Hard to Beat: Singapore Airlines A350-900 Short Haul Economy Review Bangkok to Singapore

Rating: 5/5 (The best short haul economy on earth)

Route: SQ705 BKK-SIN (depart 9:35AM arrive 1:10PM)

Price: $106USD (3,390 Thai Baht) paid for with my Amex Platinum (I needed to book this flight as my last “positioning flight” since my final destination was Singapore but my award ticket only got me to Bangkok)

Introduction

This flight was my 3rd and final flight on my long trip from LA to Singapore. At this point, after 24+ hours of continuous travel, I had no idea who or what I was. Luckily, my flight from LAX – Tokyo and Tokyo – Bangkok were both in JAL business class, which made it a lot easier physically, especially to get some proper lie-flat sleep on the second flight.

Although this last flight was in economy, it was a pretty short one and on my favorite airlines on the planet. There is a healthy amount of competition on the Bangkok – Singapore route (SIA, Scoot, Thai, etc), but there’s no better airline to fly it with than Singapore Airlines. Also, given how competitive / high volume it is, it’s not terribly expensive – I booked a last minute one-way fare in economy for just around $100 USD for a regular economy fare.

My previous flight had arrived from Tokyo around ~5am and this flight was to depart at ~9am, so I had quite a bit of time to kill to see what priority pass was offering in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. It was not good.

In this post, you’ll find:

Lounge Situation in Bangkok

In general, priority pass lounges tend to be better, or at least more available, in Asia vs the US. The US is generally a dead zone for quality priority pass lounges (with some exceptions, like The Club at SFO) given how ubiquitous priority pass has become with major travel credit cards (Amex Platinum, Capital One Venture X, the list goes on). Asia has a lot more lounges accessible, although the quality tends to be quite variable.

In this day and age, priority pass lounges that are actually worth coming to the airport early for are quite rare. In most cases, my advice is to not come to the airport too early and just grab a coffee or meal or just explore your departing destination for one day. That’s the point of travel anyways, right? Spending time eating pre-packaged snacks and watery coffee is not a good use of valuable PTO or travel time (to be fair, it is helpful when connecting on long layovers).

I visited the “Miracle Business Class Lounge” in Concourse G. This is one of the lighter / brighter priority pass lounges in the airport. It was a fine place to rest for a bit given I was transiting, but definitely not worth coming the the airport early for.

Singapore Airlines Economy Review

Around 8am I got tired of the lounge and made my way over to the gate to wait for boarding. Around 8:45am, boarding began for our quick flight over to Singapore.

Singapore Airlines has the nicest and newest short / medium haul fleet on the planet (outside of some middle Eastern carriers), consisting of A350s, 787-10s, and 737-8 MAXs. As you’d expect, the widebodies are used on high-volume regional corridors like Bangkok to Singapore, while “skinnier” routes like Singapore to Da Nang are operated by their 737s (see my review of that route HERE).

Their A350 medium haul configuration comes equipped with 303 total seats:

40x Stelia Symphony business class seats (1-2-1 config, all with direct aisle access)

263x Recaro economy class seats in a 3-3-3 config (some extra legroom sold for an upcharge)

Here’s the front economy section on their medium-haul A350s:

Legroom is pretty decent for economy, and more than enough for a sub 3 hour flight. Luckily, the seat next to me was empty for this flight. All seats feature seatback entertainment.

Here’s the cabin from above.

And now where Singapore Airline goes above and beyond – towels for everyone, even in economy.

For breakfast this morning, they were serving quiche alongside some packaged snacks (yogurt & bread). This picture doesn’t make it look the most appetizing but it legitimately tasted very good, and didn’t make my stomach feel weird after, which was important given I had been on the road for a over a day continuously at this point.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines short-haul economy is the best on the planet. On a 2 and a half hour flight, you get incredible service, a warm meal and a drink, and seatback entertainment on every seat. On mainline US carriers, in a same-duration flight you’re lucky if you get a diet coke and a bag of off-brand chex mix (which to be fair, I usually enjoy).

After a quick nap we were already descending into hot and humid Singapore. I was excited to head to the hotel and get a proper night of sleep before exploring the city (mostly eating) for the next few days.