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Airline: Singapore Airlines (SQ)
Aircraft: A380
Flight #: SQ025
Route: JFK>FRA>SIN
Date: October 2, 2017
Duration: 21hrs 35mins (7hrs 35mins, 1hr 50mins layover in FRA, 12hrs 10 mins)
Cabin & Layout: Singapore Suites, 12-seat capacity on the lower deck, 1-2-1
Seats: 3C, 3D
Miles Used: 93,500 Singapore KrisFlyer Miles per person
Taxes & Fees Paid: $296.73 USD per person
Typical Retail Cost: $8,415 USD per person (for the same route and dates)
Typical Economy Cost: ~$550 USD per person
Since Alex’s brother currently lives in Vietnam and we have friends in Singapore, this trip gave us the perfect “excuse” to fly Singapore Suites. While there are plenty of great ways to get to Asia in first class, you’ll see later on why this specific redemption is so appealing — both for the product and for the value you get for your hard-earned points and miles.
Even though this route is actually 2 segments (there’s a short stopover in Frankfurt), you can book it as a single flight at Singaporeair.com. There was no need to call for support since you can search for availability and actually book online.
To reserve the flight, Alex transferred 187,000 Ultimate Rewards points from his Chase account to his Singapore KrisFlyer account. Singapore Airlines is also a direct Amex transfer partner, Capital One, Marriott, and Citi, so you have plenty of options. Chase points are easily earned and doubly great when there are 2 of you obtaining sign-up bonuses and leveraging everyday category bonuses. There are plenty of ways to boost your KrisFlyer reserves!
For example, we both have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which earned us the then offered 50,000-point sign-up bonus plus 2 points per $1 spent on all dining and travel purchases!
Now, it’s not that hard to find availability for 1 person to fly Singapore Suites (first class), but finding 2 is certainly more challenging, especially from JFK all the way through to Singapore. The way to maximize your chances of experiencing this epic flight is to be very prepared, and aim to book as far in advance as you can.
Hot Tip: To explore all their U.S. based flights, check out our definitive guide to SQ’s routes to/from the U.S. including plane types and seat options.
Alex booked this ticket 11 months ahead of time as soon as the award space opened up. As it happened, our friends Cory and Kellie were planning their honeymoon within 2 weeks of our flights, and they managed to snag 2 seats as well (also booking 11 months ahead). So, it can definitely be done…don’t let anyone tell you differently!
When Alex booked our flight (back in 2016), this award required fewer miles, but the taxes were higher. What’s particularly awesome about this specific redemption is that we paid 93,500 miles each for ~21 hours of “butt-in-seat” luxurious flying. That made it one of the most valuable ways to use our points…many first class flights cost you the same amount for half or a third of the flight time and a lesser experience!
Plus, it got us to Singapore in a reasonable amount of time.
If you were to book this same flight today (in 2018), you’d pay 120,000 KrisFlyer miles each, but only $48.29 per person in taxes! That is a total steal. If you’re thinking about attempting this redemption, we’ve written up an extensive guide for booking Singapore Suites with all the details you’ll need!
To ensure there was no chance of missing our big Singapore Suites adventure, we planned to arrive at JFK extra early. In fact, we actually arrived a little too early to check-in…whoops! After 30 minutes of lovingly staring at the counters willing them to open, it was finally time.
Singapore Suites (first class) check-in was a breeze. With the added benefit of TSA pre-check, we were through and on our way to the lounge in no time!
A huge perk of flying out of JFK with Singapore Suites is having access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse.
This lounge is fantastic! Since we had plenty of time to spare, we giddily sipped a couple pre-flight cocktails, nibbled on some tasty bar bites, and enjoyed some last-minute down time before our flight. This lounge is quite large with plenty of tables, some more private tucked away spots, and even a pool table.
The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at JFK also just happens to have a Clubhouse Spa with a menu full of great services. They’ve partnered with Bumble & Bumble and skincare specialist Dr Hauschka, so you know it’s sure to please! While Virgin’s Upper Class passengers receive the option of certain complimentary services, Singapore Suites passengers unfortunately do not.
That didn’t stop us from a little indulgence — hey, we used points to save all that money on flights for a reason, right? It was definitely dreamy for each of us to have a hair wash and style while looking out at the planes and air traffic control tower at dusk.
In the last hour before our flight, it was all we could do to keep calm and try to get a little work done. Then finally, after quite a few hours worth of anticipation, it was time.
We couldn’t believe we were finally sitting in Singapore Suites! These photos speak for themselves, but the combination of a tried and true hard product with the cabin crew’s impeccable service made this one of the best flights we have ever taken.
In terms of pre-takeoff service, one thing that’s apparent when flying out of JFK is their new rule banning the service of alcoholic beverages while still on the ground. Nothing to worry too much about — we sipped on sparkling water with fresh lemon while awaiting our first champagne cheers in the air.
That being said, pre-flight service on our second leg flight out of Frankfurt definitely included a glass of bubbly.
Before take off, the cabin crew were sure to make us feel extremely welcome on each flight by introducing themselves, delivering our menus, and issuing our pajamas and amenity kits.
While the Singapore Suites product is 10 years old, the innovative style of this cabin is still really exciting. Plenty of space, plenty of privacy, and plenty of smiles all around. Since our flight, Singapore has revealed their new Suites product, and wow…we can’t wait to get our hands on another ticket!
If you’re flying with a companion and prefer to interact throughout the flight, the middle suites are the best choice. The divider between them can be lowered, and as you’ll see in the photos below, the beds can be made into a modified lie-flat double bed.
The single suites on either side of us are also impressive — certainly enough room to comfortably hitch a long-haul ride.
The seat itself has an 81″ pitch and a 35″ width. The seat also transforms into a lie-flat bed, which is especially useful on overnight flights. Some seat controls can be found on the inner armrest. A dinner table pulls up and out of the center console, and there is plenty of room for storage.
Alright people, let’s talk about these beds. On both legs of our trip, the suites in front of ours were empty. When the cabin crew suggested they could have these front seats made down into our double bed, effectively allowing us to take advantage of 4 SUITES throughout both flights, we couldn’t resist!
We watched some movies and had a nightcap while lounging, reclined in our assigned seats. Then when we were ready, we hopped on up to catch a few hours of sleep.
We can’t stress how ridiculous it was to basically have 4 suites to ourselves on these flights! 🙂
Having the middle suites turned into a double bed was surreal – we couldn’t believe we were on an airplane, 35,000 feet in the sky.
Moving on to dining! Singapore Suites provides a la carte dining and a lengthy menu of delicious options. They also offer an option called “Book The Cook” where passengers can choose their meal from a select menu before the flight.
The most popular Book the Cook option is the lobster thermidor, but if you’re not a fan or want to branch out, we can tell you that a number of other options are also fantastic. You’re not missing out no matter what you choose!
Luckily, since we flew 2 different Suites routes, we were able to partake in a smorgasbord of yummy dishes. Our favorite? The suckling pig.
Enjoying a mouth-watering meal on a plane is special enough, but the fact that the layout of the Suites gave us the option to dine together made our meal much more memorable.
Did we mention the caviar? Singapore Suites follows the first class airline trend of serving caviar prior to the meal. They even offer the traditional shot of vodka alongside the caviar if that’s your kind of thing. If you’ve got room for dessert, Singapore doesn’t skimp on those options either.
Since we were traveling near a birthday, Singapore came out with a luscious little cake after dinner on the first flight. Full of rich chocolate, smooth cream, macarons, chocolate tuiles, strawberries, and raspberries…we were in heaven!
When we couldn’t finish the cake, the cabin crew thoughtfully put it in the galley refrigerator and kept it for us to snack on during our second flight. That definitely happened.
The beverage service, meanwhile, was out of this world. After the Dom was poured and enjoyed, they gladly offered the Krug. On our second leg (FRA>SIN), Singapore’s very own inflight sommelier talked us through wine options for dinner.
While their cocktail menu provided a number of concoctions on the sweeter side (and therefore less to our liking), the crew was happy to mix us up something else on the fly. Oh, and if you’re a coffee fan? Singapore Suites has quite an extensive Illy menu.
Most airlines issue personal amenity kits to first and business class passengers, and Singapore is no exception.
The amenity kits on Singapore Suites are designed exclusively for the airline by Salvatore Ferragamo. The woman’s kit resembles a sleek black clutch and includes skin care products, plus a 1oz glass bottle of eau de toilette in the Signorina scent. The men’s washbag also includes skin care products and a 1oz glass bottle of eau de toilette in the ACQUA Essenziale scent.
In terms of entertainment, Singapore Suites has over 1,000 options including movies, TV shows, music, games, and apps. The 23″ LCD TV plus our own personal Bose noise-canceling headphones made for some great movie watching! Wi-Fi is available on this flight, but since this was the beginning of our trip, we chose to switch off from work and enjoy everything else Singapore Suites had to offer.
The service provided by the cabin crews was incredible and virtually unparalleled. It’s as if the staff know what you need before you even think of it yourself. Quick to attend, yet completely unobtrusive, they were on point for the entirety of both flights.
On our second leg specifically, our attendant Christine spent at least 30 minutes with us providing suggestions for what to see and do in Singapore. She was so enthusiastic about suggesting local spots and traditional cuisine we should try; this was a real treat for us.
Again, since it was a special occasion, the cabin crew swept in and handed us 2 little Singapore bears – a his and hers set. They’ll certainly serve as a sweet little reminder of our fantastic experience!
We’ve discussed both of our segments in Singapore Suites together as if they were 1 flight, since they were so similar yet each incredible in their own way. However, since we flew JFK>FRA then FRA>SIN, we were required to hop off the plane in Frankfurt for a little while before moving on to Singapore. That means we got to check out yet another lounge.
No stop in Frankfurt is complete without experiencing a Lufthansa product. For our short layover, we spent about 90 minutes in the Senator Lounge. This lounge is large and offers a decent buffet, showers, luxe bar, warm pretzels, and German beer on tap — we couldn’t ask for much more!
We’ll just lay this out simply — our experience on Singapore Suites was unforgettable. From the lounges to the pre-flight welcome, the cabin service to the suite itself, the food, the drink, the lie-flat double bed…WOW.
It’s safe to say we’ll definitely be using points for another Suites flight in the future!
This was just the start of a very adventurous trip where we essentially traveled around the world in style for over 52 hours in total. We were lucky enough to fly on some of the best products in the sky! If you’re interested in reviews on those flights, you can find them here:
What does it take to plan a trip like this? Alex has written an entire post on it here:
Not sure which credit cards might be used to book all those award flights? Alex has an entire post for that too:
And lastly, if you’re interested in perusing other avenues for getting to Singapore on an award redemption, there’s an article for that as well:
Check out our full guide on the best ways to fly to Singapore with points and miles.
Singapore Suites class offers both champagne options, so you can try both!
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An experienced points hacker, Erin is Alex’s partner-in-crime and contributes to Upgraded Points with in-depth guides and relationship management. Erin’s work has been cited in multiple major publications.
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18 comments
deanna
February 02, 2018
Wow, what an adventure. I love reading your posts. It is so nice that you are both still so enthusiastic about the experience. The way you post and the examples you give, make it believable that some of us normal people could do this to. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Alex Miller
February 02, 2018
@Deanna – thank you so much! If you haven’t seen our “Real Redemptions” series, you’ll see lots of others going on trips just like this! /travel/real-redemptions/
Cody Fielding
February 16, 2018
Great Review! We are flying the suites in May JFK-FRA on points. What time does the Singapore desk open for SQ25? We arrive around 3pm on a positioning flight from DFW. Also what are the prices like in the Spa, too bad no free service for SQ passengers. Thanks!
Alex Miller
February 16, 2018
You’ll have a blast! The Singapore desk opens up 3hrs before from memory, we ended up waiting quite a bit before as we were pretty early. The prices for the SPA are very reasonable, especially for NYC. You won’t feel ripped off. And yes, I agree they should be included for SIN F passengers!
Glenn Closson
August 19, 2018
I’m just curious, did both sets of middle seats convert into the double bed? If the other 2 weren’t open, would they have been able to convert the seats you had into the same double bed?
Erin Miller
August 20, 2018
Hi Glenn – yes, all of the middle sets of seats convert into a double bed! If the cabin was full, they would have converted our seats into the double bed for us. 🙂
joseph
January 31, 2019
loved reading your trip experience, my fiance and i are getting married in march and flying 2 days later this route and we were able to get 2 suites on points on SQ25 jfk-fra-sin however they dont show the middle double suites available, do you have any experience on this? are those just blocked out or are we out of luck ? thanks
Alex Miller
February 04, 2019
Hey Joseph, thank you for the kind words! I’d keep checking for those middle seats in the lead up to the flight, especially within a few days as they could become available. You can also check on ExpertFlyer to see if those seats have just been booked or not. Or, just give Singapore a ring and ask them what the deal is with those middle seats on your flight 🙂
Bill
May 20, 2019
I am thinking of booking this flight and was wondering how the two legs worked in terms of boarding passes. It sounds like you needed to get off the plane so you presumably had a separate boarding pass for the leg out of Frankfurt. Is that correct? I wouldn’t be flying first class but I could visit a Priority Pass lounge during the layover, assuming that I had a boarding pass for a flight out of FRA.
Erin Miller
May 21, 2019
Hi Bill, yes – you get a different boarding pass for each leg of the flight! If you’re flying Suites though, there’s likely a better lounge option than Priority Pass – especially if you’re talking about your stop in FRA!!! 🙂
Brendan Lim
June 28, 2019
Great post! We will be flying the same route from JFK to SIN (Suites for JFK-FRA and Business on FRA-SIN) with a longer layover so that we can do some shopping in FRA!
What time do they open the check-in counter in JFK? We will be flying in from DEN to LGA and we were wondering if we have time to stop by for Peter Luger before heading to JFK.
Erin Miller
July 02, 2019
Hey Brendan, a branch of Singapore’s website shows that “Early Check-in” at JFK is from 6 hrs prior to departure, while All (standard) check-in is from 4 hours prior to departure. Hope this helps! 🙂
Elisa
July 10, 2019
We are thinking of doing this and are just wondering how the layover portion in FRA works. Do you need to go through customs even though it’s the same plane that you’re getting back on?
Alex Miller
July 13, 2019
Hi Elisa – what happens is that when you disembark from the plane in FRA, you are taken to the LH business class lounge directly (it’s about a 45 second walk, if that!). You hang out there and then walk back when the flight is ready to board! No customs or anything; super easy.
Damon
July 19, 2019
Hi everyone, I booked the Flight:
SYD -> SIN -> FRA -> JFK
as Suites Saver Award.
I called a week ago SingaporeAirlines to add for $100 a stopover in Frankfurt as I want to stay there for 3 weeks and then continue my flight to JFK. The Agent wanted to go ahead but wasn’t able to find an award space. So I called back today as an award space became available just to hear from another agent that stopovers are only possible in Singapore. The agent told me he wouldn’t be able to seperate the flights SIN via Frankfurt to JFK as it’s one flight code (SQ 26). He told me the only way to spend some time in Frankfurt is to cancel the last leg (FRA – JFK) however I wouldn’t get any miles back if I do so. On top I would have to spend an additional 86K Miles to book the FRA – JFK flight seperate.
Somewhere (unfortunately I can’t remember where) I read that it’s possible to add for $100 a stopover even in Frankfurt.
Does anyone have experience with that issue and do you think I just had bad luck with the second agent and another one would be able to fulfill my request?
Thanks so much in advance!!!
Stephen Au
July 21, 2019
Hi Damon,
Yes it’s true that you can book a stopover for $100 extra, as long as there is valid award availability. The best advice we’d have for you is to keep searching for award space and call them as soon as you find it to add your stopover. Thanks for reading!
Priscilla
February 23, 2020
How close was this to one of your actual birthdays? And did the crew do this spontaneously or did you somehow ask ahead of time? I will be flying SQ suites the week before my birthday and would love treats like you experienced!
Erin Miller
March 03, 2020
Hi Priscilla, we flew on Alex’s actual birthday but I’m sure if you told the crew you were celebrating something special they’d be able to treat you! Especially if you’re in suites! 😉
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