Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Newark in Business

Welcome to the third report of this series. In this report, I drag my wife to fulfill a lifelong dream of flying the world's longest flight between Singapore and New York. (I consider SIN-EWR and SIN-JFK to be the same as the difference in flight distance is negligible between them)

These are the flights we flew for our trip:

During transit: Singapore changi airport

We exited the plane at T2. My tipsiness had worn off and I was sober again. I remembered to photograph airport sights.

Thai Airways B787 bound for Bangkok.

Qantas A380 in the sunset

Terminal 3 Silverkris business class lounge experience

As SQ22 departed from T3, we made our way to the T3 Silverkris business class lounge to idle away close to 5h of time between 7.30pm to 12am. The lounge was very crowded at this time due to the flights leaving for Australia, New Zealand and Europe. I did not take many pictures as I did not want to be seen as an obnoxious lounge user.
At its peak at around 10pm, the lounge resembled a canteen of hungry university students and university staff members.

I got myself some tasty fish fillet, pasta salad and the delicious otah toast.

Next, I ordered myself a Singapore sling, arguably the signature cocktail of Singapore Airlines. I was expecting it to be very sweet just like the flight version, but this one was much more balanced. I guess bartender-made drinks make a huge difference in enjoyment!
I also indulged in another cocktail that I was too tipsy to photograph.

We left the lounge at 12am or so and made our way to the gate. Greeting us is 9V-SGC, a 7.3 year old A350-900ULR, 1 out of only 7 A350-900ULR worldwide. I was almost trembling with excitement as I was this close to fulfilling a life goal of mine.
Boarding was swift as the flight is not very full. There were around 8 empty business class seats.

Inflight experience

We were warmly greeted by two cabin crew during boarding. The warm greeting set the tone for the flight to be an amazing one. This was going to be a flight forever etched in my memory.

After taking my seat, I accepted a glass of champagne to increase my level of tipsiness.
A stewardess came to introduce herself to us. Wow, what an interesting character. She provided amazing service to my wife and I for the entire flight and spoke to us casually as we were all Singaporeans. I also observed her tailoring her service approach to other international passengers. What an asset to the airline!
This was my first time on SQ's 2013 long haul business class product. The seat is huge, it was able to comfortable accommodate my wife and I side by side. The seat is also comfortable to sit and lounge on, as 2 pillows were provided.
A pair of noise-cancelling headphones and a bottle of tasteless distilled water were in the side storage compartment.
However, I felt that this seat is not as impressive as business class seats on other airlines. There is little to no wow factor. Hopefully this changes with the new business class seat released on SQ's A350 long haul aircraft.

After the above reflection, I perused the menu and photographed it for memory. Then again, I did not need to do so since I brought the menu back home with me as a souvenir.
At this point, I looked out of the window to see a B777-300ER from SQ, likely going to London as SQ306.

After takeoff, the cabin crew came around to offer cashews and almonds. I got myself a bottle of sake since I rarely drink sake if ever. The sake tasted fine. The almonds and cashews were just average.

I asked for an amenity kit and was given one from Le Labo. I sniffed the contents and put them back.

After around 1h, the crew started to dish out all the meals. As this was a midnight departure, the starter and main courses were set on a single tray to minimise the duration of the meal service.
The starter was a hot smoked salmon salad, which tasted delicious.
The dessert was a namelaka chocolate cake, which was heavenly. The taste of chocolate was really concentrated and the cake was not too sweet. I wouldn't mind paying to eat that on the ground.
I got two slices of garlic bread as SQ's garlic bread is tasty.
As none of the main courses appealed to me, I pre-ordered the Gyu-yakiniku from the book-the-cook selection online. Wow this was delicious and one of the best main courses I've had. The beef was grilled to well done but melted slightly in my mouth, characteristic of good Japanese beef. A pity there were only 6 slices. There is so much empty space on the plate, having another 2 to 4 slices wouldn't hurt! The sauce accompanying the beef was well balanced and went well with the rice and vegetables.
My wife ordered the seared barramundi from the main menu. I tasted her dish and thought that it was nothing special.
With dinner out of the way, we started to get comfortable.

I got myself some whiskey on the rocks and took a packet of truffle flavoured potato chips.
I was also able to make my own bed as I've watched an unhealthy amount of SQ business class videos on Youtube to be able to mimic them.
The bed was decently comfortable but the complaint about the tiny foot cubby is perfectly valid. As a back sleeper, I had to sleep at an angle and put my feet into the cubby. The cubby was too small to accommodate both my feet comfortably.
At 1.77m tall, my feet did not touch the front of the foot cubby, unless I made the effort to do so. Thus this bed is made for people who are around 1.8m tall or so.
My wife is a side sleeper and she enjoyed close to 9h of sleep.
In addition, the storage space beneath the seat will be made unusable after the bed is made. It's a minor issue though.
Now I wonder if Finnair business class has such issues as well, since their Airlounge seat reminds me of this seat.

After 7h of rest, it was time to eat again.

The second meal started with chicken satay, a dish that is synonymous with Singapore Airlines. The satay were delicious and will definitely appeal to majority of the world's tastebuds. However, I still feel Malaysia Airline's satay is superior in both taste and variety of meat.
As the second meal was conducted at a time where most people are awake, the meal was served course by course.
The starter was seared pepper crusted tuna. At this time, disaster struck. I was feeling unusually bloated and was unable to eat much. I ate three mouthfuls of the starter and sent it back. The starter is tasty and would not be out of place at any buffet.
For the main course, I picked the beef cheek in red wine sauce. This was absolutely delicious. The beef cheek was tender and the sauce rich enough for my liking. The accompanying vegetables were not overly dried either. It was a pity that my bloatedness only allowed me to eat half a beef cheek out of three, a single asparagus and half a potato.
For dessert, I picked the mascarpone cream cake. This was tasty but I only managed to eat maybe 10% of it.
After dessert, we were offered chocolates, to which I took one of each flavour. The chocolates were delicious and I had another 5 or 6 of them from the galley. I was surprised to learn that these chocolates were made by SATS and not an off-the-shelf chocolate brand.

After the meal, my wife and I went to walk around, and we had a short conversation with the amazing crew. Upon hearing that I was bloated, they showered me with care and concern for the next 10h, and assured me that flight bloatedness is a common phenomenon and many of the crew get it too.
The comforting words made me feel less bad about the current situation.
I did not eat anything more from the refreshment menu, although I really wanted to try the Singapore carrot cake with prawns. This is not a dessert but a stir-fried hawker dish.

After the lights turned on, I walked around to take some photos. This is the front business class cabin.

I went to take a look at premium economy, which looked decent as well. My wife flew this exact aircraft back in premium economy and rated it step up above economy but 6.5/10.

I took a photo of the screen to remind myself that this will be the longest flight I've flown, likely for this lifetime. Unless I get to fly Sydney to New York next time.
The total flight duration was 17h 10 minutes after checking Flightradar24.

Landing in Newark.

Our plane took a gate beside a United Airlines B787.

Arrival into Newark

We had no problems with immigration nor luggage claim. The border control official did not ask us any questions, aside from taking our biometrics and photos. We were allowed into the USA without much hassle.
I just find it mind boggling that USA airports force every traveler to enter the USA and collect their luggage, regardless of any onward flight. This seems rather inefficient, as connecting passengers have to endure a nail-biting transit during busy hours. Maybe I'm just spoilt by the excellent airports in Asia.

Accessibility from Newark is limited. We spent US$72 on an 18 minute Uber ride to our hotel.
This was in start contrast to New York JFK where the Subway and JFK Airtrain were easy to use.