The Singapore Airlines new business class and first class seats get their full reveal in early November, and we finally have some teasers.
Two short teaser videos released alongside the dining and amenity kit announcements this month are framed around food and Byredo pouches, but in the background you can see French doors, a bed laid out parallel to the aisle, backlit seat controls and a sliding privacy partition. It is not a lot, but it is more than Singapore Airlines has shown in two years of teasing.
Here is what the videos and renders tell us about each cabin, which planes get the seats first, what else is coming with them, and how to position your points for when the new seats actually fly.
Why This Reveal Is Two Decades in the Making
The seat Singapore Airlines is about to unveil was originally supposed to debut in 2021 on the Boeing 777-9. That aircraft is now not expected before 2027, so in late 2024 the airline announced a S$1.1 billion retrofit of its Airbus A350-900 fleet as a workaround. The first retrofitted A350 was slated for Q2 2026, then slipped to Q1 2027 on supply chain and certification issues.
The reason this matters more than a typical seat refresh is how old the current product is. The 2013 Business Class seat on most of the long-haul fleet is an evolution of a 2006 design, and the 2017 seat exists only on the twelve A380s. This will be the first ground-up redesign of Singapore Airlines long-haul Business Class in nearly twenty years, arriving while Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways have all been flying suites with doors for some time.
New Business Class: Doors, Staggered 1-2-1 and No More Flipping
The render Singapore Airlines slipped into its 2024/25 annual report already told us the broad shape of the new Business Class. It is a 1-2-1 staggered layout with every seat facing forward, a sliding privacy door on the aisle side, and a design that looks closely related to the Safran Unity platform Japan Airlines uses on its A350-1000. Staggered means window seats alternate between hugging the window, with the console as a buffer from the aisle, and sitting closer to the aisle for easier access.
The teaser videos add a few things. One shot shows a passenger in a middle seat with the outline of a sliding partition beside her, which points to a mix of paired “honeymoon” middle seats that can open up into a double bed and separated “divorce” middles. This is, obviously, a frame-by-frame read, not a confirmed seat map, but it fits the render and it would be the more flexible of the two options Singapore Airlines had.
The bed is the bigger story. The current seat, though one of the most comfortable I have experienced, famously requires you to stand up and manually flip the seatback over to make the bed, which means waiting for the seatbelt sign. The new seat reclines directly into a flat bed, and a shot of the new Business Class sleeper suit being laid out shows the sleeping surface running parallel to the door and therefore the aisle, rather than the diagonal sleeping angle of the 2013 and 2017 seats. You will be able to go flat right after takeoff on an overnight.
You may also notice a new side console with a raised edge so your phone and glasses stay where you put them, a literature pocket near the tray table, and from the render, an inflight remote and universal power outlet in the console area, which shows Singapore Airlines has put significant thought into the details.
New First Class: French Doors, Couple Dining and Physical Buttons
Both teaser videos open on the new First Class suite’s French doors, which look like full-height doors with slatted panels that give privacy without sealing the suite off entirely. Emirates does something similar on its enclosed 777 First Class, and it makes sense from a crew and safety standpoint.
The render shows a suite spanning at least three windows with electric blinds and an oversized entertainment screen. Beneath that screen sits an ottoman, and Singapore Airlines has confirmed it is for companion dining, with selected suites convertible into a shared space where two passengers eat face to face. That brings back a feature lost when the original A380 Suites retired, and it is a real upgrade over the current 777-300ER First Class where couples dine side by side.
The videos show a warm champagne-toned console set against wood paneling, a deep storage cubby tucked under it, a lit vanity mirror that folds up out of the console, and a set of backlit physical seat buttons. Those buttons confirm passengers can put the seat into bed mode themselves, while today’s 777-300ER First Class seat still needs a crew member to make the bed. Physical controls over a touchscreen is a small win for anyone who has fumbled with a glowing panel at 3 a.m.
A patent filing that surfaced in late 2024 suggests six suites with two center seats that combine into a proper double bed with no hard divider between the two, using a partition that slides sideways into a cavity rather than dropping down, plus a separate seat and bed within each suite. One caveat: that patent describes the 777-9 layout. The A350-900ULR gets a four-suite First Class cabin in a narrower fuselage, so some of those specifics may not carry over.
Which Planes Get the New Seats First
All 34 A350-900LH aircraft and all 7 A350-900ULR aircraft are being refitted. The LH is first, with the initial aircraft entering service in Q1 2027. The ULR timeline is still listed as TBD. The ULR reconfiguration is the more dramatic one: it adds four First Class suites and three Business Class seats while cutting Premium Economy from 94 to 58, a tacit admission that the oversized Premium Economy cabin on US routes was hard to fill.
For US flyers, the practical implication is that the New York routes (the only ones that truly require the ULR) are last in line, while Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle can be served by the retrofitted LH as those aircraft come online. The 777-300ER, which currently carries most of Singapore Airlines First Class flying, is not part of this retrofit at all. It will eventually be replaced by the 777-9, whenever Boeing delivers it.
The full fleet refit will take years, so expect the 2013 Business Class seat to remain in service past 2030. When booking from 2027 onward, aircraft type alone will not tell you which seat you are getting. You will need to check the seat map for the 1-2-1 staggered layout with doors.
How to Book Singapore Airlines Business and First With Points
KrisFlyer is the way in. Singapore Airlines generally holds its long-haul Suites and First Class award space for its own members, so Star Alliance partners like Aeroplan or United rarely see those seats, and Business Class availability is also deepest through KrisFlyer. KrisFlyer is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou and Capital One, and Marriott Bonvoy transfers at 3:1 with a 5,000-mile bonus per 60,000 points. Citi’s no-annual-fee cards transfer at a reduced ratio.
If you are building toward this, the Amex Platinum, Capital One Venture X and Ink Business Preferred all feed KrisFlyer directly.
The caveat: nothing you book today or for the next several months is the new seat. Anything flying before Q1 2027 is the current product, and even after that, only a handful of A350s will carry the new cabin at first. KrisFlyer miles expire three years after they post regardless of activity, so a speculative transfer now for a 2028 redemption is a real risk. Wait for the reveal, wait for the first retrofitted aircraft to show up on specific routes, and transfer when you have a date and a seat map in front of you.
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