A Review of Singapore Airlines Premium Economy on the World’s Longest Flight

For the longest flight in the world, you need a travel experience that is both comfortable and entertaining, and that’s exactly what Singapore Airlines delivers on its route from New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) in premium economy. 

Singapore flies a specialized Airbus A350-900 ULR aircraft on this route that was tailor-made for this nearly 19-hour flight. The flight is so long that they don’t even sell economy tickets – premium economy is the cheapest seat you can buy. 

I was understandably anxious about how my body and mind would handle this epic, globe-flipping voyage. Even in the very last row of the plane (which may actually be the best seat in the premium economy cabin), the three (yes, three!) different meal services, a spacious seat, and ample entertainment options made the trip a breeze. 

Best of all, the premium economy seats on these routes can be booked cheap to get you to Singapore and onward to Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines or Malaysia next year, too. 

Here’s what it’s like flying Singapore Airlines Premium Economy on the longest flight in the world. 

Best Ways to Book Singapore Airlines Premium Economy

Singapore Airlines Premium Economy is easy to book on these routes from New York (JFK) and Newark (EWR) because no other airlines compete on them. As always, we recommend travelers start with Google Flights and start their searches there. 

By putting in your desired city pairs and filtering for “nonstop” if you want to fly to Singapore (SIN) or for “Singapore Airlines” if you want to connect on to Southeast Asia, you can easily find these fares. 

But remember: You have to set the class to “Premium Economy” because Singapore does not sell economy seats on these routes. The flights are too long to subject travelers to economy’s wrath. 

You can also search directly on Singapore’s website (or use the “Book with Singapore” Google Flights link after you search) to see these fares. 

When booking, the best rate will be Premium Economy lite, which will be all most travelers require. With two free checked bags, a free carry-on, and free seat selection, it’s a great deal. 

Upgrading to “Standard” will give you $50 off your change fees and a “Flexi” fare will give you free changes. The Standard and Flexi fares also give you the ability to upgrade to business class using your miles if that is important to you. 

You can also book these Premium Economy seats using Singapore Airlines’ own Krisflyer miles. They’re incredibly easy to earn through credit card transfers, as Singapore partners with nearly all the major banks including American Express, Capital One, Chase, and Citi. 

This is the route I took: Transferring 80,000 Amex points to Singapore to book my October flight. 

At Thrifty Traveler, we don’t accept freebies. We use our own points, miles, or cash to pay for every single flight or hotel you see reviewed here – including this one!

But booking Singapore Airlines Premium Economy with KrisFlyer miles may not always be the best deal. In fact, you can sometimes find business class award space on these routes for just 80,000 Air Canada points – which can also be transferred from Amex.

The real best way to book these premium economy seats is using cash on the roundtrip flights to Southeast Asia. The two longest flights in the world – from JFK and EWR – are some of the best values in travel when you fly premium economy. Just look at this Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alert we sent to our members a few months ago. 

Not only can you fly these routes into Singapore (SIN), but you can connect on to Bali (DPS), Jakarta (CGK), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Manila (MNL), and Phuket (HKT)! And for on just a few dollars more, you can also tack on a Singapore (SIN) stopover to see two destinations on your trip. 

Don’t fear the flight on Scoot, by the way. Singapore partners with Scoot on some short-haul flights around Southeast Asia. Your connecting flight will be in the economy cabin, but you’ll still get all the baggage benefits you had with Singapore, and on such a short flight, you probably won’t mind the smaller seat. 

When you book with Singapore, you get free seat assignment, too. Unless, that is, you want one of the extra-legroom seats in the very front of the cabin, or you want one of the “Solo” seats. 

I booked the Solo Seat (shown above in purple) for my journey and it was the best money I spent on the whole trip, but more eon that in a minute. It ended up being $159.60 in U.S. dollars for the solo seat, which are outlined in purple on this map above. 

Check In & Boarding

The check-in and boarding process with Singapore Airlines couldn’t have been easier. The premium economy check-in line at JFK wasn’t long, but since I wasn’t checking a bag, I was able to skip it. 

In fact, I had checked in earlier that day on the Singapore Airlines app, which was easy. My boarding pass populated immediately, including my TSA PreCheck number. 

After getting off the AirTrain at JFK, I simply headed straight for security. 

Premium economy passengers don’t get lounge access with their ticket, but if you have a travel credit card in your wallet, you’ve got several great lounge options at JFK’s Terminal 4. There’s the Amex Centurion Lounge (and its speakeasy) as well as the brand new Chase Sapphire Lounge that I visited. If you have a Priority Pass membership, you can visit this lounge once per year – or any of the other Priority Pass lounges in the terminal like the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse or the Air India Lounge. 

Gate A5 was easy to find, and right at boarding time, the staff put out these two placards to show us where to start the line-ups. With only two classes of service, this was a very orderly and simple process. 

A350 ULR Cabin & Seating

This unique aircraft is built to handle this exceptionally long flight with style and comfort. The plane was a 6-year-old A350-900 ULR. Its first flight was in July 2018. 

Again, there are no economy seats on this aircraft. Instead, there are 94 premium economy seats onboard all tucked into the back of the plane in one tidy cabin. Here’s a look at the map from Aerolopa. 

The majority of the premium economy cabin is set up in a 2-4-2 configuration, while the last few rows are in a 1-4-1 configuration with six of what the airline calls “Solo Seats” along the windows with direct aisle access. 

Despite dense setup (compared to the business cabin) the cabin didn’t feel tight at all, but maybe that’s because I was all the way in the back in one of those Solo Seats. 

The seats on the side in the “2” of the 2-4-2 are an excellent choice for traveling couples.

The middle four seats are the same size as the side seats. Each seat pair has the same cupholder/armrest combination where your tray table extends from. These middle four seats are good for larger traveling families. These were the last seats on the plane that were claimed in the seat selection process, so if you book last-minute, it’s likely you’ll find yourself here. 

Finally, all the way in the back were the lavatories, which were surprisingly spacious. While it may look like a normal airplane bathroom, it was longer than most. I took this photo standing up against the door, but I’d say the bathroom is at least 30% longer than a typical lavatory.

The extra space, however small, was very welcome on this extremely long trip. You can’t see them here, but there were toothbrushes in a drawer free for anyone to use, as well as hand lotion in a cubby next to the door, too. 

The bathrooms were kept remarkably clean by the staff. I feared the lavatories would deteriorate over the course of nearly 19 hours, but they were clean up until my last use. 

Best Value: The Solo Seat

For an extra $159, I selected the Solo Seat for my trip down to Singapore (SIN) and it was by far the best money I spent on the trip. Without a seat mate next to you, it feels incredibly private. It’s the closest thing to business class you can get in the skies without actually being in business class. 

The seat itself is just like all the rest in the cabin, though. Each Singapore Premium Economy seat boasts 38 inches of legroom and are 19 inches wide. The seats recline eight inches, too, even in the back row. 

The cubby was big enough to store my personal item and another bag to keep my footwell clear. This perk alone is worth the $159 for such a long flight. 

You also get the “legroom” that the cubby doesn’t take up for more storage or to stretch out even further.  

Each seat comes with a footrest that extends down from the seat in front of you. There was also a water bottle holder for each traveler.

On the side of the armrest are two buttons to control your seat. One reclines the top part of your seat back and the other extends your leg rest. When extended, this seat turns into a comfy recliner. And while it wasn’t as comfortable as a fully lie-flat seat, it did the trick enough for me to get seven hours of sleep the first go around and then polish off another two-hour nap later. 

Food & Drink 

Part of what makes the Singapore Premium Economy seat so nice on the long, long flight to Singapore are the three different meal services. Aside from one dish, everything I ate was terrific and helped pass the time and keep me comfy on the flight to Southeast Asia. 

I would recommend you use the Book the Cook menu, where you can order specific, unique meals ahead of time. You have to order these meals more than 24 hours in advance of your flight, though. You’ll get periodic email reminders before your flight to select your meals, and I recommend doing so. Notably, people who Book the Cook get fed first in the cabin. Many of my neighbors were surprised to see I and others who also selected one of these meals were served first onboard. 

I ordered the pork congee for my first meal and it came right away. 

Ironically, this was the worst-looking meal I had on the flight, although it tasted better than this picture may indicate. Congee is a tough ask for an airplane oven. 

For all of our meals onboard, we were offered actual silverware for our dining, which is hit or miss in the premium economy cabin on other airlines. 

For breakfast, I went with the western-style option, which was surprisingly terrific. The eggs and bacon were restaurant quality, as were the potatoes. The fruit, bread, and yogurt all hit the spot, too. 

Finally, before landing, the flight attendants came around with personal pizzas! I was not expecting this to be so good, but it was! 

Amenities, Wi-Fi, & Entertainment

The small things are key when you’re in the air for 19 hours, and I found myself comfortable and fully entertained for the entire duration of my flight. 

When you get onboard, a pillow and blanket are waiting at your seat. The orange pillow was just fine (although I preferred my Turtl travel pillow better), but the blanket was a little flimsy. It was more or less a regular airplane blanket and I could have used something a little more substantial. 

You are not given an amenity kit in Singapore Airlines Premium Economy, which is surprising given how luxurious everything else on the airline is and how long this particular route is. However, you can request a free amenity kit from the flight attendants. I did so, and was surprised to see that there were only slippers, an eye mask, and a lip balm in this paltry kit. 

The kit itself was akin to cardboard. I would liken it to the feel of construction paper, somehow put into bag form. The slippers were useful, but I ended up discarding the rest of the bag post-flight. 

Everyone onboard gets a set of complimentary noise-cancelling headphones to use for the duration of the flight, which you’re instructed to leave at your seat when you deplane. They also come with little covers if you’re worried about headphone germs. 

Each seat comes with a power outlet and a USB-specific outlet on the back of the screen to charge your devices. 

The entertainment screens are a hearty 13.3 inches – the best part of the seat, in my opinion. 

You can get live TV throughout the duration of the flight. I was able to watch some NFL football during the beginning of my Monday night flight, for instance. 

There were literally hundreds of TV and movie options to choose from. Before each movie there was (annoyingly) about six minutes worth of advertisements. Some were skippable, though. (I watched Twisters, Fly Me to the Moon, and Back to the Future during my trip, if you were wondering!)

The Wi-Fi situation was hit or miss. The Panasonic eXConnect satellite Wi-Fi was surprisingly free to all customers onboard with a KrisFlyer account. I signed up for a KrisFlyer account to book these flights, and I’m glad I did. 

It was good over North America and the beginnings of the Atlantic Ocean (I slept through all of Europe), but was extremely lackluster over the Middle East and India. I wasn’t able to connect much of the time and it was excruciatingly slow at other points. 

It was good enough to send messages throughout, though. Just don’t expect to get a bunch of work done or download your favorite shows. 

My Takeaways From the Longest Flight on Earth

I had a lot of anxiety about this flight, and I’m not an anxious flyer. Nineteen hours on a plane is a lot, no matter how comfy it is. And the flight path all the way to the other side of the globe is daunting, too. 

Here are a few things to note about this flight: 

• When you push back from the gate, the plane’s engines are still off. They fire up the engines remotely on the tarmac after pushback to save fuel! But don’t stress about this. These planes are built specifically for these journey, and they’ve been successfully flying two of of these a day in each direction from NYC to Singapore for six years now. 
• The direction of travel isn’t decided until right before the flight! Air traffic control and the pilots decide the day of travel whether going east over Europe or west over the Pacific is faster based on the weather that day. I was so excited to figure out which way we were going, and was pleased to see that it was east. 

Even with a slightly late arrival and 50 minutes on the tarmac at JFK, this flight was truly not bad at all. Here’s the Flighty app breakdown of the flight after it was done, including a look at the flight path. 

Overall, the flight took 18 hours, 49 minutes gate to gate. It clocked in at a whopping 9,531 miles. We fly east over Europe, the Middle East, and India and landed with a mind-melting 12-hour time change (i.e. 5 p.m. in NYC is 5 a.m. the next day in Singapore). 

The total air time was 17 hours, 52 mins and we landed six minutes late, but I wasn’t feeling cooped up or claustrophobic by the end of the flight. I landed feeling well-fed, entertained, and well rested after plenty of food and sleep onboard. 

During the flight, I spent about 20 minutes in the back area by the lavatories doing some light stretching. There were a few of us standing there doing the same thing and we shared a laugh about the strangeness of it all. I would take my time on my bathroom breaks to stretch my legs, too. 

Although I don’t know for sure, wearing compression socks might also have helped with some leg discomfort. I ordered some before my trip at the recommendation of my doctor-slash-sister who said they would help a lot.

Another bonus: On this particular flight, they kept the cabin very cool, bordering on cold. There were some travelers in jackets as a result, but I think this is a smart move to keep people comfortable. A hot cabin on this long of flight would have been a sweaty, smelly nightmare. Bring a sweater if you run cold, though. 

Finally, just in case you think I’m uniquely tough and travel-hardened, I was watching my fellow travelers closely, and I did not sense much, if any, distress. This is obviously anecdotal to where I was seated, but even travelers with infants and toddlers seemed content, as did some elderly neighbors of mine, too. There were plenty of smiles to be seen 15, 16, and even 17 hours into the flight. 

Bottom Line

For the longest flight in the world, you need a comfortable ride, and that’s exactly what Singapore Airlines delivered with its premium economy seat on the A350-900 ULR. 

The nearly 19-hour flight from New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) was surprisingly comfortable and included three different delectable meal services. Those plus a good deal of sleep, and some fun entertainment options made the journey much easier than anticipated.

I highly recommend flying this product from NYC to Southeast Asia if you can jump on one of the several cheap flight deals Singapore offers throughout the year to get to Thailand, Indonesia, or Singapore itself.