From seats to meals and service, Singapore Airlines has long been considered a benchmark for the best travel experiences.

And as with almost every airline, the Star Alliance member’s fleet includes several different types of business class seats.

In fact, there are no less than five variants of Singapore Airlines business class – plus an all-new business class suite coming to the Airbus A350s.

Yet when you survey the SQ seatscape, there’s no single business class seat which is the outright best, let alone a world leader: each one makes noticeable compromises in key areas of passenger comfort.

As a result, these five business class seats are so different that every person will have their own opinion and their own favourite.

That can be influenced by everything from the length of the flight and when it takes place (you’re less likely to snooze on a daytime flight than an overnight one), which position they sleep in, and if they’re more likely to travel with a partner or fly solo.

Here’s how Executive Traveller rates Singapore Airlines’ business class seats.

1. Singapore Airlines A350, 787 regional business class

In addition to its long-range international business class seat, Singapore Airlines also flies a ‘regional’ business class seat on routes up to around eight hours (there’s no firm cut-off).

This seat launched in 2018 on the carrier’s Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, and later appeared on some two dozen A350s intended for medium-range routes.

Yet there’s nothing ‘regional’ about the seat: you get direct aisle access from the 1-2-1 layout, a fully lie-flat bed, plus a high degree of personal space and privacy.

Yet as with Singapore Airlines’ A380 business class, the regional business class seat is a bit of a mixed bag, depending on which traits each passenger values.

You’ll be sleeping straight ahead, not lying at an angle. Next to you is a little compartment with a sliding door for stowing your phone, reading glasses, Kindle or other oddments.

This is also where you’ll find one AC and two USB power sockets, plus a nifty pop-out mirror, so pretty much everything you need is close at hand.

So what’s not to like?

At barely 20” across, the seat itself is quite narrow unless you have a very slim build (for comparison, Singapore Airlines’ premium economy seat is just 19” across) and the seat’s curved wing can contribute to a feeling of tight-fitting confinement.

What’s more, even if you have a window seat, that wing obstructs the window itself, so you have to lean forward and crane your neck around to catch the view.

Plus, those wings are also between the middle seats, making them of little appeal if you’re flying with a partner.

2. Singapore Airlines A380 business class

All twelve of Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380s are back in the skies, and all have been upgraded to the second-gen superjumbo suites and seats.

Naturally, these are flatbed business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.

But unlike the business class seats of Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 777 and long-range Airbus A350 jets, which must be manually flipped over to become a bed, the A380 seats work like just about every other business class seat: you simply hold down a button to go from a slight recline to a fully flat bed.

There’s plenty of thoughtful detail in the design: noise-dampening fabric lines the inner walls, while a wrap-around ‘wing’ turns the seat into a semi-enclosed cocoon with exceptional privacy from the aisle.

A divider between the middle seats can be lowered if you’re travelling with your partner, and in three specific pairs of seats – 11D/11F, 91D/91F and 96D/96F – that divider goes all the way down to create a ‘double bed’ effect (although in reality, it’s more like two single beds next to each other).

The key downside for many passengers is that you’ll be sleeping on an angle (and probably on your side) with your legs stretching into a narrow foot cubby, unless you score one of the spacious straight-ahead seats in the bulkhead row.

3. Singapore Airlines 777, A350 business class

Harking back to 2013, this seat is already over a decade old – despite being considered Singapore Airlines’ de facto long-range business class product, alongside the Airbus A380s of course.

It’s found on all Boeing 777-300ERs and around sixty long-range and ultra-long range Airbus A350s.

The wrap-around seat shell provides a bit of privacy when you’re next to the aisle or in a middle seat, and there are convenient storage nooks both next to the seat and besides the video screen in front of you.

It’s a solid seat for daytime flights, but try to sleep and the drawbacks are immediately obvious.

Although the seat faces forward, you have to sleep diagonally and tuck your feet into a very small cubbyhole carved out from under the corner of the seat in front of you.

And the process of turning this business class seat into a lie-flat bed involves standing up and flipping down the rear of the seat, instead of just hitting a button to make the seat steadily recline.

This is incredibly intrusive on the passenger experience: you have to make a conscious decision that ‘right now is when I want too sleep’ and have the seat folded down into a bed.

There’s no halfway mode, no scope for being in a very relaxed ‘beach chair’ setting or any other number of lounging positions.

(One solution to this: have the seat become a bed as soon as the flight takes off, and spend the rest of your time treating it more like a sofa.)

4. Singapore Airlines 737 MAX business class

All of Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX jets – which the airline brands and promotes as the 737-8 – are crowned by fully lie-flat business class seats.

Singapore Airlines was among the first airlines to embrace flatbeds on a single-aisle jet, with the aim being that passengers connecting from a long-range international flight onto a shorter regional leg should be able to enjoy a business class bed from start to finish.

However, fitting 10 lie-flat seats into the 737 MAX’s business class cabin calls for a unique layout which mixes two-abreast seats with single ‘throne’ seats.

The first and third rows of the business class cabin (rows 11 and 14 – like many airlines, SQ skips 13) have two seats on either side of the aisle; between these, row 12 has only one seat.

Those solo seats of 12B and 12J deliver maximum privacy and more more room to spread out, although the high walls surrounding the seat and the relatively narrow nook for your feet makes them less ideal for sleeping. 

5. Singapore Airlines 737 business class

While many readers will consider the first three Singapore Airlines business class seats in this article as jostling for position, we’re confident everyone will agree these 737 recliners come last on the list.

Singapore Airlines inherited these seats – indeed, these aircraft – from regional sibling SilkAir, and while the seats have been refreshed with new upholstery, they remain modest two-abreast recliners.

Beyond the limited personal space, there are no creature comforts such as WiFi or seatback video screens.

Just as well, then, that these 737s are generally limited to the Singapore Airlines’ shortest regional flights of up to three hours (such as Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Bali), and are expected to exit the SQ fleet entirely by October 2025.