Booking classes are the same on SQ on 77W and 744. However you are right to not get too excited yet. There is a chance check in may spot the anomaly, especially as booking class A is not used for upgrades.

That is correct!
No. "A" is still a booking code for F class.

For business class, SQ is now using booking class Z above full fare class C for selling the new seats at a incredible high fare, but nothing has changed at for first class. For RTWs, SQ uses A regardless of old or new seats, and SQ 325 defintely has the new seats - enjoy!

Now if you are booked in First on SQ, you want to make sure you are booked in First on all other segments as well (where offered), right?

Kiwi Flyer, thanks and agree. I've in the meantime read your reports on the new products, and can only second your statements that the marketing-team in SQ has done a great job at getting expectations airborne. Thank you for a great job done in making your reviews.

Thanks for the tip ACflyerDE. The rest of my trip is on AC and SK where there is no first class on offer, unfortunately. Do look forwards to comparing AC's new flat-bed seats to SK's lie-flats to SQ's new offering. Similar comparisons will be made for quality of inflight-service (staff, amenities, AVOD, etc.) and for the food! Is there a good forum here to post such comparisons, or should it best be broken down and posted per airline?

So SQ 325 is your only flight in F on the whole trip? That's honestly quite a waste of money, but if it's not yours... Really no chance at all of including NH F and/or TG F? You don't know what you miss

You can defininetely look forward to your trip! If you do a comparism of various *A airlines, I would post it here in the *A forum and maybe just a quick note in the relevant airline forum with the link.

The new SQ seat is definately great for sleeping, especially if you are one that turns from side to side often while sleeping as the seat is very roomy. I experienced it recently on SIN-HKG. Having it on a long haul sector will be a blast. Enjoy!

Food for thought there...

So if a more professional traveller were to fly PEK-EWR-CPH-SIN-PEK, how would he/she go about it? My current RTW business-class ticket costs about USD 6,400. The round-trip ticket from PEK-EWR-PEK on its own costs more than this, so I thought it was great value for money .

Is there a better way with higher service-standards at a marginal increase in price? I don't mind a stop-over on long flights (which is why my real routing for the coming trip is PEK-TOR-EWR-CPH-FRA-SIN-PEK).

And I'm still keeping my expectations as low as possible for the SQ-leg. If there's been a mix-up with the booking, I want to enjoy their new b-class instead of being disappointed I'm missing their f-class.

That is my point, you can not buy a RTW in business class for $6,400 (the current price for CRWSTAR1 ex PEK is about $6.990 anyway), but because you are booked in A on SQ FRA-SIN rather than D you have to buy a RTW in First Class for about $10,760 - you are basically paying $3,800 extra for just one flight, as you don't have any other flights in F in your whole itinerary. A CRWSTAR1 does not allow an upgrade of just one sector with cash, if one sector is booked in First (other than UA/US domestic flights on a 2-class-aircraft) you have to buy a FRWSTAR1.

Your current itinerary covers less than 21,500 of the allowed 29,000, so you have a lot of space to play around. I assume you do have the *A RTW Mileage calculator? If not, you can download it for free at http://www.staralliance.com.

In case you do buy a FRWSTAR1, you could do PEK-ICN-SFO (new SQ F)-EWR-FRA (LH F)-CPH-FRA-BKK (TG F)-PEK or PEK-NRT-LAX (NH F / old SQ F)-EWR-FRA (LH F)-CPH-FRA-SIN (new SQ F)-PEK or even way more complex routings, as you are still way below the max.

Thanks for the more creative approach on routing. Next time I'll pose the question here instead of with the agent via the secretary...

Well, I now have my final ticket issued and it looks as follows:
AC032, C, Beijing-Toronto, Seat 1C ^
AC772, C, Toronto-Newark, Seat 2A ^
SK902, D, Newark-Copenhagen, Seat 2B (which sucks and will be changed)
LH3077, D, Copenhagen-Frankfurt, Seat 3D
SQ325, A, Frankfurt-Singapore, Seat 1C ^
SQ802, A, Singapore-Beijing, Seat 1B ^

The price is confirmed and still roughly USD 6,400 plus tax - BUT, SQ charges USD 900 in "tax" which is beyond any tax I've ever seen. Could this be the explanation for the sudden A-class? Or is it the additional charge for their new cabin configuration?

And to give something back to the great community here: Is there a code somewhere on the ticket(s) I can provide that will help shed some light on the unconventional fare-structure for this itinerary?

Is there a CRWSTAR1 somewhere on the paper tickets?

On the last coupon (or last few depending on how many legs you have), the smaller part of the coupon that can be torn off will have each legs flight details, followed by the fare basis. (as seen here http://bayimg.com/dAejlaabi )

Don't mean to spoil the excitement in any way. But I hope you are aware that your seats on SIN-PEK will be a regional F. Not the newest released seats nor even the skysuite as a matter of fact. And if you are connecting directly to that flight from SQ325, you'll be flying the redeye to PEK (i.e. overnight on that regional F seat). Not that it's bad in all ways, but better to know in advance if haven't than to be surprised.

Interestingly, the travel-agent now has a problem getting the ticket issued - AFTER confirming my itinerary, the seats and the price and telling me the ticket was issued.

Guess they were surprised at the ticket-price that came up when they issued it, and are now trying everything to salvage what remains of their commission-income this month. There's no end to the creative proposals that have come my way these past few days from them. I've told them it's not my problem and that I have planned my meetings and business-dinners around their confirmed itinerary so they will have to deal with it.

It might be cheaper for them to do the whole trip as First Class RTW, rather than buy an upgrade for the SQ legs. But what a pity that all the other carriers in my itinerary don't have a first class! If that's the solution, maybe I'll rebook to ANA? Then LH to CPH and SQ from there? @:-)

Anyway, extremely frustrated by this right now and have told the agent to get me the ticket they have promised me. They are now negotiating with SQ... Stay tuned!

Yep, fully aware of that but thanks for reminding me. If comparing SQ to CA, I know who wins - regardless of what model seating is in the SQ flight. They could have camping-chairs and still come out ahead on service alone.

Well, finally got the paper ticket in hand with A-class on SQ confirmed. And the fare-basis is FRWSTAR1.

Now what does that get me? Can I rebook the EWR-CPH leg to be EWR-FRA-CPH in LH instead at no charge? And is the additional time travelling really worth it? What are the opinions of this forum?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is not something I do every day - and it's clear that the agent doesn't do this too often either...