moondog
Oct 25, 09, 6:24 am
Yo, all.
I ended up flying the route in question yesterday because I missed my NW flight the day previously and didn't feel like ponying up the $250 change fee. Instead, I decided to use 67.5k AA miles and $133 to fly JL.
My flight ended up being really good. People often like to use AA and UA as reference points for this sort of thing. In this particular case, there is/was no comparison at all; JL was much, much, much better. BTW, I've also done SQ and NH on the same route and this was simply the best.
I caught an older airplane yesterday (in fact, its very last day of service), which meant that I didn't have a big TV or fancy "suite" set-up. However, even with the old style, JL still only parks 11 seats in its cone cabin and treats pax like rock stars.
Since you've all read many trip reports of this nature, I'd like to skip over the standard stuff (i.e., yes, the food/wines are pretty solid) in order to focus on points that hit home with me-
-I was fast asleep in the lounge during the boarding hour, but the JL people physically moved me from the lounge to my seat on board; I didn't notice anything at all
-The purser seemed to be available 100% of the time; simply glancing in her direction resulted in FA attention (those of you that do AA/UA/NW surely realize that this sort of treatment is special)
-I had both Japanese and Western meals
-In spite of the fact that I don't care for champagne any more, Nicolas Feuillate Palmes d'or 1997 is sweet stuff (much better than the Perrier Jouet flower bottle that was also on offer)
-I was a big fan of their special olive oil, butter, and sea salt; over spending on small items like that gives passengers the impression that the airline cares about them
In closing, I typically average about 2 F segments per year, so I'm not an expert here. However, the fact that JL delivered an experience that compelled me to post here speaks volumes (i.e. you haven't read my NW trip reports because they don't exist).
I ended up flying the route in question yesterday because I missed my NW flight the day previously and didn't feel like ponying up the $250 change fee. Instead, I decided to use 67.5k AA miles and $133 to fly JL.
My flight ended up being really good. People often like to use AA and UA as reference points for this sort of thing. In this particular case, there is/was no comparison at all; JL was much, much, much better. BTW, I've also done SQ and NH on the same route and this was simply the best.
I caught an older airplane yesterday (in fact, its very last day of service), which meant that I didn't have a big TV or fancy "suite" set-up. However, even with the old style, JL still only parks 11 seats in its cone cabin and treats pax like rock stars.
Since you've all read many trip reports of this nature, I'd like to skip over the standard stuff (i.e., yes, the food/wines are pretty solid) in order to focus on points that hit home with me-
-I was fast asleep in the lounge during the boarding hour, but the JL people physically moved me from the lounge to my seat on board; I didn't notice anything at all
-The purser seemed to be available 100% of the time; simply glancing in her direction resulted in FA attention (those of you that do AA/UA/NW surely realize that this sort of treatment is special)
-I had both Japanese and Western meals
-In spite of the fact that I don't care for champagne any more, Nicolas Feuillate Palmes d'or 1997 is sweet stuff (much better than the Perrier Jouet flower bottle that was also on offer)
-I was a big fan of their special olive oil, butter, and sea salt; over spending on small items like that gives passengers the impression that the airline cares about them
In closing, I typically average about 2 F segments per year, so I'm not an expert here. However, the fact that JL delivered an experience that compelled me to post here speaks volumes (i.e. you haven't read my NW trip reports because they don't exist).