Japan Airlines First Class Review

Airline	Plane Type	Class of Service	Route	Rating
Japan Air (JL)	Boeing 777	First	LAX-HND	7/10

Booking

In recent months, both Japan Air and ANA tend to release some last minute premium award space to/from Japan. If one is flexible with the gateway departure and the date plus/minus a couple days you can often find last minute availability. About a week and a half out I found JL First class space from LAX to HND and ANA The Room business class space HND-SFO. I figured this was a good opportunity for a quick stay in Tokyo to grab some sushi and for a couple updated flight reviews. I booked the Japan Air First class flight with AA miles. The total was 80K AA miles and $5.60 in fees.

Ground Experience

I arrived to LAX from DEN on an earlier flight in the morning. I walked over to Tom Bradley International terminal to check into my flight. I asked the check-in agent if a window seat was available as I was not able to choose one ahead of time online (when I booked there were only a couple middle seats available). Unfortunately, nothing had changed with a full checked-in first class cabin. I was given my boarding pass and on my way in quick order. JAL First class passengers have access to the Qantas International First Class lounge at LAX.

The Qantas First class lounge is one of my favorite US domestic lounges with great a la carte dining, coffee and elegant design. However, the lounge has a rather sterile feeling particularly without natural light and runway views.

I ended up ordering the light breakfast as I wanted to save room for the dining options on the upcoming flight.

Cabin & Seat

As noted earlier, the flight was full with all 8 first class seats occupied. The seats are in the forward cabin with two rows of 1-2-1 configuration. I was assigned to seat 1D, which was the middle seat on the left side of the cabin.

The proprietary Japan Airlines First Class seat is aging and not nearly as private as some of today’s leading business class products. Even so, the seat is spacious and very comfortable, spanning 22.8 inches wide and 78.3 inches long. The middle seats have a privacy shield that can be raised if not traveling together with someone.

The  seat itself is quite wide and has comfortable leather upholstery. It reminds you of your favorite comfort chair at home. There is a nice shield around the seat for privacy (unless leaning way forward you cannot see the person across the aisle).

Then the front of the seat has an ottoman, personal television, and the tray table. The tray table pulls out so that if you are traveling with someone the ottoman can be used as a seat for the other passenger if one wishes to dine together.

The seat has a good amount of storage — on the left side of the seat is a long (but narrow) storage compartment, the entertainment controller, another small compartment, and a small monitor. Seat functions could also be controlled from here. You could either adjust specific functions of the seat, or you could just choose from a few pre-sets.

JAL provides turn down service with an additional mattress pad (I had the option for “soft†or “hard†and opted for the hard one), additional blanket and pillow.

In-Flight Dining

Upon settling into my seat, I was offered water or orange juice. Most international airlines don’t serve champagne on the ground departing from the US due to tax and wait until airborne.

The food and beverage menus are provided in a nice leather folder.

Japan Air is famous for serving Salon champagne, which is one of the most expensive champagne’s available in the air (retails for $400+). Unfortunately, they only serve it on flights departing from Japan. On my flight they have Champagne Billecart Salmon and Champagne Lanson. With a full cabin, apparently they ran out of Billecart Salmon quickly as I only had one pour before they ran out. Unlike other first class flights, champagne wasn’t served in a proper flute but rather standard wine glass.

On Japanese airlines, I typically order the Japanese course. Japanese is one of my favorite international cuisines and the airlines typically do it well and the food holds up well for serving on airplanes. I was able to add caviar as an appetizer with my Japanese course menu. It was served unconventionally with waffles and smoked salmon, although it was still tasty. No mother of pearl spoon for the caviar was a slight miss however. Overall the food was very good and comparable to other top tier first class products.

The next meal service was a couple hours prior to landing. Instead of a set menu, JAL does an a la carte menu for the pre-landing service. While there is no main course, there were several light meal options to choose from. I was able to order a couple (Japanese curry with potatoes and onions and JAL’s special ramen noodle). I then had a fruit plate and ice cream for dessert.

All in all the food was quite good and filling.

Amenities & Service

Asian carriers in general are known for exceptional service. I found the FA’s to be pleasant and were happy to assist with any general needs and were proactive in providing help such as turn down service. The primary FA that worked my aisle was younger but had more limited English capability than the senior FA. I did find somewhat odd pressure to buy duty free while on flight which isn’t an experience I have come across on other flights.

On board, JAL provides solid amenities including a soft shell case from Zero Halliburton and quality PJ’s. The PJ’s are on the thicker/warmer side. Do note that JAL tends to keep cabins quite warm on flight so for some people the thick PJ’s aren’t a blessing to be worn onboard given the warm cabin temperatures.

Not only is there an amenity kit, but JAL also provides a separate Shiseido kit with products which is a nice addition.

Japan Airlines also provides free wi-fi for passengers in First class. Noise-canceling headphones were Panasonic-branded and worked very well.

One drawback of the IFE is that the main screen is not touch screen. Rather you have to use a handheld device which lists the movies, TV shows, games, audio, etc available on the flight. A moving map and in-flight shopping are also available. The main screen itself is a 23 inch HD screen, although not as crisp and high resolution as ANA’s new First class product.

Overall Impression

I found Japan Airlines both hard product and soft product to be good, but not excellent. The seat is comfortable but nothing in particular stands out. Service was good but there were a few minor mishaps plus the odd feeling of duty free sales pressure. I look forward to what the new JAL product will be like when their new signature first and business class gets rolled out later this year on the A350-1000. In the meantime, JAL F provides a solid way across the Pacific but one that I wouldn’t go out of my way to experience.