It was finally time to head back stateside. Our gate was almost right below the ANA Lounge so thankfully it was a short walk. We boarded with the pre-boarding announcement, which was surprisingly a bit chaotic for a Japanese airline. We all scanned our boarding passes and then had to wait about five minutes for them to actually allow us on the jetway.

NH110 HND-JFK 777-300ER
Scheduled: 11:00-11:10
Actual: 11:16-11:15
Flight time: 13:01

We eventually got on board the refurbished 777 featuring The Room business class. We boarded through door 2 and found our seats, 11D and 11G, rear-facing center seats in the 1-2-1 setup. Like QSuites, ANA has alternating rear and forward facing seats by the windows and in the center.

There were overhead air vents (although they were hard to reach), easy to reach seat controls and storage areas.

Once we lowered the center partition, we had a nice area to ourselves. Unlike QSuites, the center partition did not go down all the way to make a double bed, but that was OK as we likely wouldn’t sleep on the same schedule as this was an 11am flight.

Everyone boarded through door 2 except first class so almost every passenger funneled past us enviously. We were offered a pre-flight drink of champagne (not sure what kind).

The amenity kit bag was nice, but there wss nothing too exciting inside with just a couple of products beyond the typical eye shades, socks, etc.

We pushed back about 15 minutes late. We did have a fairly tight inter-terminal connection at JFK, but I wasn’t too worried at that point.

About 30 minutes after takeoff, we received menus and were offered a drink. Here are the menus:

As you can see, both meals had a Japanese and Western option. The Japanese options are pre-set meals while the main international meal had a choice of main course. We both went with the Japanese options for both meals, as we were flying from Japan and both love Japanese food.

I started with the special Suntory World Whiskey. I had low expectations, but it was surprisingly good for a business class blended whiskey. It was served with an amuse bouche including the ANA sesame sticks which are delicious.

My wife sampled a few of the sakes and told me which one she liked the best. Of course it was the one with 19% alcohol content. I ordered it to go with my meal.

The service was at a good pace, not too fast or slow. The flight attendants spoke decent English and were always friendly and courteous as you would expect. The meal was delicious from start to finish.

While I was eating lunch, I finished watching season 3 of Slow Horses on my iPad while I also checked out the external cameras and the moving map on the crisp HD screen. You could even bring up speed, altitude and heading indicators on top of the picture.

After the meal (and the booze), I reclined and slept about three hours. I honestly don’t remember if a flight attendant made up the bed for me or I just did it myself. I did find the seat very comfortable for reclining and sleeping despite reading some reports online that the seat was very hard. It was fine for me. The surface area is huge so it’s easy to find a comfy position.

When I woke up, I decided to work my way through the snack menu and started with the ramen and the special ANA drink while I watched the movie American Fiction.

I then had some ice cream.

I really enjoyed the ramen and the movie. After that, I watched The Holdovers and tried the chicken sandwich.

My Bose noise canceling headphones were running a bit low on battery, so I switched the ANA headphones and they were actually excellent and very comfortable. I wouldn’t hesitate to just use them instead of my own headphones to watch the IFE if I flew ANA again.

I probably should have slept a bit more as it was the middle of the night in the US. My wife slept for about 6-7 hours on the flight, basically between the two meals.

About 2.5 hours out, it was time for another Japanese breakfast. I paired it with the ANA special drink and then had some coffee afterwards as it was now morning in our destination.

On our descent into JFK, I watched the cameras all the way to the ground.

It was a bit weird facing backwards and watching the cameras move forward. We don’t get motion sick on planes (and my wife doesn’t bother with the cameras or looking out the window anyway) so it wasn’t an issue for us, but it’s something to be aware of if you suffer from motion sickness.

We touched down at JFK and arrived at our gate about five minutes late. On our way off the plane, we walked through First Class with The Suite and my wife commented “next time book this!” We’ll see.

It was the first time I had ever been in Terminal 7 at JFK and it did not look like the other newer terminals. It reminded me of the 1970s. We went through Global Entry quickly, waited about 10 minutes for our checked bags to come out and then schlepped them all onto the Airtrain and over to Terminal 4. At this point, it was almost noon. We checked our bags with Delta through an automated kiosk and dropped them at the counter. Thankfully, security was fairly quick thanks to Clear and Pre-Check.

We had about 20 minutes to visit the SkyClub, grab a cold drink and use the restroom. At that time of day, it was busy, but there was no line to get in. Our gate was all the way at the end of the B gates, so my poor wife had to limp down there in her ankle boot.

Our flight to Atlanta was at 1:30pm and landed early. We were in Comfort+ and I slept through most of it, even in a middle seat. When we arrived, my wife finally took advantage of the wheelchair that I had ordered for her so she could stay off her bad ankle for the long journey from plane to Uber.

We ended the trip with one of the worst Uber drivers I’ve ever had. She was constantly speeding in and out of traffic lanes and looking at her phone. I gave her no tip, three stars and some negative feedback, things I rarely do.

In any event, we arrived home around 5pm, exhausted but glad to be home after 19 days away. I hope you enjoyed this trip report. I’ll have one more post about the destinations to wrap things up.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.