For a few years now, there’s been abundant competition for business-class travelers on the trans-Atlantic route, with upstarts carving out all-business class niches to woo passengers away from the major airlines. But until now, there’s been no such movement on the trans-Pacific routes.
But it’s no upstart that’s offering this new service. It’s Singapore Airlines.
They’re converting their ultra-long-haul Airbus 340-500’s to all-business configurations, which means that “Executive Economy” customers are getting the boot. These widebody planes will go from 181 passengers to 100.
Others have already chimed in on the issue. Jared Blank thinks this will be a cash cow. The Cranky Flier is skeptical, calling it a “no-win,” and throwing some barbs at the aircraft for good measure.
Is this a great business move? I don’t know. But my thoughts are this: The supply of business class seats on Singapore Airlines — a truly top-notch airline — just went up big-time. Maybe, just maybe, the frequent flyer seat inventory went up, too. This could be a great opportunity to cash in frequent flyer miles and really get some bang for your proverbial buck.
After all, Newark to Singapore is 9535 nonstop miles, according to the excellent Great Circle Mapper. If ever there’s a flight where you really want to be in business class, it’s this one.
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March 5th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Such a long flight, it’s not really a trans-Pacific route any more…
March 5th, 2008 at 10:33 am
For a such a long flight and for the amount of business travelers between North America and Singapore it really makes sense. Singapore will continue to grow and to be a magnet for foreign investment. I’m sure there will be plenty of business people interested in flying comfortably not minding the extra cost.
Art Gonzalez
Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights
March 5th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
It will be great to have the best business class seat on the longest flight. But I’m skeptical there will be award availability - I guess time will tell. On Singapore Airlines’ other routes with the same seat (in A380 and 77W aircraft) the routinely block the business and first class seats from awards, other than by using their Kris Flyer program and even then requiring double miles. On paid tickets they apply hefty surcharges.
While there is an increase in business class seats with the reconfiguration, it is not a lot of extra seats for them to sell. Given the existing business class on the nonstop regularly sells out I guess there won’t be a need for them to add extra award seats.
Where it might make a difference is freeing up a few seats on the flights that do stop. So JFK-FRA-SIN for the Newark non-stop, and LAX-TPE-SIN and LAX-NRT-SIN for the Los Angeles non-stop. There might be a few more business class seats available on those flights.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
It’s actually not clear to me that “If ever there’s a flight where you really want to be in business class, it’s this one.” The premium economy class is IMHO more bearable than, for example, the transit experience of JFK-FRA-SIN in business class. And for some of us, “business” looks worse than “economy” on an expense report.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Does this really mean they’re getting rid of all the Executive Economy seats? I’ve only flown it once so far, and was really looking forward to it again. It’s definitely worth the extra that it costs, but I’m afraid Business class is way beyond what I can afford.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Yep, all Exec Economy seats. Sorry.
Remember, we’re only talking about EWR-SIN and LAX-SIN.