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The World’s Best Airport Hotel Review: Crowne Plaza Singapore Changi, 1 Bedroom Suite
Thanks for following along on my Mom’s Surprise Trip Around the World. We just landed in Singapore and it’s super late. Luckily the Crown Plaza Singapore is attached to Terminal 3 and we can walk there within minutes. It’s also been voted the best airport hotel in the world multiple times, and seemed like a great place to leverage IHG Spire Elite status with points for a night’s stay.
See…we were headed to Bali, but my mom had no idea. All she knew was that she boarded a plane in Beijing, enjoyed Singapore Suites for 8 hours – thanks to a delay, and went through immigration. With our bags stacked on a luggage rack we turned left ( we were pretty used to that at this point 😉 ) and within a couple minutes we were inside the Crowne Plaza.
I wasn’t lying…
Welcome to the future.
The Deets:
- When: April 2017
- Where: Singapore
- Loyalty: IHG
- Status: Spire Elite
- Price: 40k per night, per room.
Check In –
Surprisingly, it was fairly hectic at 1:30-2am, but the elite desk opened up and we moseyed over. My mom was a bit confused that we were staying at the airport so we broke it to her and this wasn’t our final destination and that we only flew that route so we could enjoy Singapore Suites. Tomorrow afternoon…we would head to different surprise destination.
Spire Elite was acknowledged and my parents were upgraded to a 1 Bedroom Executive Suite, and I was given a room next door. The weird thing was that the hotel had a club level, and typically Spires get club level. We didn’t.
The Suite was outstanding. Roughly 800sq ft.
- Guest bath? Check.
- Flat Screens? Check
- Floor to ceiling windows? Check
- Big bed. Big shower? Check, check.
- Love hotel room amenity kits.
And then my room…
They had a cool feature where you could take a phone that was docked next to the bed out and about and it wouldn’t cost a thing. The room had a really interesting leaf design on the wall that partially covered the window peeking in on the bathtub.
The bathroom: I’m not really sure why there’s been this big push for hotels to put glass walls, shutters, screens, etc next to bathtubs. I was in the room alone, but there has never been a time, not once, where I’ve left it open…maybe I’m the odd one out, but is that something people frequently do? Watch their travel mate use the bathroom?
We both had similar views…
The hotel has resort like common areas inside and out. You’re literally attached to an airport, but when you go by the pool, you feel as though you’re in the tropics. HOW DOPE!
The hallways of the hotel are outside. If you haven’t been to Singapore…IT IS HOT and BALMY, but they’ve landscaped and designed the hotel to make you feel like you’re on vacation, not holed up at some airport hotel. Well done.
Gym…
Club access…
I inquired around 11 to see if we had club access and was told that we had been given a suite instead. Odd. I’m not sure that that was the truth, but we were looking to have a real lunch anyways. Originally we were supposed to get in around 11pm and would have been up to enjoy breakfast, but I don’t think any of us fell asleep before 3. As a result, we weren’t up in the morning in time to make the breakfast anyways, and with check out extended to 4pm we enjoyed the suite a lot.
Overall:
I would undoubtedly recommend the Crown Plaza. I’ve only stayed in one other airport hotel that I could say came anywhere close to this one: Intercontinental Johannesburg, but it didn’t have the exterior vibe like the Crown Plaza. You could easily spend a day by their pool drinking mojitos, tanning, and, aside from air traffic, never once feel as though you were at an airport hotel. The terminals are so easy to navigate between that even if you aren’t staying in Terminal 3 you’d have no difficulty getting to the hotel. We were departing for Bali out of a different terminal and it wasn’t a big deal at all.
You don’t have to stop here. Check out how we paid $5k and took a $125k Surprise trip Around The World to celebrate my Mom’s 75th
Flights:
- Boston to Beijing
- American Airlines First Class 737 Los Angeles to Boston
- Cathay Pacific First Class 777-300ER Boston to Hong Kong ($17k value)
- Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-300ER Boston to Hong Kong ($7k value)
- Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-200 Hong Kong to Beijing
- Beijing to Singapore
- Singapore Airlines Suites A380 Beijing to Singapore ($3k)
- Singapore to Bali Roundtrip
- KLM Business Class 777-200 Singapore to Bali ($400)
- KLM Business Class 777-200 Bali to Singapore
- Singapore to Dubai
- Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Singapore to Dubai ($4k)
- Abu Dhabi to Cannes, France
- Etihad Airways First Class Apartment A380 Abu Dhabi to London ($8k)
- Etihad Airways Business Studio A380 Abu Dhabi to London ( $3500-5k)
- British Airways Club Europe A321 London to Nice
- Cannes, France to Dallas
- Lufthansa Business Class A321 Nice to Frankfurt ($10k)
- Lufthansa First Class A330 Frankfurt to Dallas
Hotels:
- Boston
- Intercontinental Boston ($450)
- Beijing
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
- Club King ($250)
- Singapore
- Crowne Plaza Singapore Airport, 1 Bedroom Suite ($300)
- Bali
- Mandapa, Ritz Carlton Reserve 1 Bedroom Rice Paddy View Villa ($600/night)
- Conrad Bali 1 Bedroom Ocean View Suite ($400/night)
- Singapore
- Intercontinental Singapore ($400/night)
- Dubai
- JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, 1 Bedroom Executive Suite ($450)
- Abu Dhabi
- Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi ($300)
- Cannes, France
- Intercontinental Carlton Cannes, France ($300)
- Dallas
- Grand Hyatt DFW ($150
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
Lounges
- Boston
- British Airways Lounge Boston Logan
- Hong Kong
- Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
- Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge The Wing
- Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge The Pier
- Beijing
- Air China First Class Lounge
- Singapore
- DNata Lounge
- Bali
- Garuda Indoneisa Business Class Lounge
- Premier Lounge
- Singapore
- Singapore Airlines First Class Check-In
- Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge SIN
- Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge SIN
- Singapore Airlines Private Room SIN
- Abu Dhabi
- Etihad First Class Lounge
- Etihad Business Class Lounge
- Etihad Shave Experience
- London
- British Airways First Class Lounge LHR Terminal 5
- Nice
- Living Room Azur
- Frankfurt
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt Terminal A
TIPS:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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