flight and it was sad leaving the flight and the crew.

What was also great about the crew was the fact that they were very personable. The crew wanted to talk and made an effort to talk about anything. We even talked about my plans for moving outside of the USA and wanting to be a blogger. It was also great as the flight attendants talked as well, making it a two way street in conversation resulting in a personal feel.

Garuda business class lavatory

Garuda Indonesia has cute signs for the lavatory. While I haven’t seen it on any of their other planes or other Indonesian airlines, these signs are truly special showing how one should use the lavatory.

During the whole flight, the lavatory was clean with no issues and the crew made sure it was regularly stocked and wiped down.

They offered perfume, lotion, and face mist in the bathroom as well.

Garuda business class bedding

As I mentioned above under amenities, the blanket is nice and soft. Kinda like velvet. When you’re in lie-flat mode there is no mattress pad offered, but the blanket being comfortable I made myself comfy in bed. The pillow, on the other hand, is alright, it could be thicker, but luckily I could use a pillow from an empty seat for a nice rest.

If they added a mattress pad, it could make it stand out. However, I slept a good 7 hours on this daytime flight.

The stars make the champagne shine.

Landing in London

Landing in London slight delayed made me have to rush between terminals. Being the only person transferring internationally, I made my way from the plane an empty van that took only me to terminal one to catch my flight to Athens, Greece.

Final word

I would fly Garuda Indonesia long haul business class again for two reasons. Reason one, food is spectacular for business class. I loved eating on this flight. The second reason is that the service is being so attentive. I never had an empty glass on the flight. While their domestic flights aren’t the best when it comes to either food or service, their long-haul flight to Europe offers their best flight attendants and catering.

I personally wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Garuda business class as it offers a great soft product. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way for the seat, but at least it’s better than Singapore business class.

This article was originally published by Steve Smith.

Daniel Gillaspia

Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and creator of the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned full-time credit card rewards/travel expert and has earned and redeemed millions of miles to travel the globe. Since 2014, his content has been featured in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, US News, and Business Insider. Find his full bio here.

Thai Airways Business Class (Royal Silk) 777-200 Review (TPE to BKK) [2021]

This flight was like going to a party that you know you’re not going to really be into, but you just decide to stick around and see how it goes. The Thai 777-200 Royal Silk is a dated product and definitely not the best business class product but I was still interested in seeing how it would be and if it would really be that bad. Keep reading to see how my flight went on the Thai 777 from TPE to BKK.

The trip routing

This particular segment to Bangkok was part of a mini round the world trip which included the following routes: IAH->TPE->BKK (layover)->FRA->IAH.

IAH->TPE: EVA 777-300 J
TPE->BKK: Thai 777-200 J
BKK->FRA: Thai A350-900 J
FRA->IAH: Lufthansa A380-800 F

Round the world trip routing. Image via Gcmap.com.

After securing flights to Taipei and from Frankfurt to the US, I still needed to find a way to get across those 5,823 miles from Frankfurt to Taipei. Ultimately, I decided to fly Thai Airways from TPE to Frankfurt with a connection in BKK based on how good the A350 hard product and soft product appeared and not to mention the low fees. So this leg from TPE to BKK was essentially a positioning flight so that I could fly a much more respected product.

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Flight details

Here are the details for the flight:

Route: Taipei (TPE) -> Bangkok (BKK)
Flight No.: TG 637
Aircraft: 777-200
Class: Business Class (I)
Seat: 12A
Date: June 14, 2019
Departure Time: 7:51 am
Arrival Time: 10:26 am
Flight Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes

Booking Thai business class with points

I booked Thai business class with 75,000 United miles — a pretty competitive rate from Asia to Europe. Fees were only $17.50 but I had to pay $50 in United close-in fees which don’t show below. This flight went for $2,294 USD so that’s about 3 cents per mile which isn’t bad, though that’s a pretty reasonably priced business class ticket in my opinion.

Getting to TPE

After finishing up a very enjoyable (but rainy) stay at the W Taipei, I was off to the airport at around 4:30am via taxi, amid a pretty powerful thunderstorm. I’m glad I left so early because the taxi ended up taking 52 minutes to get to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), thanks in large part to a traffic jam near the airport (I think there was some construction going on).

The taxi driver then dropped me off at the entrance of Thai Airways (TG).

The airport was relatively empty at the time and I quickly made my way to the Thai Airways check-in desk.

I knew I was flying in a 2-2-2 configuration and so I asked to be moved to a window seat with no other passenger next to me if possible and the agent happily made sure that would happen. He also said he’d keep other passengers from choosing a seat next to me, which was a nice gesture and immediately gave me a great first impression of service on Thai Airways.

In the past, Brad and I always have traveled as a couple, so 2-2-2 arrangements were never an issue but as a solo traveler, they do present potential issues since you’ll sometimes be closer to someone than you’d prefer and potentially lose direct aisle access. It might not be a big deal to some people but it’s one major reason why: traveling as a couple > traveling solo.

After you check your bag at TPE, they require you to wait for your bag to pass through the x-ray before you proceed. I’d never seen that before but it only took about a minute or two for my bag to get through.

After checking a bag, I was on my way to security and to find the lounge. Following the boarding and “VIP lounge” signs, I easily found my way through TPE. It would only take me about 13 minutes to get through security and arrive at the lounge.

Plaza Premium Lounge at TPE

As a business class passenger on Thai, they provided me with lounge access to the Plaza Premium Lounge at TPE. Plaza Premium Lounges are often a part of the Priority Pass network and you can also get access to them if you have the American Express Platinum Card.

Like at many other airports, at TPE, several lounges are clustered together, including Cathay Pacific and China Airlines.

I first came across a Plaza Premium Lounge that was not open and I had to keep walking through the main lounge hallway until I came upon another Plaza Premium Lounge. (When I later left, that first lounge would be open so maybe they just open later? Not sure.)

I was welcomed in and then found a seat. The Plaza Premium Lounge wasn’t very big but it was cozy and equipped with plenty of seating (crowds weren’t an an issue at all).

I liked that the seats came equipped with power outlets and were actually very comfortable, although it was a bit chilly inside the lounge.

I also liked the little cubbies found in the lounge, which while very compact were still nice for a little bit of privacy. These were like a miniature version of the Korean Air First Class Lounge.

I then wandered over to the dining area, which had two long tables for eight individuals and then a few tables on the perimeter.

Plaza Premium Lounge at TPE dining area.

I took a look at the food options and ended up requesting a beef soup with rice. It was pretty good though I’m not used to eating beef soup for breakfast. There were some other Western options like scrambled eggs but nothing really struck me as particularly appetizing. Still, it wasn’t a bad line up to choose from.

They had a small selection of wines, beer, coffee, teas (hot water machine), and a soda machine. As for snacks, they had a jar with cookies, nuts, cereal, and also a basket of apples and small selection of bread that you could toast.

Overall, the Plaza Premium Lounge was a decent little lounge that had enough in it to get you by. I thought it felt pretty cozy in there and was very pleased that crowds were a non-factor. But it’s definitely not a spectacular airport lounge or particularly notable for an international business class lounge.

Heading to the gate

After spending about an hour and 10 minutes in the lounge, I was off to find my gate: B4. On the way to the gates, the corridors were pretty interesting. It’s not exactly Incheon International Airport but at least there’s something to look at along the way.

Boarding

I finally arrived at the gate and noticed that this was one of those gate areas where I’d need to head down some stairs. I took the stairs down to the boarding area and promptly lined up for business class so that I’d be the first one to board.

The gate area was decorated with a saxophone theme, which was interesting.

It was still raining outside but I got a little view of the 777-200.

Overall, the boarding process seemed to be very orderly and it was nice having a separate designated line and doorway for business/first class which isn’t always a thing.

Thai Airways 777-200 business class cabin

The Thai Airways 777-200 has 30 angle-flat seats in business class (Royal Silk Business) arranged in a 2-2-2 layout.

I knew I was getting ready to fly on a dated product so my expectations were pretty low but the cabin felt super roomy when I entered. The 777-200 is a true wide body aircraft with no shortage of room in the aisles.

Thai Airways 777-200 business class cabin.

Thai Airways 777-200 business class cabin (notice the horizontal cup holders).

There’s also plenty of legroom between the seats.

Thai Airways 777-200 business class seat

Design, comfort, and privacy

The Thai Airways 777-200 business class seat comes with 60″ of pitch and 20″ of width. That’s not very wide for a business class seat but it didn’t feel cramped when I was on it. The seat design is definitely dated and the seat cloth worn (I’ll show you a closer look in a minute) so nothing about the seat felt “fresh,” though I like the Thai color scheme.

There’s plenty of legroom as mentioned.

Thai Airways 777-200 business class seat legroom.

The catch is that these are angle-flat seats, so you’re not able to get fully flat when trying to sleep. Here’s what it looks like when it is fully reclined.

Honestly, I was completely comfortable on the four hour flight to BKK but if I were trying to get real sleep, that would have been a major issue.

In this case, the footrest that folded out of the seat was pretty tattered.

There is not much privacy at all on these since there’s no suite or privacy shield to block the views of your neighbors. However, since I didn’t have a passenger next to me, the seat felt very private and I didn’t have any complaints in that department.

Seat features (controls, storage)

The seat controls are on the armrest and were pretty responsive. When I fly on these dated products, I pretty much go in half expecting the seat controls to not work properly but everything was in order, as shown by the photos above.

There also is no storage with these seats. You’ve got some counter space but you have to share that and there’s no compartment to place other belongings (aside from literature slots). I had things spread out on the seat next to me so it’s not an ideal work station.

Not a lot of storage space for two passengers.

The tray table comes out of the side of the seat, under the middle armrest.

Thai Airways business class amenity kit & headphones

The seats came with a blanket and pillow but no amenity kit which is understandable for it being such a short flight of under four hours. However, they did issue headphones.

These were lower quality headphones. I’m usually not that observant when it comes to audio quality but I immediately noticed quality drop. These were not on par with the AKG headphones issued in the Thai A350.

Thai 777-200 business class IFE

In-flight entertainment was a major miss on this flight. There’s no touch screens so you’ll control the IFE with a controller that is stowed in the side of your seat. This controller was not very responsive and there was an 8 to 12 second delay for any button I hit.

The screens on the aircraft were 10.4-inch AVOD screen and were seriously outdated.

The movie selection wasn’t bad, though. I had decided to get into the Creed movies on my EVA flight and really enjoyed the first Creed. So I needed to know what happened to Adonis and I decided to watch Creed II on this flight, which I later regretted. Not because the movie was bad but because I could barely make out what was happening on the screen due to the horrible glare and bad picture quality. I thought about switching seats but I’d already made it through half the movie and just said screw it. The A350 screens were lightyears ahead of this.

Thai 777 business class take-off experience

The crew was pretty good about coming around and offering drinks to begin the flight. I ended up going with some orange juice and then some sparkling water (which was on the warm side).

As we took off from rainy Taipei, I got a couple of shots on the way up but the rain was relentless.

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Thai 777 business class dining

I really didn’t expect much on this flight in terms of dining but I definitely wanted to try it out for the sake of reporting.

The first dish consisted of a small fruit arrangement, a couple of rolls and a croissant, and bircher muesli (also known as Swiss Oatmeal). The fruit was fresh, bread pretty good, and the bircher muesli was interesting. I wasn’t in the mood for such a heavy dish like that but had I been, I could’ve seen myself enjoying it.

For the main, I went with the spinach omelette which wasn’t that bad but I didn’t care for much else on the plate such as the chicken sausage, hash brown, or asparagus. It wasn’t the worst meal I’ve had on a plane but nothing that I would be interested in trying again.

Thai 777 business class food menu

Thai 777 business class drink menu

Thai 777 business class service

I thought service was where it should be on a flight like this. I didn’t notice any shortcomings and I thought that the crew did a good job at being attentive and warm. I guess you could say they did a good job of working with what they had given the old 777 were in. On my next flight, service would also be pretty good (for the most part) so I feel like Thai does a pretty good job overall.

Thai Airways 777-200 lavatory

The lavatory is pretty basic but I did like the nice touch of the orchids.

Arriving at BKK

After so much rain in Taipei it was refreshing to see the sky open up again as we approached Taipei!

After landing, it was time to make my way through connections and then get ready for the Thai A350, which was wayyyy more of an impressive product, which you can read about.

Final word

Overall, the Thai 777-200 was very dated. I would not want to be on this plane for a long-haul flight because the angle-flat seat would get old as I tried to sleep and the IFE experience would be frustrating due to poor screen quality. For the four flight to BKK, this wasn’t that bad though, and I didn’t have any major complaints (given what I was flying on).

Daniel Gillaspia

Thai Airways A350 Business Class (Royal Silk) Review (BKK to FRA) [2021]

Thai Airways A350 business class (aka Royal Silk) is a solid business class product. It shines in certain areas like dining but it also has a few shortcomings (though some of those can be avoided with the right planning). Keep reading this article to find out everything you need to know about the Thai Airways A350 business class based on my flight from BKK to FRA.

The trip routing

This particular segment to Frankfurt was part of a mini round the world trip which included the following routes: IAH->TPE->BKK (layover)->FRA->IAH.

IAH->TPE: EVA 777-300 J
TPE->BKK: Thai 777-200 J
BKK->FRA: Thai A350-900 J
FRA->IAH: Lufthansa A380-800 F
~~ORD->IAH: United 737-900 F~~ (changed)

After securing flights to Taipei and from Frankfurt to the US, I still needed to find a way to get across those 5,823 miles from Frankfurt to Taipei. Since I had a nice stash of United miles I turned to the Star Alliance. I thought about flying business with Swiss but I read iffy things about the comfort of the seat. I also considered flying first class on Air China since the suite looks comfortable but that would mean flying Air China.

Partners like EVA and Singapore were out since I already flew them, and I didn’t want to fly Lufthansa business class due to its layout (2-2-2).

Ultimately, I decided to fly Thai Airways from TPE to Frankfurt with a connection in BKK based on how good the A350 hard product and soft product appeared and not to mention the low fees. I’d also just been fascinated by Thai Airways since the last time I visited Bangkok and saw their ads everywhere. I would’ve loved to book Thai first class but I didn’t see any openings so just decided to stick with business.

I didn’t follow Thai award availability for a long time but based on my searches it seemed pretty good.

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Flight details

Here are the details for the flight:

Route: Bangkok (BKK) -> Frankfurt (FRA)
Flight No.: TG 922
Aircraft: A350-900
Class: Business Class (I)
Seat: 15G
Date: June 14, 2019
Departure Time: 12:28 pm
Arrival Time: 7:11 pm
Flight Time: 11 hours, 43 minutes

Booking Thai business class with points

Connecting at BKK

After flying in on a pretty underwhelming 777-200 (review to come later), I had to connect through BKK. I deplaned into a shuttle bus (yay, crowded bus) and then had to make my way through BKK to the international transfer counter.

I wasn’t 100% sure where I was headed once in the airport since the signs weren’t super clear to me and didn’t say anything about international transfers until I got very close to where I needed to be (which was the “East Transfer Counter.”)

After making my way through a few long walkways and going through transfer security, I made it to the Royal Silk Lounge. The entire transfer process at BKK took about 25 minutes.

Thai Royal Silk Lounge

I first arrived at the Thai Royal Orchid Spa — which me being me — had mistaken for the lounge. They told me I could get in in ten minutes and I wondered what kind of second-rate business class lounge would make me wait ten minutes to get in until it clicked…..

Once i realized what they were talking about I didn’t think ten minutes was a bad wait time but I had just gotten a pretty good massage the night before at the W Taipei. I didn’t want to over do it (if that’s even possible with massages) and I was a bit pressed for time, so I opted to go without the massage.

Right across the corridor was the entrance to the lounge.

The Thai Royal Silk Lounge is big and long with glass windows that open up to the terminal. It’s very understated and a little boring by today’s standards but it is spacious, calm, and quiet.

The lounge was not packed at all and so seating was easy to find.

I wandered around a little bit before settling down. I first came across the computer cubbies which were pretty scuffed up and looked a little depressing.

I also saw a kids play room.

And at the back of the lounge was the bar with only one lone patron.

In the middle of the lounge is the main food area where you can find different types of hot food items. Here I found several different types of sandwiches along with a table dedicated to hot food items, such as: fish in red curry sauce, stir-fried Chinese noodles, sautéed vegetables, jasmine steamed rice, and even a margarita pizza.

I was trying to save my appetite for the flight (and to just not be a fat arse) so I only went for a couple of sandwiches to hold me over. They weren’t bad at all.

Overall, it’s a decent-looking lounge that seemed to offer a pretty nice line-up of hot food items along with plenty of snack foods like the sandwiches I had and some sweets as well. But I recall visiting the Cathay Pacific business class lounge last time at BKK and feeling like it had more to offer in terms of dining (can you say noodle bar?) and coziness (though it was much smaller as a satellite lounge).

After spending only a few minutes in the lounge, I started to make the trek over to the boarding gate: C5. That’s about when I stumbled upon another Royal Silk Lounge, which was much closer to my gate. So I learned my lesson to not simply jump on the first lounge I see but to do a little scouting, although that lounge appeared smaller from the outside.

So I continued on towards my gate at C5, which was pretty scenic as you can tell.

And then finally I came up to the entrance to the gate and there she was! (The A350 — not the girl in the photo below.)

Boarding

The boarding took place in a contained area for C5 down from the main terminal corridor. There were no signs for economy, business, etc. — just an area sectioned off that allowed passengers with disabilities to continue through. Eventually, an agent simply unroped the area and they made the call for business class passengers in what was a fairly orderly boarding process.

I was the first to board and followed the jet bridge through to the exclusive business class boarding entrance.

Thai Airways A350 business class cabin

The Thai Airways A350 business class cabin is made up of 32 flat bed seats arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The seat layouts alternate in each row. Some rows have true window seats directly adjacent to the windows while other rows have “window” seats closer to the aisles. The middle seats also have “honeymoon” seats which are the rows with seats close together while other rows have seats better for folks who want more privacy.

Thai Airways A350 seat map. Image via SeatGuru.com.

When I first entered the cabin, I was very impressed with the aesthetics. It’s a beautiful cabin, and I immediately fell in love with look of the purple accents and brown faux wood panels. It felt very peaceful and the orchids placed on the counters were an elegant touch.

I really liked the floral wall art found at the back of the cabin as well.

Although I loved the look and feel of the business class cabin, the aisles did feel narrow and the cabin slightly cramped (though it helped that the overhead bins sit so high in the middle to open things up).

Thai Airways A350 business class seat

Design, comfort, and privacy

I was assigned seat 15G but that’s not the seat I would have picked. I really wanted a “true” window seat which would have much more privacy but I was willing to “settle” for this seat which just required a little more work for the window views.

I’ve learned that’s one of the drawbacks to last-minute booking: limited seat selection.

Notice how the seat below has much more privacy since it’s closer to the windows. I was truly envious of the people in these seats.

Thai Airways A350 business class window seat.

The seat looked beautiful up close but I did immediately notice how narrow it looked. SeatGuru has it listed at 20″ wide compared to the 26″ wide seat I’d just flown with EVA — that’s a pretty dramatic difference. The armrests are also very thin as you can tell in the photo below. Still, despite those drawbacks, I didn’t find the seat uncomfortable.

The next thing I wanted to check out was the footwell. It looked pretty deep and not as narrow as some business class seats out there so I was holding out hope that I would be able to get comfortable during the flight.

One thing that I did notice was the large hinge for the tray table that was pretty much just begging my knee to hit it.

But I was pretty comfortable with my feet stretched out into the foot well. Once my feet (size 12) were in the footwell, it felt a little cramped but not in an extremely uncomfortable way.

The problem came when the crew was pushing out the drink cart. The crew would be literally centimeters from my legs.

Also, there’s only a very modest privacy shield on the seat so the seats don’t feel very private.

I really believe that if I had a true window seat that the entire experience would have felt much different, so if you value privacy I highly recommend that you avoid the type fo seat I had — it just feels too exposed.

Seat features (controls, storage)

The seat controls are easy to access and to use and will be right next to your armrest. I really liked how easy it was to turn on the reading lamp and then the additional lighting they had for the seat. I also thought that the lighting looked great when it was turned on.

There’s not a lot of easily accessible storage compartments. You have some storage space under the ottoman but that’s not accessible when the seat is in lie-flat mode, so you’re really just left with the deep pocket seen below, which can hold things like your amenity kit, passport, and other things.

The storage under the ottoman offers a decent amount of space but items tends to roll out of there due to the uneven surface. I’d recommend just throwing all of your bedding and other materials in the overhead bin.

Once you take off, you should have enough space to pull out a bag or backpack and plop it down next to the window for easy access.

I liked how easy and straightforward it was to bring down and store the tray table.

However, the tray table did feel just a little small to me (compared to others like EVA).

On the outside of the tray table is a hook for hanging your garments.

The power outlet (110V, 60Hz) is found on the front of seat and the headphone jack is just above that. It’s not too difficult to access them and wires never really got in the way so I was okay with their position.

There are two USB ports just under the TV screen. These are super easy to access but they could give you a little bit of trouble if you have a short USB cable.

Thai Airways business class amenity kit & headphones

The Thai A350 business class amenity kit is very basic.

Although I liked the Mandarina Duck bag, there’s not anything special about the amenity kit. Inside, you’ll find the following:

Lotion
Dental kit
Mouth wash
Lip Balm
Comb

The toothbrush and toothpaste are very cheap and my toothpaste “malfunctioned” and wouldn’t open so I asked the crew if they had a different kit they could give me. They brought me out a much higher quality dental kit and I thought that was interesting. As far as the lotion, it was refreshing but not on par with luxury-brand lotions.

No pajamas or slippers were issued so I simply jumped into the ones I had from EVA. It felt a little disrespectful, but they are all Star Alliance so whatever.

The headphones were from AKG and were noise-cancelling. These were mediocre quality and required you to slip on the covers to the speakers, which of course came off every chance they got (even though I had secured them). So overall, the business class amenities from Thai were average.

Thai A350 business class IFE

The TV monitors on the A350 were large (16″ I believe), crisp, and responsive. You could control them via touch screen or with the remote control.

I would rate the in-flight entertainment as solid based on the movie selection. I don’t watch TV, play games on flights, etc., so I judge IFE based solely on the movie selection. I ask myself, “Is there enough flight time to watch all of the movies I really want to see.” If the answer is no, then that’s a solid IFE experience. In this case, they had several movies I wanted to see (Creed II, Game Night, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, and several others).

One form of IFE I love is viewing the flight maps. On this flight though this wasn’t an option because the satellite was out. That was a major blow because I usually check that every 90 minutes or so and love getting the photos. Oh well.

Thai A350 business class wifi

The Thai A350 offered wifi but I’ve been getting screwed when purchasing wifi on long-haul flights. The wifi speed has been unbearable (assuming I can even get it to connect). Since they were already having satellite issues, I didn’t feel like bothering with it. Plus, the couple of hours I allocated for work could be done offline anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.

Thai A350 business class drink menu

I’m still on my alcohol hiatus (still debating if a glass of champagne really falls under this) so I didn’t partake but here’s a look at what was offered on the menu.

I went with my usual: sparkling water.

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Thai A350 business class dining

The Thai Royal Silk business class dining experience was a memorable one and probably the highlight of the flight for me. I really didn’t know what to expect so I went in very open minded.

We started off with Iberico ham stuffed coriander cream cheese and mozzarella pearl along with a Thai spicy prawn salad with lemongrass and mint. They also brought out the bread and I took a piece. The appetizer was fresh with a nice little kick that was balanced by the cream cheese — not a bad way to get things started.

The appetizer: Iberico ham stuffed coriander cream cheese and mozzarella pearl along with a Thai spicy prawn salad with lemongrass and mint.

Then the main dish came out, which had the following:

Deep-fried snapper fish with Swet and Sour Chilli Sauce
Prawn and pork belly soup with mixed Thai herbs
Deep-fried marinated pork
Stir-fried cabbage with fish sauce
Steamed duo jasmine rice

The snapper was phenomenal. The flavors popped in my mouth and the fish had the perfect amount of kick to it. It also helped that they served up a good-sized portion. I have forgotten about a lot of business class dishes (and even first class meals) but this will not be one of those.

Deep-fried snapper fish with Swet and Sour Chilli Sauce.

I was in love with the blue jasmine rice. Even though there was no discernible difference in taste and I only ate a small portion, there’s just something cool about eating blue food.

The soup broth was very flavorful with a nice sharp twang that the shrimp soaked up. I didn’t try the pork belly, though.

Prawn and pork belly soup with mixed Thai herbs.

I tried a small piece of the fried pork but just wasn’t feeling it. I think I’ve gotten to the point that if it’s not bacon or pepperoni, I’m really not that interested in pork.

Next came the “boutique” cheese platter which had a good variety of tasty cheeses.

And then dessert rolled out: a lemon meringue tart. This little dessert packed a punch and I wasn’t able to finish it but it was good. Not too heavy and just tart enough.

And then they wrapped things up with one final sweet snack.

After getting some sleep (more on that below) and then waking up, they brought out the second meal. The appetizers were marinated salmon with coffee, cream cheese and pistachio, crepe roll baba ganoush, and a fresh pineapple morsel topped with sauteed minced pawn, pork, and peanuts. These starters were much more of a shock to the taste buds and I’m not sure they were the best choice for right after waking.

And then they brought out yet another winner — the baked salmon trout with horseradish yogurt sauce. I took off the skin and this salmon and sauce was great and tasted high quality. I avoided the potatoes but thoroughly enjoyed the buttered snow peas.

And then another dessert in a cup was brought out — a dulcey chocolate panna cotta with apricot jelly, raspberry sauce. This one was very sweet and rich and a great way to cap off the memorable dining experience.

Overall, this was a killer business class dining experience. To have two main courses I really enjoyed is not common and I appreciated the variety and depth of the flavors. I would have to rank Thai business class dining up there with some of the best J cabins based on this flight.

Thai A350 business class service

Overall the service was great, but it could be more polished. The crew was very warm and spoke good English and though I don’t judge crews based on English speaking abilities (for non-US routes), it was helpful. My only issue was a slight lack of attentiveness.

The crew piled up things on my counter like glasses, water bottles, coasters, trays, towels, etc. and then would just forget about them. This is especially annoying for someone like me who is trying to constantly get clean photographs. I feel like most other airlines have done better at keeping the seats rubbish free.

But overall I would say the staff was great — just need to work on being a little more attentive.

Thai A350 business class lavatory

The Thai A350 business class lavatory was clean but pretty basic.

The orchids were a nice touch.

There were a couple of fragrance bottles in there but no facial misters or anything like that (I’m kind of addicted to those right now). They had cups in there but I don’t think I’d ever risk using water directly from the plane’s lavatory to rinse unless times were truly desperate. Also, don’t mind me looking like a hobo in the photo below.

Overall, it was a pretty standard lavatory that did feel a little cramped when I changed in there. In fact, it was so cramped that when changing I dropped my phone on the floor next to the toilet, which was just tragic.

Thai A350 business class bedding

After my meal, I decided to make my bed and pulled out the bedding. A couple of crew members walked past me as I made the bed and didn’t offer to help, which didn’t bother me (okay, maybe it did a little). But the lack of help was in contrast to the help I’ve experienced flying business on other Asian airlines like Singapore — they seem eager to go the extra mile.

The bedding pad was thicker than the one I recently had with EVA air which gave me hope that this would be a comfortable sleeping experience.

But when I pulled out the blanket, I realized that it was much thinner than the EVA blanket. I then got settled into the bed and immediately felt cramped by the narrow seat and the footwell that all of a sudden felt much tighter. The bed is 73.5 inches or about five inches shorter than EVA. Despite the short length, once I tired out a couple of different positions and I got on my side, I was able to find a comfy position.

I ended up sleeping several hours on the plane, probably around five or so. I now think that I’m turning a corner sleeping on planes due to the fact that I can now comfortably fall asleep on my side. I was always a 1000% stomach sleeper but a neck issue forced me to learn how to sleep on my side and I think the silver lining to that is I can now get more comfortable on planes.

That combined with the fact I don’t drink on planes has allowed me to land feeling refreshed even after 15+ hour flights. The atmosphere on the A350 might have helped with the refreshed feeling, too.

So if you struggle to sleep on planes and you’re a stomach sleeper, I’d recommend trying to get used to sleeping on your side — it makes business class way more tolerable.

Landing at FRA

Before I knew it, we were approaching Frankfurt and getting ready for landing. It was nice getting a good view of the Frankfurt skyline from the plane.

Once we touched down I made my way through immigration which was a very interesting experience as someone in the front of my line was having major issues not responding to questions and causing a big scene. I ended up having to switch lines after waiting several minutes and luckily got through there amid that fiasco. Once through, I was off to pick up my bags and headed outside.

I looked at the prices for the limousine pick-up at the airport and saw that they were outrageous for the Hilton Frankfurt. So I looked at taxi prices which were about €45 and I priced out Uber which was only about €22. So I went with Uber.

If you choose to get picked by Uber at FRA, you’ll need to head up the departures level and that’s were you’ll get scooped up (you will be able to select a specific entrance like “entrance five” which will be clearly numbered so it’s a very easy Uber pick up process.

Final word

Overall, here’s what I felt about Thai Royal Silk business class on the A350 based on my flight:

Pros:

Fantastic dining
Solid IFE
Great service

Cons:

Exposed seat
Narrow and slightly short seat
Basic amenities

Daniel Gillaspia

ANA 777 First Class Suites Review (ORD to HND) [2021]

Japanese-based ANA (All Nippon Airways) has a very highly regarded first class product that many rave about. ANA’s first class suite on their Boeing 777 offers a suite that might not be industry leading, but their first class service and food outshine almost any other airline.

In this review, I will share my most recent experience flying ANA first class from Chicago to Tokyo. I’ll also cover things like my booking with miles and points, fees, lounge experiences, and everything else in-between.

Booking

Routes

ANA has a number of routes from Tokyo Hanada – HND (which is their downtown airport) and Tokyo Narita – NRT (which is an airport further away from downtown.)

Chicago – ORD serves HND and NRT
New York – JFK serves HND and NRT
Los Angeles – LAX serves HND and NRT
Honolulu – HNL serves HND and NRT
San Fransico – SFO serves NRT
Houston – IAH serves NRT
Washinton DC – IAD serves NRT
Seattle – SEA serves NRT (no first class)
San Jose – SJC serves NRT (no first class)
Mexico City – MEX serves NRT (no first class)

Miles and points and fees

Since I was redeeming miles for myself and Yuka with completely different needs for itineraries, I ended up redeeming both Avianca LifeMiles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles.

For myself, I booked using LifeMiles considering I wanted a one-way award without any want to go back home. Thus, it ended up costing me 90,000 LifeMiles one-way for Chicago – ORD to Toyko – HND. LifeMiles doesn’t add fuel surcharges, so the fees equaled $30.60 USD.

LifeMiles transfers from Amex Membership Rewards or Citi ThankYou Points (and now Capital One). Plus, LifeMiles runs many promotions for buying miles on the cheap, which I ended up doing because I didn’t want to transfer points and instead pay for this flight because of the promotion.

For Yuka, I booked using Virgin Atlantic miles since she was going from Japan to the USA but needed to go back to Japan. Virgin Atlantic miles has a sweet spot with ANA first class. For 120,000 miles roundtrip in first class, you can go from the east-coast to Japan and then back to the US. Plus, it allows open jaws, just no one-way itineraries. Thus, Yuka did HND to New York – JFK for the outbound and her return ORD to HND.

The one downside with using Virgin Atlantic mile is the fact that they impose fuel surcharges. While it’s not a huge issue, it does add up if you add more than one person to the award. For Yuka, her fees equaled $335.41 USD. Big difference in fees, but I would still redeem Virgin Atlantic miles for ANA first-class again since they offer excellent transfer promotions from Amex Membership Rewards a few times a year.

Remember, Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of Chase so this could be one of the most valuable first class redemptions for your Chase Ultimate Rewards.

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ORD Lounge

One of my favorite domestic lounges in the US would be the United Polaris Lounge.

Since ANA doesn’t have any flights to Detroit – DTW. I have many airports to choose from for our flight to Japan. Since flying out of ORD last year on my ANA first class flight and experiencing the United Polaris lounge, I find it one of the best lounges in the US.

The lounge is exclusive since business or first class passengers have access into the lounge. You cannot access the lounge any other way, not even status gets you in.

The entrance of ORD United Polaris lounge

The lounge has lots of amenities from a restaurant-style dining room, buffet dining room, nap rooms, shower rooms, and a bar. The seating varies from tables, lounge chairs, to private cubbies with pull out desks.

My favorite is the restaurant-style dining room where you can sit down and order off the menu. While it takes a while for orders to come to your tables or the disappearance of waiters/waitresses, it’s still proper dining with a lovely menu and decent food.

Herbed-crusted Pacific salmon ordered in the dining room.

The showers and nap rooms are first come, first served. I love the showers in particular since the floor is heated and could be controlled to your leisure. Even for an evening flight like ours, the lounge didn’t fill up like the likes of the EWR United Polaris lounge.

There are no boarding announcements for the flight. However, airlines like Lufthansa and ANA do walk around giving updates on delayed flights in a calm, but a noticeable tone of voice.

Boarding

Since our flight was leaving late, about 30 minutes late, we ended up arriving later than most.

ORD isn’t my favorite airport. Gate seating is not enough for the 100s of passengers for certain flights like ours. The lines also go out of the gate forcing people to avoid these long lines walking to other gates. Notice the first and diamond line not having enough room in the gate area and is forced to go into the middle of the terminal. The same goes with the economy and business class lines, but far worse.

In the photo, the first class and diamond elite line and passengers were eager to get on. First class, ANA Diamond elites, people needing assistance, and families boarding started first. First class and Diamonds use their own jet bridge and people requiring assistant and families using the business and economy jetbridge.

First class and ANA Diamond elite boarding line.

Once we were onboard, we were greeted by two friendly first class flight attendants that escorted us to our seats.

Yuka being escorted to her seat, which was seat 2K.

The first class seat

The first class cabin is a 2 row 1-2-1 configuration. These seats are considered by SeatGuru to be open suites. The seat itself will remind you of a lounge chair with the feature of going into the fully lie-flat position for bed-mode.

I personally like these seats. They aren’t my favorite for looking out of the window, nighttime flights don’t really matter, but the amount of storage compartments and privacy makes the seat somewhat awesome and niche. There is a place for everything on both walls, under the ottoman, in the ottoman, and on the shelf. In terms of design looks, I do like it as well, but that is subjective. It’s basically a mini-office cubical.

I would also love to note how clean and well maintained these seats are. One reason why I love flying Japanese full-service airlines, like ANA and JAL, is the fact that they do such a great job at cleaning and maintaining the seat conditions.

These seats are amazing for privacy and by far one of the most private seats without a door. However, the window seat does suck if you want to look out of the window since they make you lean forward. The middle seats also have the same problem making you lean forward to see your partner on the other side of the wall.

Luckily, sitting in the middle still allows you to close that tiny divider for ultimate privacy. So, because of those reasons we chose to sit both in the window seats and just come over to visit each other during the flight.

Waiting at our seats were a Samsonite amenity kit, headphones, PJs, and a cardigan. Once I got settled into my seat, the crew asked what I wanted to drink. I asked for a glass of champagne.

The crew then walks around asking if you want anything from their basket of goodies like Shiseido lip balm, toothbrush, earplugs, relaxation scent card, etc. Then they give you the wifi card good for 100MB of data, and later on, they ask if you need arrival cards. OnAir is their wifi provider and is not my favorite provider since it’s slow, not as fast, and also has data limits, unlike their competitors. I prefer JAL’s wifi which has unlimited data.

ANA first class seat 1K displaying their new safety video.

ANA first class wifi card and arrival cards.

During our decent, I filmed a mini seat tour trying to show all the compartments and what it looks like when sitting in the seat:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxEtAwnuhgU[/embedyt]

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ANA first class dining

Once the plane was in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off the crew went into action. The crew were very diligent and began taking Yuka’s drink order first and then asked for my drink order.

The amuse and my drink order came out. The amuse served this flight was a roasted duck and kumquat pincho, grape and goat cheese ball with pistachio, smoked salmon and scallop tartar in bouchee pie, and cheese pepper bars. The drink I ordered was Krug Champagne. I didn’t care for the amuse much.

After finishing the Amuse, I was asked for my meal order. I told the flight attendant I wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to eat. However, after relaxing a few hours, I was hungry and thirsty. I pressed the call button and immediately the flight attendant arrived. I told her I was hungry and asked if I could order my meal now. She asked what I wanted and was happy to prepare my meal.

Shortly after she took my meal order another flight attendant brought me a warm towel and started to set my table.

ANA first class dining table presentation

I love the olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper presentation.

Salt and pepper with butter and olive oil.

For my appetizer, I ordered parsnip mousse with caviar. The parsnip mousse was okay, but it was nice to have something different besides the standard caviar setup. ANA does provide a mother of pearl spoon with the caviar. A flight attendant brought me the bread basket filled with a few different options, I opted for sourdough bread.

Another appetizer was the garden salad topped with blue cheese and bacon served with Japanese style dressing. Surprisingly, the menu only says garden salad and the types of dressing available. I find it weird that they don’t describe the salad to be topped with blue cheese and bacon. I am a fan of blue cheese and enjoyed the salad, but I know many people that aren’t.

For the main, I ordered the vegetable ravioli with curry-flavored cream sauce. For anyone that knows me, I love curry. Since it’s a curry cream sauce, it ended up not being spicy. The ravioli noodles weren’t too hard or too soft. The only change I would make to the dish is for the dish to be spicy. Overall though, I enjoyed eating this dish.

I ended up skipping dessert and the cheese plate since I was super full.

After the meal, I wanted to sleep so they made my bed and I ended up sleeping for a bit. I woke up and wanted to visit Yuka. ANA doesn’t support a dual dining experience, but if the seat is in bed mode, there is more than enough room for me to sit by the IFE display. There is also enough room us to pull out the table and dine together. Of course, we asked if it’s okay and the crew said it’s alright unless there is turbulence.

In bed mode, I was able to sit and dine with Yuka

Yuka ended up ordering ramen. ANA serves special ramen on routes to Japan and it’s called IPPUDO rich-tasting miso “DAICHI” ramen. We both shared one bowl loving it and really enjoyed the rich flavors it had. This bowl of ramen my favorite dish out of all the dishes we had and Yuka’s second favorite dish after her steak.

Me being me, I became more hungry and wanted to have some curry. I ordered ANA original curry and the dish presentation was lacking. However, the rice was cooked correctly and the curry tasted better than how it actually looks.

Then we ordered ice cream, which was vanilla and caramel ice cream. However, the crew made a special plate presentation with a plane (they remember me mentioning how I love planes), flowers, dry ice to resemble clouds, and happy written in chocolate. An adorable display and shows how far the crew will go.

A special ice cream presentation for Yuka and I

After the ice cream, I was still hungry and ordered seafood over steamed rice. It was very good and surprisingly fresh. The side of wasabi was right and didn’t remind me of the cheap packets of wasabi that you would get from the grocery store.

ANA first class service

ANA is one of those special airlines that shines in every cabin for service. No matter if you fly economy, premium economy, business, or first, you will find that service is very attentive and professional, and it’s partly because the service industry in Japan is known to be the best in terms of professional and polite service, yet somewhat robotic.

However, the crew on this flight wasn’t robotic, but it was the opposite. They were very down to earth, got to know us, laughed, very attentive on how much water I drank and even offered me a 1-liter bottle of water, and professional all at the same time. While this doesn’t hit the mark of the most fun crew I have ever had on a flight, but this crew was definitely the best when it came down to how considerate and attentive they were.

ANA first class bed

Once you’re ready for bed, you can ask one of the flight attendants that you are ready to sleep and they will offer to make your bed. On this flight, I ended up having a pleasant nap since I ended up eating and talking to Yuka, most of the flight.

ANA provides a mattress pad, proper blanket, two pillows (one is memory foam), and the thinner blanket provided. The bed is wide and long. I like to sleep on my stomach or on my side and the bed provides a lot of space for me to do so. The pillows are the right size since ANA gives you two different pillows. Having the choice between two different pillows makes a huge difference.

The only negative thing about the bed is the fact that the mattress pad is just okay. While it adds comfort, it’s not much comfort and it’s not as nice as some other first class mattress pads.

Final word

This flight from Chicago to Tokyo flying ANA first class was one of the top 3 flights I have ever taken. The flight shined since the crew was being so loving and attentive. Then the food that was super yummy and made for a wonderful dining experience. Plus, this flight is one of the easiest and cheapest first class redemptions with reasonable surcharges that are avoidable.

I would definitely fly ANA again and was glad to share the experience with Yuka as well.

This article was originally published by Steve Smith.

Daniel Gillaspia

Qatar Airways A350 Business Class Review (DOH to MLE)

Qatar Airways has a great business class product on its A350. I recently flew on it from Doha to the Maldives and it was a great flight though a bit on the shorter side. Here’s a review of the Qatar Airways A350 business class.

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Booking

Finding availability

Our entire Qatar itinerary was CDG->DOH->MLE. Availability from CDG to DOH was actually pretty good in first class and so it wasn’t that difficult to find award seats to Doha. However, I could only find economy award seats from DOH to MLE so I originally just settled for those.

Tickets cancelled without notice

Booking these seats almost became a disaster on multiple occasions.

I used 62,500 AA miles per person to book the flight and paid $153 in fees for each person, which is one of the top uses for AA miles.

I had to call in to the Australian AA center to book but they did not process my payment in the local currency (Australian dollars). This led to my tickets being stuck in limbo and eventually cancelled. To make matters worse, I wasn’t even notified about the cancellation!

Luckily, I caught that it happened a few days later. And I actually got even luckier, business class seats had opened up so I was able to change my booking from economy to business class to the Maldives without having to pay any change fees.

But the drama wasn’t over there.

Trouble in the Maldives

I was very close to routing through Colombo, Sri Lanka but luckily flights continued between Qatar and the Maldives and I could breathe once again… or at least I could until the Maldives declared a state of emergency a couple of weeks before our trip (it actually wasn’t bad at all).

Aircraft swap

One last twist occurred before our trip as the aircraft between Doha and Male was swapped from an A330 to an A350. I much preferred the A350 1-2-1 layout in business class to the A330’s 2-2-2 so this was a welcomed change.

Circuitous routing due to airspace restrictions.

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The journey

This flight was part of our mega round the world trip and was toward the middle of trip.

We started this particular segment of our trip in Paris after staying two nights at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, which was an interesting experience for me. It’s not a horrible hotel but considering this is a flagship Hyatt property, my experience there left a bit to be desired in the service department….

After that we made our way to the Qatar first/business lounge at CDG, which was very nice. It had some beautiful decor and some pretty solid dining options to choose from. I also thought the outdoor terrace was really cool (I didn’t get to experience it because of the weather).

We then flew out first class on the Qatar A380 from Paris to Doha on what was a great first class flight. The first class cabin is very open but yet still felt very private and the dining and service was on point. I was also a really, really big fan of the on-board bar/lounge pictured below.

After touching down in Doha, we were luckily allowed to experience the amazing Al Safwa First Class Lounge after initially getting a little bit of resistance due to the timing of our flight. That lounge is one of the most stunning first class lounges that I’ve visited.

It’s a huge lounge that resembles a museum in many respects and has some impressive water features.

I really liked the mini hotel rooms that it has where you can get some sleep, shower, and even watch some TV just like you would at an ordinary hotel.

The food and service were also great in the lounge in as well.

After spending the night at the lounge we were refreshed and ready to make our way from Doha down to the warm Maldives.

Boarding

We were among the first passengers to board and took our seats on 1A and 2A.

The Qatar A350 business class cabin

The cabin on the A350 looked very fresh and new.

The Qatar A350 business cabin is divided up with eight rows in one cabin and then a mini-cabin with three rows. There’s a small mini-bar area in-between the cabins but since this was a shorter flight they didn’t set up the bar area to my disappointment.

It was still a nice area to wander to during the flight and get some stretching done, and I noticed a few other passengers congregated there during the flight.

The seats, which are B/E Aerospace Super Diamonds, are 22 inches wide according to SeatGuru, which is two inches wider than the business class seats on the Cathay Pacific A350. I thought the seats were very comfortable and I could definitely see myself riding in these on a long-haul flight.

The Qatar business class seats are very similar to the Cathay Pacific business class seats on the A350, although Cathay Pacific seats have a the privacy shield, which makes the flying experience feel much more private.

The first thing I immediately noticed was that the bulkhead seat, 1A, has much more legroom than seat 2A. Since this was a shorter flight that didn’t matter that much, but it’s something that I would definitely want to consider if I were on a long-haul flight.

There’s a fair amount of privacy for the middle seats as they are spaced pretty far apart.

You can also raise a middle partition for additional privacy, which you can see below.

The business class seats come with a nice amount of counter space with two tiers to work with.

Qatar A350 business class seat counter space.

The top counter space is pretty wide and comes with a water bottle in a holder as well as a lamp.

The in-flight entertainment controller is built into the side of the counter and I found it to be very responsive.

Qatar A350 business class in-flight controller.

There’s also a panel for the seat controls with many different types of configurations to choose from. The arm rests can be raised or lowered to your liking.

Qatar A350 business class seat controls.

There’s a nice storage compartment on the side of the seat, next to where you can find the power outlet.

Qatar A350 business class storage compartment.

The amenity kits came in these bags with cool designs. Inside, they had an eye mask, lip balm, and socks, which wasn’t bad for a short-haul flight.

The headphones were not quite Bose but not bad at all.

Overall, it’s a pretty impressive business class seat. Yes, it could be a tad more private and perhaps even a little bit more leg room (more on that below) but these seats are reportedly wider than those on other products like the Cathay Pacific A350.

After checking out the seat we were ready to take off down to the Maldives. We caught a fantastic view of the Doha skyline as we departed that made a lasting impression on me.

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Qatar business class dining

I started off with the signature Qatar drink which is the lemon-mint beverage. This drink is a must on any Qatar flight in my opinion as I could drink on that stuff all day.

For an appetizer, I just kept it simple and went with fresh fruit which was very fresh and juicy.

Next came out some bread and croissants.

For the main dish, I went with the Arabian breakfast. I’d already had a pretty hearty American breakfast very early in the morning at the lounge so I wasn’t that hungry. However, I still managed to scarf some of this stuff down and it was all very refreshing.

After that I tried out a refreshing smoothie-type drink which was pretty good though I didn’t have the tatse buds to finish it off.

This was a shorter flight so I didn’t get the full Qatar business class dining which I’ve heard a lot of great things about. However, I can tell that Qatar knows what they are doing based on the quality of the food.

I’d also point out that the service on this flight was top-notch.

The level of attention on the flight felt pretty close to a first class experience to be honest. When the cabin manager found out we were going to be cutting it really close to connecting with our puddle jumper flight, they took extra time to explain to me how immigration should work and what I should do about answering some important questions on my immigration card.

The bedding

Due to the short length of the trip, I wasn’t able to try out the bed properly. However, I did put the seat all the way down and tested it out. I liked that the arm rest and the padding on top of the side storage compartment made the lying experience feel a little more spacious.

However, when compared to the business class seat on the Cathay Pacific A350, I think I prefer the Cathay Pacific A350 since it has a wider area for your legs that you can see in the photo below.

Maldives views

Flying into the Maldives is a lot of fun because the views are simply stunning. While we were flying as a couple and tempted to take the middle seats, we decided it’d be better to go for the window seats on this flight. And I’m 100% happy that we made that decision.

Watching these beautiful turquoise atolls, reefs, and islands pop up left and right as you approach Male is mesmerizing. I’d honestly never seen anything quite like it before.

You can spot several of the resorts from the sky but I wasn’t able to recognize any of them from up in the air. I will say that there were many more resorts than I had imagined before heading to the Maldives.

We caught a great view of the city of Male, too, which was one of the most densely populated cities I’ve seen.

After landing we were able to get through immigrations and customs very quickly and we were escorted to the Hilton Conrad Lounge where we awaited to be taken to our retreat water villa at the Conrad (which was a fantastic stay).

Final word

Qatar has a very solid business class product on the A350. It’s comfortable, open, and a great way to spend time in the sky. It does have some cons compared to other similar products, but I would be very happy to fly this business class product in the future (though I’d be very interested in the Q-Suites).

Daniel Gillaspia

Cathay Pacific First Class Review (HKG to BKK)

I’d been wanting to fly first class on Cathay Pacific for a long time. Initially, I wanted to fly only long-haul first class but when an opportunity came to try it out on a short-haul flight I couldn’t really resist. Here’s my Cathay Pacific first class review from Hong Kong (HKG) to Bangkok (BKK).

Booking Cathay Pacific first class

Getting these first class tickets was not easy.

I originally was going to book business class Cathay Pacific tickets with Alaska Airline miles from HKG to Sydney. But then I decided to try my luck at flying the new Singapore first class suites from Singapore to Sydney, so I decided to just make our way to Singapore on Cathay.

I initially booked us two one-way business class tickets from Hong Kong to Singapore for 25,000 Alaska miles.

But then I saw that Cathay was flying the 777 (with a first class cabin) between Hong Kong and Bangkok so I booked us two tickets to Singapore with a layover in Bangkok. The initial leg would be in first class while the second segment would be in business class.

I don’t usually like layovers but if it means trying out a new first class product, I’m always open to give it a shot.

Fast forward a few months and I log into my Asia Miles account one day and see that both legs are actually in business class!

Our aircraft had been swapped for an A350 so we’d be flying business class the entire way. This made the hassle of the layover in Bangkok not worth it.

But luckily, after constant checking, I was eventually able to switch our flight so that we would still be flying first class to Bangkok. (It really pays to closely monitor award inventory in these situations.)

The fees

The total fees for the flight came out to the following:

Base Fare and Surcharges: $6.00
Taxes and Other Fees: $36.00
Ticketing Fee (nonrefundable): $15.00
Partner Award Booking Fee (nonrefundable): $12.50
Total charges for air travel: USD $139.00

$139 for two people isn’t bad considering the product level so as far as I was concerned this was a great redemption.

You can read more on booking Cathay Pacific with Alaska miles here.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is also a partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Citi Thankyou Points so it’s often not very difficult to to rack up points to transfer to Asia miles. The also have a co-branded credit card.

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The Pier at HKG

We arrived extra early to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) to check out two airport lounges: The Cathay Pacific first class lounge known as The Pier and the new Amex Centurion Lounge.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Pier. It has to be one of the most elegant first class lounges in the world.

We didn’t try out the spa but we did check out the restaurant, bar area, and day suites. The dining is top notch at the restaurant and while the day suites were interesting, they were a bit too quiet for me at the time.

I think I caught it on sort of an off-day with the service since it was far from attentive and felt very stand-offish, from the welcome desk to the restaurant. Because of that I preferred other lounges like the Al Safwa Lounge which offered us more in terms of service.

But overall I was impressed with the lounge and I think that if I visited it again, the service might turn out to be much better.

The Amex Centurion Lounge at HKG

The Amex Centurion Lounge felt much different from the Centurion Lounges in the US. This lounge was wide open in the terminal and not even close to crowded.

I loved the look and feel of the lounge.

Much of the furniture and decor was similar to what you’d find at other Centurion Lounges but it felt even more contemporary than other Centurion Lounges with its sleek bar area and open views from multiple points in the lounge.

The lounge may not be as equipped as other Centurion Lounges but I still think it’s one of my favorites.

They served some of the same cocktails you can find in the US and the service, food, and drinks, were on par with other Centurion Lounges.

Drinks at the Hong Kong Centurion Lounge.

Overall, it was a nice lounge visit to have after just finishing up at The Pier and I think it’s worth stopping by just to check it out.

The Cathay Pacific first class cabin

The Cathay Pacific first class cabin on the 777 is small with only six suites, which makes the experience feel extra exclusive.

The most private suites are on the A aisle but we were not able to select those given how late we jumped on booking this flight.One cool feature about the first class cabin the red carpet walkways. At first I didn’t care for them but they eventually grew on me.

They also have wall decor in the form of artwork and flowers.

While I appreciated the homey touches, the cabin does feel a little outdated. It’s not bad looking and actually quite pretty — it’s just that I think Cathay Pacific is ready for an upgrade. They are expected to upgrade their first class in the next couple of years but nobody really knows what to expect at this point.

When I first entered the cabin I was surprised at how outrageously spacious the suites were.

Even though they don’t fully enclose, they are very roomy and still feel private due to the walls of the suites protruding pretty far out.

Cathay Pacific’s first class seats are ridiculously wide. The couple sitting in front of us were sitting in the same seat for a while — that’s how wide they are.

I found the seat very comfortable. If you want, you can pull down the armrest to make things a little more practical.

As much as I like the wide seat, it’s always odd to me when seats like these and those from Singapore have ultra-wide seats with smaller footwells/ottomans.

The footwells aren’t tiny, but it’s just a weird feeling when you have so much upper body space and limited space for your feet. I prefer seats with ottomans that don’t taper like those found on Korean Air, Qatar, and others.

One thing I did really like is that there is a lot of storage underneath the ottoman.

In-flight entertainment

They offered us high-quality Bose headphones that were in great condition (I’ve noticed some airlines not paying attention to the condition of their headphones).

The TV monitors are big and can be popped out for optimal viewing.

There were a ton of movies and TV shows to check out and I though the in-flight entertainment system was great. You can find out what’s currently playing in first class here.

Cathay Pacific first class entertainment.

You can control your entertainment with the touch screen remote.

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Cathay Pacific First Class Dining

The dining on this flight exceeded my expectations. Since this was only a flight from Hongkong to Bangkok, they didn’t serve us premium champagne like Krug.

But even without that, the dining experience was still top notch.

We started out with some mixed nuts and sparkling water that was put on the massive tray table.

I had one of my favorites, the Pacific Sunrise.

Next the staff brought out a bread basket but also gave us a custom-written welcome message, which was a nice touch.

I have to admit that the service absolutely blew me away. They were up there with Singapore Airlines in terms of attentiveness and overall quality of service.

Cathay Pacific first class welcome note.

After delivering a bread basket, they rolled out the starters which included Sesame smoked salmon, herb salmon and mustard dill mayonnaise. The starters blew me away, as I wasn’t expecting such high quality starters on such a short flight.

After the starters out came the main course which for was the stuffed chicken breast with feta cheese, capiscum, sun dried tomato polenta and red wine sauce. This was yet another unexpectedly over the top dish — Cathay Pacific was really winning me over in a huge way at this point.

Stuffed chicken breast with feta cheese, capiscum, sun dried tomato polenta and red wine sauce.

Then the desserts came out.

The first was a chocolate and coconut brownie and the second was a key lime mousse. I’m not big on coconut or key lime so I sort of struck out twice but I still gave the desserts a try and they were tasty but I think I was a bigger fan of the presentation.

Overall, the dining experience was top notch and I could only imagine what it would be like on a long-haul flight. I’d have to rank the dining among my favorite first class meals to date. You can read more about Cathay Pacific dining here.

The first class bed

Cathay Pacific is known for having arguably the most comfortable bed in the sky. Before this flight, I’d decided to request bedding even though it was a short flight just so I could test it out for review purposes.

But once we got quickly into our meal, I realized I was going to look like a jack ass by requesting turn down service, especially because I wasn’t tired at all.

So I ended up not trying out the bed but I did put the seat down so that I could get a sense of the space.

Cathay Pacific first class seat lie-flat.

There’s a ton of room as expected and I can definitely see how this suite could give you some of the best space for sleeping.

Where to sit

I would definitely try to go with one of the window suites next time, though.

They just look much better in my opinion and feel even more private. I switched with Brad for the last 45 minutes of the flight and got into a window seat which I thought felt like an upgrade. It would probably feel even better in the more private, aisle A.

As we got close to landing they brought out some chocolates which were great.

Final word

Overall, I really loved this first class flight.

I feel like I didn’t get the true Cathay Pacific first class experience since we didn’t get to try it out on a long-haul flight with all of the offerings. But with recognizing that, I’d stay have to rate this among the top first class cabins I’ve tried.

Daniel Gillaspia

Qatar Airways A380 First Class Review (CDG to DOH)

Qatar is known mostly for its great business class product which is even more so the case now that they have the new Q-suites. However, their first class product is still one of the best first class experiences in the sky if you ask me. Here’s my full Qatar Airways A380 first class review from my recent flight from CDG to DOH.

Qatar A380 routes

Qatar only has nine A380 aircraft, as they mostly fly versions of the 777 (50), 787 (30), and A350/A320 (60).

These A380s are only used on a hand full of routes, most of which are shorter at around 6 to 7 hours. Here are all of the Qatar A380 routes from Doha according to iflyA380:

Bangkok
Guangzhou
London
Paris
Sydney

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Booking Qatar Airways first class

Finding availability

Tickets cancelled without notice!

Booking these seats almost became a disaster on multiple occasions.

I used 62,500 AA miles per person to book the flight and paid $153 in fees for each person. I had to call in to the Australian AA center to book but they did not process my payment in the local currency (Australian dollars). This led to my tickets being stuck in limbo and eventually cancelled. To make matters worse, I wasn’t even notified about the cancellation!

But the drama wasn’t over there.

Several Middle Eastern countries cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar in June 2017 and the Maldives joined in on that. These countries were banning flights from Qatar so I was really nervous that my booking would be cancelled. I was very close to routing through Colombo, Sri Lanka but luckily flights continued between Qatar and the Maldives and I could breathe once again… or at least I could until the Maldives declared a state of emergency a couple of weeks before our trip (it actually wasn’t bad at all).

The lounge experience

We’d just finished a stay at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme and first made our way into the Qatar Airways Premium Lounge at CDG. That lounge was fantastic. It’s stunning, spacious, and offers some solid dining options along with an outdoor terrace where you have Eiffel Tower views. You can read my full review of the Qatar Airways Premium Lounge here.

Qatar lounge at Paris CDG 34 — Qatar Airways Premium Lounge at CDG.

Qatar lounge at Paris CDG 45 — Qatar Airways Premium Lounge at CDG.

Qatar A380 First Class 1 — Qatar first class boarding passes.

Boarding

After making our way through security at the gate we approached the boarding area and would end up being the first passengers to board.

Qatar A380 First Class 2 — Boarding area for our flight.

Boarding started on time and we were directed to the first class cabin found in the front of the upper deck of the A380.

The first class cabin

When we entered, the crew helped us to our seats and tended to our luggage. There’s a storage closet up front where they stored our carry-on luggage, as there are no overhead bins.

Upon seeing the first class cabin for the first time, I was surprised by how extremely elegant the cabin looked.

Qatar A380 First Class 4 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

Qatar A380 First Class 13 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

Qatar A380 First Class 11 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

I liked the contrasting tones used in the wood and seat cushions and accented mood lighting. The layout reminded me of the Korean Air A380 first class cabin except much more elegant and private, with only eight total suites.

The only thing that I wasn’t crazy about was that the seats were cloth. I prefer the look of leather found in other first class seats and think leather seats would’ve looked better. The cloth material is still quality though so this is hardly an issue.

Qatar A380 First Class 5 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

There’s a small area at the front of either side of the first class cabin where you can pick up snacks and drinks, such as water and juices. While there’s no bar in this section like Emirates, it’s still a gorgeous area that nicely welcomes you into the first class cabin.

Qatar A380 First Class 6 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

Qatar A380 First Class 8 — Qatar A380 first class cabin snacks.

Qatar A380 First Class 7 — Qatar A380 first class cabin.

This is also where you’ll find the two lavatories which were very nice and spacious on the inside.

Qatar A380 First Class 63 — Qatar A380 first class lavatory.

The Qatar Airways A380 suites

These suites are actually much more private (and bigger) than I originally thought.

Qatar A380 First Class suite — Qatar A380 first class suite with high partitions.

While it’s still very odd to me that Qatar has fully enclosed suites in their business class product and open suites in first, I honestly didn’t feel like these suites needed a door. Would a fully enclosed suite be nice? Sure, but the partitions are very tall and protrude far out so privacy never felt like an issue to me.

Even the middle seats have high levels of privacy.

Qatar A380 First Class 10 — Qatar A380 first class cabin middle seats.

Qatar A380 First Class 14 — Qatar A380 first class cabin middle seats.

However, I still think that the window seats offer much more privacy as is usually the case in any cabin.

Qatar A380 First Class 12 — Qatar A380 first class cabin window seat.

I went with seat 1A which I loved although I don’t think there’s really a bad seat in Qatar’s A380 first class cabin. The seats come with two pillows and there’s a blanket on the ottoman. They are very wide at 23 inches between armrests but feel even wider due to the extra-wide back cushion.

Qatar A380 First Class 15 — Qatar A380 first class seat, 1A.

The suite itself felt very spacious and private. There’s a decent amount of functional counter space and a tray-like table built in to the seat’s counter, which was perfect for setting down drinks, snacks, or even electronics.

You can get a sense of how private the seats are below. I guess the one drawback is that there’s no partition extending from the front of the suite so it’s easy for people to see what you’re watching and your feet feel a bit exposed.

Qatar A380 First Class 17 — My view from seat 1A.

Other first class cabins like Korean Air’s A380 (pictured below) provide more privacy for your in-flight entertainment viewing (at least from those sitting next to you) and offer more privacy to keep your feet from being exposed.

Personally, I’m not ashamed that sometimes I resort to watching Pixar movies on planes and don’t mind showing off my fresh socks so I don’t really care but it’s something I thought was worth pointing out.

Korean Air A380 First Class 10 — Korean Air first class.

In-suite features

Each suite features an ottoman with space below to store a small to medium sized bag like a back pack. From the take-off position, I could just barely touch the ottoman to rest my feet (I’m 6′ 1″). This distance works out if you’re trying to share a meal at your seat though since it gives your partner plenty of room to sit.

Qatar A380 First Class 20 — Qatar A380 First Class.

There’s a wardrobe built into the suite wall behind the ottoman/TV which is actually pretty spacious.

Qatar A380 First Class 22 — Qatar A380 first class wardrobe.

The TV is pretty big at 26 inches and it’s also a touch screen. Directly to the left of the TV is a power outlet and lamp. I personally liked how they integrated the monitor into the wood grain panel with the touch of the lamp for additional elegance.

Qatar A380 First Class 21 — 26-inch TV screen.

The Oryx One in-flight entertainment had a good selection of TV shows and movies (you can check on current listings for your flight here).

I had issues with my in-flight entertainment since I could not pause movies — only stop them. This made it very tedious to take a break during movies so that was one of the negatives during the flight.

The seat and lighting controls are pretty standard and very intuitive. You’ll find some on the left, where you’ll also find a compartment holding the in-flight controller and a bottle of water.

Qatar A380 First Class 23 — Seat and lighting controls.

Qatar A380 First Class 24 — IFE controller and bottled water.

On the right side are the standard seat controls and within the compartment on that side you’ll find the privacy controls and the headphones, which I thought were high quality although not quite Bose quality.

Qatar A380 First Class 25 — Seat controls.

Qatar A380 First Class 26 — Compartment with headphones.

Qatar A380 First Class 27 — Headphone bag.

Qatar A380 First Class 28 — Qatar A380 first class headphones.

There’s also a tablet which you can use to control the lighting and the privacy of your suite. I had my privacy partitions up the entire time and I was never asked to put them down during take off or landing so that was nice. (It’s not always clear which airlines will make you do that.)

Qatar A380 First Class 29 — Touch screen privacy and lighting controls.

The amenity kit is issued by Brics, which is an Italian company known for high quality luggage.

Qatar A380 First Class 30 — Qatar A380 first class amenity kit.

The kit contains an eye shield, socks, lip balm, anti-aging moisturizers, and hydrating facial mist. It also comes with a Bric’s leather luggage tag that I loved but would feel odd using it on non-Bric’s luggage.

Qatar A380 First Class 33 — Qatar A380 first class amenity kit.

Qatar A380 First Class 31 — Qatar A380 first class amenity kit.

The moisturizers are from Castello Monte Vibiano.

Qatar A380 First Class 32 — Qatar A380 first class amenity kit.

The bar serving up the champagne hadn’t opened yet so I requested for the lemon mint drink, which is a signature drink of Qatar Airways. It was very refreshing and it’s such a great starter drink (with no alcohol).

Qatar A380 First Class 34 — Qatar’s lemon mint drink.

They also offered some olives and other snacks, such as an individually wrapped date.

Qatar A380 First Class 35 — Pre-departure Qatar first class snacks.

Qatar A380 First Class 36 — Pre-departure Qatar first class snacks.

With olives and a the fresh minty drink, I was all settled and ready for take off.

Once we got up in the air they started pouring the Krug, which I consider to be on par with Dom.

Qatar A380 First Class 39 — Qatar A380 First Class champagne.

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The Qatar Airways A380 first class dining experience

When it came time to eat, they pulled out a massive tray table and covered with with a heavy tablecloth. The tray table slides pretty far away from you so you should be able to slip out of your seat if needed.

The first item they brought out was the soup, which was a mushroom soup with sautéed morels. I actually declined the soup but Brad gave it a shot. He liked the flavor but thought that the mushrooms had an unusually dry texture.

Qatar A380 First Class 51 — Mushroom soup with sautéed morels.

Then came the caviar with additional condiments. I’ve seen better presentations before but for me it’s all about the flavor, which was fantastic. I still can’t believe Etihad doesn’t offer caviar while so many other top first class products do.

Qatar A380 First Class 44 — Qatar A380 first class caviar.

Along with the caviar we were given both crispy and soft crackers. I prefer crispy crackers with caviar so it’s nice that Qatar gave us different choices.

Qatar A380 First Class 45 — Qatar A380 first class caviar.

Then came the breads along with specially selected oil/dressing.

Qatar A380 First Class 47 — Qatar A380 first class breads.

Qatar A380 First Class 48 — Qatar A380 first class breads and oil.

The next dish was a small shrimp dish which I wasn’t very crazy about.

Qatar A380 First Class 49 — Qatar A380 first class dining.

Right about this time we were flying over the Alps, and I was very thankful that we’d decided to take window seats. This was my first time flying over the Alps in the day time and the views were unbelievable.

The windows on the A380 upper deck are quite small and it’s hard to get photos but you can still appreciate the views. I think flying over snowy mountain ranges will always blow me away no matter how many times I do it.

Qatar A380 First Class 42 — Beautiful views of the Alps.

Then came the main dish which was the grilled cod on potato puree. Both the cod and puree had wonderful texture and flavor which was brought out fully with the sauce. I love getting an unexpectedly hearty meal on a plane so I felt like I made a great choice.

Qatar A380 First Class meal — Grilled cod on potato puree.

Brad went with the French trimmed lamb cutlets.

I was so preoccupied with getting to the bar before it got crowded that I did something I never do and skipped dessert! I meant to go back and try it out but I completely blanked so I can’t report on what usually is my favorite part of plane dining. (In reality we did 20+ flights on this trip so skipping dessert one time was probably my best move.)

Here’s a pic of the menu main items but you can check out my entire photo album for the full dining and wine menus.

Qatar A380 First Class 86 — Qatar Airways first class menu.

Qatar Airways A380 first class service

Overall, the service was very solid on this flight. From the moment we stepped in, we were given a lot of attention and everyone in the crew was very warm and personable. I also loved how — like other Middle Eastern carriers — the crew was very diverse. I’d read mixed reviews about Qatar’s service but this flight left me with overwhelmingly positive feelings about them.

Qatar Airways A380 bar — “The Lounge”

After dinner, it was time to check out the famed Qatar Airways A380 bar, officially known as “The Lounge.” Out of all of the different carriers with on-board bars and lounges, I think Qatar is clearly the winner for best overall bar.

First, the bar area is absolutely stunning.

Qatar A380 First Class 61 — Qatar A380 first class bar.

It’s also a spacious area with sofas incorporated seamlessly into the design so that several people can find room to sit and easily socialize.

Qatar A380 First Class 62 — Qatar A380 first class bar.

The spirits at the bar aren’t quite as premium as those found on board Emirates but there is still a good selection.

Qatar A380 First Class lounge — Qatar A380 first class bar.

They also serve different types of snacks at the bar as well.

With the mood lighting set, I thought the bar looked like a work of art.

Qatar A380 First Class 53 — Beautiful lighting at the Qatar A380 bar and lounge.

Qatar A380 First Class 57 — Qatar A380 first class bar.

The bar area can get quite crowded though. I really struggled to get photos without any people because everyone wanted to hang out at the lounge (understandably so). Luckily, the crew let me get a few minutes in towards the end of the light which I was very grateful for.

Qatar A380 First Class 58 — Having a good time at the bar.

The sleeping experience

I rarely sleep on planes and when we’re talking about a 6 hour 20 min flight, it’s hard for me to justify sleeping because I’d rather experience the product and get footage. But this was especially true here where I knew that I’d be able to get some rest later on at the first class lounge in Doha.

Nevertheless, I decided to try out the seat in its lie-flat position.

Qatar A380 First Class 64 — Qatar A380 first class bed.

With the seat in the lie-flat position, the bed width is a whopping 33 inches and the length is 81 inches. I would imagine that with any sort of bedding, you’d be able to easily find a comfortable position given how much space you have to contort your body in just about any position.

Qatar A380 First Class 65 — Qatar A380 first class bed.

One thing I noticed was that the staff didn’t ask me if I wanted turn down service even when I had clearly put my seat in the sleep position and pulled out the blanket. I actually didn’t want turn down service since this was a medium-haul flight, but I thought it was odd they didn’t ask when Etihad had offered it on an even shorter flight from MLE to AUH.

Qatar A380 First Class 66 — Qatar A380 first class bed.

After trying out the bed, we got closer to landing and some relaxing red mood lights kicked on.

Qatar A380 First Class 67 — Qatar A380 first class mood lighting.

And then we finally arrived and were off to experience the first class Al Sawfa Lounge for close to nine hours!

Qatar A380 First Class 71 — Arriving at Doha.

Final word on the Qatar A380 first class experience

The Qatar first class experience was better than I had expected. The suites were more luxurious and private than I had imagined and the service was on point (for the most part). I also had a great dining experience and it’s always great to be served caviar along with free-flowing Krug. And while I didn’t make a proper bed, there’s a ton of sleeping such that I think it’d be very easy to get into a comfortable position. I think Qatar easily rates among the best first class flights I’ve had to date and I would happily fly with them again.

Daniel Gillaspia

The New Singapore Airlines First Class Suite Review

The new Singapore Airlines first class suites are truly something special. Singapore maintained much of what made the old first class product special (great service, double beds, superb champagne, etc.), but they made the new product even more exclusive and attractive by cutting down the number of suites and making them more spacious. With that said, there are a few potential shortcomings. Here’s my full new Singapore Airlines first class suites review.

Booking the new A380 Singapore Suites

I originally booked us Singapore Suites from Singapore to Sydney on SQ231. These were the old suites we flew before but I thought it would be nice to fly them again since we would be flying on our anniversary, February 22nd. I booked these at the saver level for 80,000 SQ miles each before I even found out about the new suites.

Then information about the new first class suites leaked throughout 2017 and it was eventually announced that the SIN to SYD route would be serviced by the new A380!

Leaked info helped me make a gamble on the new suites.

Based on leaked info, it started to look like it was going to be the other A380 flight (SQ221) that would be serviced by the new suites. I was really bummed.

Luckily, there were still Standard Awards (now called Advantage awards) for that date, so I poured Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards into my Singapore account and changed our flight to SQ221 for 70,000 additional SQ miles per passenger.

At that time, we still didn’t know for sure if these would be the new suites so this was definitely a questionable decision. Not only was I potentially squandering 150,000 valuable Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, I also lost the additional connecting flights on Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand. So this could have been a ~200,000 point misfire.

After months of waiting, luck was on our side and it was soon confirmed that’d we’d be flying on the new suites! If you’re not familiar, the price of Singapore Suites on this route is $4,000+, so we were pretty pumped.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 1 — The golden ticket.

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The Private Room

Our first class experience started in “The Private Room.”

The Private room is the ultra-exclusive first class lounge only for those flying first on SQ. It’s a beautiful lounge with free-flowing Dom Perignon 2006 and some very solid dining. But there’s honestly not much more to it. You can read about my Private Room experience here.

The Private Room Singapore Airlines 2 — Entrance to the Private Room.

Boarding the A380

We were among the first to board and enter the new first class cabin.

The Singapore Airlines first class A380 cabin went down from 12 suites to only 6 suites, jumped from the bottom level to the top level, and incorporated a single aisle between the suites in a 1-1 configuration. The suites in the first two rows can be conjoined by lowering the middle partition, which is exactly what we did when we arrived.

The smaller number of suites makes the experience feel more intimate and exclusive and reminds me a lot of the Etihad Apartment cabin (although Etihad has more suites).

As I walked through the aisle, I thought it looked pretty stunning.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 2 — Singapore Airlines new first class cabin aisle.

I really loved the charm that the old first class cabin had but this cabin looks more sleek and almost futuristic with the silver walls and doors.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 3 — Singapore Airlines new first class cabin aisle.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 4 — Beautiful exterior of the suites.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 5 — Mood lighting.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 6 — Stairs leading down to the first level.

The new A380 Singapore Suites

When I first entered the suite, I just thought, “wow.”

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 10 — Singapore Airlines new first class suite.

The photos I’d seen prior to the flight made these suites look very sterile, almost like a dentist office. But as I experienced it in person, I realized that these suites were actually very elegant.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 9 — Singapore Airlines new first class suite.

They still have a slight “dentist office” resemblance at times.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 14

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 11

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 12

But I still think they are very impressive overall.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 24 — The new Singapore Suites.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites double suite — Singapore A380 suites.

Beyond the looks, the first thing that I took notice of was the tremendous amount of real estate.

These suites are even more spacious than the Etihad Apartment, which is saying a lot. With the partition lowered, it felt like we had a ridiculous chunk of the aircraft to ourselves.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 16 — Singapore Airlines first class double suite.

True to form, Singapore offered champagne as soon as we entered but on this flight they were serving Krug 2004 which was a very nice surprise.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 7 — Singapore first class champagne, Krug 2004.

The seat on Singapore Airlines new suites

The seat itself is comfortable but felt a little narrow for Singapore Airlines. Singapore is known for such wide seats that it’s always odd to me to see a “normal” sized seat in first class.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 25 — Singapore Airlines First Class seat.

The chair can rotate to fully face the window or come back around to face the TV. However, the chair does have a bit of a limited recline. The photo below shows the farthest that it will recline.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 26 — Singapore Airlines First Class seat reclined.

This obviously isn’t ideal for those who like to lean all the way back into a flat or near flat position. However, when you have the option of hopping into a separate bed, I understand the logic of having a seat with limited recline.

Singapore Airlines new suites seat controls

The seat controls are pretty straightforward. You hit the window, take-off/landing, or TV button to move into a desired position that will orient your seat facing different directions.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 39 — First class seat controls.

The confusing part is that the recline controls only show when you’re in a “final position.” You can see that in the image below, I’m in between two final positions and the recline controls don’t show.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 37 — First class seat controls.

On the counter, there are also button controls for: service, do not disturb, window shades, TV position, and the suite lighting.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 33 — First class controls.

Underneath these controls you can find the power outlet, USB, HDMI, and headphone jack (there’s another headphone jack beneath the armrest of the chair). There’s even an NFC panel for contactless payment, which you can use to purchase duty free items and wifi.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 46 — More ports and outlets.

There’s another power outlet and USB port located on the wall where the tray table comes out, so these suites come fully equipped to handle your electronics.

TVS and in-flight entertainment

The TVs are huge at 32 inches. They’re so big and you have so much space in the suite that watching them really does feel like being in a hotel room. For a point of comparison, the Etihad Residence has a 32″ TV.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 21 — New Singapore Suites TVs.

Using the controls, you can easily swing out the monitor to give you a better viewing angle.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 22

The in-flight entertainment selections were solid with a good selection of movies and TV shows. You can check out the Singapore Airlines current movies list here. Don’t forget you can use the SingaporeAir mobile app to check out what movies will be on and to set up your own playlist prior to departure.

To control the in-flight entertainment you can use the traditional controller, which you’ll find beneath the armrest.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 45

But you’ll probably be drawn to the tablet which can also be used to control things like the lighting.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 40 — Singapore suites first class tablet.

Note that the tablet can only be removed after take-off.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 41

It fits pretty easily into one hand.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 42

Once you start dining or watching TV you’ll probably find it more convenient to mount the tablet on the side table where your tray table comes out.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 44

Storage

Overall, the storage on the new Singapore Suites is pretty solid.

First, there’s a closet at the entrance of your suit where you can store your luggage. I did not think that my two carry-ons would fit but they both fit into the closet, albeit snugly.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 36 — The closet doesn’t look very big but it can fit more than you think.

There’s nice counter space where you can store larger electronics like your laptop, bigger cameras, and small bags. Some airlines overlook the fact that passengers just need a little bit of space to put things on and so it’s nice to have some good counter space.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 34 — Singapore suites storage space.

However, the large rectangular spaces (seen in the images above) will be filled when the bed is made so you can’t keep stuff there if you’re planning on using the bed.

You can also use the counter space which holds the tray table but once again, you’ll have to move your items when you’re ready to eat.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 43

There are also a few closed compartments that you can use to store passports, phones, and amenities.

One of these compartments holds the Bose headphones which are very obviously high quality.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 30 — Singapore Suites storage compartments.

The middle compartment is empty but comes with a brightly lit vanity mirror, while the third compartment holds your amenity kit. There’s another compartment just on the other side of the tablet but that holds bedding.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 32 — Singapore Airlines suites class storage compartments.

There’s also a bit of storage underneath these compartments which is where I stored my pajamas before changing into them, though you can keep them stored in your closet along with your slippers.

New Singapore Airlines first class suite amenity kit

The amenities are no longer from Ferragamo and are now issued by Lalique. I miss the Ferragamo cologne but these are also high quality from what I could tell.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 31 — Singapore Airlines first class amenity kit.

In the amenity kit, you’ll get: lip balm, body lotion, after shave, and eau de toilette, though the offerings could change based on the route.

The pajamas are no longer from Givenchy but they are much lighter than those pajamas, which makes them more comfortable.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 28 — Thinner pajamas are very welcomed.

They also provide you with slippers that I’ve come to really value on long-haul flights.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 29 — Singapore first class slippers along with my flat feet.

Singapore Airlines first class dining

The dining experience blew me away last time I flew Suites and it did the same once again. As soon as the dining started, I switched over from vintage Krug to Dom Perignon 2006.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites champagne — Dom Perignon 2006 on Singapore Suites.

I really love that Singapore offers both of these choices.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 68 — Singapore Suites champagne list.

Once they pulled out the tray, I noticed how massive it was. And also noticed my neighbor (much more on that later).

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 71 — Singapore Suites first class tray table.

We started off with fresh breads and caviar.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 72 — Fresh breads.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 73 — Singapore Airlines first class caviar.

It seems like the more and more I eat caviar, the more I discover I enjoy it, and I really liked what they served up on our Singapore flight.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 74 — Singapore first class caviar.

This time I tried to do things a little bit differently and I went with a shot of vodka with the caviar.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 75 — (Strong) Vodka with caviar.

After that, they brought out the fish soup with chicken and black moss. Blame it on the vodka, but I honestly don’t remember even eating this dish and can’t recall if I enjoyed it. But Brad loved its cilantro flavor.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 76 — Fish soup with chicken and black moss.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 77 — Fish soup with chicken and black moss.

Then came the salad which was pretty much a piece of lettuce but with some good dressing and freshly cracked black pepper. I do remember really loving the tomato vinaigrette dressing on this one.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 78 — Singapore first class salad.

The main was lamb stew with penne pasta and it was very good. I feel like I’m constantly eating lamb on planes but this dish sounded good and I was very happy with my selection. Peppers were very fresh and the lamb nice and tender.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 80 — Lamb stew with penne pasta.

Then came the dessert, which came in an amazing presentation of dry ice. I really enjoyed the ice cream and fresh berries.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 81 — Singapore Airlines dessert.

Overall, this was a great dining experience. If you want to check out the full menu we had and view more pics of the cabin, you can check out my photo album here.

I will say that one of the drawbacks to the new design is that you can’t eat at the same table as your travel partner. This isn’t a big negative to me, though. I’ve done the shared tray table on some other airlines and I prefer to have more space, especially since it makes it much easier to get photographs.

But for those who like to dine together, it’s too bad Singapore couldn’t incorporate that feature.

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The fatal flaw of the new suites

While the dishes were great, the dining experience highlighted the biggest flaw of these new suites, in my opinion. This is the lack of privacy.

With your suite door open and your seat in the dining position, you are set to make perfect eye contact with the passenger across from you. It’s something that I noticed very quickly and something that I think was a major oversight since this is something that other cutting-edge first class suites don’t suffer from.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 48 — The dining position puts your eyes right on your neighbor.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 49

This may not be an issue to everyone but to me it sort of puts a bit of a black-eye on the new Singapore Suites experience. I guess you could request for the flight attendant to shut your door between delivering dishes but that could make things like re-fills tricky and shouldn’t be needed on one of the top first class cabins.

The lavatories

The old Singapore first class lavatories really lacked compared to other A380s like Qatar, Emirates, and Etihad. But Singapore definitely stepped up their game with this new A380.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 51 — New Singapore Suites first class lavatory.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 50 — New Singapore Suites first class lavatory.

First of all the lavatories are just beautiful rooms that do help create a sense of relaxation in what is otherwise a place you’d like to get out of ASAP. The purple mood lighting, brightly lit vanity mirrors, and cushioned sit-down areas are a nice departure from the norm.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 53 — New Singapore Suites first class lavatory.

One of the lavatories is actually bigger and more equipped than the other but they are both pretty elegant.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 57 — New Singapore Suites first class lavatory.

You’ll notice that the new Singapore first class cabin still does not have a shower. I’m actually okay with that.

While plane showers are still fun to take and can be practical at times, I find taking a relaxing hot shower at a lounge before or after a flight to be more worth my while. I don’t have to worry about running out of “water time,” turbulence, weak water pressure, or anything else and can just relax in the shower.

So while a shower would’ve been cool to see, I don’t think it’s a major negative to the Singapore Suite experience. (I do think that Singapore should have installed a bar/lounge, though!)

The sleeping experience

Singapore did not give up on their double beds which made me very happy. To me, outside of their great service, the Singapore Airlines double bed experience is what makes Singapore’s first class product stand out the most. It’s such a great feature for traveling couples.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 87 — Singapore first class double bed.

With the double beds made, it seriously looks like a hotel room in the sky.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 85 — Singapore first class double bed.

The bed is 76 inches long and 27 inches wide, which is one inch wider than the Etihad Apartment’s bed. If you want, you can prop yourself up at an angle which is actually a pretty comfortable way to watch TV.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 92

I’d argue Singapore even upgraded the experience so now you can still have your window views along with a double bed.

Unfortunately, the bed is still not very soft. I still got comfortable but if you prefer very soft mattresses this could potentially pose a problem. Also, they could have done a better job of covering the partition between the bed since that’s still quite exposed.

The biggest issue to me though is that Singapore still keeps their A380s so warm. It’s just too warm to get super comfortable and I don’t understand how they don’t receive a million complaints a day about that.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 98 — Warm cabins are harder to get comfortable in.

Despite those issues, It does feel remarkably private in the suite when the lights dim down.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites double bed — The double bed experience makes Singapore Suites special.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 99 — Mood lighting.

But I do think the suite walls could’ve been just a little bit higher.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites bed

Lastly, one thing I really loved was being able to hop out of bed and still have plenty of space to move around.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 96

Overall, the soft pillows and thick comforter can help make up somewhat for a firm sleeping surface. But the warm temperature is something that can be a bit tougher to deal with. Still, Brad and I both got comfortable so it’s not like the sleeping experience is horrible.

Singapore Suites breakfast

Aside from the privacy issue mentioned above, breakfast had to be the other issue with the flight. For one, we didn’t have the biggest selection, although the pastries were great and fruit was fresh.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 100 — Singapore first class suites breakfast.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 101 — Singapore first class suites breakfast.

But the issue was that they started breakfast like 30 minutes before arriving. The whole breakfast experience was crazy rushed and almost impossible to enjoy. It really felt like someone might have botched something, that’s how off it felt.

Anniversary surprise

I contacted Singapore beforehand to notify them that we were flying on the exact day of our anniversary. They told me they would be able to bring out a cake and I thought that would be great (I didn’t tell Brad anything so he would be surprised).

But Singapore Airlines went well beyond bringing out a cake.

They usually give you teddy bears when you fly first class but in this case they stitched our names to the shirts of the teddy bears (while up in the sky). Although one bear is clearly the opposite gender, this was a very thoughtful gesture and it was a beautiful cake that ended up serving as our dessert for breakfast.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 102 — Anniversary on Singapore Suites!

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 103

The crew also signed a giant card and left messages in all sorts of different languages.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suites 104

I noticed someone sketched out two “male” teddy bears on the card which I thought was very nice especially considering the state of LGBT affairs in Singapore.

Overall, the anniversary surprise put the entire experience over the top.

Final word on the new A380 Singapore Airlines suites class

I was honestly blown away by the new Singapore Suites. I’ve flown on some great first class cabins like Emirates, Etihad, old Singapore Suites, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, etc. but there’s just something about flying Singapore Suites that’s just special. It never fails but when I fly suites with them, it’s like having a great time at a party — you don’t want it to ever end.

Although there are a couple of shortcomings with the new suites, if I had to choose one airline out of the above to fly first class on, I’d choose the new Singapore Suites in a second.

Daniel Gillaspia

First Impressions: New Singapore Suites

This article will just provide my initial impressions of the new Singapore A380 first class suites. I’ll have a much more detailed review to follow in the coming days/weeks.

The first class cabin

The new Singapore Suites first class cabin has a single aisle and only 6 suites. The aisle is a bit tight but that’s not really a problem if you plan on spending most of your time in your suite. For people like me trying to get a ton of photos, it’s a bit of a struggle though.

Singapore A380 first class suites cabin.

I liked the abstract decor and lighting found on the suite walls/doors and on the ceiling, especially with the mood lighting. It’s a bit futuristic looking to me but not quite over the top.

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The Suites are spacious and impressive

When I originally viewed photos of the new Singapore Suites, I found them to look very sterile, almost like a dentist office. But when I actually saw them in person, I didn’t get that feeling. While the suites are a bit simplistic, they also have a level of elegance to them that reminds you that you’re in one of the top first class cabins in the world. And that excitement is what helps make these cabins special.

While the designs on the exterior of the suites are more abstract, the interior of the suites have a floral theme, which helps add to the relaxing feel of the suite.

The TVs are huge and they swivel out so that you can always maintain your preferred viewing angle. Having such a big TV makes you feel more like you’re in a hotel and adds to the in-flight entertainment experience. I also loved how it shows you how much time you have left for your movies in relation to the time left on your flight.

I also really loved the cordless tablet for the controls. I wish the default screen has an option to play/pause the in-flight entertainment (since you have to hit a few buttons to do that), but I found it very handy to be able to pull the table out whenever you wish.

Singapore A380 first class suite in-flight entertainment tablet.

The seat controls

The seat controls are a bit confusing at first.

The initial walkthrough with the flight attendant didn’t show me how to use these controls fully so I had to sort of figure it out how to recline the seat on my own. Once you know how the controls work, though, it’s surprisingly simple and intuitive to use.

Singapore A380 first class suite seat controls.

The seat is comfortable but not remarkable in that aspect. It can recline all the way into the position pictured below but that’s it. So for people who like to be able to lie fully flat in a seat, they’ll have to pull out the bed for that to happen.

Singapore A380 first class suites seat reclined.

The Singapore Suites beds

The new Singapore suite beds didn’t feel much different from the old ones. The beds are very firm but still comfortable mainly because you can stretch all the way out. I think it’s very special that you can share a true double bed in Singapore Airlines and still get window views with the new cabin and that’s what makes these suites stand out.

I took a peak at some of the single suites and while it still seemed like a great experience to fly in those, I think the double suites offer an entirely different and more spacious feel.

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New lavatories

One area that Singapore lacked in previously was that the lavatories on the A380s were small and unimaginative. This time, they are spacious and elegant. I really wish Singapore had chosen to go with a shower but these lavatories are still comfortable and relaxing spots to freshen up.

Singapore A380 first class suites lavatory.

The one glaring omission

The one glaring omission of these suites is that you can make eye contact with your neighbors during take-off/landing and when dining. Pretty much any time you have your suite door open, they’ll be right there across from you.

The solution is to obviously keep your door closed but that makes getting service for drinks and dining more problematic. This privacy issue doesn’t even happen in many business class products so I was a bit disappointed to see it here.

Privacy is a bit of an issue on the new suites.

Overall impressions

My overall impressions are that this is an exceptional product. The service on here was outstanding once again and the dining was also fantastic (much more about those later). My expectations were actually exceeded by the experience and I was left overwhelmingly satisfied by the new product.

Daniel Gillaspia

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