When you have a 17 1/2 hour flight, you try and plan in advance how you’re going to 1) figure out the eating and sleeping schedule and 2) get your body on the arrival time zone, which was 15 hours ahead of LAX and 12 hours ahead of the US east coast. I decided I would try and stay up for a few hours to put me closer to evening time in Singapore before trying to sleep for 5-6 hours and then I would be better able to cope with the time zone change when we landed.

This flight was booked with 123500 Singapore miles per person. I transferred the points over from Citi. This was more points than our original round trip on ANA, but when you change dates, you take what you can get.

SQ37 LAX-SIN
Scheduled: 23:20-07:50 (+2 days)
Actual: 23:43-07:58 (+2 days)
Flight time: 17:15

We were able to pre-board because of my wife’s ankle boot, but in reality, it just meant even more time beyond the 17 1/2 hours we were already spending on this plane. I was thankfully able to snag the bulkhead seats about 96 hours out from the flight. This makes a huge difference on the Singapore A350 because of the huge space for your feet. The seat is already very wide for a business class seat and the extra space in the footwell, particularly in the center seats, makes it so comfortable. The only minor negative is that the screen is pretty far away, too far to use the touch screen functions.

The seat had easy to reach controls, storage, power and lighting.

We were offered a pre-departure beverage of champagne or orange juice and the lovely flight attendants took our drink orders for after takeoff before we left the ground. I wish more airlines would do this in business class.

Although we had pre-ordered through the Book the Cook program, I took a look at the massive menu.

We were in 19D and 19F and economy boarding was through the second door, so everyone filed past us. There are actually two business cabins and we were in the smaller one with only four rows. The window seat across the aisle from me remained empty which seems crazy to me as the bulkhead seats are way better than the non-bulkhead seats on this aircraft. The non-bulkhead seats have an angled footwell where you have to lay at a weird angle to stretch out your legs. A crew member (maybe it was a pilot) used the seat for a while during the flight but it was unoccupied during takeoff and landing.

Our taxi out was slow as I suppose LAX has a lot of late-night flights to Asia and other destinations. We finally took off around 11:45pm. While we were taxiing and climbing out, I watched 3-Body Problem on Netflix via my iPad. There was free Wi-Fi for business class passengers and it was quickly available when we climbed over 10,000 feet.

Around 15 minutes after takeoff, we were served our drinks. I ordered the SilverKris Sling and it was served with mixed nuts.

Around an hour after takeoff, the salmon appetizer was served. There was only one option. I think Singapore could do a bit better with a choice of appetizers.

The bread basket came around and I selected the garlic bread.

Here are the Book-the-Cook options we could choose from for each of the two main meals on the flight:

For my main course, I had preselected the Wanton and Char Siew Pork Noodle and it was excellent. It was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had in the air.

My wife ordered the Lu Rou Fan and also enjoyed it. For dessert, I was pretty full so I just had some fruit.

About three hours into the flight, I tried to sleep for a while. I had the flight attendant make up my bed while I went to the restroom and changed into Lufthansa First Class pajamas I had brought with me. The bed flips over so there’s a built in mattress pad and comforter already there. There’s also an extra pillow. Sorry it’s kind of hard to see in this picture as the cabin was dark.

I slept on and off for about four hours. At that point, I gave up and just finished 3-Body Problem. I ordered a club soda and grabbed some snacks from the galley. After I finished the show, I napped a bit more.

There’s a weird service flow on this flight as they serve dinner after takeoff around midnight (which was OK I guess as I was trying to stay up for a while) then a second main meal around 11 hours into the flight. I decided I would just have the second meal and try and sleep a bit more afterwards. I left the seat in bed mode and just sat up to eat which was pretty comfortable.

The second meal started with a tuna nicoise salad which was just OK.

For the main course, I had booked the cook again and this time it was Singapore Chicken Rice. It was excellent. In fact, it was better than the local chicken rice I had at a food center in Singapore.

The flight attendant showed me the way to combine the sauces with the chicken and rice. It doesn’t look like anything special, but I assure you it was delicious.

For dessert, I had the chocolate mousse cake which was tasty.

I napped for another hour or so and then decided to wake up and get some caffeine. I ordered a latte.

Throughout the flight, despite a lack of overhead air vents, the temperature was very comfortable. Given the lack of overhead bins, I doubt we could have reached air vents anyway.

I got some snacks from the galley as I was getting a bit hungry again by this point.

To pass some time, I listened to podcasts and watched some Aussie rules football on one of four live TV channels we had available. As we approached Singapore, I moved over to the vacant window seat for landing and got some great pictures.

All in all, it was a great, but very long, flight. We landed at 7:59am local time and had a short taxi over to Terminal 3. We took a short train ride to immigration and went through the electronic gates very quickly. To enter Singapore as a US passport holder, you just have to download an app and fill in your arrival and passport information within three days of the trip.

As soon as I started looking for an ATM, I realized that I had forgotten my Schwab debit card. I had planned to take out cash that way in Singapore, use US dollars in Cambodia, and exchange my US dollars for local currency in Vietnam. So, what to do? I decided I would just get to the hotel and figure it out. I ended up using my Capital One Venture X card and took out a cash advance. I immediately paid it off the next day and did not get any interest charges, just a $10 fee.

Up Next: Two Days in Singapore

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