For our final leg of our Aus-UK trip, we are looking to book a one-way flight from SIN-MEL.
I have a couple of questions:
And as a side note, how many people can you fit into a suite? We will be a family of 2 adults, one child and 1 newborn baby (hopefully!)
Cheers
Ben
Singapore Airlines flies this route with a mixture of 777 and a350s. Only their 777 has first class. This wouldn’t be the spacious suite like on their a380 but rather more like a wider seat and a bigger bed, etc.
If you can accept alternative options, Qantas uses the A380 on this route which has their first product in an open suite layout. Or you can try Emirates’ 777 suite which is a closed door suite.
For the A380 new first class suite, I believe you can fit 2 people and 2 children in there reasonably well. Plus, the first 2 rows of suites can be opened so that it essentially creates a bigger space where you can fit all four people.
Thanks for the insights @djtech. We have accumulated Velocity points so won’t be able to try Qantas or Emirates I suppose. Just thought we might be able to stretch our points to a suite for that flight if it was available via Velocity points. Can’t see us diverting to Sydney just to try that out though, given the kids in tow.
If we stick with SingAir, which flight/aircraft would you recommend if staying on business class?
Some reading material if you enjoy these. If you think TLDR, maybe djtech or others can weigh in on this.
Article seem to suggest seats on both aircraft are the same.
I haven’t tried A380 and B777 business class yet but tried both variants of the A350. I enjoyed the long haul A350 more as it is less narrow. I seem to recall MEL is served by the long haul variant.
A350 would be a newer aircraft that supposedly has technology to reduce jet lag (higher pressure, air humidity or something)
Grab the bulkhead seats if you can.
As @w.hiew said, both the a350 and the 777 serving the routes have the same business class seat so it becomes a matter of preference for timings. I would recommend getting on the a350 flights as the aircraft is quieter, more humid, making for a better flight overall.
I second the suggestion on bulkhead seats. They have much larger footwells so you don’t have to sleep sideways and bend your feet into a corner like you do on the other seats.
Don’t waste your hard earned on the Qantas A380. Do what we did and fly the SQ A380 from SIN - SYD and then do a quick domestic hop home. We live in Melbourne, and trust me, it was worth the detour.
P.S. If you can help it, it’s better to just take you and the missus - when Singapore combine 1A and 2A like they did for the two of us, the space is absolutely perfect for two :))
Wish we could! Will be travelling as a young family - don’t think the missus would be best pleased to add another leg to the already protracted journey, regardless of the reason! I’ll save that one for when we ever get the opportunity to travel sans kids…
We waited until our 25th wedding anniversary, but the new SQ First Suite (1A and 2A from LHR - SIN) were definitely the perfect place to celebrate! A few drinks, a long leisurely dinner, a movie as the sun set and then some nice schnuggle time in what my wife calls ’ a cubby house for adults’ :))
Nice - that’s some cubby house!
Did you book Saver seats or Advantage seats?
We managed to get Saver Award seats, which I was pretty happy about 
But we may have got extra lucky because they originally told me that we were on an A380 flight that had the new suites and I booked that flight. Later on they admitted that they’d made a mistake and we were on one of the ‘old’ suites aircraft. As a result of that mistake, I was able to talk them into giving us the ‘new’ suites seats at the Saver Award price.
One may not be so lucky now, but you might be.