British Airways has revealed a welcome change to its Singapore network, with a reintroduction of Boeing 777-300ERs from the start of the northern winter season on 30th October 2022, which will see the carrier offer daily Sydney and London flights with the latest Club Suite and new First Class cabins installed.
The shift will also boost premium capacity on both routes, most significantly in Business Class with the larger aircraft boasting 76 flat-bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, compared to 42 of the older Club World seats on Boeing 787-9 jets currently plying the BA15/16 service.
The schedule
British Airways currently operates a daily service from Singapore to Sydney and a daily service from Singapore to London:
- BA15: 19:25 SIN to Sydney (787-9)
- BA16: 22:25 SIN to London (787-9)
Both flights are operated by 216-seat Boeing 787-9s, which offer four travel classes – First, Club World (Business), World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) and World Traveller (Economy).
From 30th October 2022 the London route will gain an extra service with the reintroduction of BA11/12 flights, using Boeing 787-9s, while the existing BA15/16 services to Sydney and London will upgauge to the Boeing 777-300ER.
These larger jets still have a four-class configuration, but the good news is British Airways is using newly delivered Boeing 777-300ERs, or those retrofitted from the older configuration, on all its BA15/16 flights this upcoming winter season.
That means they will boast BA’s latest cabin products, including the direct aisle access Club Suite with closing privacy doors.
The Singapore – Sydney schedule is shown below, with the new cabins operating on highlighted flights.
Singapore Sydney
30th October 2022
to 25th March 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 |
BA15 777-300ER |
||||||||
| SIN 20:10 |
SYD 06:55* |
||||||||
* Next day
Sydney Singapore
30th October 2022
to 25th March 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
BA16 777-300ER |
||||||||
| SYD 16:30 |
SIN 21:30 |
||||||||
The Singapore – London schedule is shown below, with the new cabins operating on highlighted flights.
Singapore London
30th October 2022
to 25th March 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
BA16 777-300ER |
||||||||
| SIN 23:05 |
LHR 05:15* |
||||||||
|
BA12 787-9 |
||||||||
| SIN 23:15 |
LHR 05:25* |
||||||||
* Next day
London Singapore
30th October 2022
to 25th March 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
BA11 787-9 |
||||||||
| LHR 18:50 |
SIN 15:55* |
||||||||
|
BA15 777-300ER |
||||||||
| LHR 21:35 |
SIN 18:45 |
||||||||
* Next day
This will bring BA’s weekly departing passenger capacity out of Singapore Changi to 5,068, two-thirds of the 7,469 seats it was operating from the airport pre-COVID, when a mix of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ERs was used.
In Business Class, however, BA will have restored 93% of its pre-COVID capacity with 1,358 departing seats each week compared to 1,463 before the pandemic, thanks to the significantly larger 76-seat Club Suite cabin on the airline’s latest 777-300ER fits.
New Club Suite
British Airways has opted for a heavily customised version of the Collins Aerospace ‘Elements’ Business Class seat, previously known as the ‘Super Diamond’ seat.
Gone is the old 2-4-2 ‘yin-yang’ arrangement used on the older British Airways Club World cabin, in favour of direct aisle access for all passengers in a 1-2-1 layout.
Although the product is also widely used by Qatar Airways (the model predating the Qsuite, see our review), China Airlines, Air Canada and American Airlines among others, British Airways was the first airline to install a privacy door at each seat.
Indeed BA was the first airline in Europe to install seats with individual doors in Business Class.
It’s certainly a far cry from BA’s existing Club World Business Class product, which has been flying on the Singapore route for many years now.
Do note that the privacy door at each Club Suite seat is only 115cm tall, around chest-height, so passengers and crew walking past your seat can still see inside, even with the door closed.
Privacy from the door when closed is perhaps best enjoyed with the seat in bed mode, where you’ll also have a 79in (6ft 7in) flat surface to stretch out and enjoy bedding from The White Company.
A privacy screen between the two middle seats allows you to completely enclose yourself in your own suite if you are sitting next to a stranger, so unless you’re a die-hard window seat fan there are really no bad options in this cabin.
See this review of the new product on a flight from Toronto to London.
Business Class gets a big capacity increase on the newer Boeing 777-300ERs, from 56 seats previously to 76 in the newer fit.
The large cabin is split across three sections.
The best of these is surely the favourable three-row mini-cabin directly behind First Class, which is likely to be the quietest most intimate option, with low foot traffic. Pick a seat in rows 5, 6 or 7 to benefit, though do note row 7 has a missing window.
New First Class
BA’s new First Class cabin on the Boeing 777-300ER has just eight seats across two rows in a 1-2-1 configuration, a significant drop from the 14 seats installed on the aircraft previously.
With Business Class now a closed suite, First Class stood out as still lacking in privacy, so in BA’s latest design doors have been added to these seats too in the carrier’s newly configured Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
It’s nothing revolutionary – the same seat complete with 23″ HD IFE screen is already installed on the carrier’s Boeing 787-9s, but the addition of the doors is currently unique to these new and refitted jets.
Redemption rates
You can redeem award seats on British Airways flights using any oneworld airline’s frequent flyer currency, with some examples for flights departing from Singapore shown below.
| British Airways award redemptions to/from Singapore (one-way) |
||||
| FFP | Sydney | London | ||
| First | Club Suite | First | Club Suite | |
 |
68,000* 80,000** |
50,000* 60,000** |
119,000* 140,000** |
87,500* 105,000** |
 |
||||
 |
50,000 | 40,000 | 90,000 | 75,000 |
 |
87,000 | 61,000 | 110,000 | 70,000 |
 |
107,700 | 75,000 | 149,800 | 104,500 |
* Off-peak dates (calendar)
** Peak dates (calendar)
American Airlines’ AAdvantage miles programme typically offers the best value, though most of our readers unfortunately don’t hold a balance, since the scheme has no credit card transfer partners in Singapore.
For BA’s London flights it’s Asia Miles which represents the best deal in Club Suites at 70,000 miles one-way.
Don’t forget you can now search and book BA awards using Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios points at the same rates enjoyed by BA Avios members.
One downside of award redemption on British Airways flights is that fuel surcharges are high, so you can expect to pay around S$450 in taxes and fees when departing Singapore to Sydney or S$490 from Singapore to London, in addition to the miles requirement.