discstickers

I have a booking for SQ 232 coming up in March. On the seatmap, the bulkhead rows (11/91/96) are not selectable, but per EF, they do seem to be available. Is there any way I can secure these seats? I don't have any KF status.

GodAtum

Not much hard info, just pretty photos. Anyone know the schedule of the rollout? Organising my trip to Asia for August next year and would like to try it

jcnkc

Here's a video review of SQ232 SYD-SIN in Suites!

CoolTripz

I just got off the new Suites Class and I booked the double suites on that flight. We got the same set of crew that flew the first inaugural flight SQ221, and the crew in Suites Class were truly personal and amazing!

I'll be happy to share the experience here, it's the holiday season now...Happy New Year 2018!!

FlyerEC

yerffej201

anyone know the next routes?

MainlyMiles

Here's our review of the Business Class on SQ221 SIN-SYD from 4th January:


Mobile link: https://mainlymiles.com/2018/01/09/r...usiness-class/

The crew confirmed it's LHR from February.

mad_atta

We flew the new J product last night on SQ221. We were in 22D and F, after failing to nab row 91 for the full double bed effect - we connected from Jakarta and they couldn't assign that row to us at check-in (one seat was empty and one was blocked, according to EF), and by the time I thought to check in SIN both were allocated).

Overall, I found it a bit of a mixed experience, but a few thoughts below:

• Initial impressions of the cabin are nice, with a warm colour palette and coppery mood lighting. Definitely doesn't feel like a cold, sterile cabin (eg NH J) but the curving plastic shells are very bulky and amorphous somehow. Were I in a window seat, it would really annoy me how much the seat shell obscures the window (again, like NH, but this time their F 'Square' product)
• There's a distinct lack of overhead bin space if you're in our part of the cabin - there are no central overhead bins (to create a more spacious feel) and at least 3 bins on each side are marked 'for operational use only' and are already filled with stuff, so if I wanted to put anything in an overhead it would have to be quite a few rows away. Not good. Instead I stowed it in the (admittedly very useful) space under the seat but it made it look and feel cluttered, and meant there was nowhere to stuff all the bedding, which was placed in the footwell nook
• Lighting in the seat is nice, but stowage for smaller items isn't great. The hinged compartment is OK but not large, and has no lip so things can fall out. The larger, open nook above it is a bit awkward. The large shelf by the seat is useful, though, as are the pockets by the divider screen (good for laptops)
• I liked how the divider screen has 3 positions. When travelling with friend/partner, it's nice in the middle position, but feels weirdly open/exposed in the fully down position (unless seat is in bed mode, presumably - but we didn't get to experience that as my partner's seat malfunctioned and wouldn't go fully flat, despite lots of trying by the crew. He had to move to the seat behind. Apologies but no compensation (eg KrisShop vouchers) for this.
• The seat control buttons are a little odd - sometimes they don't respond unless you rest your finger on them just right. I think they're called 'capacitative' buttons or something similar? Seems like a gimmick to me.
• The TV screen is superb resolution, very responsive and a great size. As with the PE seat, this is definitely one of the best features of the product. I like SQ's noise cancelling headsets too
• Seat comfort fine in upright mode but not great for lounging when partially reclined, as it's quite hard and there's nowhere to rest your feet, plus the legrest doesn't go high enough. Feels a bit 'premium economy' in this config. Even NZ's business seat, which is recognised as being far better as a bed than a seat, is much more comfortable for lounging in my opinion, not least because (as a tall person) it has somewhere to put your feet. I also found my back ached in reclined mode if I kept the provided cushion in the small of my back. Rolling up the bed-sheet and using that as a lumbar support actually worked much better. I can't think of another recent business class seat that has made my back ache in this way.
• The crew made the bed for me, and put bedding on. Overall space was good, and despite being 6'2 I could stretch out fully, and it felt adequately private. But overall comfort of the sleeping surface was barely average - again, it's pretty firm. NZ's herringbone seat, with the comfy mattress pad, is streets ahead in sleeping comfort I thought. I didn't mind sleeping on the diagonal, but was disappointed with how unyielding the surface is.

All in all, it's a nice enough product but far from industry leading. I prefer VA's reverse herringbone in most respects. I fundamentally don't really like the sit facing forwards / sleep on the diagonal idea, because it robs your feet of support when not in bed mode.

Service wise, there was a very distinct difference in service level between my side of the plane (reasonable) and my partner's side (sub-par). Service felt a bit hectic and all over the place, like they were struggling to keep up with all the various service items they had to deliver. And, in what I find fairly typical SQ style, they are bad at offering and refilling drinks, or of managing to do anything that is outside their pre-set service sequence, eg use their initiative and/or improvise. Combined with the underwhelming SilverKris lounge in SIN (the showers weren't even hot!) it was a surprisingly underwhelming experience from SQ. As much as anything, I think it's that the SQ service style just doesn't mesh particularly well with my preferences and personality - I keep wanting to like it more, but I always have a far better time on NZ or QF - or OZ, for that matter, where the service itself is less intricate but seems to be delivered with so much more genuineness and resourcefulness.

All up, an interesting experience. However I have a feeling I would prefer the 2013 J product (which I've never tried) to this one, based on photos. The CGK-SIN connecting flight before ours was on the A359 (as opposed to the crappy regional J we got on the 773) which is a shame as it would have been very interesting to compare SQ's two latest J products back to back.

terbangalways

Liked your review!

Surprised no compensation given for malfunction seat...

iluvdoco

Any other FTers fly the new Suites? I have a SYD-SIN booking coming up, and I'm debating whether it's worth flying on. Haven't seen any new Suites TRs.

daft009

My wife & I flew in row 91 in J with our 10month old bub on 30/12/17 SQ221 and plenty of space!
Our son was at the limits of the bassinet so he slept fine in-between us with the divider all the way down.
the FA also offered extra quilts so we could pad the gap a little and he slept around 5-6hrs and so did we pretty much.

excellent J product I must say!

OptionsCLE

Wife and I flew SYD-SIN in the new suites last week. When I first saw the images in their press release, I was underwhelmed...it didn't look like much of an improvement over Etihad. Seeing it in person was a different story. The suites are much bigger than Etihad and the overall quality of the finishes seemed better. It's definitely worth flying on. Unfortunately, the guy in 1A refused to switch with us, so we were stuck in rows 2 and 3. I can only imagine how nice it must be when you open up the divider.

YYZtoDCA

I flew the new Suites product (SIN-SYD) a week and a half ago as well, and it phenomenal. The suite was large enough for two flight attendants to come inside while I was sitting in the seat. The lavs are a vast upgrade on the old Suites planes.

I was originally booked on SQ231 - the older style plane leaving at midnight. For a token change fee, the first class check in agent switched me to SQ221. Totally worth it, and a possibly useful trick since this flight is blocked from saver award redemption right now, as far as I know.

venomtrilogy

Oh really??? I have a SQ231 flight in February (of course thinking I'd get old Suites, and then they changed to 772) and would love to switch to SQ221. I will definitely have to ask about this.

I figure there's no way to do this over the phone ahead of time, is there?

iluvdoco

Thanks for this report, OptionsCLE! I guess I'm a little more excited about the new Suites now. Would like to see just how much better they are than the Etihad Apartments.