Welllllllll, I've now booked it in Singapore Airlines in V class. Price was reasonable, schedule was ok, layovers are short (so short that the apparently crappy *G lounge in Singapore is moot, as I won't have time to go there). The only cheaper airline with a reasonable schedule was Emirates, and since I don't like Emirates, the choice for SQ was easy

This is my first experiment with travelling as a *G in economy and only second time on SQ in over 10 years so will see how it goes. The extra *G baggage allowance may be handy.