The seat
The first class seat onboard was the old first class seat, which has been around for 4-5 years now I think.
Unfortunately I did not manage to include a flight with the new ANA First Square as it is only available on a few selected routes.
However I do think the old seat is still quite nice and comfortable. The design is maybe showing its age compared to some newer products, but it definitely had all the functions and features I needed for a comfortable flight.
ANA also does an excellent job with its aircraft maintenance. The cabin was absolutely spotless and other than the seat design not being the most recent there was not a trace onboard showing the cabin had been in service for a few years.
The first class seat can be reclined to a fully flat horizontal bed if you wish to get some sleep/rest onboard.
The seat pitch in first class is 77”, slightly less than the Lufthansa A346 (85”) and the Jet Airways suite on the B77W (90”), but still more than enough space.
The different in seat pitch between ANA and Jet Airways was mostly apparent when the seat was reclined to a bed as the Jet Airways bed felt quite a bit longer (and also slightly wider).
There is a seat control on the seat panel with buttons to control most seat functions including recline, lumbar and even some of the lights.
The seat also has a power socket and a socket where it says LAN, whatever it is used for onboard.
There are eight seats on the Boeing 777-300ER, two rows with a 1-2-1 configuration.
The cabin felt very spacious and the seat itself, although lacking proper doors, felt reasonably private.
Two lavatories were available for first class passengers next to the first class galley, a larger one preferably to use if you wanted to get changed, and a smaller one.
With only six passengers onboard it meant a ratio of 1:3, so highly unlikely you would have to wait if you needed to go urgently.
The inflight entertainment system
ANA has full AVOD onboard through the Skymaster inflight entertainment system.
The system is enjoyed on a rather nice 15” LCD monitor with a good resolution.
Before departure nice Sony noise-cancelling headphones were handed out.
According to the ANA webpage ANA was the first airline in the world to provide the Sony MDR-NC500D to its first class passenger.
The model has an automatic background noise reduction which selects the most suitable noise reduction setting which should reduce approximately 99% of all surrounding background noise.
The sound quality through the system was indeed really excellent and the external noise virtually non-existent when I used the headphones.
The selection of movies, TV-series and documentaries through the Skymaster IFE was pretty good with around 160 different channels.
Perhaps not comparable to SQ KrisWorld, but still quite decent and better than some other airlines I have used.
There were also some audio tracks, a rather extensive selection of games, and some info about ANA, its fleet, service and destinations available through the IFE. And naturally also a flight map.
I found plenty of interesting documentaries to watch, the only problem was that most documentaries were either in Japanese without English subtitles, or in English without Japanese subtitles.
Very few were available in both languages, either through audio or subtitles.
And of course almost all great documentaries I wanted to watch were available in Japanese, without any translation whatsoever in English.
There was for example one called “A journey to the best liquors in around the world”, and another fun travel documentary about some Japanese tourists visiting Germany, finding all (to them) strange things about the country. Hilarious!
Eventually I was so annoyed that I started watching these anyway, even though I only understood like 2% of what they were saying.
There were some nice pictures to enjoy at least.
I also watched some of the by now rather old movie Mr and Mrs Smith and found a 30 minutes episode of Pingu, I used to love this program when I was a child.
A quick snack
After watching some documentaries, some TV-episodes and getting a bit of rest I felt it was time to get something more to eat.
Time to reach for the menu and once again enjoy the “eat whatever you want, whenever you want”-service onboard, which they really lived up to.
As I made a quick visit to the lavatory the FA noticed I was up and was waiting with a hot towel as I returned to my seat.
She asked me if she could get me anything to eat or drink and after a quick look in the “light dishes” part of the menu I ordered a bowl of Japanese udon noodles and a glass of orange juice.
My table was once again prepared with a white table cloth and the bowl of Japanese noodles arrived within a few minutes.
The FA also provided a Chinese spoon, even though, as she put it, is not part of the Japanese way of eating.
Although I have no problems using chopsticks, it did make things slightly easier.
After finishing the noodles the FA passed my seat again to check if I wanted something else.
I asked if it would be possible to get some ice cream and fresh fruits, to which she replied “certainly, Sir”.
Every request I made during the flight, or every time I asked if something was possible to do, the reply from the crew was always “certainly, Sir”, or “certainly, Mr Jacob_m”, with a big smile.
What a wonderful wonderful attitude! ^ ^
No request was too much trouble and no question was too stupid to ask, they went out of their way every single time. If it was a major inconvenience to them at least they never showed it to the passengers.
If I would have liked to mix two different dishes I am sure they would have done that as well without a comment.
Also they never seemed to run out of food onboard, despite having so many options that potentially every single passenger in the cabin could have ordered. Nothing I ever asked for during the flight was unavailable.
The person who did the galley optimisation for ANA First should get a medal!
The fruits and ice cream arrived in a minute, together with another glass of orange juice.
A perfect way to round up a nice mid-flight snack!
Getting some rest
After the snack I decided to chance into the pyjamas provided to get a bit more comfortable onboard.
The pyjamas in ANA F were quite comfortable and fitted me perfectly, although I never bothered using the pyjamas top, I just used a t-shirt instead.
A woollen sweater was also provided in first class, I guess to passengers who would feel cold during the flight.
As I got out from the lavatory the FA was waiting with a hanger, ready to take my regular clothes and hang them in the closet
In the meantime she had pro-actively prepared a bed for me, with a mattress and a duvet.
As seat 02G next to me was empty during the flight she had made that seat into a bed for me, so I could use my regular seat 02K in case I wanted to eat something more, or watch another movie.
Really great initiative and suggestion! ^
As I said earlier, the best thing in ANA F is to do...nothing.
The bed was very comfortable and seat when fully reclined felt reasonably private. I didn’t feel bothered by the crew or the other passengers when I tried to get some sleep (well it’s not like there was a lot of traffic in the F-cabin anyway).
The mattress and the duvet provided were also very comfortable, although the mattress could have been slightly wider.
I got a nice and well-needed rest for a couple of hours.
It felt a bit strange to sleep at this time of the day, but as the flight departed at noon and arrived in Europe in the late afternoon, with a flight time of over 12 hours in-between, it was inevitable to get some rest onboard, otherwise I would not have coped with the rest of my travels.
Personally I think it is much better and easier to travel from eastern Asia to Europe on a night flight as it’s more natural to go to bed and easier adjust to the new time zone upon arrival.
Even during the flight, between the meals, the crew kept a good look on the cabin.
As I woke up and made a quick visit to the lavatory the FA immediately went inside the cabin to make my bed, so it would look nice and inviting when I returned.
Amazing! ^
