- This is the premium economy
of the Singapore Airlines A350 ULR.
This is where I'm gonna sit today
for the record breaking 19 hour flight
from Newark to Singapore.
(orchestral music)
(saxophone music)
- This is for you and enjoy it;
your longest flight.
- Welcome to the world's longest flight.
Before the flight takes off let's have a look
what's inside the brand new
Singapore Airlines A350 900 ultra long range.
There are 67 business class seats
in one two and one configuration.
The business class span across
two third of the plane.
Instead of economy there are 94 premium
economy class seats at a rear section.
So guys this is a sweet spot on the
Singapore Airlines A350 ULR.
I've got private space;
never ever seen this.
One solo seater in economy;
in premium economy.
And beautiful!
Look at the bins.
You got your own space;
you can put your laptop,
your personal belonging.
Very very cosy spaces.
The seats to be in 40C, 41C and 42C
and also the other sides 40H, 41H and 42H.
Business class and the elite cruise flyer
can use the Virgin Atlantic club house
at Newark.
There is a table dining service
and full bar.
- We are so excited to share this music with you.
We sing in the style of the Andrews Sisters;
have some fun!
♪ We're in the mood now! ♪
- Ladies and gentlemen; we'll count down together
Three!
- [Crowd] Two!
One!
- [Announcer] There we have it ladies and gentlemen
there we have it;
congratulations to all right here
and proud moment for Singapore Airlines.
- I'm flying premium economy today
- Okay
- So what are your advices;
how do I survive your 19 hour
ultra long range flight?
- It's a day, a night and a day flight
so start off with a meal,
a movie half way through the flight,
have a sleep five or six hours,
wake up; have another meal,
another couple of movies
there's 1200 hours to watch,
and you'll arrive in Singapore
about half past five in the evening
so you'll be awake for a while at that point
and then time to sleep!
So I can assure you;
it will go fast and you'll arrive
particularly fresh.
- Yes! I'm so excited.
- My name is Phil and I'm gonna
be filming the full flight
on my channel is World Aviation HD.
- So we got more passenger on the flight;
they are from Ukraine.
You come just to make this flight.
- Yeah yeah yeah - Sure!
- To New York.
- What's your name?
- Maxim - Mikola
- Maxim, Mikola!
- This is Connor from Texas;
he also made on this flight,
what makes you decide to go on this flight?
- It's ground breaking flight
- Of course! - Super exciting;
you know just the atmosphere
or something.
- [Singer] ♪ Let's fly with me ♪
♪ Let's take off in the blue. ♪
- ♪ Let's fly! ♪ - ♪ Let's fly! ♪
- Momentarily gonna board the flight now
in just a few minutes
we're gonna start boarding.
- He's gonna be the very very special passenger
on SQ 21 the 12th of October
flying SQ 21 to Singapore from Newark.
Ladies and gentlemen;
this is Ravi saying thank you
and always have a great way to fly.
See ya! - Thank you!
Thank you so much Ravi; - thank you, take care!
- you're a legend! - Thank you!
- Thanks very much, thank you!
- Welcome aboard sir.
- See ya on there Sam.
- See you aboard sir!
For you!
- Thank you, thank you. - Enjoy your flight.
I appreciate.
- Thank you! Cute!
- Thank you so much!
- [Attendant] Have a safe flight!
- Going to Singapore!
See you in 19 hours.
- Mr. Chui!
- [Sam] Hi!
- Welcome to
SQ 21 - SQ 21
and today you're in
premium economy - premium economy today!
- [Sam] Oh, no business class!
Premium economy!
Oh my gosh!
- No problem! - It's as good
as business class.
- [Sam] As good! Okay!
Hey!
- [Flight Attendant] Hello!
- [Sam] Hello good morning!
- Good morning, how are you! - How are you?
- [Sam] Hello!
- Big fan man, big fan.
- [Sam] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- Alright!
- [Sam] Hello! - Mr. Sam.
- [Sam] How are you?
- Good thank you!
May I show you to your seat please?
Sam this is you right by aisle
- [Sam] Great thank you.
Ah! Look at this!
- [Stewardess] You get a goodie bag.
- The goodie bag's on every seat here.
- Hey Sam; welcome to my business class
seat on the world's longest flight.
I'm sitting
just about here,
in 27K.
And then you are all the way back
here! - Where am I sitting?
All the way back. - All the way back
- Oh my God! - Near the back
of the aircraft.
- I'm sitting at the very very
end of this plane here.
You know what?
The seats are so wide in business class
maybe you can let me sit here
for a little bit - Absolutely yes.
- I'll sit together - Yes just stay.
- Even two of us will fit. - Why don't we switch actually
- Really? - I'll take your premium
economy seat. - People want economy?
They don't want to sit in business class?
What's going on here?
- Maybe for a meal; we'll see.
- I like to fly with you Sam;
I'm looking forward to see your report.
- [Sam] Oh yeah, absolutely.
It's a pleasure!
And you just came in on
SQ22
- 22 yes.
- [Sam] Look at your beautiful shirt.
Look at this.
- Well don't forget 14 years ago
I pick up first flight here!
- [Sam] Yes you did this one,
and you did Los Angeles as well.
- Yes.
- [Sam] So 22 out;
here you go ma'am this is your seat.
- [Radio] And we're doing the Newark
to departure.
- Bye bye!
- Bye, bye bye!
- Thank you!
(door closes)
Off we go back to Singapore!
- [Sam] This is like an Antonov 24?
- (laughs) - Yeah!
- [Sam] (laughs)
- You know I was wondering who got the seat
in the solo seat.
Here's my friend Alberto here.
- (speaking in Spanish)
- Say something bad about me.
(upbeat music)
- [Captain] Ladies and gentlemen;
your Captain Ray Chaudhury.
Our journey begins;
Have your cameras ready
on both sides.
If you're sitting by the window
we will have a water cannon salute.
(upbeat music)
- So here I am
I'm still smiling;
I'm sitting in premium economy here
and I'm still really really happy.
We just taxied off and we have
a beautiful water cannon salute
and we're about to go
to the active runway for takeoff.
(engine pitch rises)
(passengers clapping)
- Yeah! - Whoa!
(passengers clapping)
(upbeat music)
- What's your name?
- Rob Meyer.
- Rob Meyer?
- Yeah. - How early did you
book this flight
to get this seat here?
- Let's see here
Like a day after it was available.
- Oh my gosh!
- (laughs) - You're so lucky.
- Are you satisfied?
Are you happy? What do you think about it?
- Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah yeah, it's great.
- The bigger seat is good?
- Oh it's great!
Yeah I like it.
- Yeah - Alright nice!
- So yeah thanks!
Yeah it's great!.
- Great nice to have you here!
- Yeah, yeah, what was your name?
- Sam. Sam Chui.
- Okay, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- (laughs)
(upbeat music)
- There's some really heavy turbulence
passing through,
so especially in economy
we sit at back you feel more
of the turbulence;
it's bouncing around.
Oh my gosh!
I love it!
It's like a rollercoaster
going bouncing up and down.
Here it is!
There's also the goodies in the bag.
This is going to my collection forever.
This is the certificate
of the flight today.
The world's longest flight;
Newark to Singapore.
And we also get a nice moisturiser gel
to keep your skin moist.
- Mr. Chui we have the complementary wifi
from Panasonic for you today.
- [Sam] Thank you.
- You like a eye sheets?
Ear plugs; soft Z2 ration bag.
- [Sam] Thank you.
(upbeat music)
- [Sam] The atmosphere on board was so great;
everyone was relaxed,
had different things to do
and ways to pass the time.
- Thank you! - You're welcome.
- Cheers guys!
- Cheers!
- Cheers! - Cheers!
- So I'm just settling down
for this long flight here.
I actually brought a lot of things
in prepare for the longest flight
19 hours.
So I actually brought t-shirts,
shorts to make myself comfortable.
Sitting is not bad it's really good.
So really good to recline as well.
It's very comfortable I'm pretty confident
I can probably pass 18 hours on this flight.
(bottles rattle)
- Hi gentlemen are you ready for lunch?
- [Sam] Yes!
- So we have three choices:
we have the beef with mashed potatoes,
the canyon ranch chicken breast with lentils,
and the fish curry with rice.
Thai style.
- [Sam] I will go for fish curry.
Table's in here?
- [Stewardess] Yes.
Alright!
So I have the fish right here for you.
- In 15 minutes I got my meal;
serving so fast today. - Yes!
- Thank you so much! - Yeah we have to make sure
everyone get there meal in time!
- Thank you! - You're welcome.
- Champagne economy class.
(piano synth music)
- Flavor's good; spicy.
Very spicy food.
- Mr. Chui, would you like a baby Haagen Dazs ice cream?
- This is Daniel
- Hi!
- Look at his hair; so cool!
I wish my hair's like yours
- Thank you - Love your hair Daniel
- Love it - Thank you!
- [Sam] I was really impressed about
the noise cancelling headset in premium economy
it's great quality.
The internet was not so fast
due to the bandwidth constraint.
After complimentary 30 megabytes
the price are pretty steep.
About three hours into the flight
we began seeing some beautiful
iceberg and arctic scenery below us
at 39 thousand feet.
- Hi!
My name is Ray Chaudhury
I'm the Captain of this flight SQ21
Newark to Singapore.
Longest flight.
Flight time today is 17 hours and 20 minutes.
We're flying over the pole
The North Pole.
We took off, climbed to 35 thousand feet.
Right now we are over Canada.
We just passed Equalit
and in the next two hours we will
go up to 87 degrees north
we'll have the North Pole
right to the left of us.
And then we will go over Siberia;
One of the largest lakes in the world,
Lake Baikal
and then Mongolia,
China on to Laos
Thailand, Malaysia
and then on to Singapore.
- Do you have any actual alternative
from Newark to Singapore
apart from polar route?
- Yes, this is the world;
Newark is here,
Singapore is here.
We are anti poles.
- Yeah - So exactly
on the other side.
So if you take off from Newark
you can actually take the Atlantic route
- Atlantic. Ah!
- You can take the Pacific route;
- Yes
- Or the polar route
so you can take one of the three.
It depends on the time of the year;
what the winds are doing,
and then we select the most optimum route
to fly to Singapore.
- We're about four hours in the flight;
13 hours to go.
Drink some water.
(slow piano music)
- [Sam] I settle in to watch a movie
there were so many choices to choose from.
The sun started to set about five hours
into the flight.
The scenery was remarkably beautiful;
broken iceberg,
arctic tundra landscape,
snow capped mountains,
I enjoy watching these unspoiled scenery
passing for hours.
We're just about 30 minutes away
from the North Pole.
- [Captain] We're approaching 87 North
which is,
almost
as close
to the North Pole
as we will get.
The actual North Pole will be
slightly to the left of the aircraft.
We'll be passing this region 87 North
to the point of Bering
Which is Siberia.
Russian Siberia.
The sun is setting on the left side
of the aircraft.
Just to let you know that
we'll be traversing this
northern most point for about
30 minutes starting now.
- Okay so we have the multigrain ciabatta
which is with chicken,
and of course we have a vegetarian option
which is the vegetarian tortilla.
Some more healthy options as well
as a multigrain, wholegrain sorry
wholegrain chips.
And some almonds and cashews as well.
And of course a little bit of chocolate!
- [Sam] With seven hours into the flight
it got really dark and I start downloading
my video footage as I ran out
of memory card on my camera.
- Mr Chui would you like a hot towel please?
We'll be serving our next meal shortly.
- We are eight hours into the flight.
About half way.
It's really exciting I just couldn't sleep
you know, I'm really happy so far
in everything and now they're serving
the second meal which is dinner.
- Sir a glass of champagne for yourself?
- [Stewardess] Here's your meal
(mumbles) chicken, fried rice.
- So nice, there's a napkin.
It's not just a tissue.
Oh man that tiramisu is something
just delicious!
Now it is about New York 9:00 PM
so it's time for sleep.
(air rushing past)
- So we got only two hours to go
on the world's longest flight.
I slept about five hours non interrupted;
and now I'm just stretching out
doing a bit of more exercise
and getting ready.
Even I changed my outfit
getting ready for summer in Singapore.
- This is one of their hydrating cocktail
specially for this flight.
It's coconut water mixed with pineapple juice.
- This is my friend Isabel
who flew in from Singapore to Newark,
now on the way back to Singapore
- 58 hours all up.
- 58 hours.
- It's per (mumbles)
- So Isabel what do you think about this seat?
- It is
you know, the reach.
It's actually very good for my size as well.
- Yeah! - I like the footrest
and the calf support.
That really makes for a comfortable seat.
- Mr Chui, on behalf of the crew of SQ21
here's something for you to remember.
- Tracy thank you so much
on this wonderful flight.
- You're welcome.
- You know; 17 hours in economy seems impossible
but I did it.
It was such a pleasure I was so excited
throughout the flight.
But 17 hours just flew past.
I'm well rested and the premium economy seats
is indeed a very good way to fly.
(air rushing)
- [Captain] This is Captain Ray Chaudhury
We have already started
our descent into Singapore.
We are descending to it's runway
zero two left of Changi International Airport.
We are now in Singapore;
recent rain, temperature 28 degrees celsius.
As they say all good things come to a pause.
We come to this;
the end, final phase of our inaugural
Newark Singapore flight.
We hope that you have enjoyed it
as much as I did,
and don't forget to tell your friends.
(plane touches down)
(passengers clapping)
- [Passenger] Woo!
- [Passenger] Whoa!
(clapping)
- This is behind the scenes now
after landing we have a cake to celebrate.
The world's longest flight
has reached back home in Singapore!
(flight crew cheers)
- [Flight Crew] ♪ Happy birthday to you! ♪
(clapping)
(cheering)
- [Sam] Cheers one more time
for the world's longest flight!
(flight crew cheers)
(upbeat music)