Crazy Rich Asians tour of Singapore!

I've been wanting to go to Singapore for years and two big things have been pushing me toward finally doing it: the return of the world's longest flight (NYC – SIN), and the blockbuster summer movie Crazy Rich Asians. (Go see it if you haven't yet!) I would have seen the movie even if one of my besties wasn't in a starring role, but I think him being in it did get me interested in reading the books that the movie is based on.

Nico Santos plays cousin Oliver in Crazy Rich Asians

Fair warning: those books make you huuuungry, so don't read them on an empty stomach! If you follow my Instagram you probably know that food is a huge part of why I travel, and I want to go everywhere in the book and graze for days! Of course some enterprising folks in Singapore have already put together a "Crazy Rich Asians Tour" that probably has some similarities to the "Sex and the City" tours that we occasionally run into here in New York.

It's called artistic license, Brian

As I mentioned in my Trip Report, I was unreasonably giddy that I read the first book while onboard the very same Singapore Airlines flight the Nick and Rachel (the protagonists) take to Singapore. Though once the movie finally came out, there were quite a few changes from how the flight is described in the book.

First off, they changed the airline name to "Pacific Asean"… The only reason I can think of for Singapore Airlines to turn down all of that free marketing is that they didn't like how their Economy Class was depicted in the movie?

Second (and third), they were in a lie-flat, two-person suite on a direct flight! There haven't been direct flights from New York to Singapore in 5 years, and when the service resumes in October with the new fuel-efficient A350-ULR, there won't be two person suites or onboard bars. Furthermore, the map in the movie showed the plane flying the wrong direction to get there! As my non-AVGeek friend laughingly said to me after the movie was over, "Jeeez, it's called artistic license, Brian, calm down!"

The 19 hour flight will be the longest in the world, so it could definitely use some super-posh suites, but they're so heavy the plane couldn't make the trip with them. A much lighter and smaller Business Class seat is the poshest thing you'll find aboard this plane.

The actual A350 seat isn't quite as glamorous as in the film

UPDATE (9/2018): Well it looks like a bunch of the big blogs also decided to post about this exact topic (after I did, I'll have you know!) and there's now an interview with the production designer about the airplane set here – Spoiler alert: the chairs in their Pacific Asean suite are actually off-the-shelf leather massage chairs!

UPDATE 3/2023: We've taken this flight now, but sadly didn't have enough time in Singapore to even see if this tour still exists. Trip report is here.

Getting there on points

As crazy as it sounds, I'd actually like to take this flight. Yes, 19 hours will be rough, even in Business Class and even with Singapore's legendary service and food. But for an AVGeek there's something kinda cool (and, y'know, bragging rights) about going on the longest flight in the world. This flight will likely hold that record until Qantas can convince the airline manufacturers to build its Project Sunrise plane (and thereby enable direct flights from Sydney to London and New York).

One of the cool things about Singapore Airlines is that they're a transfer partner for both Chase and Amex, so you can pool points from both cards to book travel. Unfortunately I've had zero luck finding one of the 92,000 point (one-way) Saver seats, but there's lots of 135,000 point seats available. That's a very hefty premium to pay considering you can fly direct to Taipei or Hong Kong in basically the same seat for 85,000 on EVA, China Airlines, or Cathay Pacific.

Given that, I'm guessing we'd just take this flight one way, and then fly home from elsewhere in Asia. 
Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney are all sub-8 hour flights away from Singapore. Taipei, Hong Kong, and Manila are even closer.