One of the most common queries we receive from readers is our recommendations on which seat to choose when flying on Singapore Airlines, something that’s always been difficult to assess from the carrier’s 2D seat maps over the years.
Thankfully things improved significantly in mid-2022, when aeroLOPA added detailed seat maps for the entire Singapore Airlines fleet, allowing travellers to better understand seat positioning, alignment and those all-important window locations, before committing.
Now it looks like SIA is going one step further, adopting Virtual Reality 3D seat maps by Spanish design agency 3D SeatMapVR, who already offer this service to other airlines including Emirates, Etihad and Finnair.
Accessing the 3D seat map
Singapore Airlines has not (yet?) added a master 3D seat map for its aircraft, allowing you to pan around and jump between the individual seats as you please in a kind of ‘walk-through’ mode.
Instead the option is only available when you make a booking and reach the seat selection stage.
Once loaded, the new feature then allows you to pan around your seat as though you’re already sitting there, to give you a good idea of its placement, privacy / row alignment and window views.
You can also zoom in and out, or toggle a cabin lighting mode to simulate a night flight.
There’s also an ‘Ambient sound’ option, which rather than adding the noise of roaring engines, call bells, screaming infants and galley clatter, just plays nice music instead – as you pan around your virtual seat!
The last time I saw an airline offer this function was when I was checking in for an Emirates flight earlier this year, where I could actually view my seat and pan around it to get an idea of its positioning, legroom and viewpoint, before committing.
I thought it was a pretty nifty feature at the time, but this Singapore Airlines version actually looks like even better quality.
Future developments of this 3D seat map for Singapore Airlines hopefully include the ability to ‘walk through’ the cabins, like Finnair allows with its 3D seat maps, made by the same company.
Only Boeing 777 maps are added
So far the only downside to these excellent new 3D seat views is that, as far as we can tell anyway, only the Boeing 777-300ER flights are displaying them at this stage.
Luckily for those flights all four cabins are included, whether it be First Class:
Business Class:
Premium Economy Class:
or Economy Class:
We also noticed that the SingaporeAir mobile app does not seem to have the functionality added yet at the seat selection stage, even for Boeing 777-300ER flights, based on testing with an iOS device (Apple iPhone).
To see these VR 3D seat pans, you’ll need to use a mobile browser or desktop browser, for now at least.
Hopefully the airline will continue to roll out this feature on its other aircraft types, and onto its mobile app, in due course.
Summary
Singapore Airlines looks to be joining the ranks of a few airlines that have introduced VR 3D seat maps to their websites, allowing a much better way to choose your seat prior to your next flight.
For now, only Boeing 777-300ER flights appear to have the functionality added, via mobile and desktop browser methods, but we’re confident the airline will be rolling out the feature across all its aircraft types and booking platforms in due course.
These kind of Virtual Reality viewpoints really assist with assessing privacy and window locations, and will hopefully be enhanced to include a cabin ‘walk through’ function in due course.
Meanwhile for aircraft types not yet included, do be sure to check out how aeroLOPA’s seat maps can help you the most, when choosing your seat on SIA and many other airlines.
(Cover Photo: Roberto Nickson)
As a side note, the “Ambient sound” function actually plays the Singapore Airlines boarding music, which you can hear when boarding the aircraft, and it is a really nice touch.
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Angry flyer, your username checks out.
This is however a very helpful feature. It’s not always clear how seats are positioned on an aircraft for maximum privacy or accessibility. Additionally, now that we’ve started to travel with the little one it’s always good to see if couple seats actually provide good access or if we’re better off across the aisle.
Nice. Emirates has been doing it for years.