Trip Report: Singapore Airlines A380 Frankfurt to New York in Business Class (FRA - JFK)

An early-departing daytime flight to the East Coast from Europe – 8 hours in an exceptionally wide, leather seat with 81" of pitch and a lie-flat mode. Breakfast and lunch services.

 

Pros

• Great food
• Amazing service
• Staff are super vigilant about cleaning the lavatories
• A380 feels very spacious and quiet
• Espresso machine onboard (and staff willing to use it) 
• 30MB of free Wi-Fi included with a Business Class ticket
• 3 door boarding is very calm and orderly

Cons

• The flight is very early (8:30am departure, meaning a 6:00am check in)
• The flip-over bed is extra inconvenient on a daytime flight where you might want more fluidity between the sleep and sit positions

 Tips

• Back of the plane (row 96) feels very private, despite the proximity to the galley and lavs
• The middle two seats are great for couples, but you won't have window access
• The back of Business Class is known for being much colder than the front
• "Book the Cook" feature lets you choose your meals from a huge menu
• The Frankfurt airport has a high-speed rail terminal so you can easily arrive from other parts of Germany
• Disable your phone's app auto-updates and Facebook/Instagram's video auto-play settings before boarding the flight so you can maximize the free 30MB of internet. 
• Download a copy of Crazy Rich Asians to read onboard the flight – it's a fun book and it was awesome being aboard the very same flight where one of the book's pivotal scenes happens! 

 

🔄 This is our return flight, the outbound flight is here.

 

How I did it

I found a great deal – $1995 per person, round-trip – so I just paid for the ticket. I earned around $300 worth of Chase and United points from this trip.

 

Airport and Lounge

Frankfurt airport is conveniently connected to Germany's high speed rail network. We arrived around 6:00am for an 8:40 flight and while there wasn't much of a line at the Business Class counter, there's a security screener who interviews you before you can approach the counter. I'm not sure how this program works because our interviewer didn't seem to speak German or English very well, but we managed to slog through it.

I'd been led to believe Frankfurt's Business Class lounges are kind of horrible, but ours was actually quite nice. It was the same drab grey color scheme as the rest of the airport, but there was plenty of space, fast Wi-Fi, coffee, drinks, food... all the things you want in a lounge and it was right across from our departure gate. Unfortunately I hadn't been keeping up with my travel blogs on this trip and missed this announcement that we could have used the much nicer Senator lounge next door. Oy.

I dearly love Frankfurt's old school split-flap departure board!

Security interview at bag check

Lounge has a kids room

Lounge bar

Lounge buffet

 

Boarding

Boarding was unusually well organized, and they used 3 jetways to speed up the boarding process. We sat in the same row as on the outbound flight, but since it's a daytime flight, we both opted for a window rather than the two adjoining center seats. The window seats don't have overhead storage, but there was plenty of space for both my and 96K's bags in the shared bin.

Orderly boarding queues

Orderly boarding queues

My seat was outfitted just like it was on the previous leg

We sat in back again for the privacy and cooler temps

Amenities are stocked in the lavatories

The Flight

This is a daytime flight departing Frankfurt at 8:30am and landing at JFK at 11:00am. Despite getting up so early to catch the flight, I wasn't feeling tired in the least so I decided to try a new approach to combat my jetlag: lots of espresso and a Provigil.

I was greeted quickly and my choices from the online Book the Cook menu were confirmed. Beverages were offered, I chose tomato juice. Once we were airborne warm nuts, wine, and hot towels arrived.

Business Class includes 30MB of free Wi-Fi. Make sure you read the card so you know how to set it up, and make sure you've disabled app updates and Facebook/Instagram video auto-play before you're airborne, otherwise you can burn through 30MB really quickly.

Definitely read the card: I couldn't connect without going to the special URL.

Breakfast

The 8 hour flight has a breakfast service right after take-off and another lunch service later on. I didn't want two huge meals in that short a period of time so I pre-selected a Caesar salad for breakfast. It was tasty. 

Pre-departure tomato juice

Warm nuts and red wine

Caesar salad

yogurt

fruit

Lunch

For lunch I'd ordered the suckling pig via their Book the Cook feature and it was fantastic. It started with a prosciutto and mozzarella plate, and a selection from a bread basket. The pig came with roasted potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. It was followed by an almond torte and then chocolate ice cream. I ordered a yet another espresso and poured it over the ice cream and had a chocolatey affogato.

prosciutto and mozzarella salad

Book the Cook suckling pig

Almond torte

Proto-affogato

 

Landing

We landed 40 minutes early in New York. Security at JFK was a breeze (lines were short even for those without Global Entry), but the baggage was delayed due to our early arrival.

 

Final Thoughts

As with the outbound flight, this is a damned-near perfect flight – especially considering it was under $2000. Not much I'd change if I were king except maybe have it leave 2 hours later.