The longest flight in the world!

Well, we've ticked off another of those plane nerd boxes: flying Singapore Airlines' JFK-SIN flight, the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world (for now...). I know it's nuts, but I've wanted to do this forever, even back when they were flying this route on a specially configured A340.

So how the heck do you survive nearly 19 hours in the air? Well, let's start with the most important thing, fly Business Class. Normally this flight goes for $7k-ish round trip in Business, but I'd found a relatively cheap points ticket (200k round trip) and decided to go for it. We were actually en route to Sydney, but I booked that as a separate ticket and we spent a couple days on both ends of the trip eating our way around a delicious, new-to-us city.

(Yes, Singapore Airlines will sell you a points ticket all the way thru to Sydney from NYC, but there were only 'waitlist' seats available, so we opted for a second, cash ticket)

The A350-URL (Ultra Long Range) has lots of weight saving measures to enable long distance flying, so there's no First Class and no Economy, just Business and Premium Economy. Despite being purpose-built for long flights, I was really surprised how sparse the in-flight entertainment options are. So my second tip is: bring lots of stuff to watch/read! Though I didn't try it myself, the seats supposedly have HDMI adapters so you can easily put your own content onto the seatback monitor.

Both directions the flight has a similar service pattern:

take-off
meal
sleep period (snacks like ramen available)
another meal
sleep period (again, snacks available)
pre-arrival meal
land

So basically you're on a 19 hour buffet with a few naps and movies. Given that, my next tip is: use their Book The Cook service and choose your meal 48+ hours before takeoff. There are a lot more choices on Book The Cook than there are on the standard in-flight menu, including lots of really tasty Singaporean dishes you won't find anywhere else. Another pro-tip here: if you're going to choose one of the really spicy options (like the stellar beef Rendang I got), do that for the second meal and choose something milder for the first one (e.g., the Japanese unagi don). You don't want to be fighting for that toilet in the final hours of the flight when everyone on board is trying to go :P

Choose a mild first meal (like this unagi don with sansho)

Also, seriously limit your alcohol consumption. This flight is so long your hangover will hit long before you land. At most, have one drink with each meal and stop there. They have an amazing selection of tea onboard, so maybe have that instead.

To limit the clutter, I'll put a full album of all the food and bev from one flight at the end of this post.

The Business Class seat is unique in that the bed mode requires you getting out of the seat and the flight attendant flipping the seat over and moving several pieces into place. The tray table has a long vertical adjustment so you can eat in seat mode or in bed mode. By default, the staff will make up your bed after the first meal service and leave it that way until landing. If you have a bad back, don't be shy to ask them to just put your seat back into seat mode! Jockeying all of those pillows around ultimately won't save you from getting lower back strain.

the seat in bed mode

seat mode

Singapore has very strict laws, so do NOT bring any cannabis or CBD gummies with you. Melatonin is legal, so maybe bring that instead. Tim had his doctor-prescribed Valium taken away from him at the border because many legal drugs require a pre-authorization from the Singapore border force to bring them into the country. They may also limit the quantity you can bring in by the number of days you'll be there.

One really weird thing about this flight is that they don't give you pajamas or slippers, so definitely bring your own in your carry-on. There's also not a traditional amenity kit, but the lavatories have shaving kits, pads, toothbrushes, moisturizer and other useful travel stuff in a drawer or cabinet. Another note on the lavs: I absolutely love that the staff keep them sparkling clean throughout the flight. Can you imagine how vile a United Business Class toilet would be by the 18th hour of a flight? *shudder*

nothing better than an always-clean lavatory!

These planes have updated Wi-Fi, and it's free for Business Class customers. I'd let so many of my NYC to-do's lapse while in Sydney that I actually spent a lot of the flight catching up on stuff like paying my ConEd bill.

The seats don't have individual air vents. I don't know if this is a weight-saving thing for the A350-ULR, but I've flown a normal Delta A350 and my window seat had one... Luckily the crew didn't set the thermostat very high, so it wasn't really an issue.

Final Thoughts

Honestly the flight didn't seem that long to me. Both directions I was able to sleep 10+ hours, so between that and the meals and the takeoffs and landings and catching up on all of my social media, I didn't watch a single movie or TV show. Nor did I feel particularly bored.

It's funny how all of these 13+ hour flights have completely re-drawn the curve for my brain. We're going to Dublin for a wedding in May and I'm like "why the hell would I pay $2500 extra per person for a bed I can use a total of 3 hours?!". I think this is a really good thing, honestly. Given how much back and forth we do from Sydney these days, I feel like these are all just warm-ups for the 2025 launch of nonstop NYC-Sydney service, which is expected to be 21-ish hours and will steal the 'longest flight' crown from this Singapore Airlines flight. (More info here)