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As part of my first step to Asia, I took Singapore Airlines (SQ 33) San Francisco to Singapore (~16.5 hour nonstop flight) flying Premium Economy. Here’s how I booked the flight and my review on the flight experience.
How I Booked This Flight
Interestingly, despite all my animosity towards travel portals, I actually ended up booking this flight through the Chase Travel Portal. Originally, we found this flight on Google Flights: fly one way to Singapore via Singapore Airlines on premium economy for about ~$500 one way from several USA hubs like San Francisco and New York City.
Even though we love booking award travel, there are many good reasons to sometimes book flights using cash, including the fact that you will earn miles on the flight. Since this is a premium economy fare, you’re eligible to also earn significantly more miles than just flying in economy.
For example, SFO to SIN is about a 8,500 mile long flight. When I booked this flight, I booked in fare class R (premium economy). Based on Singapore Airline’s chart flying in fare class R, I would earn 100% of miles flown, meaning I would earn 8,500 Singapore Airlines miles.
What’s really cool here is that the miles you earn on Singapore Airlines flights are actually elite-qualifying, so this one way flight flying 8,500 miles puts you about 50% of the way there to Alaska MVP status!
So, in my case, since I booked via the Chase Travel Portal using the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, I only used 45,409 Chase points (1.5 cents per point) to book my $681 one way flight to Singapore. I am then earning about 8,500 Alaska Airlines miles, so the net cost is just 36,909 points to fly to Singapore while also getting 43% of the way there to MVP status.
Premium Economy Seat: 36A & 36C
I took this flight with my girlfriend and two other friends, so we sat nearby all one another. We flew on an A350-900 ULR in premium economy, with all of us booking the flight using the sale we found earlier. All of us elected to earn Alaska Airlines miles, since we are all based in the West Coast and Alaska Airlines status is super favorable/attainable for semi-frequent fliers.
The premium economy cabin was arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration, with seats slightly larger than normal economy. I’ve always described international premium economy as domestic first class.
Middle premium economy seats
2-4-2 configuration
The seats had a very nice recline, with an extendable leg rest. Underneath the chairs were little footrests. I found the seats to actually be very comfortable to sleep in, as they were nicely padded and the headrests also held my head in when I was sleeping on the flight.
Each seat came with a built in entertainment system that possessed a wide range of entertainment options. While I did not use the systems since I was busy working, I was able to load up flight radar. I found it pretty cool that the seat had a little remote where you could control the TV, summon the flight attendant, and turn on/off the overhead lights.
Our seats
Remote to control entertainment system
The flight also came with a nice set of amenities, including a blanket, pillow, and optional amenity kit. The amenity kit was from Out of the Woods and had a set of slippers, an eye mask, earplugs, and chapstick.
We personally found it really difficult to use the pillows. They didn’t really fit in well anywhere specific. I used it for lumbar support for some time, but I eventually gave up and put the pillows in the overhead. The flight was also a bit warm for my taste, so I also never ended up using the blanket.
Pillow + blanket
Optional amenity kit with lip balm, slippers, & eye mask
Premium Economy Meals: Breakfast, Dinner, Snacks
On this particular long haul route, Singapore serves just two full meals: first dinner, and then breakfast closer to landing. Singapore recently revamped its premium economy seats to include a feature called “Book The Cook,” which allows you to order custom meals that aren’t generally available on your flight. These meals are generally served ahead of the other meals as well, which can let you enjoy your food sooner.
In my case, I selected a Thai Curry for dinner and Char Siew Egg Noodles for breakfast. You can select these “Book The Cook” meals up to 24 hours before departure (my friends forgot to select theirs, so they were at the whim of what was available in the food service cart).
Dinner: Thai Chicken Curry
About 2 hours into the flight, the attendants started organizing dinner service. Me and my girlfriend’s foods arrived pretty quickly because we had preselected our meals. I also got a glass of the champagne, which was supposedly retailing for about $35 USD a bottle (so, a must have for premium economy).
Thai chicken curry
Champagne
Let me just say this: I was really pleased with the curry. It had a ton of flavor and the chicken was still very juicy. The champagne was also similarly delicious and went down really smoothly. I was also really happy with the smoked duck breast quinoa salad. I thought the bread was a little basic (not toasted), and I found the brownie a tad bit sweet. So, I quickly finished all the food except for the brownie.
Being the growing boy I am, I then found myself a tad bit hungry. I asked the flight attendant if there were any entrees left, and I was excited to hear that there was additional beef fillet still available.
Roasted beef filet
Standard dinner menu
I was also very happy with this. Despite being cooked well-done, the beef was really tender and the herb mash complemented the meat super well. The broccolini was also delicious and soaked up the surrounding beef flavor incredibly well.
Overall, a fantastic dinner to start the flight.
Breakfast: Char Siew Egg Noodle
So, we got served breakfast a lot earlier than I anticipated. Specifically, I got woken up harshly 5 hours before landing for breakfast. However, similar to dinner service, my girlfriend and I got our meals way before everyone else. Given this was also another book the cook meal, I was excited for this meal as well.
Breakfast spread
Char siew egg noodle (Book the cook)
While there was not a lot of meat, the egg noodles were delicious. The sauce at the bottom was really well absorbed and the char siew also tasted flavorful. I was again, impressed with the entree. While the fruits were cold and refreshing, I found the croissant a bit mid and the yogurt to be too sweet.
Snacks: Tea, Popcorn, and Ciabatta
Given the length of this flight, there was a pretty extensive set of snacks and drinks available whenever.
- Onion Ciabatta with Roasted Chicken and BBQ Mayonnaise
- Vegetarian Tortilla Wrap
- Fresh Fruit
- Assorted Buns & Muffins
- Almond and Cashew Mixed Nuts
- Chocolate/Granola Bars
- Potato/Corn Chips
- Dried Fruits
- Flavored Popcorn
I got a cup of English Breakfast tea and a ciabatta, while my girlfriend got some of the popcorn. I enjoyed the cup of tea, but the ciabatta definitely wasn’t anything special—it did its job to give me some extra calories. On the other hand, the popcorn exceeded expectations and was actually quite good. Glad we got a few bags!
Ciabatta
Tea + popcorn
Premium Economy Bathroom
I was pretty satisfied with the bathroom, as it was kept very clean and fresh throughout the entirety of the flight. The bathroom had a good number of little things to make sure it was suitable for a long range flight, including cups, hand lotion, and softer tissues.
Other Thoughts
Other little things that I think I generally look for are flight attendant call button speed, friendliness, and other soft benefits of the experience. Throughout the flight, I think the FAs did a solid job at responding to the call button whilst granting requests as needed. The crew seemed more than happy to bring over amenity kits whilst responding to my strange requests (e.g. second entree dinner).
As always, I think the Singapore Airlines crew did a fantastic job on this flight, and I definitely do not have major complaints here.
My Flight Rating: 8/10
Even though this was just a premium economy flight, I felt as though the overall flight was actually quite good from start to finish. A mixture of the great, comfortable seat with decent recline and padding + excellent food + good service helped to make this a wonderful experience.
- Seat: 9/10, I just wish it was a tad bit wider; it got a bit cramped at times
- Food: 8/10, entrees were delicious but the sides really varied at times. Not impressed with the bread selections in the slightest
- Entertainment: n/a, did not use it at all during the flight, so no real evaluation there
- Service: 8/10, good service overall. Would be nice if they knew my name as a Star Alliance gold member, but can’t really weigh that against them when there are so many people on the flight
- Bathroom: 7/10, good + clean bathroom. Outside of a few things like cups, tissues, etc, wish there were just a few more amenities directly available in the bathroom
On a pure value basis however, this flight is a definite 10/10. It’s hard to say you got a 16.5 hour premium economy flight for a net total of just ~37,000 Chase points. Nevertheless, a Singapore Airlines flight at that.
