A short new video from Singapore Airlines is doing the rounds, showing off the design thinking behind its First Class suites on the Airbus A380. Designer Ben Rowan explains a detail most passengers would never consciously notice: the suites have a curved exterior rather than a flat box shape. That curve, he says, is what "unlocks" space inside the cabin, letting each suite feel more open than its footprint would suggest.
It's a nice reminder that at the very top end of the market, cabin design is as much about perception as it is about square metres. A hard corner makes a space feel like a cupboard; a soft curve tricks the eye into reading the suite as a small room rather than a seat with walls around it.
For anyone who has only ever flown economy, the suites are hard to picture until you've seen them. On the A380, Singapore's top-tier product gives each passenger a fully enclosed private compartment with a separate seat and a full flat bed, rather than one seat that converts. Two adjacent suites can be combined for couples travelling together. Service runs at whatever pace you want, with dining on request rather than fixed meal times.
The practical catch: this is one of the hardest seats in the sky to book with miles, and cash fares are eye-watering. Suites are only on the A380, so your routing matters — they don't appear on the 787s or A350s that make up much of the long-haul fleet. If you're chasing the experience, look at flagship routes through Singapore's Changi hub, and consider booking well ahead or watching for award space released close to departure.
Even if a suite is out of reach, the video is worth a few minutes. It's a rare look at how much deliberate design sits behind a cabin product, and it signals where premium travel is heading: airlines competing on how spacious and private a seat can feel, not just how flat the bed lies. For travellers choosing between first and business class, that focus on privacy is increasingly the real difference you're paying for — you're buying a room, not a recline angle.
Whether you're a points collector plotting a bucket-list redemption or simply curious what the top of the market looks like, Singapore's suites remain one of the benchmark products in commercial aviation, and this designer's-eye view explains a bit of the why.
