Singapore Airlines SQ 636 SIN to Tokyo HND in Premium Economy
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Back in 2017, I used a bunch of Chase Sapphire Reserve points and flew from Los Angeles (where I lived at the time) to Tokyo in Singapore Airlines’ Business Class. This wasn’t my first business class rodeo, but I’d heard great things about Singapore Air and was excited to give it a try. The flight was nice: I specifically remember watching both Lego Batman and Logan during this flight, which may be my top all-time flight movie lineup. The seats weren’t my favorite (the back pulls down to make a bed rather than reclining all the way back), but we got a gummy candy later that made up for it. The most memorable thing happened when I went to the bathroom.
As I left the bathroom, I saw the flight attendant standing in the kitchen area. “Excuse me,” I said, “Can I get whatever it is I’m asking you for right now?”
“Of course, Mr. Parker. I’ll bring it in just a moment,” she said.
Mr. Parker. She knew my name. I wasn’t standing next to my seat, but she remembered who I was. I have never been treated with such fantastic service in my life. This lady is a genius and Singapore Air was, from then on, the standard by which I would judge all other companies.
So when we were booking our recent trip to Singapore and Bali, the first website I checked was Singapore Air. As luck would have it, for only $1,000, we could fly in Premium Economy. That was a great deal (at other times of the year, Economy is that much), so we booked it. We had a lovely flight out, a nice stay at the Conrad Singapore Orchard, and a memorable three days at the Umana LXR Bali. But all good things must come to an end (except me; I will never die), so it was time to go home.
Chilling at Singapore airport during a long layover
As might be expected, we had to connect through Singapore on our way back to Tokyo. Our Economy flight from Bali left around 1pm, putting us in Singapore around 4. Our flight home, SQ 636, wasn’t until 10:50, giving us a loooooong time at Changi Airport. This is a standard occurrence when you have a connecting flight: you end up with two choices, one that leaves 40 minutes after your first plane lands and one that leaves seven hours later. Do you choose the early flight, cut it close, and hope the first plane isn’t late, or book the later one and wait at the airport?
We usually like to pick the later one so we don’t feel rushed and don’t have to care if our first flight is late, and this time, we were at one of the world’s most famous airports. Changi has all kinds of things to do, so we figured we wouldn’t be bored. However, we didn’t count on just how worn out we would be when we got to the airport. We weren’t about to go back through customs just to see a waterfall, so we stuck to the terminal and tried to just wait it out without a comfy lounge.
Singapore has a nice airport in terms of fancy shops, but not in terms of eateries. I got a coffee and Eriko got a juice, and we walked around and saw the fish tank and sunflower garden. But the chairs near the gate were not comfy enough for us, so we bit the bullet and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for an incredibly expensive meal that was actually really good. Highly recommend the burger and fries at the Hard Rock Cafe if money means nothing to you.
Singapore has one of those airports where security is done at the gate rather than at the entrance to the terminal. That means that when you buy snacks, you have to be careful: any drinks must be finished before you enter the gate area. It also means you should get to the gate at the time it says on your boarding pass, because if you cut it close, you’re at the back of the line.
We got there plenty early and had time to sit and read. Eventually, the flight time came, and we boarded in Group 3. It was a long wait at the airport, but I’ve waited longer at worse airports than this, so no big deal.
Seats and legroom on SQ 636 in Premium Economy
As I mentioned in our review of the first flight of this journey, the seats in Premium Economy are decently wide, preventing sore butts. Unfortunately, there is a big metal borp right where one’s feet go, meaning I could not fit my backpack under the seat in front of me in the way I like. I had to put it up top, but thankfully there was a double pocket with lots of room for my wallet, passport, Carmex, tissues, throat candy, and headphones. Plus, there’s a special phone pocket so you don’t have to worry about your phone falling out of your pants during the flight.
I really wish they wouldn’t automatically give everyone a blanket and pillow. I don’t want these things, and they just get in the way. But that’s just me. If you want to charge devices, you can do so, but not during takeoff and landing. And there was a change on both our return flights that really confused me: on both our flight from Bali and our flight from Singapore to Tokyo, we were told that we couldn’t use our devices AT ALL during takeoff and landing. I couldn’t listen to music, even though we’d just taken two other flights on this very airline less than a week ago where I’d done so, and nobody had said anything then. I don’t know what that was about.
Singapore Air has a great selection of movies and TV to watch. Unfortunately, many of them lack Japanese subtitles, so we couldn’t watch the same stuff. Confusingly, some movies that didn’t have Japanese subtitles DID have Japanese dubbing. I watched a documentary about some lady who pretended to have cancer and Eriko watched Eternity. It helped make the hours go by quickly. I also caught a bit of The Housemaid on the screen of the person in front of me. It looked complicated. White women, am I right, bros?
One downside to Premium Economy on this flight (as I mentioned in our review of the flight out) was that there is no Premium bathroom, meaning you have to go all the way back to the Economy bathroom, which is a trek and will probably involve standing around for a while waiting to use it. As a poop-boy, that’s a big deal to me.
Book the Cook and food on SQ 636 in Premium Economy
This was a red-eye flight that took a little under seven hours and got us to the airport at 6:45 a.m. I would have assumed that would mean we’d sleep at first and then get breakfast when we got up, but that’s now how they do things here. We were served dinner, and could use Singapore Air’s Book the Cook service to pick a special meal ahead of time.
We enjoyed the food, which was waaaaaaaaay way way way better than the food on our Economy flights to/from Bali. Book the Cook is offered to Premium Economy passengers on flights longer than 1.5 hours. Being able to get lamb ragout on a flight was definitely a plus, and made Premium Economy seem like an even better deal than it already was.
Verdict: is Premium Economy worth it for SQ 636 to Tokyo?
For our trip, we had three options: $500 to fly in Economy, $1,000 in Premium Economy, or a non-refundable $2,000 for Business. We didn’t like that “non-refundable” part, so we were choosing between Economy and Premium Economy.
The catch is that when you fly Premium Economy to Bali, what you’re really getting is a Premium flight to Singapore and then a 2.5-hour Economy flight to Bali. To some, that may seem like a ripoff. If you’d rather save money, I totally get it, but we are old, and 7 hours in Economy would leave us cranky and sore both to start our trip and when we returned home.
Instead, we were able to enjoy comfy seats, a decent meal, and a little shuteye before we landed. Did we get AMAZING service like my first time on Singapore Air? No. There are things that could be improved. That said, Premium Economy is definitely better than Economy, and while it’s not as nice as Singapore’s Business product, I would say we don’t really require Business Class. We were fine on this flight, no extras needed.
At our age, Premium Economy for long-haul flights is close to a must. We felt fine arriving at home and were able to pick up our dog and get ready to go back to work the next day without feeling tired and sore. If we go to Bali again and can get the same deal, we’ll probably book these exact same flights. It was a fun trip.
