Now it was time to head home, again on Japan Airlines A350-1000, but this time my wife and I switched places. I was in Business Class and she was in First Class.
We were a bit delayed boarding at Haneda, but eventually, we got onboard. My daughter and I each had window seats. I was in 5A and she was in 7A. We both like looking out the window so I decided this was better than getting two seats together in the center.
JL6 HND-JFK
A350-1000
Scheduled: 11:05-11:05
Actual: 11:25-10:39
I found my seat and it was very spacious for a business class seat. Everything I needed was already at the seat including headphones (I used my own), pillow and blanket.
There was a lot of storage space in the seat as well. My backpack fit under the footwell. Below the wardrobe is a small storage area for shoes as well.
There was an amenity kit that was essentially the same as the one I received in First Class. There was not the additional Shiseido kit though.
Just like in First Class, you can use the provided headphones, your own Bluetooth headphones or the in-seat speakers by your head. As I thought in First Class, the in-seat speakers are silly and not worth using as you can still hear all the ambient noise around you.
I was greeted by the flight attendant and offered a pre-flight beverage. I chose the champagne.
Here’s the menu for the flight. I downloaded it on my phone prior to the flight, but there were printed menus as well.
Here is the beverage menu:
We were running a few minutes late, but we had plenty of time as our flight from JFK to Atlanta wasn’t until four hours after we were due to land in New York. We taxied out in Japan and I got some views of Tokyo Bay on takeoff just before we ended up in the clouds. We were wheels up at 11:50am.
About 40 minutes after takeoff, service began. Lunch started with a beverage service. I continued with the champagne. An amuse bouche of mixed nuts, breadsticks and a dip was also served.
I chose the Japanese meal and watched a movie I had downloaded on my iPad during the meal service as I once again couldn’t find anything worth watching on the limited in flight entertainment selection.
The Japanese appetizers were served next. They were tasty as expected. The chopstick holder in the shape of a bird may have made its way into my backpack.
The two differences I could see between the First Class and Business Class main meal were an extra appetizer course and an extra soup course. In Business Class, we went directly to the main course next. Everything tasted great.
Dessert was light and delicious. I assure you it tasted better than it looks.
After lunch, I tried to sleep a bit. The mattress pad wasn’t as thick as in First Class, but was still comfortable. Because it was around 1pm Japan time, I gave up after a bit and watched some episodes of Silo on my iPad.
After a couple of hours, I decided to order something from the anytime menu. I tried the pork katsu sandwich and the JAL SkyTime drink. This might have been my favorite thing I ate on the flight.
I had some ice cream after this, although I also ordered fruit and it wasn’t available anymore.
I had a lot of issues with the Wi-Fi on this flight. I had planned to try and watch or at least follow the Liverpool match at 7:30am Eastern time (9:30pm Japan time) as it would be played while we were in the air. After some intermittent connectivity, the Wi-Fi basically stopped working about three hours into the flight and never really worked properly again.
As we flew over Northern Canada, we got a bit of the sunrise through the dimmable windows.
I mostly kept the screen on the external cameras.
After napping a bit and watching some more Silo, I had the Japanese breakfast before landing. It wasn’t a ton of food, but I wasn’t that hungry at this point.
Finally, about 1/2 hour before landing, the Wi-Fi began working and I found out that Liverpool had tied 2-2. We had some nice views of Manhattan on approach to JFK.
We were actually early into Terminal 8 at JFK. There was nobody in line at Global Entry or Mobile Passport (which our daughter used) and our bags came out fairly quickly. We paid for a baggage cart ($9) and schlepped everything over to Terminal 4 on the AirTrain. Being a Saturday made the airport fairly quiet. At T4, we were able to change to an earlier Delta flight to Atlanta where we got home around 6pm the same day we left Tokyo.
Overall, I really enjoyed Japan Airlines A350-1000 Business Class. While the First Class seat is impressive, I don’t think the marginal improvements in service and food/drinks is worth the premium charged over Business Class. I would rank Business Class fairly high among the different airlines I have flown, just behind some of the Middle Eastern carriers. First Class ranks lower among the ones I have flown, mainly because it doesn’t differentiate that much from Business Class. There’s no ground service at the airline hub, the lounge isn’t all that impressive, the service didn’t blow me away and while the seat is huge and super comfortable, the Business Class seat is also relatively large and very well designed. My wife generally agreed with my thoughts having also flown both products.
Up Next: Overall Thoughts on Visiting Japan
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