FIRE and travelling

As someone who is no longer 'young', I told myself that once I reached FI, I would fly business class for long haul flights (Europe/USA).

When I was younger, I had the endurance to fly to East and West Coast USA a few times on economy (not even premium economy) and somehow survived, but I probably still can since I am relatively fit but I would probably need maybe 24-48 extra hours after landing to 'recover'. For example, I wouldn't trust myself to be able to jump into a rental car and start driving after a long-haul economy flight. 

Having occasionally flown business class for work in the past, I was familiar with the 'advantages' of business class, which to me is the flat seat or seat that converts to a bed (depending on the airline) that makes it possible to get a decent nights' sleep without neck pain after waking up.

Recently I had the opportunity to upgrade one leg of my flight to First and the surprising thing is that I found the First class 'bed' in SQ was not as comfortable as the Business class 'bed'. 

The reason is that the First seat has a hard and rigid back which becomes your "bed" when you fold down the seat. Over this hard back, SQ puts a mattress topper or foam insert (don't know what you call it) that is really not good enough so you end up feeling the hardness of the seat back. For Business class, the seat back is non-rigid, so it feels less 'hard' as a bed than First. 

Obviously the First 'bed' is a lot bigger but the SQ Biz seat is more than enough space for me (the SQ biz seat is bigger than a few other airlines like BA for example).

So having tried SQ First, I am happy to report that SQ Business class is great and some may actually find the bed more 'comfortable' than First.  When it comes to Business class seats, SQ's Skytrax ranking for the seat category is no.3, bested by only ANA and Qatar, none of which I will fly Business (i.e. Japan is too near for me to fly business, I would save the money and eat expensive Tuna sashimi).

Finally, one tip for better sleep is really to order the lightest meal possible (for SQ you can order online) or maybe even consider skipping the meal immediately before you go to sleep during the flight (load up with all the food you want in the lounge). First class you will be tempted to eat too much when your priority should be a good night's sleep 😂