Singapore Airlines Business Class: MLE-SIN B737-8 MAX

My flight back to the US after staying at Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa for 7 nights was on Singapore’s new Boeing 737-8 MAX with their regional lie-flat business class seats. I was excited to give it a try as you typically don’t see lie-flat seats on a 737 which is a narrow-body plane. My ticket was purchased using 109,000 Singapore Airlines miles and $143.67 in taxes for MLE-SIN-SFO with an overnight layover in SIN in Business Class. After checking into my flight, I proceeded through security and immigration then to Leeli Lounge which is a contracted lounge for Business Class passengers @ MLE. The lounge is a quiet place to relax, but otherwise is fairly average in its offering. This should improve significantly when the new international airport terminal opens in 2025. Boarding was via a bus to the plane then a set of stairs. I selected seat 12B as it was “The Throne” seat similar to what JetBlue Mint offers so you don’t have any neighbors. Only two are available on each plane and marketed by Singapore Airlines as prime standalone seats. The footwell was a bit narrow, but otherwise a great seat layout with plenty of storage.

We took off on time and we were off for our ~4hr flight to Singapore. There were a few clouds, but I was still able to get a view of the islands below. Inflight WiFi was offered at no charge to Business Class passengers although I ran into issues getting it to work so I still had to pay the $15.99 for the entire flight. It was fast enough to get some work done and no bandwidth limits. For lunch, I used Book the Cook and selected the Seafood Pad Thai for a lighter meal. I was surprised Singapore Airlines was offering Suntory Chita Whiskey so I decided to go with it on ice. It’s not the best option from Suntory, but you can’t go wrong with Japanese Whisky.

The lunch was delicious and soon after I reclined the seat to enjoy the lie-flat bed to get some rest before arriving into Singapore.

Overall: For an intra-Asia flight, I’d highly recommend booking this regional Business Class lie-flat option if flying a wide-body (B777, B787, A350, A380, etc.) plane with a lie-flat bed is not an option. It was super clean as it was a new plane and everything worked. Singapore Airlines service onboard never disappoints and they enjoy taking photos of you if you’d like instead of taking a selfie.