Which seats does Singapore Airlines block for advance selection?

If you’re a Singapore Airlines Business Class regular, you’ll probably be familiar with Row 11. Positioned at the very front of the cabin, it’s one of the most popular choices among SIA passengers, but securing it for your upcoming flight isn’t easy, since it’s often blocked for advance selection to all but the airline’s highest frequent flyer status holders.

SIA’s ‘rule set’ for blocked seats does change from time to time, and most recently seat blocks are now removed 96 hours before departure on all routes, instead the previous policy of 48 hours before, which applied to the airline’s longest flights.

There are still some aircraft-specific differences to be aware of, so it’s a good time for us to update our article debunking the myths and laying bare the policy, so you know not only what you can and can’t pick, but perhaps most importantly when you might get your hands on those prized seats.

The First Class and Suites bassinet policy

In 2019 Singapore Airlines stopped blocking bassinet seats in its First Class and Suites cabins network-wide.

The airline clearly recognised the likelihood of infants travelling in these cabins was small, and withholding them from advance selection was an inconvenience to customers.

For example, in First Class on the Boeing 777-300ER, with only four seats in the cabin, the bassinet position at 1A was previously unavailable for advance selection online. Even before a single passenger booked, the seat map looked like this:

You could always be allocated seat 1A if you wanted it (for example if 1F was already taken and you didn’t want to sit in the middle pair), but you had to call Singapore Airlines to do it.

Thankfully now there’s no need, on a 777-300ER flight with no bookings in First Class this is your seat choice:

The former policy was even more of an issue on the Airbus A380s. The bassinet preselection rules meant you couldn’t pick one of the two double bed options in the new 2017 Suites (1F / 2F) online, since 1F is the bassinet position:

That scenario certainly wasn’t ideal for Suites passengers if one of the other Suites that can be combined into a double bed (1A or 2A or both) had already been selected, either by another couple or a solo traveller.

Thankfully it’s now been resolved. No need to pick up the phone to secure the right side double bed on the A380 anymore:

This was a genuinely very sensible improvement.

Blocking up to 25% of available seats for the slim chance of a passenger with an infant travelling was illogical, plus it no doubt occupied a large amount of time for the customer service officers on the phone, who would simply allocate you the bassinet seat anyway if you wanted!

It means is that there are no longer any seats regularly blocked in any First Class or Suites cabin on any Singapore Airlines flight.

Contrary to popular belief, you will not be kicked out of a bassinet seat (1A on the 777-300ER or 1F on the A380) if a booking including an infant is then made on the same flight. Singapore Airlines may ask you to relocate, but they will not force you to do so.

Passengers with infants are not entitled to a bassinet seat in any cabin – it’s first come, first served.

The airline does still block seats at bassinet positions in Business Class, Economy Class and Premium Economy Class.

PPS Club

PPS Club members get no special advance seat selection benefits in First Class or Suites, so whether you pay cash or redeem miles for these flights whatever your status level, you will have full access to the available seat inventory in this cabin (and so you should, for the price!).

However, on a number of aircraft and routes Singapore Airlines does block specific Business Class seats for advance selection to all passengers, except PPS Club members.

If you are a PPS Club member, provided your membership number is included in your booking, these seats will be available for you to select both for you and your travelling companions on the same booking.

Your window of opportunity

Not all of these preferred seats will be selected by PPS Club members travelling on every flight, so your best chance to secure any unassigned ones is when they get released for general selection.

In the past, blocked seats were released for general selection 96 hours before your flight’s departure time, with the exception of flights between Singapore and Europe or the USA, where a shorter 48 hour seat block release policy was in force.

Now, seat blocks are removed on all routes at 96 hours (4 days) prior to departure.

The Business Class rundown

Specific seats in SIA’s Business Class cabins on most aircraft and routes are blocked for advance selection, so that they are available for:

• PPS Club members, until a predetermined time before departure, and
• Bookings including an infant, until a predetermined time before departure, and
• Crew rest requirements, on longer flights (these are never selectable).

Here’s how it works by aircraft type and flight length.

Airbus A350 Medium Haul

	Blocked Seats
	Extra Legroom	Bassinet + Legroom
Blocked	11A 11D 11F 11K	19A 19D* 19F* 19K
Advance selection for	PPS Club	PPS Club Infant Bookings
Released to all J pax	STD – 96h

* 19D and 19F are not bassinet seats on the A350 MH, but do unlock for advance selection if you have an infant in your booking

Airbus A350 Long Haul

	Blocked Seats
	Extra Legroom	Bassinet + Legroom
Blocked	11A 11D 11F 11K	19A 19D 19F 19K
Advance selection for	PPS Club	PPS Club Infant Bookings
Released to all J pax	STD – 96h

Bassinet seats (Row 19) are not blocked on Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur flights using A350 LH aircraft

Airbus A350 ULR

	Blocked Seats
	Extra Legroom	Bassinet + Legroom
Blocked	11A^ 11D 11F 11K	19A 19D* 19F* 19K
Advance selection for	PPS Club	PPS Club Infant Bookings
Released to all J pax	STD – 96h

^ 11A does not actually feature extra legroom on the A350 ULR, but is blocked for advance selection by non-PPS Club members anyway
* 19D and 19F are not bassinet seats on the A350 ULR, but do unlock for advance selection if you have an infant in your booking

Why seat 11A, which is neither a bassinet position nor has extra legroom, is blocked on the Airbus A350 ULR, no one seems to know. This is probably a system limitation.

It is actually seat 10A that has extra legroom on this aircraft type at the left side, and that one is not blocked for advance selection, so jump on it if it’s still vacant (though be aware of proximity to the forward galley).

Airbus A380

	Blocked Seats
	Extra Legroom	Bassinet + Legroom
Blocked	11A 11D 11F 11K	91A* 91D 91F 91K* 96A 96D* 96F* 96K
Advance selection for	PPS Club	PPS Club Infant Bookings
Released to all J pax	STD – 96h

* 91A, 91K, 96D and 96F are not bassinet seats on the A380, but do unlock for advance selection if you have an infant in your booking

Boeing 737-800

The Boeing 737-800 has no blocked seats in Business Class on any route.

Boeing 737-8 MAX

The Boeing 737-8 MAX has no blocked seats in Business Class on any route. This includes the ‘throne’ seats 12B and 12J, which remain available from the outset to all Business Class travellers, regardless of status.

Boeing 777-300ER

	Blocked Seats
	Extra Legroom	Bassinet + Legroom
Blocked	11A 11D 11F 11K	15A 15D 15F 15K
Advance selection for	PPS Club	PPS Club Infant Bookings
Released to all J pax	STD – 96h

Bassinet seats (Row 15) are not blocked on Jakarta flights using 777-300ER aircraft

Boeing 787-10

Being a PPS Club member or having an infant in your booking unlocks all of Row 11 for advance selection on SIA’s Boeing 787-10 flights, even though two of the four seats in this row (11D and 11F) are not bassinet positions.

Crew rest seat blocks

Singapore Airlines also blocks seats in the Business Class cabin for crew rest purposes on longer flights. These seats are not selectable by any passenger, and the block is never released, for obvious reasons.

The good news is, these aren’t particularly popular seats anyway.

• Airbus A350 Long Haul
  Seat 18D is blocked for crew rest on flights of around 13 hours or more
  (e.g. SIN-MAN, SIN-AMS, LAX-SIN)
• Airbus A350 ULR
  Seats 17D and 17F are blocked for crew rest on all A350 ULR flights
  (e.g. SIN-JFK, EWR-SIN)
• Airbus A380
  Seats 23D and 23F are blocked for crew rest on SIN-LHR flights
  Only seat 23F is blocked on (shorter) LHR-SIN flights
• Boeing 777-300ER
  Seat 19K is blocked for crew rest on flights of around 13 hours or more
  (e.g. SIN-CDG)

Interestingly for many of these Europe flights, it means the crew rest seat block applies on the westbound flight from Singapore, but not on the (shorter) flight back.

For example, 18D is blocked in Business Class on the 13 hour 20 minute Airbus A350 LH from Singapore to Amsterdam (SQ324), but not on the 12 hour 40 minute Amsterdam to Singapore sector (SQ323).

That gives SIA an extra Business Class seat to sell in that direction.

Unable to change seat online?

One slightly frustrating “feature” of the Singapore Airlines website and app is that once online check-in opens 48 hours before departure, it often no longer allows you to modify your seat selection, making it impossible to move into an empty seat at a bassinet or extra legroom row, for example.

In this case, you can still switch your seats by calling SIA or using Kris the Chatbot (click “Chat with a live agent”). They will happily assist to move you to an unoccupied seat, like 11A if available.

Economy and Premium Economy

Seat blocks in Economy Class and Premium Economy class relate to either bassinet positions and/or seats that attract an additional charge like extra legroom or forward zone seats.

The latter are available to KrisFlyer and PPS Club frequent flyer members at a reduced fee or even no charge as you progress through the status tiers, or you can pay extra to sit there.

The only seats you won’t be able to choose in these cabins are bassinet positions, unless you have an infant included in your booking.

Seat selection fees in Economy Class and Premium Economy Class are cancelled 48 hours prior to departure. All available seats, including bassinet and extra legroom positions, are then available for free selection by any passenger.

This includes ‘solo seats’ on the Airbus A350 ULR aircraft, though good luck snagging one of those two days before departure – there are only six on each aircraft and PPS Club members or those willing to pay extra have usually secured them in our experience.

How to tell if your seat is blocked or already occupied

Jumping online at T-96 hours to try and secure a bulkhead seat on your Singapore Airlines flight is all well and good, but what if it has been allocated to a PPS Club member or an infant booking already? In that case, there’s little point in making this extra effort.

Let’s say you’re booked in Business Class on an A350 MH flight and the seat map on the Singapore Airlines website looks like this:

You were hoping to get one of the couple bulkhead pairs at 11D / 11F or 19D / 19F. The seat map shows that both of these pairs are already occupied, but how do you know if that’s true? Since it’s more than 96 hours before departure time, they could simply be blocked for selection only PPS Club members.

Here’s how the seat map looks on ExpertFlyer:

You’re in luck! It looks like 11D / 11F are blocked, which means they haven’t (yet) been selected by a PPS Club passenger. Be patient and wait to see what happens at exactly 96 hours before departure.

Provided the seats are still unoccupied 4 days before your flight leaves, they should now appear for selection:

As you can see tools like ExpertFlyer can really help you decide whether it’s worth logging on as soon as the block is released.

Seats can be blocked for other reasons

Don’t be too surprised if you find that your ‘PPS blocked seat’ remains blocked at 96 hours before departure.

Seats can be blocked for a number of operational reasons, and top-tier frequent flyers can even request that the seat alongside them be blocked (subject to the booked cabin load), to give them more space and privacy.

Keep checking as it may still become available closer to departure time.

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The current policy for seat blocking on Singapore Airlines flights is:

• No First Class or Suites seats are blocked for advance selection on any Singapore Airlines flight, except for special requests and operational requirements.
• Specific seats in Business Class on some aircraft types and routes are blocked for advance selection and can only be allocated to PPS Club members.
• Specific seats in Business Class on some aircraft types and routes are blocked for advance selection and can only be allocated to those with an infant in their booking, or to PPS Club members who trump even these passengers.
• Blocks are removed 96 hours prior to departure. Jumping on a bulkhead row seat in Business Class at this time could be vital to securing more comfort for your journey.
• Bassinet seats are not blocked in First Class or Suites, nor will you be relocated even if a traveller with an infant subsequently books on the same flight.
• Crew rest seats in Business Class are required on some aircraft types on longer flights. These can never be selected by customers.
• Seat blocks for PPS preferred seats might not all disappear at 96 hours prior to departure. In this case, the seat(s) are blocked for a different operational reason.

Remember the Singapore Airlines website and app will always show a blocked seat as occupied, so tools like ExpertFlyer can help you determine whether you’ll stand a good chance of getting one of the better seats, once the block is lifted.

(Cover Photo: Agent Wolf / Shutterstock)