Booking this flight was a bit of a saga. Just over a year out, we decided that we would take this trip in the second half of August 2026. It’s not the ideal time to visit Japan as it’s hot and humid, but this trip was a long-delayed graduation present for our older daughter and her favorite Japanese band was playing a concert in Osaka on August 21st so we needed to build the trip around that event.

I researched the best way to book Japan Airlines or ANA at the time (it changes quite often depending on whether these airlines release seats to partners and if they do, how many). It became apparent that getting three premium seats on any ANA flight even a year out would be basically impossible. I turned my attention to JAL and found that they generally release one First Class and two Business Class award seats at the opening of the schedule 360 days out. There are exactly three programs to book these that far out: Japan Airlines, Finnair and Cathay Pacific. All the others don’t get access to these seats until closer in (examples: BA at 350 days out, AA at 330 days out).

Of course, we could wait and take our chances to see if AA or BA had access to the seats, but since we had a short window to book the award seats to get close to the date of the Osaka concert, I wanted to try and grab all three seats for us at schedule opening. Skipping ahead a few days, I was able to get us two Business Class seats and one First Class seat for our return from Tokyo to JFK so that was fine. For the outbound flight, I checked right at 11pm Eastern on the 360th day before the flight and someone had already grabbed the First Class seat from Dallas and the Business Class seats from JFK. So, I booked two DFW Business Class seats and one JFK First Class seat – all using Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (89k Business and 135k First) transferred from American Express.

Fast forward to about four months before the trip. I had transferred a bunch of Bilt points to JAL during an amazing transfer bonus in April. I turned 150k Bilt points into 338k JAL miles. I had waitlisted for a First Class award seat on JAL for the DFW flight, figuring that the only way it would clear is with JAL miles (140k). Well, thankfully, it cleared so we were now all on the same flight. Don’t worry, I’ve already used those refunded AsiaMiles for another trip.

My wife and daughter pre-boarded at DFW as my wife still has ankle issues and was using a cane for this trip. I waited to board with Group 1, which included First Class and One World Emerald members. I was very excited to try this new First Class product.

The seat was massive. I chose 2K as it had no door across from it and was very private. There were no overhead bins in First Class (or air vents – boo!) There was a wardrobe and a place for my backpack (or carry-on suitcase if I hadn’t checked it) under the footrest.

There was easily room for three people in the suite. In fact, there were three seatbelts. The screen was also massive at 43″, tied for the largest in any commercial airliner (with ANA’s new Suite). Unfortunately, the in-flight entertainment selection was lacking and I spent most of the flight looking at the map or the external cameras.

There was a tablet to my left that controlled the screen and other seat functions. There were also buttons for the seat and three separate areas with power outlets including AC, USB-A and USB-C, plus a wireless charger.

There are three options for audio: the provided headphones, your own Bluetooth headphones or in-seat speakers in the headrest. Don’t fall for the gimmick of the headrest speakers. You hear a lot of ambient sound and it just doesn’t work well. I used my own Bose QC45 headphones when I watched a movie.

The seat had tons of storage with several compartments, including one for shoes. One of them held a bottle of water.

There was an amenity kit already at my seat which included some unique items like a combo USB-C/lightning cable and a moisture mask plus some of the usual stuff like socks, eyeshades, earplugs and lotions. Slippers were provided. There was also a separate Shisheido men’s kit that is only provided in First Class.

I was offered a preflight beverage choice of sparkling wine or sparkling cold green tea and I chose the green tea since they don’t open the good champagne on the ground. I also received a wet towel (oshibori as it’s known in Japan), the first of many on this trip.

As we settled in, I quickly checked on my wife and daughter back in business class and they were getting comfortable while figuring out their seat features. We got delayed by about 45 minutes and I watched the maintenance crew climb in and out of the cockpit near the front landing gear on the camera system.

I took advantage of the delay to check out the First Class lavatory, and yes there’s of course a Japanese toilet in there.

I had taken pictures of the menu on my phone before the flight so I knew what was on offer without even looking at the provided paper menu.

In the same folder as the menu was a card with a free Wi-Fi code. The Wi-Fi was OK in that it worked through most of the flight, but it wasn’t very fast.

We eventually were cleared and we blasted off into the Texas sky. I was excited to try the $1300 Salon champagne.

I put on the only movie that I hadn’t seen that looked reasonably interesting: The Devil Wears Prada 2. It wasn’t very good but it passed the time during meal service.

First up was another towel and then a glass of the Salon. The flight attendant warned me that they only load one bottle and that others were also sampling it. In other words, drink up if you want a second glass!

I also received an amuse bouche with the champagne.

I thought the Salon was good but not amazing. I managed to get two small glasses before it was gone. I switched to the Bollinger champagne which was perfectly fine.

I went with the Japanese set menu and it was very good. It started with five small dishes.

Next up was a delicious noodle soup.

After that was a small plate with beef in a starchy soy sauce and gazpacho.

Then it was the main course of eel and tofu plus rice (and salmon roe) with miso soup and Japanese pickles.

If you are not an adventurous eater, you should probably stick with the Western menu, but I really enjoyed the flavors and textures of the Japanese food. Dessert was light and refreshing. I had some hot green tea with it.

I ended the meal with a glass of the 100th anniversary Hibiki whiskey that is only available on JAL and ANA for a limited time. If it blew me away, I could have bought a bottle, but while I liked it, I didn’t think it was worth it to lug a whole bottle of it around with me for two weeks.

I was offered pajamas after the meal and I changed into them. The crew did a good job of keeping the cabin temperature cool but I still used my USB fan for extra airflow. I don’t really understand why airlines don’t all opt for the air vents.

The flight attendant set up the bed for me. The thick mattress pad is super comfortable. I couldn’t really sleep much though as it was around 3pm eastern time.

It was nice to have control over the window shades so I could darken them and then gradually lighten them as we got closer to landing. As I couldn’t sleep any more, I decided to watch some movies I had downloaded on my iPad.

A couple of hours later, I decided to try the famous JAL ramen and the Queen of Blue tea which retails for around $300. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it honestly just tasted like tea. I also got the fruit and ice cream after the ramen. All of the food was excellent.

A bit later, I tried the smoked salmon bagel. It was more like cooked salmon than smoked. I didn’t eat much of it.

I napped for a bit longer and then went to see my wife and daughter. My wife was sleeping, but my daughter was awake. I invited her to come up and join me for some caviar. She sat in the extended seat next to me.

After another short nap, I changed back into my clothes as we were getting closer to landing. I went to see if my wife was awake and since she was, I invited her to join me for coffee. It was served with chocolate goodies. She sat on the buddy seat across from me.

I thought the flight attendants were great in letting my family share a bit of the First Class service with me. Don’t worry, my wife gets a First Class seat on the way home!

As we approached Tokyo, I got some pictures of the sprawling metropolis.

We landed about 10 minutes late, which was fine, as we had a long connection before our domestic flight to Osaka. I’ll have all the details about our international to domestic connection in the next post.

Overall, I really enjoyed my JAL A350 First Class experience. While I would put the seat/bed up against any competitor, including Emirates Gamechanger and Etihad Apartment, the overall experience fell a bit short of those carriers. The expensive champagne and tea masked a fairly mediocre wine list and limited overall beverage menu. The service was friendly and well-intentioned, but not super polished. The Wi-Fi was slow and the IFE selection was lacking, with limited recent movies and no live TV.

Up Next: Navigating an International to Domestic Connection at Haneda Airport

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