The Longest Flight in the world, Singapore Airlines SQ21 from Newark to Singapore

The longest flight in the world with Singapore Airlines from New York to Singapore

I'm sitting here after flying the most amazing trip, the longest flight in the world with Singapore Airlines from Newark to Singapore.
I still have the excitement of the event clear in my head even a day after the event and when i got to my final destination of Taiwan, sitting up late at night to write this but my body clock is partially on UK time.

Check-in for Singapore Airlines flight SQ21 at Newark Airport

Morning of October 12th 2018 While i'm already in jet lag mode after flying on Singapore Airlines A350 from Manchester to Houston and then on United from Houston to Newark it was 2am when i actually woke up for this 10:45am flight. I'd had pizza the night before at the Renaissance Hotel

Longest flight in the world trip start at renaissance hotel Newark Airport

by the side of Newark Airport and it was way too big for me to finish so I had it for breakfast (2am) and for Lunch at 6am as well but it was Mozzarella with juicy tomatoes. Between this time, I set up my camera's already to do a live stream of the longest flight in the world arrival as Singapore Airlines flight 22 which is an A350 ULR aircraft with the registration 9V-SGB. After streaming the day before on inflight video (where we post the SQ21 flight highlights) I wanted to stream a little on my You Tube channel. After Singapore Airlines SQ22 landed at around 5:16am, it was a quick dash to get ready have a wash as who wants to to board a flight without that? especially the longest flight in the world. A few slices of pizza later and it was time to finish packing the back pack and my mini suitcase which will last me for two months in Asia. Trying to cram in the electrical equipment took some organisation in deciding what i really needed. I brought along a Camcorder which had 64GB of internal storage and two other SD cards of the same, one would go into the DSLR camera which i used as B-roll recording most of what happened on the A350ULR. Another experimental device that I brought on-board was a VR360 camera which i've not had a look at the footage yet but i filmed the galley, cabin and hopefully got a shot of the contrail behind the aircraft. Instead of the 7am shuttle bus, I decided to get there just a bit earlier, I was greatful that we didn't have to go to the P4 Parking lot to catch the Air Train on the way out from the Renaissance Hotel like we did when going to the hotel. The driver already knew which terminal Singapore Airlines was going at, it seems that the Singapore Check-in signs on the side of the terminal building may have still been there since they stopped the service around 2013. I was the only passenger on the shuttle bus as I entered Newark Airport's terminal, I start to hear Jazz Music. I look to the right and I see the archway of balloons in the distance with the pink glow of the sunrise adorning the airport's terminal windows, how magical and then a police officer appeared within my vision and i walked upto him and said "Hello, is it ok to take a picture" I was greeted with a "Yes Sure" and we talked about the Singapore Airline's flight, He was really polite and interested which set up the tone for the rest of the morning. Feeling free to take pictures around the check-in area, I'm still hearing this jazz music and snapping away or more so videoing away, I make way past some TV news crew, past some boarding signs and low and behold! An Actual Jazz player, This was awesome I couldn't beleive they hired a guy and started around playing around 3.5 hours before departure to a quiet check-in desk, only about 4 passengers standing at the desks. This was a great thing, everyone was happy including the staff and people overseeing the training of them for this new flight. Boarding pass in hand it was a quiet walk to Security feeling very relaxed and happy, some surreal feeling as even the passengers talked to me like we all had the same thing in common with each other. There was about 5 passengers of a line for putting your bags through security and I was through in about 6-8 minutes, having to take all electronics out of the bag, while taking off the shoes as well. Once through, a passenger in the previous line said someon had left a bag, Oops!!! It was me! well all was good and I made my way to the gate past perfume workers who were opening up shop. I'm guessing we were able to check-in extra early because of the training for Singapore Airlines Check-in staff and also the same for air side. Walking straight and I come to the gate seeing a few girls with the Singapore badges and some tables and chairs ready to get set up for today's event. I walked over to a member of the airport staff and asked if I could take photos of the aircraft and just squeeze between the seats that were put away to make room for the tables. They were very polite again and even the airport staff around the area were in high spirits and some were also taking photos of the A350 ULR but where I was standing I couldn't get a clear picture due to the circle layout of the gates. I tried to do another live stream but for some reason my laptop wasn't connecting, People slowly started to flow into the gate area and that's where I met a person from Berlin who i would later end up taking to for hours on the flight, then a lady from New York who didn't know about the event but her daughter said that she's better getting a direct flight, She was also excited once another guy told her about everything. Next we saw the Singapore Girls with their Singapore Airlines Kebaya Uniform and a number of TV press surrounding them to take photos which then proceeded onto a guy from Singapore who gave a great speech about the new route with some prizes going to the passengers who could answer certain questions about the longest flight in the world route. While I was filming this, there was airport staff doing the food and drinks round and then we had some singers from the area do some New York songs.

Boarding the longest flight in the world

We did the usual line up but once through we were given a rose similar to the Singapore Airlines Kerbaya Uniform. Entering the A350ULR was quick and we had genuine smiles from the cabin crew of who i got to talk to a lot while on-board. As I wanted to keep my bag due to a transit to another airline on a seperate ticket at Changi Airport and wanting to go straight to the transit hotel, I had my suitcase, backpack and tripod with me, a singapore airlines cabin crew member saw me and very kindly asked if she could help me take the suitcase to my seat, she was so friendly, still feeling awesome about this flight. Once arriving at my seat, one of 6 single seats at the back of Premium Economy on Singapore Airline's A350ULR, I was greeted by a bag of which came out a 1:200 scale Model Aircraft of the A350, it looked very nice. I put my passport in the back seat pocket (of which I will comment more about due to something that happens later) and I take a look at this massive storage space next to the window, wow! I have so much room to sleep across. I put my bags into the storage space after taking out my cameras and cables, I set up the 12 hour battery packs, sit down and relax in this beautifully newly smelling A350ULR.

Longest flight in the world Singapore Airlines A350 ULR

It wasn't long until we got a talk from the captain about the route today which would take us over the north pole. We then pushed back and had a water salute from the fire trucks which also had sirens on. We departed after passing by an Embraer Aircraft from runway 4 Left at Newark Airport while turning to the right as soon as it was possible en-route nearby to New York with a right turn around central park and then a left. I'm presuming this was a special route that we took or perhaps it's a standard departure route but i'm not sure.

 I got some great 4K footage of the departure from New York and soon we climbed for our altitude of around 40,000 feet heading towards the north pole. A small snack hand out came along with drinks, now I don't drink alcohol but as I've seen so many trip reports in Business class with champagne I wanted to know what the fuss was about and since it's a special flight, I had a glass, We had a meal service by which I had a Chicken which had some nice sauce laying abreast of it. Ice cream came in the form of Haagen Daz and complimentary internet came of around 30MB for this special ocassion (i think it was only for this one flight) I was able to post a picture to Twitter but then I made a mistake, I opened up Facebook and wrote a message to my friend. 


The internet finished after that. After this it was time to stretch my legs while still being on UK time, I had to get my excercise in and chatted with some other aviation minded people like me. Later we could chat to the Cabin Crew more and got on great with them, one guy being really excited to do this flight and who was very chatty and friendly like most of the crew as well, it just seemed like everyone on the aircraft had a great time. So we probably stood up for about 3 hours chatting and I had to keep checking on the camera which was filming out the window in case it had stopped recording.

 The sun started to set as we neared the North Pole, It was a very slow sunset perhaps about 1 hour and which briefly went dark and then back to a slow sunrise as we passed glaciers and rocky terrain. We headed over Russia and China before descending over Malaysia into Singapore accompanied by an announcement from the pilot about this historical moment. After landing it was time to say goodbye, the cabin crew still looking as fresh and as happy as when we first boarded, what an amazing flight and making some friends along the way. A few pictures in the jet bridge and it was time to walk through Terminal 3 at Changi Airport, my first thought was for the swimming pool but then I decided to get live streaming from changi airport to my channel or to inflight video's facebook. I'd settled into a chair by the window about 10 minutes after leaving the aircraft and started setting up the camera ready to go and I thought, oh no! I need wifi access and you have to get it from the Information Desk or use a phone number. It was then when I made a bigger mistake, I looked around for my passport which is needed for the information desk, well in the excitement, I put it in the back seat pocket of the A350. Oh no, I was getting hotter and just crammed all my electronics, capture card, laptop into my bag and walked off to the info desk who directed me to the transfer desk, they had to ring security to get them to go back onto the plane to find it. Everyone was off i guess but luckily it wasn't flying out anywhere so they managed to get it after about an hour. I was relieved, thinking i was about to spend the entire weekend inside the Changi airport, i mean i think i would have needed the passport for the transit hotel until the British embassy opened up on Monday (i think) Luckily the security guy came straight to the desks and then came to me and gave it to me. It was about 6:15pm by this time, I then went to check out the transit hotels especially the T3 one which has a window view but they were sold out.

 In between this I had a look at a phone cable as I had left mine at home in England, I bought the cable and went off only to realise that my phone wasn't with me while i was still lugging around the bags and tripod along with the new a350 model bag. Thankfully it was still on the counter. more searching for the transit hotels in which they were also sold out so I had to sleep near gate E11, usually i can't sleep because of the piano music that I hear but I found a place and dozed off for 5 hours, the Best sleep I've had since leaving Manchester, well also the A350ULR flight, I had a good 3 hours and then kept waking up every hour, checking on my camera that it's still on. I woke up the next morning blurry eyed and was greeted by a grey sky with some rain drops on the window, I look at my phone and wow it was 8am, I had so much sleep and I see heavy 777 and A380 jets taking off while i'm just laying there. Amazing start to the day. I headed to Scoot Transfer to enquire about the a boarding pass, even though it's not a connected ticket transfer, I still got it done and was on my way for an egg muffin breakfast.