About five and a half years ago, I wrote a piece around Singapore Airlines stopping its flight from Newark to Singapore. It had existed from 2004 until late 2013, when the poor economics of the 4- engined Airbus A340-500 became too much weight to bear. It was a sad end to a route I never flew on, but one I still took pride in its existing as it meant my hometown airport had one leg of the world’s longest flight.
About three years later, Singapore Airlines announced their plans to bring it back, using a variant of the next-gen A350-900 aircraft, called the A350-900lr. I wrote another article at the time about how silly Emirate’s and Qatar’s machinations were inventing routes that didn’t need existing to claim for some short period of time the title of world’s longest flight (admittedly Qatar’s Auckland – Doha flight has done well, and Emirates never started their publicized Dubai – Panama City route). All the time we all knew Singapore Airlines would take its place back. It finally did in October, 2018, and ever since it did I knew I wanted to fly it.
Flying itself has always fascinated me. Old trips to Europe and India used to have the long flights as a central aspect to my enjoyment of the trip. I can still remember the flights I loved from the 90s. I remember distinctly taking KLM to Amsterdam on the way to India in 2001 – the movie was SpyKids. I remember the developments at various points in the comfort of Economy class air travel, from having to all watch one movie on projectors or screens every 10 th row (mid-90’s through 2001 or so), to getting a tv on the back of every seat becoming the norm, to getting 50+ options being the new norm.
My first 12= hour flight I ever took was from New York to Abu Dhabi in 2010 on the way to my cousin’s wedding. It might be my single most favorite flight I’ve ever taken. The aircraft was a beautiful Airbus A340-500 (the same one Singapore used to fly on the Singapore – Newark route). I remember they served lamb biryani. There was cool lighting in the cabin. It was the first of many long-haul flights. I’ve always found 10-12 hours to be a good threshold. The longer the flight, the more you can get done, be it sleep, eat, watch movies, or even work if needed. I was never going to fight off having to fly long flights. To one degree, I wanted as many of them as possible.
It was obvious then why I wanted to take this flight. Add to it I love Singapore Airlines the few times I’ve taken them (five individual flights during my 2013 Round the World trip, and one more flight in 2017 from New York to Frankfurt), as it always lived up to its reputation as the world’s best airline. I’ve also loved Singapore both times I’ve been able to go (and of course, I would be able to luckily add Gaggan to the week’s plans). It all made sense, but the highlight (maybe not the pure highlight since Gaggan was still to come) was the 34-35 hours I would be inside Singapore Airlines beautiful A350-900 bird.
This is not like any regular flight, or even regulat plane. It is set up where 2/3rds of the plane were business class, with the remaining third as premium economy. And this was true premium economy – not like United’s economy plus meaning you just get a little bit more room. These seats are comparable with domestic business class if not better. The seats reclined to maybe a good 45 degree angle. Each seat had two USB connections and a plug point, a set of customized noise-reducing earphones, a giant flatscreen that took up much of the back of the seat infront, a personal light, and all the rest. It was as close to business class without getting business class, and it made for a comfortable 17 hours. If anything, I’ll more gladly to 17 hours in this than 15 in a regular economy seat on United like I did when going to Mumbai last.
Singapore always has the nice touches – the hot towel before each meal, the constant availability of drinks and snacks that went beyond just chips or pretzels. They always have a written menu for even us plebes in premium economy (they’ve had it in regular economy in each of my previous flights as well). This time the menu outlined three different meals we would get in our seventeen hours to Singapore.
We were somewhat lucky it was 17h30min of flyin time. It is scheduled for 18h30m, and the last two days the flight took over 19 hours. We luckily had good headwinds, which cut down the time and even allowed us to go a strange route that essentially went Eastward flying to India, and then down to Singapore. The flight timing has you leave at 9:30am, reaching Singapore the following afternoon with it being daylight through much of the flight. That itself is not too dissimilar to the New York to Johannesburg flight I’ve taken, and the crew nicely made people close the windows for most of the flight.
The first meal was a great start, with a braised beef dish with a nice sweet potato and rice. The other pieces of the meal truthfully weren’t played up for being premium economy vs. regular economy, but given it is Singapore, it was still plentiful, with nice soft bread, cheese and crackers, a prawn salad and a nice dessert. The flight then settled in to each of us in our own world, mixing sleep and movie watching for eight or so hours.
The most fun, or most hated, moment of any one of these types of flights is when you’ve already been flying five or so hours, and you realize there are twelve hours to go. In this case, we were basically over Norway or so, when I saw that stat come across the screen. I was gleefull, to say the least, though I think that says a lot more about my peculiarities than anything else.
The second meal happens dead in the middle of the flight, so midle that a lot of people slept through it. They had multiple meat options, including asado beef and a ‘three sauce’ chicken, which is what I went for. Between meals and even after this one, there was an interesting mix of sandwhiches, chips and fruit available throughout at back; though this too is becoming standard, as both the previous two long-haul flights I’ve taken (New York – Johannesburg and back, and New York – Mumbai and back) had this. What is not normal is a second dinner or full meal, which was a great surprise.
The final meal was not a breakfast, given it was close to 2pm local time in Singapore when it was served. It was a nice four cheese pizza, if a bit too cheesy.
The movie and tv selectin was plentiful, and gave me time to watc some new things, like Kill Bill, which I had missed watching previously, to Sorry to Bother You, to sleeping while watching Succession – love the fact this has become a flight box set special. The noise reducing headphones were also a huge hit as well, working nicely throughout. I didn’t sleep as much as I should have, though that had more to do with having to be active on e-mail on the first half of the flight. It was a
splendid 17h30min, and made me look increasingly forward to the same on the flight back – usually a time of despair for me.
The flight back takes off around 12:45am in Singapore, landing around 5:15-5:30 in Newark. Before you board, you get to experience the incredible Changi airport. It is ludicrous how well put together Changi is, from the incredible flora all throughout, the the easy access on subway, to the various gardens (Orchid, Lilly, Butterfly, etc.) splashed throughout each terminal. My favorite aspect of Changi is it mixes arriving and departing passengers – not having some sterile area for arriving passengers. Now, Singapore has the advantage of not having any ‘domestic’ flights, but still, it is cool to just be released into the open when you arrive. Also there is never any real wait for immigration. Changi is a peerless airport, just like Singapore is a peerless airline for an economy / premium economy passenger (probably peerless for business too, but never had the luxury… yet).
The flight back left on time, with 17h10m as the flying time, a route pure eastern up to around Japan, over the pacific and then across Canada/USA. Both flight routes show off just how incredible far Singapore is from New York. The way there was essentially a 14-hour flight to Mumbai, plus 3.5 more hours. The flight back was the 13-hours it takes to go to New York from Japan, plus four more hours at the start.
The first meal was a really nice pork, a great start for the flight, with again great sides all around. The midflight snack this time was a pizza, as the final meal, given we land at 5:20am local time in Newark, is breakfast, but not a normal soggy, half-edible omelet (though an omelet is one of the option), but a fried noodle Indonesian breakfast, or waffles with sausage. I chose the waffles with sausage, having had mixed experience picking the Asian breakfasts on other previous flights.
The movies didn’t change, but gave me the ability to watch a few things I hadn’t seen before, like The Catcher was a Spy, the Sisters Brothers, and a few others (finishing Kill Bill Vol. 2, etc.). Obviously I wouldn’t expect the selection of movies to change when I took the flights five days apart, but I will say the one down-mark I can give Singapore Airlines is that their movie selection isn’t as good asother airlines I’ve taken recently.
Overall, the seats are quite comfortable, iving you a decent enough position in which to sleep in. The nice little touches are so good, like the noise reducing headphones, the plethora of USB / plug points, the Singapore Airlines stylized eye-mask they provide. It is all so good, so professional, so well done.
I have a few thoughts after these flights are ending. First is that I’ll never have this sort of experience again, or at least for the first time. I’ve now taken the longest flight in the world, both existing today or ever. Unless Qantas can get a New York – Sydney or London – Sydney flight going (which is definitely their intention at some point), this will be the longest flight for the forseeable future. I’ll never take such a long flight. I may come close. Hell, I may take this flight again, and the difference between this vs. the flight to Mumbai or Jo-Burg (or even Seoul or China or Hong Kong) isn’t too different, but it isn’t the same.
The more hilarious thought is that this flight timed up with having to fly to Toronto for work the next morning. I will literally be going from a nice, A350-900, with premium economy seating, to a tiny United Embraer E-145, with 1-2 seating, a plane that is truly smaller than your normal bus. Such is the life of a consultant, but also the life of someone who loves flying. You have to live with the small, regional jets with no amenities beyond maybe a beverage and packet of chips, because every now and then you get to fly a large, modern jet and get three meals and your own little place in solitude for nearly a day.
Some may ask how I’m paying for this, or why I think it’s worth it to take these flights, and my response is two-fold. First, we got a really good deal for these flights, and second, I don’t pay rent at the moment. This is my form of rent, taking flights to faraway lands if I can get the right deal. And for the chance to fly Singapore Airlines, check off an item on my flying bucket list, and of course get to go to Singapore / Bangkok, all added up to a combination too hard to turn down.
At the end of the day, the flight was the star of the trip – Gaggan a truly unexpected added bonus that overshadowed it as a single event. I always had in my head how I think this would go, and it was exactly as expected. Good food, great Singapore Airlines hospitality, nice comfort, all flying about as far as you can in one direction. In fact, I struggled to sleep because I wanted to be awake, enjoy the flight for its worth, for maximum time. In the end, I definitely did that.
About three years later, Singapore Airlines announced their plans to bring it back, using a variant of the next-gen A350-900 aircraft, called the A350-900lr. I wrote another article at the time about how silly Emirate’s and Qatar’s machinations were inventing routes that didn’t need existing to claim for some short period of time the title of world’s longest flight (admittedly Qatar’s Auckland – Doha flight has done well, and Emirates never started their publicized Dubai – Panama City route). All the time we all knew Singapore Airlines would take its place back. It finally did in October, 2018, and ever since it did I knew I wanted to fly it.
Flying itself has always fascinated me. Old trips to Europe and India used to have the long flights as a central aspect to my enjoyment of the trip. I can still remember the flights I loved from the 90s. I remember distinctly taking KLM to Amsterdam on the way to India in 2001 – the movie was SpyKids. I remember the developments at various points in the comfort of Economy class air travel, from having to all watch one movie on projectors or screens every 10 th row (mid-90’s through 2001 or so), to getting a tv on the back of every seat becoming the norm, to getting 50+ options being the new norm.
My first 12= hour flight I ever took was from New York to Abu Dhabi in 2010 on the way to my cousin’s wedding. It might be my single most favorite flight I’ve ever taken. The aircraft was a beautiful Airbus A340-500 (the same one Singapore used to fly on the Singapore – Newark route). I remember they served lamb biryani. There was cool lighting in the cabin. It was the first of many long-haul flights. I’ve always found 10-12 hours to be a good threshold. The longer the flight, the more you can get done, be it sleep, eat, watch movies, or even work if needed. I was never going to fight off having to fly long flights. To one degree, I wanted as many of them as possible.
It was obvious then why I wanted to take this flight. Add to it I love Singapore Airlines the few times I’ve taken them (five individual flights during my 2013 Round the World trip, and one more flight in 2017 from New York to Frankfurt), as it always lived up to its reputation as the world’s best airline. I’ve also loved Singapore both times I’ve been able to go (and of course, I would be able to luckily add Gaggan to the week’s plans). It all made sense, but the highlight (maybe not the pure highlight since Gaggan was still to come) was the 34-35 hours I would be inside Singapore Airlines beautiful A350-900 bird.
This is not like any regular flight, or even regulat plane. It is set up where 2/3rds of the plane were business class, with the remaining third as premium economy. And this was true premium economy – not like United’s economy plus meaning you just get a little bit more room. These seats are comparable with domestic business class if not better. The seats reclined to maybe a good 45 degree angle. Each seat had two USB connections and a plug point, a set of customized noise-reducing earphones, a giant flatscreen that took up much of the back of the seat infront, a personal light, and all the rest. It was as close to business class without getting business class, and it made for a comfortable 17 hours. If anything, I’ll more gladly to 17 hours in this than 15 in a regular economy seat on United like I did when going to Mumbai last.
Singapore always has the nice touches – the hot towel before each meal, the constant availability of drinks and snacks that went beyond just chips or pretzels. They always have a written menu for even us plebes in premium economy (they’ve had it in regular economy in each of my previous flights as well). This time the menu outlined three different meals we would get in our seventeen hours to Singapore.
We were somewhat lucky it was 17h30min of flyin time. It is scheduled for 18h30m, and the last two days the flight took over 19 hours. We luckily had good headwinds, which cut down the time and even allowed us to go a strange route that essentially went Eastward flying to India, and then down to Singapore. The flight timing has you leave at 9:30am, reaching Singapore the following afternoon with it being daylight through much of the flight. That itself is not too dissimilar to the New York to Johannesburg flight I’ve taken, and the crew nicely made people close the windows for most of the flight.
The first meal was a great start, with a braised beef dish with a nice sweet potato and rice. The other pieces of the meal truthfully weren’t played up for being premium economy vs. regular economy, but given it is Singapore, it was still plentiful, with nice soft bread, cheese and crackers, a prawn salad and a nice dessert. The flight then settled in to each of us in our own world, mixing sleep and movie watching for eight or so hours.
The most fun, or most hated, moment of any one of these types of flights is when you’ve already been flying five or so hours, and you realize there are twelve hours to go. In this case, we were basically over Norway or so, when I saw that stat come across the screen. I was gleefull, to say the least, though I think that says a lot more about my peculiarities than anything else.
The second meal happens dead in the middle of the flight, so midle that a lot of people slept through it. They had multiple meat options, including asado beef and a ‘three sauce’ chicken, which is what I went for. Between meals and even after this one, there was an interesting mix of sandwhiches, chips and fruit available throughout at back; though this too is becoming standard, as both the previous two long-haul flights I’ve taken (New York – Johannesburg and back, and New York – Mumbai and back) had this. What is not normal is a second dinner or full meal, which was a great surprise.
The final meal was not a breakfast, given it was close to 2pm local time in Singapore when it was served. It was a nice four cheese pizza, if a bit too cheesy.
The movie and tv selectin was plentiful, and gave me time to watc some new things, like Kill Bill, which I had missed watching previously, to Sorry to Bother You, to sleeping while watching Succession – love the fact this has become a flight box set special. The noise reducing headphones were also a huge hit as well, working nicely throughout. I didn’t sleep as much as I should have, though that had more to do with having to be active on e-mail on the first half of the flight. It was a
splendid 17h30min, and made me look increasingly forward to the same on the flight back – usually a time of despair for me.
The flight back takes off around 12:45am in Singapore, landing around 5:15-5:30 in Newark. Before you board, you get to experience the incredible Changi airport. It is ludicrous how well put together Changi is, from the incredible flora all throughout, the the easy access on subway, to the various gardens (Orchid, Lilly, Butterfly, etc.) splashed throughout each terminal. My favorite aspect of Changi is it mixes arriving and departing passengers – not having some sterile area for arriving passengers. Now, Singapore has the advantage of not having any ‘domestic’ flights, but still, it is cool to just be released into the open when you arrive. Also there is never any real wait for immigration. Changi is a peerless airport, just like Singapore is a peerless airline for an economy / premium economy passenger (probably peerless for business too, but never had the luxury… yet).
The flight back left on time, with 17h10m as the flying time, a route pure eastern up to around Japan, over the pacific and then across Canada/USA. Both flight routes show off just how incredible far Singapore is from New York. The way there was essentially a 14-hour flight to Mumbai, plus 3.5 more hours. The flight back was the 13-hours it takes to go to New York from Japan, plus four more hours at the start.
The first meal was a really nice pork, a great start for the flight, with again great sides all around. The midflight snack this time was a pizza, as the final meal, given we land at 5:20am local time in Newark, is breakfast, but not a normal soggy, half-edible omelet (though an omelet is one of the option), but a fried noodle Indonesian breakfast, or waffles with sausage. I chose the waffles with sausage, having had mixed experience picking the Asian breakfasts on other previous flights.
The movies didn’t change, but gave me the ability to watch a few things I hadn’t seen before, like The Catcher was a Spy, the Sisters Brothers, and a few others (finishing Kill Bill Vol. 2, etc.). Obviously I wouldn’t expect the selection of movies to change when I took the flights five days apart, but I will say the one down-mark I can give Singapore Airlines is that their movie selection isn’t as good asother airlines I’ve taken recently.
Overall, the seats are quite comfortable, iving you a decent enough position in which to sleep in. The nice little touches are so good, like the noise reducing headphones, the plethora of USB / plug points, the Singapore Airlines stylized eye-mask they provide. It is all so good, so professional, so well done.
I have a few thoughts after these flights are ending. First is that I’ll never have this sort of experience again, or at least for the first time. I’ve now taken the longest flight in the world, both existing today or ever. Unless Qantas can get a New York – Sydney or London – Sydney flight going (which is definitely their intention at some point), this will be the longest flight for the forseeable future. I’ll never take such a long flight. I may come close. Hell, I may take this flight again, and the difference between this vs. the flight to Mumbai or Jo-Burg (or even Seoul or China or Hong Kong) isn’t too different, but it isn’t the same.
The more hilarious thought is that this flight timed up with having to fly to Toronto for work the next morning. I will literally be going from a nice, A350-900, with premium economy seating, to a tiny United Embraer E-145, with 1-2 seating, a plane that is truly smaller than your normal bus. Such is the life of a consultant, but also the life of someone who loves flying. You have to live with the small, regional jets with no amenities beyond maybe a beverage and packet of chips, because every now and then you get to fly a large, modern jet and get three meals and your own little place in solitude for nearly a day.
Some may ask how I’m paying for this, or why I think it’s worth it to take these flights, and my response is two-fold. First, we got a really good deal for these flights, and second, I don’t pay rent at the moment. This is my form of rent, taking flights to faraway lands if I can get the right deal. And for the chance to fly Singapore Airlines, check off an item on my flying bucket list, and of course get to go to Singapore / Bangkok, all added up to a combination too hard to turn down.
At the end of the day, the flight was the star of the trip – Gaggan a truly unexpected added bonus that overshadowed it as a single event. I always had in my head how I think this would go, and it was exactly as expected. Good food, great Singapore Airlines hospitality, nice comfort, all flying about as far as you can in one direction. In fact, I struggled to sleep because I wanted to be awake, enjoy the flight for its worth, for maximum time. In the end, I definitely did that.
