Singapore Airlines ranked as the best airline in the world in 2018, so we were eager to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class from the Maldives to Hong Kong, with a brief layover in Singapore. The first leg of our flight was on Singapore Airlines A330 Business Class from Male to Singapore, while the second leg was on the A350 from Singapore to Hong Kong. We had previously flown and reviewed the Singapore Airlines B777 Business Class from Singapore to Frankfurt as well as the Business Class cabin on the A380 from Frankfurt to New York City. This review will cover the first flight and we’ll have a separate post for the second flight. We booked our flight with points and enjoyed excellent service, comfortable seats (except for when trying to sleep), tasty cocktails and flavorful meals. Read our Singapore Airlines Business Class Review for all the details on this top quality airline.

Singapore Airlines A330 Business Class Review: Maldives (MLE) to Singapore (SIN)

**Our WTA score represents our own views based on our personal experience with the entity being reviewed.

Singapore Airlines Business Class A300-300

Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – Singapore Airlines Business Class A330-300

Singapore Airlines 777 Business Class Cabin

Singapore Airlines Booking

We made our Singapore Airlines booking using our KrisFlyer points. The price for our SQ 451 flight on the Airbus A330-300 plus the SQ 856 on the Airbus A350-900 would have been $2,209 each if we hadn’t travel hacked. Instead, we paid just $175.28 in taxes/fees and 38,250 KrisFlyer miles each for our flight from Male (Maldives) to Hong Kong, which as mentioned above included this flight and a second flight on the A350 from Singapore to Hong Kong. Following recent changes with the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, the same flight will now require 39,000 KrisFlyer saver miles each way but only $50 in taxes/fees per person.

Business Class Lounge in Male

Our Business Class tickets allowed us entrance into the Leeli lounge in Male International Airport. It was a basic lounge with a decent selection of food and drinks (no alcohol) with wifi, televisions and comfortable seating. We grabbed a bottle of water and used the wifi but didn’t eat since we were saving our appetites for the flight.

Singapore Airlines A330 Business Class Cabin

We boarded our flight and noticed that the business class cabin was nearly empty. The A330 Business Class cabin has 30 angled lie flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration with 5 rows. We had seats 14F and 14H on the right side of the cabin with a window since we like to be able to look out the window while flying over beautiful tropical destinations like the Maldives.

The A330 Business Class is one of Singapore Airline’s older business class cabins, so is not as impressive as the other Singapore Business Class cabins we’ve flown (check out our reviews of Singapore Airlines B777-300ER and A380). Our main critique of the A330-300 is the angle of the seats, which wasn’t very comfortable for sleeping. For a 4 hour 50 min flight it was manageable, but for anything much longer we’d have been uncomfortable sleeping. Especially for extremely tall people like Bertaut, the seat is not conducive to sleeping.

The A330 Business class seats have personal televisions, storage compartments, and pockets for magazines. The storage compartments on the back of the seats and in between seats were small compared to some we’ve seen (like Japan Airlines First Class). Each seat has a power supply outlet, seat controls, entertainment remote control, and USB outlets. There’s also a privacy partition that extends out between the seats, which we obviously didn’t use but could be useful if you’re seated next to someone you don’t know and aren’t feeling especially friendly. 😉 We also received a blanket and pillow to use during the flight.

Welcome drinks

We received welcome drinks of champagne or juice, so of course we opted for the bubbly. They were serving a Charles HeidSieck Brut Reserve, which quenched our thirst before takeoff. We also received a small bowl of nuts to nibble on shortly after takeoff and were able to choose from the extensive drink selection.

Singapore Business Class Menu

Since our flight was under 5 hours, just one meal was served on the flight. The supper menu included an appetizer, 3 main course options, dessert, bread, coffee and tea. Here’s photos of the menu to show the food and drink offerings. We were impressed by the huge selection of cocktails and mocktails and loved the classic Singapore Sling, a must-try. We also were pleasantly surprised by how many coffee and tea options they offered.

Singapore Airlines Business Class Meal

Our supper consisted of an appetizer of smoked duck breast, which we paired with red wine. We had three options for main course- braised chicken thigh in Basquaise sauce, stir fried egg noodles, or pan fried barramundi fillet in caper lime sauce. I chose the fish and Bertaut had the egg noodles with prawns, both of which were good. Dessert was a delicious banana cheesecake with caramelized Maldivian bananas, my favorite part of the meal thanks to my sweet tooth.

Business Class Bathrooms on A330

There are two bathrooms at the back of the A330-300 Business Class cabin. They were always sparkling clean and were equipped with hand lotion and other basic bathroom amenities. A stem of fresh orchids gave a touch of elegance to the bathroom.

Service

Service on our flight from Male to Singapore was friendly, attentive, and efficient, which was not surprising since service is an area where Singapore Airlines excels. Singapore Air does not provide amenity kits on their flights, but flight attendants will provide slippers and socks upon request. The flight attendants took great care of us during our flight.

KrisWorld inflight entertainment

The A330 has a 15.4 inch LCD screen with a vast selection of movies, TV shows, games, music and apps. The flight attendants distributed noise-cancelling headphones to watch the inflight entertainment. Our flight did not offer Wifi, which  was disappointing but for a short flight not a major problem. Our seats did offer USB ports, which would come in handy if you wanted to play your own music or look at your photos from vacation. There was also an AV input and in-seat power supply to charge our devices. The selection of entertainment was really good, with over 1000 options. We also enjoyed watching the flight map show our journey from the Maldives to Singapore.

Conclusion of Singapore Airlines A330 Business Class Review

In conclusion, Singapore A330 Business Class offers top-notch service, quality food and drinks, a vast selection of inflight entertainment, and seats that are comfortable for short flights. We found the angle of the seats (when fully reclined) to be less comfortable than what we’re accustomed to on international Business Class flights, especially for Bertaut who is 6’6. Tall people may want to avoid the A330 for redeye flights during which they want to sleep. Even short people like myself (I’m only 5’4) may find the angle of the beds less appealing than on Singapore’s newer business class cabins. However, the seats are fine for shorter flights like this one from the Maldives to Singapore. We also wished the flight had wifi, which is not available on the A330. Nonetheless, the flight was pleasant and an overall good experience once again with Singapore Airlines.