So I took my first international ANA flight the other day -- NRT to ORD in business class. Overall the experience was positive, but there were some significant disappointments...

1. Delay: As posted elsewhere, there were significant delays (1 to 2 hours) at NRT on July 29th, because ANA's computer system was down, and they couldn't check people in. I was lucky, because I had already checked in online and printed my boarding pass the day before. So I didn't have to stand in a huge line waiting for ANA's computers to come back online. Unfortunately, because check-in was delayed, most flights were delayed, and my flight was 1 hour and 45 minutes late.

Are these computer issues a recurring problem with ANA? Over the last three years or so, I've seen news reports on a few occasions of computer outages causing major disruptions for ANA. I don't recall ever seeing similar news for any other airline. Perhaps ANA needs to overhaul their IT?

On the other hand, after we took off, the FAs went around the cabin apologizing for the delay and handing out 5,000 Yen in cash to every business class passenger as compensation. ^ I have never seen an airline do anything like this... miles or vouchers yes, but never cash. I don't know what JAL does in these situations, because I've never had a delay this bad on them. I know what UA does, which is nothing (not even apologize), so ANA's reaction was a breath of fresh air.

2. Food: The food and service were fantastic. ^^ I found the food to be very similar to JAL. Maybe ANA was just a tiny bit better because of small touches like linens used with the second meal and snacks (JAL only uses table linens for the main meal) and the little ceramic creamer that they gave with the coffee (JAL gives the cream in a little plastic disposable container).

3. Crew: The crew was wonderful. Very professional, polite, and gracious. As good as any crew I've had on JAL. ^

4. Seat: NRT-ORD still uses the old angled flat seats, not the new "staggered," truly flat seats that are used on JFK and FRA flights. Having seen many negative comments on the old seats, I was not expecting much. Alas, I was pleasantly surprised. I found the seat very comfortable. In the "flat" position it was not as bad as I expected. I found it less comfortable than JAL's seat for sleeping, but much better than the angled flat seats I've experienced on Finnair and Swiss. (The Finnair seat was just painful in the "flat" position.) The only complaint I have is that the footrest does not extend nearly far enough. JAL's footrest can be extended much farther when the seat is in a partially reclined position. On ANA my legs always feel kind of scrunched unless I don't extend the foot stopper and just let my feet hang off the edge of the legrest. But that's not very comfortable. Also, the foot stopper, being a small metal bar, is much less comfortable than JAL's padded foot stopper which is much wider. So in the angled flat category, I still think JAL is the best. I hope to try ANA's new seat soon.

5. Other: By the end of my flight, two out of the four lavatories in business class were inoperative! So in the last 2 hours there was always a line to use the lavs, because of course everyone wants to visit the lav shortly before arrival. I've never had a lav go inop on any international flight before.

Also, just as an aside, I noticed many more foreigners on this flight than I've seen on any JAL flight. I wonder if that's because ANA has been in the Star Alliance much longer than JAL has been in Oneworld? Maybe ANA has a larger following of gaijin customers because of the Star Alliance relationship?

Overall, I'm not sure I would say this was such a good flight. A nearly 2 hour delay plus half the lavs going inop is very disappointing IMO. I have never had a delay like that on JAL in the 7 years and 350,000+ BIS miles I've flown on them. I've also never had a lav go inop on JAL. So I would have to say that overall, this flight fell short of the standard that I am used to on JAL. I hope, however, that this was just an aberration. With an on-time flight and working lavs, the flight would have been truly wonderful.