a row of seats with screens on the back

Review: Singapore Airlines 777 Premium Economy (SIN-HKG)

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While I enjoyed my inbound flight on a Singapore A380 in premium economy, I was excited to have the opportunity to try the product on the 777. Singapore’s 777s feature updated cabin products in first, business and economy class, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to have a look at them as well. Furthermore, I also wanted to answer the question, “Is Singapore Airlines’ A380 premium economy better than their 777 premium economy?

With that in mind, we arrived Singapore Changi Terminal 3 at 11 AM for our 1:05 PM flight.

a building with glass walls and a palm tree
Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Exterior

We walked over to line 7, which is where the Singapore Airlines Star Gold and premium economy check-in line is located. Singapore Airlines’ Terminal 3 is a stunning terminal, and we were promptly checked in. I inquired about upgrade space, though the check-in agent (nicely) replied that business class was full for the day.

a large airport terminal with a clock and check in counter
Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Singapore Airlines Premium Economy/Star Gold Check-in

After spending a while shopping at the complex that is Terminal 3, we made our way past immigration. At Changi Airport, security is executed at each individual gate, so despite it being a really busy day we were through in all of ten minutes. I started heading to the gate for the published 12:05 PM boarding time, because I wanted to ensure I was first onboard.

people walking in an airport
Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Transit Area

At around 12 PM I entered the gate area, whipping out my computer and working for a while.

people sitting in a waiting area
Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Holding Pen

I was able to capture a picture of a Lion Air 737, though couldn’t grab a great picture of our 777, which was hidden behind the jetbridge.

a plane parked on a tarmac
Lion Air Boeing 737-900ER Singapore Changi Airport

I asked a gate agent where I’d get the best pictures of the plane, and he was nice enough to check for me. Unfortunately he came back with the news that I wouldn’t really be able to get a picture of the gorgeous plane, but he did say that boarding would happen at around 12:30. I made sure to be packed at around 12:25, as I didn’t know how the boarding experience would be.

While I know how boarding from “holding pens” usually works, I figured this was Changi Airport, a highly rated airport, and we were boarding Singapore Airlines, a highly rated carrier that likes to go “by the book”. I was wrong – once “priority boarding” was called, everyone herded to the gate to get onboard, so it was one of the most hectic boarding processes I’d experienced. Nevertheless, I did my usual brisk walk to the gate area and made it onboard after the passengers that needed assistance, which is pretty much the best I can do on a plane.

a plane parked at an airport
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Singapore Changi Airport

I was excited to see what this flight had to offer, and had a weird feeling that this flight would be great. It wasn’t…

Singapore Airlines Flight 866
Monday, April 17, 2017
Origin: Singapore (SIN) Gate: A10 Dep: 13:05 (13:05)
Destination: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 31 Arr: 17:05 (17:05)
Duration: 4 hr (4 hr)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER Reg: 9V-SWM
Seat: 33K (Premium Economy Class)

Since I gave myself a head start with the awkward half-jog at the jetbridge, I had a while to take pictures of Singapore Airlines’ new business class product. I asked one of the flight attendants if I could, and she gave me her permission.

Singapore’s new business class seats look gorgeous, and definitely are a great refresh compared to the dated A380 seats. I certainly wouldn’t mind shelling out an extra 12,000 KrisFlyer miles to sit here.

a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Seat 15K

a close-up of a plane seats
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Cabin

a seat with a pillow on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Seat

The seatbacks looked much more modern, with gorgeous matte finishes embodied into the seat. If on a long flight, I certainly wouldn’t mind sitting here (while Singapore Airlines is usually pricey, some of their promotional prices are cheaper than you’d expect – earlier in the year they had a fare to Amsterdam and Munich from Hong Kong for HK$23,000, involving a flight on this aircraft and a flight on the A350).

a seat with a pillow on the side
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Middle Seats

a seat on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Cabin

Soon I walked to the premium economy cabin, which was similar to that of the A380. I’ll still touch up on the details of the seat (since there are differences), but refer to the A380 review if you want a much more detailed overview of the seat itself.

a group of people in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin

Singapore Airlines’ 777 premium economy is quite cosy, featuring 28 seats arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration. The windowside blocks feature three rows, while the center block of seats features four rows. Each seat is 19.5 inches wide and features 38 inches of seat pitch.

a screenshot of a video game
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seatmap

Once again, the cabin is sterile yet gorgeous, featuring orange accents on a mostly grey palate. In the case of the 777-300ER, the first row features an infinite amount of leg room, but also comes at a price (SGD 100 per seat on today’s flight) and is missing a window. I don’t think the price is worth it (it certainly wasn’t on this flight), as the other seats have a sufficient amount of legroom, and the TV screens are smaller as they come out of your armrest. It’s worth noting that the footrest folds out of the legrest on these seats, which shows attention to detail, as the other seats have legrests specifically designed so your feet have room for the footrest in front.

a row of seats on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seats 31H and 31K

While the seats don’t really fit with Singapore Airlines’ brand colours (I’d be expecting a turquoise blue leather seat with beige/silky gold pillows), the cabin is gorgeous. I’m a fan of the reddish-orange colour – it’s not too bright so the cabin doesn’t look cheap, yet it still provides a refreshing “pop” of colour.

a group of seats in a plane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin

The cabin also looks great from the back, if not slightly “square”.

a row of seats with screens on the back
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin

an airplane with seats and a screen
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin

On this flight I had selected seats 32H, 32K, 33H and 33K for our family, and I took seat 33K, the right window seat at the last row of the cabin, which is my preference on a plane.

a seat on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seats 32H and 32K

a seat on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seats 33H and 33K

I decided to have a photograph of the new economy seats. I asked one of the flight attendants if I could take pictures of the economy seats, and she looked perplexed, saying it “should be okay”. The economy seats are a little more fitting with the brand, featuring blue and beige colours.

a group of seats with pillows on them
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

a group of seats with pillows
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

The seats definitely look like some of the most comfortable economy seats out there, and I’m keen to give these seats a try someday.

a group of seats with pillows on them
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

Each seat seemed to feature ample legroom, a comfortable adjustable headrest and power ports, including USB ports and 110V ports. They also seemed to feature good padding.

a seat with pillows on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

However, if I were to give these seats a try, the prize pick would definitely be the windowside seats at the last row of either cabin, all of which have sufficient recline, though are in pairs instead of triplets, resulting in a much less cramped experience (not that Singapore is cramped to start with, given airlines are transition to 10-abreast configurations on the 777).

a seat with pillows on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

I also had a look at the rear economy cabin, which was decked out with beige and grey economy colours. Personally I feel like it’s a bit duller than the blue and beige economy seats at the front, though the seats still look modern and well designed.

a row of seats on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

a group of seats with a towel on them
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

The seatbacks are also pretty nice on Singapore’s aircraft, but I do think it’s missing a handy storage nook of sorts, available on Cathay Pacific’ economy class and a few other aircraft featuring the Recaro CL3710 seat.

a row of seats with monitors and pillows on the side
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

a row of seats with screens on the back
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

However, overall it’s still a really sleek cabin I wouldn’t mind trying out in the near future.

a group of people on a plane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

I went back to my premium economy seat, and explored it. The seat featured a substantial adjustable four-way headrest. However, I do find the padding on the seat to be slightly lacking, as was the case on the outbound.

a grey piece of paper on a seat
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Headrest

The seat features a 38 inch pitch, as I mentioned earlier. That’s about on par with the rest of the industry, though climbing out of your window or middle seat can be quite a challenge.

a person's legs in a seat
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Legroom

All non-bulkhead seats feature a footrest which can be adjusted by pressing it down to the bottom, then moving it up to your desired position.

a metal bar on a chair
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Footrest

I didn’t grab a picture of the legrest on its own during this flight, but it works on hydraulics, much like the recline does. The entire seat looks as follows when reclined. It doesn’t look like much, but it was more than I expected, and I would have no qualms taking this seat on a longhaul flight.

a seat with an orange pillow on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Reclined Seat

The seat features rather strong adjustable reading lights, which are handy if you want to read or do paperwork in the middle of the night, as you don’t end up lighting up the cabin.

a seat with a cable attached to it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Reading Lights

It also features some rather practical cupholders which are placed in a position where it’s hard to accidentally swipe a cup onto the floor. Even being the clumsy person I am, I didn’t swipe anything off the cupholder during either flight, which I normally do when presented with shallow cupholders.

a close up of a device
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cupholders

As noted the last time, there was storage space for your charging devices by you and by the seat in front of you, so you had quite a few choices of how you could charge your devices with the USB port without obstructing access to the aisle.

a close up of a seat
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Storage

a seat with a handle on the side
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Storage

Each seat features two USB ports. The USB port on the side panel was fully functional, and in theory you can connect a USB if you want to stream content from it as well.

a close up of a black object
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy USB Ports

There’s a USB port behind the seat in front of you as well, though it’s only for charging (you can’t stream content from that port). In my case the port was broken beyond oblivion.

a white and black power outlet with two usb ports
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Broken USB Port

The seat controls were located by the middle armrest between the seats, and worked fine.

a close up of buttons
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seat Controls

The remote control was also located by the middle armrest, though unfortunately at my seat it was also broken. That’s rather unfortunate, as the screen itself was laggy to start with (more on that later). That’s also the second thing at my seat that was broken for a recently refurbished aircraft – three if you count the laggy screen, which seemed to be specific to my seat, though I’ll elaborate on that.

a close up of a device
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Remote

The seatback is rather nicely designed on Singapore Airlines’ premium economy seat, and features quite a few storage options.

a screen with a woman on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Seatback

The screen is large, certainly enough to watch TV and shows. In this case it was also touchscreen, though unfortunately it lagged quite a bit during the flight.

a screen shot of a woman
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy TV Screen

Below the TV screen was the seat pocket. The cool thing with the seat pocket is that behind the area behind the seat pocket is netted, so you can technically pull the seat pocket out and have space to store a large iPad or a 13″ />

a blue and grey folder in a pocket of an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Two-Layered Seat Pocket

The table itself cannot be folded in half, but is of a good size.

a white rectangular object on a table
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Table

On Singapore the premium economy experience is also enhanced by various amenities, most of which I found useful throughout the flight. The pillow itself is plush and comfortable, and I would have no issues with it on a longhaul.

an orange shirt on a person's lap
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Pillow

The blanket itself was fine for my flight, though I know some airlines have duvets for premium economy passengers on longhaul flights. I don’t think that’s the case for Singapore Airlines, which is something they could look towards.

a grey blanket on an orange pillow
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Blanket

The seat also featured Phitek noise cancelling headphones. You know headphones are decent when they’re branded, though Phitek isn’t a brand that I’ve heard of before (doing some research, it seems to be a brand created specifically for airline tech products). Nonetheless, I’m happy to report that these headphones were pretty good. That was fortunate, as the auxiliary cable for my headphones also happened to break by the tail end of the trip, so I was stuck with these headphones for the flight.

a pair of headphones on an orange surface
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Headphones

I was excited to check out the refreshed KrisWorld entertainment system, as I figured the one great addition to the “first generation” KrisWorld entertainment system would be a touchscreen with slightly better navigation. Unfortunately, this was a fail, if nothing else. There were some very prominent issues:

  • The entertainment system kept rebooting, which meant that any sort of saved playlist would be lost
  • I could only listen to entire albums, instead of going in to listen to individual songs; in fact, it was hard enough to pull up the playlist, and avoid instead being directed to a very broad “jukebox” where “pop songs” included songs from the 1970s. There was no way to access individual songs and play them
  • In practice I could save individual songs to my playlist and listen to them from there, but it required saving the entire album, then deleting the songs I didn’t want to listen to

So while it was meant to be an improvement and the touchscreen was an added benefit, unfortunately Singapore botched the makeover of the KrisWorld entertainment system, and that would probably be the biggest reason I’d avoid flying 777 or A350 aircraft, at least on shorthauls (as the seat doesn’t contain many differences).

a screen shot of a television
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screen shot of a television
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screen shot of a computer
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screen shot of a computer
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screen shot of a television
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screenshot of a computer
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

<a screen shot of a device
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

a screen shot of a music album
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Selection

I was excited about one part of the entertainment system, which was the moving map. Singapore’s new entertainment system comes from the same provider as Swiss, at least in terms of the entertainment. The “cockpit” view is integrated into the “window seat” option, so it’s always nice to have a view of the aircraft’s pitch, roll, etc.

a screen with a map and a plane on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Moving Map

a screen shot of a device
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Entertainment Moving Map

Shortly before takeoff I visited the lavatory located on the right side of the economy cabin. Singapore’s 777 features six economy lavatories, though there’s only one in the middle of the cabin on the right side. The good news is that it’s an accessibility lavatory, so it’s definitely sizeable compared to the others.

a toilet in a bathroom
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class Lavatory

a sink and a bottle of soap on a counter
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class Lavatory

a toilet in a bathroom
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class Lavatory

When I returned to my seat, the flight attendant soon came with a hot towel. When she came to me I asked if she could put it on the seat panel (as Singapore’s hot towels can be really hot), and before she put it down, she was called by a flight attendant in the economy cabin. When she returned, she placed the hot towel on the side panel.

a white object on a black surface
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Towel

Soon another attendant came to us with Book the Cook stickers, which we all received, though they had trouble locating what we had booked. I had to remind them that I had booked the Nasi Lemak and not the roasted chicken rice.

Parked next to us was another Singapore Airlines 777-300ER, though my single biggest issue with sitting in premium economy is that you get a view of the wing, without a great view of the engine. I love it when the wing is either slightly in front of me or slightly behind me, but it gets hard to photograph nearby aircraft when it’s smack in the middle.

an airplane wing on a runway
View during Parking Changi Airport

Soon the door closed, and the safety video started playing, at which point we pushed back. I believe Singapore Airlines has the same safety video across all of their aircraft.

a screen shot of a woman on an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Safety Video Screening

After that they screened the video where they advertised onboard WiFi and their extensive KrisWorld entertainment system.

a screen with a white and black text
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy WiFi Advertisement

It was a beautiful day in Singapore, which wasn’t the case for quite a few days of our trip. It was nice to see traffic around Singapore Changi.

an airplane on the runway
View during Pushback Changi Airport

an airplane on a runway
View during Taxi Changi Airport

I saw some neat aircraft as we taxied past them to the runway, including a Singapore 777-200, two Singapore A330s and a gorgeous Etihad 787.

an airplane on the runway
Taxiing Singapore Changi Airport

a large airplane on a runway
Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 Singapore Changi Airport

a large airplane on the runway
Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 Singapore Changi Airport

a large white airplane on a runway
Etihad Boeing 787-9 Singapore Changi Airport

The pilot soon advised the cabin crew to be seated for takeoff. While row 31 does have more legroom, I’d do what I can to avoid it, as you awkwardly face the flight attendant during takeoff and landing.

a group of people sitting in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin during Taxi

We took off at around 1:20 PM, and started making our way over back to Hong Kong.

an airplane wing in the air
Views upon Climbout Singapore Changi Airport

an airplane wing in the sky
Views upon Climbout Singapore Changi Airport

the wing of an airplane in the sky
Views upon Climbout Singapore Changi Airport

I also turned on the window seat function on the moving map and watched our plane ascend from there, which is always a very cool experience.

a screen with a screen showing a map and a blue background
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Moving Map

a screen with a screen on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Moving Map

I pulled out my laptop and worked for a while after we reached cruise altitude. I was under the impression that all Singapore 777-300ERs featured WiFi charged by time, though this aircraft also had OnAir WiFi, so I’m assuming it’s a gamble. I wasn’t going to pay US$20 for 50 MB of WiFi, so I just stayed offline throughout the flight.

a screenshot of a website
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy WiFi Prices

Soon a flight attendant came around with almonds and cashews, of which I enjoyed. They were served with pre-departure beverages. I ordered an orange juice, and my dad had a white wine, which was surprisingly decent according to him.

a package of almonds and cashews
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Roasted Nuts

two plastic cups of liquid
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Pre-Meal Service Drinks

On this flight I realised we had a menu, which didn’t catch my eye on the way to Singapore as it was located in the seat pocket. That’s something to be aware of, though in my case it was a moot point since I had Booked the Cook. However, I didn’t miss out on much, since the same menu is passed out on all flights between Hong Kong and Singapore.

a book with a picture of fruit on it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Menu

The menu for our flight read as follows:

a menu open in a book
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Menu

For your reference, the dinner menu can be found in the picture below, as well as the picture succeeding it:

a menu open in a book
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Menu

a menu in a book
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Menu

As we had Booked the Cook we were one of the first to get our meals, though my parents and Hailey got their roasted chicken rice first. It certainly didn’t compare to some of the Hainanese chicken rice we had in Singapore, though they seemed to enjoy their meal, and my sister had a few pieces of her chicken as well.

a tray of food on a tray
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch – Roasted Chicken Rice

Meanwhile I was looking forward to my Nasi Lemak with chicken biryani.

a tray of food on a table
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch

The presentation was quite sloppy, but I’d expected that for a biryani in premium economy. The spice on the chicken was great – it was fragrant, spicy and very nicely done. The nasi lemak was good as well, though there was definitely an overuse of cardamom – I managed to fish out some pods which hadn’t been poked or pierced at all, which results in a lot of lost flavour. Regardless, it was a great dish and one I’d certainly order again – I’d be happy to have it in an Indian restaurant.

a tray of food on a table
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch – Nasi Lemak with Chicken Biryani

The potato salad with baby shrimp reminded me of the terrible appetiser that I had on my Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Hong Kong, though tasted better.

a bowl of food on a napkin
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch Appetiser – Nicoise Salad with Baby Shrimp

The dish was served with Indian pickles, though I passed.

a plastic container with food in it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch – Indian pickles

We were also given the bread roll, though weren’t offered a choice. I didn’t end up eating the bread roll, as is the norm on a flight.

a round brown object on a black plate
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch Bread

Around ten minutes after our meals were served, the crew came around with the rest of the meal options. I didn’t get to have a look at any of the options, so I can’t speak for those.

Around 35 minutes after our meals were served, the crew came around with ice cream, which was so hard that it would probably serve better as a woodblock than anything else. I managed to wrestle the ice cream out of the carton and into a glass cup provided on the tray, where it melted faster, and I was able to enjoy it from there. The girl across the aisle also seemed to have issues with her ice cream, so I watched her hack at her ice cream for a while. That said, I’m happy that Singapore Airlines serves premium ice cream in economy cabins.

a container of ice cream
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Lunch Dessert – Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream

It was another 15 minutes before trays were collected. While this was marginally faster than on the A380, I wish Singapore could work on their tray collection times, especially on big aircraft running short flights. To be stuck in my seat for one out of four hours is not the best way to spend a flight, especially in economy, where I wouldn’t be able to place my laptop next to my tray and therefore would lose an entire hour of productivity.

Service throughout the flight, otherwise, was friendly, especially from the leading steward (more on him below). I don’t think that any of the attendants were genuine by any means, though they went through the motions as efficiently as they could. That still isn’t saying a lot since I waited 50 minutes for my tray to be taken, though I commend them for trying. The crew also proactively made way for whoever needed to pass the cart to go to the washroom, which I don’t find to be the case on many economy flights.

Speaking of economy, I checked it out after lunch again, just so I could photograph it “in action”. The food seemed to look decent – I don’t think there’s a huge variance in food quality between economy and premium economy.

a group of people sitting in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class

I also had a look at the galley as I waited for the bathroom. I spotted a bottle of their signature Singapore Sling, so if anyone wonders how they can get their own, below is the brand of Sling they use on their flights.

a bottle of wine and a glass on a counter
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class Singapore Sling

I was actually most interested to see that the “drinking water” dispenser jutted out of the side of the bathroom, which I’d never seen before.

a water fountain with a sign
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class Galley Water

Shortly after the meal service I filed my complaints regarding issues with the seat, including the laggy entertainment system and the broken remote control and USB port. The South Asian male leading steward took it well, and said that he’d file the complaints up to Singapore Airlines. I don’t think someone looking to charge a phone and a portable charger on a long flight would appreciate one of their USB ports being broken, and I’d suspect they wouldn’t want their flight to be made even worse by a nonexistent remote for their TV.

I went back to my seat and worked for another while, and admired the fact that I had two windows to myself.

two windows with a view of the sky and clouds
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Windows

Most of the cabin seemed to stay awake for movies after the meal service, as the flight really isn’t that long. However, I wasn’t one of them, and I propped my head against my pillow on the wall and slept soundly for about an hour. Singapore’s premium economy seats are pretty comfortable for sleeping due to the legrest and footrest that they provide, as well as some pretty generous recline to start with. However, it’s worth noting that there’s a gap between the seat and the window on the A380, which could be something to note if you’re selecting a window seat on the A380. Here, the wall is right next to the seat since there’s less of a curvature, which gives you slightly less space, but the ability to just prop your head against the wall and sleep.

people sitting in an airplane with a group of people
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Cabin

At 4:15 PM the captain came onboard and explained that we would be landing soon, and the cabin crew prepared the cabin for landing, including stowing legrests, putting seatbacks upright, opening window shades, etc. This was shortly followed up by news that we would be caught in a holding pattern and wouldn’t be landing until 4:50 PM. Nevertheless, I turned on the window seat view and observed the descent from there.

a screen with a map and gauges
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy Moving Map upon Initial Descent

an airplane wing above the clouds
View upon Initial Descent Hong Kong Airport

We entered a holding pattern for about ten minutes at 13,000 feet, then started making our way down to Hong Kong. Our approach was over land, so we went the scenic route, though unfortunately the wing obstructed me from taking any good photos.

an airplane wing in the sky
View upon Initial Descent Hong Kong Airport

an airplane wing and a mountain in the distance
View upon Final Descent Hong Kong Airport

We touched down at Hong Kong Airport at around 4:55 PM, and started slowly making our way to the gate. It was nice to see all the flaps move during landing, which probably made up for the lack of views.

an airplane wing with water and land in the background
View upon Landing Hong Kong Airport

Traffic at Hong Kong Airport is especially interesting because I know what to look out for every time, as I’m pretty familiar with most of the longhaul flights out of the airport. In this case we had views of some Air new Zealand and Jet Airways heavies.

a group of airplanes on a runway
Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200 Hong Kong Airport

I was fascinated to see a Hong Kong Express A320 in a U-Fly Alliance livery. It looks like the low-cost airlines around East Asia have come together to make an alliance…actually, I’ll write about that in an upcoming post, as I only cared to research about it while I was writing this report. The alliance has been around for a while, but it certainly isn’t going to be a “big four” anytime soon, as it currently only has five member airlines.

a plane on the runway
Hong Kong Express Airbus A320 Hong Kong Airport

We taxiied past the midfield terminal, and lined up for a gate while we turned away from it, which gave good views of Fiji Airways and Cathay Pacific aircraft.

a white airplane on the runway
Fiji Airways Airbus A330-200 Hong Kong Airport

a large white airplane on a runway
Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-900 Hong Kong Airport

My dad was worried for a moment that we would have to depart from a remote stand, as it was rather hectic at Hong Kong Airport on the day as everyone was coming back from Easter holidays. However, that wasn’t the case, and we finally taxied over to gate 31, parking next to a China Airlines A330.

airplanes parked at an airport
Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Hong Kong Airport

I wanted to have another quick look at the premium cabins on this flight before I left, so I was sure to take some decent pictures. I grabbed a picture of the business class cabin while everyone was deplaning.

Read more: I snagged a shorthaul flight in Singapore Airlines business class from Barcelona to Milan in 2023. Here’s a full review

a group of people in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Cabin

I asked the leading steward manning premium economy if I could quickly photograph the forward business class and first class cabins, and he agreed. The business class mini-cabin looks like the place to sit on a long flight, especially in the bulkhead, due to its extra foot space. I wasn’t able to check out the seat in bed position on this flight, though.

a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Mini-Cabin

Specifically I was able to check out seat 11K. The extra ottoman space was notable and definitely would have been great for a long flight, as you don’t have to lay diagonally on the bed. I’d say that the new Singapore Airlines business class product is a great improvement over their old one, which seemed much more dated and worn.

a seat in a plane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Seat 11K

a tv in a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Seat 11K Space

Finally, I was able to visit the first class cabin, which was empty on this flight. The first class cabin on this flight featured four seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. They were decked out in quilted leather, from the seat covers all the way down to the pillows. While the A380 definitely has a more impressive first class product, I really liked the design of these seats, and think Singapore Airlines definitely is a strong contender in first class, even in markets which they only serve with a 777-300ER.

a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class Cabin

Seat 1F was located on the right side. It was really wide, though I found it funny how it also featured access to two windows, like the premium economy seat (and the business class seat, for what it’s worth).

a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class Seat 1F

a seat in an airplane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class Seat 1F Space

The seats feature a more substantial ottoman compared to business class, though I’d say they aren’t too different from the bulkhead business class seats apart from that little bit of extra privacy and storage. That said, I think it’s just because of how great the bulkhead business class seats are, and I’m not trying to indicate that this is a subpar product.

a desk with a tv and books in it
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class Seat 1F Ottoman

The middle seats definitely looked pretty spacious as well, and you’d be able to talk to each other if you were seated with a friend or a significant other. There was also a privacy partition between the seats, in case the cabin was filled up with solo passengers.

a seat in a plane
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class

I had a last look at the Singapore Airlines 777-300ER, though I couldn’t get a great angle of it due to how gate 31 was positioned.

a plane on the tarmac
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Hong Kong Airport

I was able to get a picture of some other aircraft, though, most notably including the Cathay Pacific A330 airframe that brought me back from Singapore last time, which was parked across from the plane we just arrived on. I found that quite an uncanny coincidence.

a large airplane on a runway
Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 Hong Kong Airport

We made our way past immigration and picked up our luggage, which was a challenge in itself as the baggage claim area was extremely crowded. However, by 5:45 PM, we were on our way out.

Bottom Line: Singapore Airlines’ 777 Premium Economy Class

Singapore Airlines has an industry leading premium economy hard product. While I do think that they botched their KrisWorld entertainment system update, their seats are a little harder than I’d expect and quite a few seat features were broken on my flight, overall I believe that their seat is pretty solid, from the good recline to the presence of a footrest at every seat. The food on this flight was great as well.

Service at Singapore Airlines is rigorously trained, so it’s understandable if they don’t have much “freedom” on how to personalise it, especially on a four-hour flight in premium economy. However, apart from the leading steward, I didn’t feel warmth from any of the flight attendants on this flight, which I found to be true for the most part on my last flight as well.

However, they’re still a great way to travel, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try them longhaul. That said, I wouldn’t route out of my way to fly Singapore’s premium economy product.

4 comments

  1. it’s hard to believe that they did not provide any goodwill gesture for your complaint.
    Last time I flew with them in economy from PVG to SIN and had problem with my food (there was a plastic on my salad), they gave me S$80 voucher as a goodwill gesture.

  2. So if I used Krisflyer miles to book a ticket in premium economy, I could use extra miles to request an upgrade when check-in at the airport?

    1. @ pat – Granted there’s availability, you sure can. I was pretty sure there was no availability on the day of the flight, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

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