Airlines offer luxury suites, roomier seats in battle for high-paying travelers as international trips return

Singapore Airlines this week unveiled its highest-end offering in the US: first-class suites that feature a bed, a swivel chair, 32-inch touch screen and a desk adorned with an orchid. They are each 50 square feet, and there are two bathrooms for the six passengers. It’s a bet that travelers are willing to shell out for luxurious cabins after two years of Covid pandemic lockdowns that devastated travel demand. Other airlines are taking similar steps with revamped cabins. They were able to do some upgrades faster during the pandemic when they didn’t need as many planes. A roundtrip ticket in one of the Singapore Airlines suites from New York to Singapore, with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany, is listed on the company’s website at $17,143.37, including tax, for early May. One of the 78 new business-class seats on the A380 that convert into 6½-foot beds on the same dates are $6,362.87. Both cabins are on the upper deck of the superjumbo plane. Passenger demand for both upper-deck cabins has been strong, said Joey Seow, Singapore Airlines’ regional vice president for the Americas. Business-class seats on the planes are selling out before the 343 economy seats, a reversal of a pre-pandemic trend, he said. “Normally, people would choose to go for economy class because it’s cheaper,” Seow said aboard the A380 before it departed for Frankfurt on Monday evening. “We see that more and more people are prepared to pay for that space.” Story has more.<br/>