It’s Friday, so let’s just forget about reality and move into the world of the super rich and famous. The hot trend these days? Private suites doubling as First Class. Emirates, Qantas, and Singapore are all entering the ring as are others, and it’s just ridiculously awesome, to say the least.

Now I didn’t get the chance to see Emirates’ stuff because I ran out of time. Since I’ll be on their A380 demo flight next week, I figured I could put them last. I did, however, get to see Qantas and Singapore show off their stuff. Which one wins? Well, they both do. Singapore has fantastic privacy while Qantas has some pretty cool uses of space. I’d be happy to take either one on my next trip.

Let’s start with Qantas, since that’s the one I saw first. These suites will be going into the A380 aircraft that begin flying for the airline soon. When you enter the suite, you can see that it appears to be open on the far side. This will usually be the side of the aircraft, but if you’re in the one in the middle, it may still be open to the aisle. I didn’t get clarification on that.

From the picture at left, you can see the floorspace to the left of the center of the seat. That’s where your TV is, and it’s where your tray table rolls out as well as your bed. The seat turns left and goes flat that way to avoid taking up so much room on the plane.

At right, you see the friendly flight attendant presenter sitting at what would be the foot end of your bed. When you’re not laying down, that becomes a seat and the tray table rolls out in between you so you can share a meal. It’s quite nice. That metal thing at the right of the picture? That’s your TV screen folded up.

The coolest part of this? The remote control. Check out this bad boy at left. It’s actually pretty heavy, but it’s impressive what it can do. Watch videos, listen to music, turn on your massager, dim your lighting, and electronically shade your windows if you’d like. It’s so cool. Hopefully it doesn’t break with so much complexity.

Now let’s talk about Singapore. They’ve gone for a different style of suite. The view at right is from the door. You look right and you see the very plush seat. If you looked left, you’d see the TV. Straight ahead of you is where the tray table rolls out. There is no angle here at all.

The bed is completely separate from the seat here. In fact, it took a couple minutes to set up and it’s a fairly complex procedure. Since this is Singapore, the flight attendants do it for you, and will of course be at your beck and call. The bed itself lies in the wall behind the seat. The seat folds down and the bed unfolds over it. You can see this (sort of) at left. You can also see that the attention to detail is phenomenal. They’ve even put a place for you to hang your headphones when you’re in bed. All of the suites here (and on Qantas, for that matter) have multiple locations for entertainment controls so that regardless of your position, the controls are always within reach.

This last shot (at right) shows me sitting down with spokesperson James Boyd. He is where my feet would lie in flat bed position. And you can see the screen behind his head. The table was very big and seemingly sturdy. It was a very comfortable place to be.

Though the walls of the suite don’t go all the way up, you have plenty of privacy here. There are shades over two open air holes looking to the aisle, and when you pull them down, only the bottom is see-through. This is, of course, for flight attendants to perform their duties.

As you can see, these are incredible and ridiculous all at the same time. It’s amazing to think how quickly First Class has gone upmarket. As long as there is enough demand for these seats, we can expect to continue to see more and more innovation in this area. Though I may not have the chance to fly it, it’s still fun to drool over.

I know where I’ll be on March 19. Airbus has buckled under the pressure from Qantas and LA World Airports and announced it will bring an A380 to LAX on the same day it brings one to JFK.

The initial announcement said that Airbus would bring the plane to JFK, Dulles, and Chicago/O’Hare on behalf of Lufthansa. Well, Qantas wasn’t too happy about that, and they wanted to see the plane come to their huge LAX operation. Meanwhile, LAX said that Airbus had promised the airport the first visit in the US if they completed the upgrade work necessary to allow the A380 to operate. Well, they did, and now they’re getting their way.

I haven’t seen any details, but with any luck they’ll land on the north runways. I’ll be sitting at In ‘n Out watching if that’s the case.

You go away for a few days and all kinds of crazy stuff happens. Here’s the latest.

• JetBlue said on Monday that they received approval for four daily flights to Chicago/O’Hare. The flights would have to start by January. They don’t have a gate yet, but US Airways indicated they don’t need an old America West gate in Third World Terminal 2, so that would be the best bet now. I would also guess that all four flights would go to New York/JFK.
• United said today that they’ll return to Rome with nonstop flights from Washington/Dulles beginning April 1. They haven’t flown to Rome (or Milan for that matter) for several years. This flight will run with a 777. They’ve added a good amount of 777 flying lately, so I’m really curious where these planes are coming from.
• Qantas says they will bring back flights between San Francisco and Vancouver for December and January. That flight had previously brought cruise traffic to Vancouver in the northern summer months. Fly in the first 10 days of December and you can go for $119 each way.
• Frontier will continue to add flights in California, away from its main Denver hub so it can diversify. The latest announcement came Tuesday saying that they have applied for three times weekly service from Sacramento and four times weekly service from San Jose to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico starting next March. They will also start one daily flight between San Francisco and Las Vegas on December 14. That flight appears to just take advantage of a plane sitting on the ground in San Francisco. It leaves there at 820p and turns around right away getting back to San Francisco at 1150p.
• It wouldn’t be a route announcement without something from Delta. Starting January 11, the airline will begin three daily flights (two on weekends) between Boston and Chicago/Midway. This one defies all logic, especially since the schedule isn’t very good. The first flight from Chicago isn’t until 9a and the last flight back from Boston is at 435p. This is clearly aimed at the Boston market, but I’m not so sure it’s going to work when American and United basically fly hourly to O’Hare.

Qantas’ low cost carrier, Jetstar, announced today that their first long haul routes between Honolulu and Sydney/Melbourne have gone on sale. To kick off the route, they’re offering a crazy US$111 fare each way. This doesn’t include tax, but it still seems like you can go all-in for under $300 roundtrip.

These flights operate 3x a week to Sydney and 2x a week to Melbourne on A330 aircraft. One thing to note, Qantas itself will continue to fly between Sydney and Honolulu on its own 3x a week, but those flights aren’t going to have this sale fare on them.

You have to book 4p today (though it doesn’t say in which timezone) and travel Feb 1 through May 21 of next year. Go to www.jetstar.com to try it out.