Five Premium Cabins Worth Burning Points On in 2025

I've flown enough premium cabins to have lost the reflex of being automatically impressed. A lie-flat seat is a lie-flat seat. Champagne on the ground is still just champagne. At a certain point, the novelty fades and you start noticing what's actually good versus what's merely expensive — and more importantly, which products are worth the often absurd effort of booking with points.

These are the five I want to fly this year. Not because they're the hardest to book or the most lavish, but because each one offers something specific that I haven't experienced and can't get anywhere else.

5. Lufthansa First — FRA

Lufthansa's business class on the 747-8 is a 2-2 configuration, which is to say it's bad. I flew it in 2021 on the upper deck and spent the entire flight wondering how a five-star alliance carrier settled for a product where you might have to climb over a stranger to use the bathroom. It left a mark.

But Lufthansa First is a different proposition entirely. Seat 1A in the nose of the 747-8. The First Class Terminal at Frankfurt — the only dedicated first class terminal in the world — with the tarmac transfer by Mercedes to the aircraft. This is the kind of theater that sounds absurd until you realize it's been running for decades and the Germans take it completely seriously. I want to see if the experience redeems the airline in my estimation, or if it's just a very expensive apology for the rest of the fleet.

4. ANA First — NRT

Japan is my favorite destination, and ANA's first class is the pinnacle of the value redemption. The hard product is excellent — individual suites on the 777, with a level of fit and finish that reflects the same culture that produces $300 chef's knives and train systems that apologize for being fourteen seconds late.

The real draw is the food. ANA's first class catering out of Tokyo is by most accounts the best meal available at 40,000 feet. Multi-course kaiseki, quality sake, and the kind of quiet, precise service that makes you feel like a guest rather than a customer. The catch is availability — ANA releases very little first class award space, and what exists requires positioning to a gateway city. From New York, that means a reposition to somewhere on the West Coast or a connection through another Star Alliance carrier. Worth it.

3. JAL A350-1000 First — NRT

JAL's new first class suite on the A350-1000 is the freshest hard product in the sky right now. Brand new aircraft, brand new cabin, and a suite design that looks genuinely private in a way that most first class products don't — sliding doors, a wide seat, and enough space that the word "suite" isn't marketing fiction.

My only JAL experience is business class on their 777, which has a 2-3-2 layout that includes — remarkably — middle seats in a five-star business cabin. The privacy is better than you'd think if both neighbors put their dividers up, but it's not a configuration you'd design if you were starting from scratch. The A350 is JAL starting from scratch. I want to see what they do when the constraints are removed.

2. Emirates A380 First — The Shower

In 2024 I flew Emirates First on their fifth-freedom route ATH–EWR, which was spectacular — the suite, the service, the bar, the general maximalism of the whole operation. Emirates is the one carrier that treats first class as genuine spectacle rather than quiet luxury, and the result is an experience that's closer to a boutique hotel than an airplane cabin.

The one thing I missed was the shower. The A380 has an onboard shower spa — actual running water at 40,000 feet — and it's only available on A380 routes. From New York, that means Dubai or a creative routing through a European gateway. I've been watching the MXP–JFK route, which runs A380 equipment and occasionally releases first class award space. The shower is a gimmick, obviously. But it's a gimmick I'd like to experience before they retire the A380 fleet.

1. Singapore Suites — The Double Bed

A double bed in the sky. Two adjacent suites on the A380 that convert into a shared bedroom with a full-size mattress. It's the single most excessive thing in commercial aviation and arguably the most romantic — the kind of product that only exists because Singapore Airlines decided to treat the upper deck of an A380 as a design problem rather than a capacity problem.

SQ no longer flies the A380 to New York, which makes this harder to book from the East Coast. The current Suites routes are LHR, SYD, DEL, and a few others that rotate seasonally. The play from NYC is probably positioning to London and booking SIN–LHR, which has the added benefit of being a long enough flight to actually enjoy the bed. Mainly Miles maintains a tracker of which routes currently have Suites equipment — it's the best resource for planning.

This is the one I'd burn a significant number of points on without hesitation. Not because it's the "best value" — the cents-per-point math is irrelevant here — but because it's an experience that can't exist anywhere else.