Singapore Airlines has rolled out a change to its popular meal preordering service for First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy Class passengers, with advance selection of Book the Cook dishes now limited to a six-week window prior to your flight departure, a significant shortening from the former four months.
However, in a positive step the airline has extended the advance publication of its in-flight menus for all flights from eight days to the same six weeks, to align with the new Book the Cook ordering window, allowing you to make a more informed choice in advance across both options where available.
Book the Cook pre-order window now six weeks
Effective for departures from 1st December 2025 onwards, Singapore Airlines has reduced the pre-order window for its Book the Cook service from four months (around 16 weeks) to just six weeks, a significant reduction.
“For passengers travelling from 1 December 2025, you may pre-order your ‘Book the Cook’ main course from six weeks and up to 24 hours before departure.”
Singapore Airlines
Book the Cook will retain its other features and conditions:
- Available on selected routes when travelling in First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy Class.
- For departures from Singapore, Book the Cook is restricted to flights longer than 1 hour 30 minutes scheduled duration.
- Allows you to select a specific main course from an expanded list of options, as an alternative to the usual inflight menu main course. There are no Book the Cook starters or dessert options.
- Selection must be made at least 24 hours in advance of your flight departure time.
SIA’s shorter flights from Singapore that don’t offer Book the Cook service are:
- Singapore – Kuala Lumpur
- Singapore – Medan
- Singapore – Penang
In Business Class, these flights offer a cold refreshment or more basic main course than longer routes, and also do not include champagne – only white or red wine.
(Photo: MainlyMiles)
You can take advantage of Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook service when departing from 33 airports globally, as of December 2025, around 40% of the network.
Simply click on each icon in the table below, to see the full selection.
We expect the Book the Cook service in First Class to be rolled out for those departing Amsterdam from July 2026, when the cabin returns to that route for the first time in over a decade.
(Photo: MainlyMiles)
In-flight menus now available six weeks before departure
SIA’s Digital Menu System, previously allowed you to view the menu for your flight online up to eight days before departure, but this useful feature now displays this information a full six weeks in advance, to coincide with the new Book the Cook selection window.
This is a genuine improvement.
Previously, it was wise to hold off on Book the Cook until the in-flight menu was released, so you could compare both side-by-side. That meant waiting until roughly a week before departure.
With a busy schedule, though, it was easy to miss the window entirely – either by forgetting to make a Book the Cook selection, or by choosing one early with the intention of checking the in-flight menu later, only to forget and end up locked into a dish when you now prefer the sound of an in-flight menu option!
While there was an in-flight menu selection option on the Manage Booking portal previously, this only included the main courses.
The full Digital Menu System shows the starter and dessert plus beverage options and other details about your flight, all of which might sway your decision on which main course to choose in advance.
There’s also the option to save a PDF version of the full in-flight menu for your flight, via the ‘Download Menu’ prompt, useful for sharing with family, friends or colleagues in advance.
Main course pre-selection
Whether your flight offers Book the Cook or not, if you’re travelling in First Class, Business Class or Premium Economy Class you have the option to pre-select your main course from the in-flight menu if you wish, available 15 days before flight departure, but at least 24 hours prior to departure.
Again, having full alignment between publication of the in-flight menu and the Book the Cook options allows you to make an informed choice here, though not quite as far in advance as the six-week mark.
Pre-selecting your main course will guarantee availability, and allow SIA to optimise meal loading to reduce wastage.
How to pre-order
You can make a main course selection from the Book the Cook menu or the in-flight menu for your trip online via the Manage Booking portal.
For example, on a recent Singapore – Bangkok flight in Business Class I opted for one of the main course dishes from the in-flight menu, rather than a Book the Cook option.
Incidentally, it was excellent.
(Photo: MainlyMiles)
What about special meals?
If you need to pre-order a special meal for religious or dietary requirements, this is also possible via the Manage Booking portal, whichever cabin class you are travelling in on a Singapore Airlines flight, including Economy Class.
You will have to make your special meal request in advance of departure, with the following minimum notice period required based on the airport of departure, as follows:
- At least 56 hours before flight departure
Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi - At least 32 hours before flight departure
Ahmedabad, Bangkok, Brunei, Cebu, Chengdu, Chongqing, Da Nang, Darwin, Denpasar, Dhaka, Hanoi, Hyderabad, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Kochi, Male, Medan, Penang, Phnom Penh, Phuket, Shenzhen, Siem Reap, Surabaya, Xiamen, Yangon - At least 24 hours before flight departure
Singapore and all other cities not listed above
For the most up-to-date details, including a list of available options see this dedicated page of the SIA website.
Summary
Singapore Airlines has significantly reduced its Book the Cook pre-order window from four months to just six weeks for flights departing from 1st December 2025 onwards.
While this gives you considerably less advance planning time for selecting your preferred premium meal, the airline has simultaneously extended its in-flight menu publication from eight days to six weeks before departure.
This alignment between the two timelines is a practical improvement, allowing you to compare Book the Cook options against the standard in-flight menu side-by-side before committing to your choice. Previously, many passengers either forgot to make a selection in the brief window after full menus were published, or locked themselves into a Book the Cook dish only to later prefer a menu option they then couldn’t switch to.
Whether you view this change as positive or negative likely depends on your booking habits – those who plan meals months ahead will need to adjust their routine, while later planners now have full menu visibility when making their selection.
(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)
There’s no Shanghai link 🙂
SIA does not offer BTC from Shanghai.