On 777-200ER in J...should I re-route?
 

Just booked SFO-SIN-AKL in J with the 2nd leg SQ281 on the new 777-200ER, which will have the space beds. Thinking about switching the itinerary to
SFO-SIN, overnight
SIN-BNE on the A330-300
BNE-AKL on NZ 777-200

I have enough time to take an extra day to get out there. It's my honeymoon and the last thing I want is an unhappy newly Mrs. Hoolhorst when we get to New Zealand, lol.

Thoughts?

I would look at catching SQ285 SIN-AKL. It is a night flight on the 777-300ER arriving into AKL at 10:50.

SQ281 is a day time flight arriving into AKL at 22:25

Any idea what the chances are that the SQ 281 777-200 flight is the new business class? That's my main concern. If it's the new business class I'll keep the flight as it is. I'm trying to avoid those awful looking purple monstrosities. :D

Anyone flown this route recently?

SQ introduced the (new) medium haul business seat on SQ281/SQ282 in July 2010.

Medium Haul Business

My concern is this article that I just found saying that starting this month they switched to the 777-200ER with space beds, which would be terrible news for me. I'll try to find someone with a trip report in the future before I leave. I hope this isn't truly the case:

http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com...sq281282-route

I dunno, I flew from ATH-SIN earlier this year in the space bed and well after the new regional J and of course the A380/77W/345 product I feared the worst. However I found it comfortable enough, got a good sleep, perhaps the main limitation was reduced IFE choice. It was my first time on the 777-200ER and I had a feeling it's spacebeds were better than I remembered from the 747. Or maybe it was just that I went to Europe on the TG angled lie flat product - quite narrow - and thought the spacebed better.

Anyway the easy way to tell is to do a seat allocation on your booking (or do a dummy booking on the SQ website on your flight/day and go to seat allocation) to see what seat map it brings up. Cross check that with seat maps of 777-200 and 777-200ER and you will be able to tell exactly which aircraft is scheduled for your flight.

Apart from the IFE, there really is very little difference between the 772ER space beds and the new regional J seat. I suspect the new Mrs would much rather the
direct SIN-AKL flight than SIN-BNE-AKL, unless she is an airline nerd who wants to see new airports

Appreciate all the advice. Looks like I'll be sticking to the current flights...an extra day on our honeymoon is definitely worth it if people seem to like the space beds. Thanks!