All Nippon Airways Mileage Club - Tell Me About ANA Coach

How is ANA's Coach service JFK-NRT? Planning trip for next February. Have enough Starwood points to transfer to ANA for upgrade to Business, but already there are no Business seats available for most of Feb, March, and most of April! So I'm purchasing Coach seats in the hope that something opens up between now and then.

So if I do wind up going Coach, just wondering how their Coach service compares to, say, JAL (my other option)?

Every time you fly JAL, God kills a kitten. Please think of the kittens!

But seriously, ANA coach is about as good as coach gets on this route. The seating is tight if you're over 5'10" or so (consider flying United out of ORD or IAD and buying up to economy plus if you want more legroom at the cost of service), but the catering and in-flight entertainment are top-notch.

Every time you fly JAL, God kills a kitten. Please think of the kittens!

But seriously, ANA coach is about as good as coach gets on this route. The seating is tight if you're over 5'10" or so (consider flying United out of ORD or IAD and buying up to economy plus if you want more legroom at the cost of service), but the catering and in-flight entertainment are top-notch.
Whatever you do, avoid the middle seat. Of course this applies to all planes and airlines but especially on ANA. There is absolutely no leg room because the entertainment boxes sit underneath ALL middle seats AFAIK (execpt for bulkhead and exit seats). I had to endure this on a flight from NRT-LAX and it was really miserable for me as I couldn't even sleep on that plane and I can usually sleep well on any plane.

I do agree though that other than the sucky middle seats they have, the catering and in-flight entertainment is very good.

How is ANA's Coach service JFK-NRT? Planning trip for next February. Have enough Starwood points to transfer to ANA for upgrade to Business, but already there are no Business seats available for most of Feb, March, and most of April! So I'm purchasing Coach seats in the hope that something opens up between now and then.

You should try flying out of IAD instead of JFK. There tends to be more award availability in Business class out of IAD than New York.

I've found it fairly easy to get exit row seats on all ANA Y fare bookings. Do it with the online check in tool.

Also bear in mind that the JAL product to JFK is a bit inconsistent. Some of the flights are on 747s, which have slightly narrower economy seats than the 777s. JAL also has varying in-flight entertainment products: you can get on-demand seatback audio and video on certain flights, but you might also be stuck with an older system that shows looped movies.

NH coach on the 77W is... Ugh. If you're my height (6ft 1) you won't be able to sit properly. Did NRT-ORD-NRT, was bearable with 3 seats to myself ex-NRT but with 2 seats inbound it wasn't at all comfortable.

Thanks all.
Guava, I took your advice about flying out of IAD. Easy to find Business seats. I now have my choice of dates. Thanks for the suggestion.