Best seats: business class ("Affaires"), Air France Airbus A380

Air France's A380s will be winging their way to and from Singapore from this April, and they'll be codesharing the route with Qantas, so if you book the red roo all the way to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, you'll end up on Air France for the longer Singapore-Paris leg of the trip.

You'll find Affaires -- that's French for "business" -- at the front of the upper deck cabin of Air France's A380s.

The business class cabin

Air France has chosen a relatively uncompetitive angled lie-flat business class seat for its A380, similar to the regional business class offerings from many Asian airlines or Qantas' first generation Skybed. 

There's a surprisingly small amount of legroom and space between the seats, so don't count on a huge amount of room:

Upstairs on the A380, you'll find 80 business seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration, at the front of the plane. (Behind you'll find premium economy on some planes and economy on all.)

Window fans beware -- K seats on Air France's A380 are not window seats. The layout has seats AB on the left hand side, EF in the middle, and KL on the right hand side.

The best seats on the plane

60A 60L 65A 65L: if you're a window fan, or just dislike being by the aisle, these bulkhead seats are hands-down the best on the plane. With extra legroom, you can stretch out properly and hop neatly over the aisle passenger next to you.

60E 60F 65E 65F: for aisle lovers, these bulkheads are the seats to snag: nobody climbing over you, and extra legroom to boot.

60B 60K 65B 65K: tall and prefer the aisle? If you can't snag any of the seats above, these bulkheads are better than many, since they have extra legroom and it's easier for the window passenger to vault over you.

E & F seats: if you can't pick up any of the seats above, we'd pick an E or F seat. These centre pairs have nobody clambering over you, though there's less legroom than the bulkheads.

The worst seats on the plane

Rows 73, 72, 71: in descending order, these seats in front of premium economy are most likely to be disturbed by noise and potential screaming children in the bassinet crib seats behind.

Rows 64, 63: Avoid these rows at the back of the first cabin, near the lavatories and galley kitchens, if you can.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.