Singapore Airlines Outdoes Itself With New Business Class

It's a good time to be a business class flier. Many airlines are shrinking or slowly phasing out first class and investing heavily in business class as the top front-of-cabin offering instead. And the competition is fierce.

On Wednesday, the Boeing 787-10, the third and latest aircraft in the Dreamliner series, landed in Singapore after flying 22 hours from Charleston via a pit stop in Osaka. It was the debut of the world's most advanced jet—Singapore is the first airline to receive delivery of the 787-10—with 89 people on board for the inaugural flight, including 22 members of the media. The Dreamliner landed dressed in Singapore livery, and for most, it was a first look at Singapore Airlines' new business class—one of two cabin choices on the aircraft. (There are 36 business class seats, and 301 economy class seats.)

Singapore Airlines has invested $350 million in the new business class and refreshed economy class cabins for the initial 20 787-10s (they ordered 49 total). It certainly shows: The seats in the front of the plane are lookers. Interiors are padded with suede-like Alcantara, often found in yachts and luxury cars like Lamborghinis and Porsches, and chairs are made of soft brown leather, so it feels like you're sitting in a fashionable chair at an even more fashionable friend's house. (Another perk of being on the first flight: The seats still smell like leather, instead of the worn-in scent they acquire from, erm, other passengers over time.) Much like in the carrier's A380 business class, revealed in November 2017, there are tan and orange design accents throughout, along with thoughtful touches: a mirror that slides out from the side of your seat; an integrated reading light unit with adjustable brightness; an 18-inch high-definition touchscreen TV that tilts, so you have a better view of the more than 1,000 movie, television, and audio selections when lying flat.

Given that the seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration, all allow for aisle access—and a view out of those oversized, 19-inch windows, no matter where you're sitting. (If for some reason you don't like the view, like on all 787 Dreamliners, you can dim the window electronically by tapping a button.) Each seat measures 20 inches wide, and with its two retractable armrests pushed down, measures 26 across. Want to really relax? To go from takeoff mode to the fully reclined, 76-inch lie-flat bed takes 16 seconds, and to go from that 76-inch bed to hey, I-want-to-feel-like-I'm-sitting-in-a-recliner-with-my-feet-up takes a cool 14—all you have to do is tap the touchscreen bar on your tray table, which also allows you to turn on the lights, call a flight attendant, flip off your TV, or (our personal favorite) activate your "Do Not Disturb" light, which appears next to your illuminated seat number.

Thanks to carbon fiber shells that wrap each seat and come to chest level when standing, each seat feels very much like a cocoon. When you fully recline and extend back into the seat, it almost feels like you're lying down under your own personal archway. Come bedtime, the bed is comfortable if not firm, but that smooth, buttery leather can actually be a little slippery when you're trying to roll over gracefully at 41,000 feet, wrapped in your plush gray blanket like a high-flying burrito. Like on the A380, footrests are angled, so that each lie-flat bed is tucked away from the aisle. (If you're trying to watch your weight, all the better to hide yourself from the Singapore Airlines flight attendants, who have an industry-wide reputation for service and can seem to sense if you're awake and need another sugar cookie or glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.) As previously reported, like its fellow Dreamliners—with which it shares 95 percent commonality—the 787-10 has higher cabin humidity, lower cabin altitude, and "Smoother Air Technology" that detects turbulence and automatically adjusts wing systems accordingly. All, in sum, it makes for a pretty good night's sleep.

Note that this long-haul flight we were on isn't normal for Singapore's 787-10s. They're meant for medium-range routes, like Singapore to Osaka, or Singapore to Perth; you can tell because of tiny details, like the dense cabin configuration and the narrow aisle access—at a slim nine inches for a window seat. Still, Singapore Airlines' CEO Goh Choon Phong said at a roundtable discussion on Monday that he believed the new business class product will be competitive in the market for just that reason.

"We strongly believe this product on the regional routes will be unparalleled."