Jaunted

In all fairness, the double-decker Airbus A380 isn't the only Singapore plane with these seats; it is, however, the only one with all of them—60 total—on an upper level. If you're at an airport that supports the upstairs and downstairs jet bridges (we spotted them at FRA and SIN), then one is reserved solely for business class. In this case, flying business means only a few minutes of contact with the rest of the scrum at the gate, in between airport lounge time and separate jet bridge time.

Now, the photos really do most of the talking here, but still we have a few things to add:

Our favorite bits about biz:
· It's not economy.
· The seat width (34"—compared to the 19" of economy and 35" of Suites Class). It means that, while working on our laptop, we were able to adopt a more comfortable position of sitting cross-legged, laptop on lap. Like being at home on the couch! As we also mentioned, two people can sit next to each other for quick in-flight chatting (we tested this) and we even had our laptop laying flat next to us on the seat during mealtimes.
· Breakfast in bed, or at least that's what it feels like. After sleeping a solid 7 hours on the FRA-SIN leg, we simply sat up on our lie-flat bed, brought up the tray table and ate breakfast sitting cross-legged, still covered in the Givenchy duvet. Wait, we're on a plane? We had nearly forgotten that fact.
· No toiletry kits, but toiletries aplenty. The only class to get kits on Singapore is Suites/First. It's all Kiehl's products, and you can spy inside it here. However, in biz, each passenger is handed a pouch containing slipper-socks and an eyemask. That's it. Venture into the bathroom to find drawers of complimentary everything, from combs and shaving sets to women's pads. Even L'Occitane face lotion and eau de toilette are provided (separate scents for men and women, naturally). We like this because, far too often, we've walked through emptying business class cabins to see most passengers leave their goodies behind only to be trashed. What a waste.

Our least favorite bits about biz:
· It's not Suites Class.
· If you don't act fast and choose your seat before check-in, all of the prime window ones may be taken. This was our case and, though a middle seat is okay because all have aisle access, half the fun of flying for us is looking out to see the clouds, the airports, and the mighty plane wings.
· The leather-lined cubby next to the TV is so irresistible to stuff things in, that you can easily forget items there.
· There are no overhead bins above the center seats. While this means tons of height and headroom, it also mandates your sharing a bin with the person at the window. And, if it's anything like what happened with us, that person will have taken up the whole bin already with two large carry-ons, meaning you've got to shift forward or back a bin or two to locate space.

As we've already mentioned, flying roundtrip on the JFK-FRA-SIN A380 route isn't budget by any measure. We found $6,000-ish prices for February, but this still doesn't come anywhere near the $13,000-ish of Suites Class. So...who wants to come over (to our seat) for Singapore Slings?

Tomorrow: All the little things—the design-y details.

Disclosure: Flights and some accommodation are as a guest of Singapore Airlines. Regardless, all photos and opinions presented are utterly and completely our very own.

[Photos: Cynthia Drescher for Jaunted]