Having figured out a couple of ways I could re-enter the US with my passport or without, we decided to go ahead and take the trip. We walked over from the Polaris Lounge to our departure gate in concourse D, which appeared to be under construction.

I had managed to snag the coveted bulkhead seats for us. Normally these seats are available at T-48 hours when online check-in opens, but for selected routes, Singapore makes these available at T-96 hours and IAH-MAN is one of these. There were two seats together in row 19 available and I had to call to reserve the seats. It only took a few minutes.

SQ51
IAH-MAN
Scheduled 18:45-09:40 (+1 day)
Actual 18:46-09:48(+1 day)

We boarded after families with young children and those needing extra assistance. We were in the second set of business class seats behind the bathrooms and bulkhead galley.

As you can see, there is a huge footrest with no height or width restrictions. The non-bulkhead seats have a weird side footwell that makes people contort themselves to lay flat.

We were offered a predeparture beverage of champagne or juice and looked through the menu.

There was also a wine and beverage list. Of note, the menu contained the food options for both the Houston-Manchester flight and the Manchester-Singapore flight which is all one flight number.

My wife and I had “booked the cook.” Singapore allows you to pre-select your entrée up to four months in advance from a long list of options. I had selected the lobster thermidor and my wife had selected a pork dish. We were both still pretty full from our Polaris burgers though. Prior to take-off, we were asked for our post-takeoff drink selections, which is a nice touch.

Despite the stormy weather around Houston, we took off pretty much on time. For some reason, our route took us right up a big area of storms through the center of the country. It made for a fairly bumpy climb-out, but once we got up to 39,000 feet, things smoothed out enough to start the cabin service.

Drinks were brought to our seats directly. I ordered a Singapore Sling because, well, why not? It was brought with warmed mixed nuts.

The in-flight entertainment was not touch screen, but that was fine as it was quite far from the seat, especially in the bulkhead. The screen was very sharp and larger than most business-class screens. I decided to watch The Fabelmans during the meal service.

The meal service was a bit slow and I’m not sure if it was due to the turbulence or was just the normal pace for Singapore Airlines. Eventually we got served. My wife ended up being too full to get her pre-ordered entrée and just had the appetizer and dessert. I went for my lobster but skipped dessert. I tried the Chardonnay with dinner and it complimented the salmon and lobster nicely.

After dinner, I had the flight attendant make up my bed. This is a unique configuration that actually flips over. The mattress and mattress pad are actually on the back of the seat. Despite reports that the mattress is too hard, I found it comfortable. The amount of leg room and the width of the seat really allow you to get comfortable. Both my wife and I found it our favorite transatlantic business class bed that we have tried so far. (Others for me include Delta, American, Virgin Atlantic, Iberia and TAP so far). Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the bed but I was exhausted and the cabin was dark by this point anyway.

After a few hours’ rest, the cabin lights came on (way too early in my opinion) about 2.5 hours before landing. Breakfast was served and you could even get espresso-based drinks.

We landed a few minutes late and taxied to our gate at Manchester. Our overall impressions of Singapore A350 Business Class were very favorable. The food and service were top-notch. The bed was very comfortable and the in-flight entertainment was varied with a large and crisp screen.

The problem with this flight is that it now costs 85,000 miles per seat (up from the 72,000 we paid to book). I think that’s too high for transatlantic business class, especially when you can get Air France/KLM for 55-60k, American for 57,500 (when you can find it), and other lay-flat options for even less (TAP, Iberia, etc.). I’m glad we got to try it and it was a great way to get to Manchester (where we wanted to fly to anyway), but I’m not sure we’ll do it again at that price for a saver-level ticket.

Up Next: A Brief Guide to Liverpool

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