Singapore Airlines has announced a revamp of its service and amenities for Premium Economy Class passengers from 31st March 2024, with upgraded catering and beverage options plus the inclusion of an amenity kit for passengers travelling in this cabin.
This represents the airline’s first major change to service standards in Premium Economy since the cabin class was introduced nine years ago, back in 2015.
“We have undertaken this comprehensive revamp of our Premium Economy Class in-flight offerings, which we believe will delight our customers. The result reflects Singapore Airlines’ dedication to enhancing the Premium Economy Class experience to a class of its own.”
Yeoh Phee Teik, SVP Customer Experience, Singapore Airlines
While the hard product won’t be upgraded until SIA’s second-generation Premium Economy Class seat rolls out on the Boeing 777-9, here are the service improvements you can expect in the meantime.
New Premium Economy amenity kit
Singapore Airlines has partnered with US-based sustainable lifestyle brand Out of the Woods to offer a brand new amenity kit for passengers travelling in its Premium Economy cabins on flights of seven hours or longer.
It’s a relatively basic kit as you’d probably imagine (the airline’s Business Class amenity kit is simple enough, compared to many other airlines!).
The new Premium Economy kit includes only eyeshades, slippers and lip balm.
Personal toiletries like dental kits and moisturiser are still kept in the aircraft washrooms, as they are in Business Class.
The amenity kit (or ‘pouch’) is “made from eco-friendly Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified kraft paper fabric”, while the eyeshades and slippers are “made from recycled PET material, and the lip balm is packaged in biodegradable material”.
Here are the routes you’ll find the amenity kits provided on.
| Singapore Airlines Premium Economy Routes |
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| With amenity kits | Without amenity kits |
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* HND-SIN direction only (7 hours), as SIN-HND is 6 hours 55 minutes
In Business Class, Singapore Airlines offers amenity kits on demand, on flights of six hours or more.
Champagne and wine
Champagne is already part of the offering in Premium Economy on Singapore Airlines, and on my last trip from Singapore to Frankfurt, and from London to Singapore on the way back, a non-vintage Charles de Casanove Apparat was being poured.
This one scores a relatively average 3.5 out of 5 on Vivino.
The good news is the bubbles will be upgraded from 31st March 2024 to a non-vintage Charles de Cazanove Brut Tradition Tête de Cuvée Champagne, which picks up a more respectable 3.8 out of 5 rating.
Technical details and tasting notes are available here.
Wines from Australia and New Zealand will also be offered, including the 2023 Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand and the 2022 St Hallett Faith Shiraz from Barossa, Australia.
Here’s how the latest Champagne and wines stack up on our favourite comparison website Vivino, out of 5.
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| Champagne | ||
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Charles de Cazanove Brut Tradition Tête de Cuvée Champagne N.V. | 3.8 stars |
| White Wine | ||
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Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc 2023 | 4.0 stars |
| Red Wine | ||
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St Hallett Faith Shiraz 2022 | 3.8 stars |
These are broadly very good ratings, up there with most airline’s Business Class wines.
Other alcoholic beverages on offer in Premium Economy will continue to include beers, whisky, gin, rum, and vodka, plus the airline’s signature Singapore Sling cocktail.
Enhanced dining
Singapore Airlines is taking this opportunity to enhance the dining selection in its Premium Economy cabin, with over 200 new appetisers, main courses, and desserts designed for its Premium Economy Class in-flight meals.
A hard copy menu card will be provided, outlining the meal, snack, and beverage options available on the flight in this cabin.
For us the most significant improvement is likely in presentation, with meals soon to be served on a linen-lined tray “in contemporary stoneware glazed porcelain serviceware”.
That’s quite the contrast to my most recent Premium Economy Experience on SIA – Carrot Cake in a plastic container. It was tasty though – I’ll give them that!
Meals will continue to be served as a single-tray concept, with an appetiser, main course, bread, dessert, plus cheese and crackers. A full-sized tray is provided, compared to the half-sized one in Economy Class.
Croissants will be available for breakfast service, while “garlic bread rolls” will feature for lunch, dinner and supper.
The latest Premium Economy appetisers will include:
- Garlic roasted prawns with smoked aioli
- Patatas Bravas (Spanish fried potatoes)
- Broccoli salad with hot smoked salmon
- Seasonal variations of Japanese cold noodles with soba sauce
Premium Economy main courses are being trimmed from three to two options on each flight, Asian or Western, with dishes set to include:
- Beef Bourguignon served with bacon, mushrooms, vegetables, and potato gratin
- Bak Chor Mee (minced pork noodles)
- Thai-style Crab Curry served with a combination of jasmine rice and brown rice, and seasonal vegetables with egg
Desserts in the new concept will include:
- Chocolate Feuilletine Cake
- Mascarpone Cream Cake
- Apple Crumble Cheesecake
There’s also a small bar of chocolate alongside each meal, as well as what the airline calls “upgraded cheese and crackers”.
The snack selection will also be expanded to include options like almonds and cashews, in addition to existing bites like potato chips, sandwiches, muffins, and flavoured popcorn.
There will also be an expanded ‘Book The Cook’ menu for Premium Economy passengers, with up to 20 dishes offered on rotation for pre-order at least 24 hours before departure.
Options include current dishes like Seafood Hor Fun and Chicken Biryani, but will also soon feature new additions including:
- Slow Braised Lamb Ragout
- Sake Teriyaki (salmon in teriyaki sauce)
- Plant-based wellness dishes, such as Mushroom Eggplant Meatballs
Book The Cook in Premium Economy is currently offered for flights departing from Singapore and those originating at 23 other airports on the network:
- Amsterdam
- Auckland
- Beijing
- Delhi
- Frankfurt
- Hong Kong
- Houston
- London (Heathrow)
- Los Angeles
- Melbourne
- Milan
- Mumbai
- Munich
- New York (JFK)
- Newark
- Paris
- Rome
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Sydney
- Tokyo (Narita)
- Tokyo (Haneda)
- Zurich
Is SIA Premium Economy worth it?
We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re not big fans of SIA’s Premium Economy cabin.
It’s really a little bit more space, for what’s often twice the price of Economy.
Cash fares are just too disproportionately set compared to Economy Class, with the exception of some non-stop USA flights on the A350 ULRs, which can offer some good deals in PY, sometimes for not much more than Economy Class fares with other airlines.
In terms of redemption with KrisFlyer miles, the cabin is also far too expensive in our opinion, coming close to Business Class rates on many routes (and a flat bed this is not!).
Even during the Spontaneous Escapes 30% discount offers the value is usually poor – with the possible exception of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Istanbul Premium Economy awards, which at 30,100 miles during Spontaneous Escapes do become quite attractive, given the length of these flights.
These latest changes do genuinely improve the offering.
That doesn’t mean we’ll suddenly be extolling the virtues of the Premium Economy option on Singapore Airlines, especially without a hard product improvement in store until 2025 or 2026 at the earliest.
Nonetheless any enhancements are welcome and we’ll certainly be happy to give this new service concept a try ourselves in due course.
Some flights have Premium Economy cabins but not Premium Economy service
On some shorter flights on the network, Singapore Airlines operates aircraft with a Premium Economy cabin but does not offer a Premium Economy service at these seats.
Instead, PPS Club members travelling in Economy can pre-select a seat in this section for no additional fee, while those with lower status or even no status can choose to sit there for payment of an additional fee.
This currently applies to selected flights on the following routes:
- Jakarta
- Kuala Lumpur
- Male
It’s important to note that all you’re getting on these flights is the hard Premium Economy seat product, which isn’t changing as part of these enhancements – the service is just the same as in Economy Class.
A new SIA Premium Economy seat is coming
Singapore Airlines has already confirmed that its upcoming Boeing 777-9 will see the launch of its second generation of Premium Economy Class seats, the first major upgrade for this cabin’s hard product in a decade.
Problem is the seat itself is chosen and the design signed off, but the proposed 2021 launch… well as the name suggests it was supposed to happen nearly three years ago.
SIA currently uses two different Premium Economy seats in its fleet:
- ZIM Aircraft Seating ZIM Magic
Fitted to the carrier’s A380s and 777-300ERs - Safran Seats US Z535i
Fitted to the carrier’s A350 LHs and A350 ULRs
Both seats are customised by JPA Design, so they look very similar, though the ZIM seats fitted to the A380s and 777-300ERs are wider at 19.5 inches, compared to 19 inches for the Safran seats on the A350s, thanks to additional cabin width.
What might come next though?
Well we won’t know for sure probably until 2025 or even 2026, when the airline’s first Boeing 777-9s finally arrive, but there have been some interesting developments in the Premium Economy space lately.
Fellow Star Alliance partner Lufthansa is soon adopting the ZIM Privacy seat, already used by group company Swiss.
These primarily improve privacy, as their name suggests, with extended winged panels at the headrest level.
Earlier this year JAL introduced a new Premium Economy product by Safran Seats France that features large sliding privacy partitions, probably the most impressive we’ve seen yet in this travel class.
JAL’s seats also have motorised leg rests that rise up to 90 degrees to increase the surface area of your seat, quite a nifty feature that could prove to be comfortable for watching TV or sleeping, while seat pitch is a whopping 42 inches (4 inches more than SIA currently offers).
Let’s hope Singapore Airlines will be making some improvements like this to its own Premium Economy offering with the 777-9, especially in the privacy department, to complement these latest service enhancements.
Summary
Singapore Airlines is enhancing its service in the Premium Economy Class cabin from the end of this month, including new amenity kits for flights of seven hours or more, better Champagne and wines, and a wider selection of meals served in porcelain dishes, rather than plastic containers.
These are all nice improvements to the service standard you can expect in this cabin, though for us it still probably remains too expensive for what it is on most routes – either for cash or when redeeming miles.
Luckily a second-generation SIA Premium Economy seat is in the works for the carrier’s upcoming Boeing 777-9, hopefully with better privacy and improved comfort on offer, and this latest service standard should pair nicely with the new seats when they finally enter service.
(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)
Still waiting for more airlines to include access to their lounges for PE passengers. PE customers may not be regular flyers, but after something a bit better from Economy, so don’t have status to enter lounges. Lounge access for PE passengers may be a game changer
Yes I believe JAL and ANA are among the only airlines offering lounge access for Premium Economy passengers currently. It’s a rare perk, but not one we can see SIA adding any time soon sadly.
The soft product feels like a big improvement for the longest haul flights like SIN-JFK. I only wish they threw the SIN-HND folks a bone on the amenity kit though
I was very surprised I could get PE for free on my flight to Malé and overall, I was happily surprised. The service was good, food okay and we got some Charles H champagne. Plane was half full and it was a A350, which is huge for a such exotic destination.
I wonder why they didn’t upgrade us to Business, although that never happened to me.
On a side note, am I the only one disappointed by the customer service of SIA? I sent them a email and after 15 business days, still no answer. There is a huge gap between the service in plane and their call centers in the ground. It would be nice to have a specific article on this from Andrew, I wonder if this is the weakest point for the airline. Anyone experienced their customer service? How was it?
I am upset by seeing the news Singapore Airlines is giving out amenity kits to premium economy passengers. I just flew SQ business class from San Francisco to Singapore a week ago. They never gave out amenity kit to passengers for such a long flight, not even eye shades. My wife had to ask for an amenity kit and all she got was an almost empty kit. What’s going on with Singapore Airlines? Are you trying to rob Peter to pay Paul?
I would love better seat pitch and more space for Premium economy for what we pay. But improving the soft product is nice too. I don’t really care about amenity kit. But if we can have something like faster check ins, that can make a difference
Been travelling with SIA in biz for short and long haul flights. Seems like for the longer flights you’d have to ask for the amenities (listed on their menus) as everything were available “on request”. Well, if you don’t ask for it, you don’t get it! The lavatory amenities are available in the drawers though.. That aside, crew were always ever so obliging and helpful.
A really good news. The new in-flight meal is definitely more aesthetically pleasing, appetising, and elegant. A clear improvement in the positive direction which compliments other aspect of world-class SQ brand. A hard copy menu card is also very much appreciated, which adds to a sense of luxurious feels, high-class, as well as proper presentation, providing differentiating factors in the current trend of excessive menu digitalisation. Indeed, such improvement serves all of our five senses, together with the unique SQ on-board melody.
Hopefully, they do it for the Economy class too where meal presentation was awful (which was understandable during the height of pandemic era). In Economy class, cheap-looking brown takeaway cardboard box is used on some routes. Metal cutleries was replaced too. Pitch black thin cheap-looking plate is used for the main dish on other routes. A comparison of current Economy class SQ in-flight meal presentation with the pre-pandemic version, as well as with those of other five-star airlines competitors such as Emirates reveals how disappointing and dissatisfying it is. With such good news for the Premium Economy, I believe SQ could also return the sophisticated Economy class meal presentation again once pandemic impacts becoming more manageable in a foreseeable future.
On a side note, I do love the current SQ Premium Economy seats design.
How about PE to Istanbul?
This a fabulous review. I have just flown the PE sector from Sydney to Singapore, and I first tried the PE cabin back in 2016. The upgraded meal service from mostly economy to a better quality meal served on real dishes was really nice. However, the refreshment was a plain old very simple spinach roll in a cardboard box, nothing premium about it. Standard economy really.
As for the hard product, it’s a little dated now and for overnight flights the seat should be more comfortable, perhaps slightly more space for the price you pay. PE is now more likely 2.5 x that of economy, does not seem great value for money. Perhaps Emirates PE may get SIA to think further.