April 13, 2017
Japan Airlines Taipei to Tokyo 1000a – 200p Boeing 787-8 Business Class

In planning this trip, one of the highlights for me was the chance to fly aboard five 787s from five different airlines. Although I’ve logged a total of seven flights aboard Boeing 787s so far, it’s still essentially a new airplane for me and as such every flight is cause for real excitement and anticipation. I remember when I used to feel that way about 727s and 737s. It’s a good feeling.

As exciting as it is for me to fly aboard a relatively new airliner like the 787, it’s every bit as exciting to fly aboard a new airline. Today I’ll be checking off both of those boxes with a flight up to Tokyo aboard Japan Airlines’ new 787-8. Japan Airlines will be my 192nd airline flown.

The early morning shuttle from the hotel dropped me off at Terminal 1 at 7:00am – perfectly timed to check-in for JL 802, the 10:00am 787 to Narita. Even three hours in advance of the flight, there was a surprisingly large group of people lined up to check-in. Thankfully, they were all in the Economy Class line. Over at the Business Class counter, it was just me and two agents.

Honestly, even though I’m a veteran of 2000+ flights and over 2 million miles of premium class travel, I am still so thankful for not having to wait in lines. I know that many of the “Been there, done that” crowd – of which we have quite a few here at FlyerTalk – don’t give a second thought to this benefit relative to the entire array of premium class travel benefits available to them, but for me it’s still viewed as a real privilege that I’ve just never quite been able to take for granted. Above all, it means that I can get through the boring part of air travel that much faster – stuff like check-in, security, immigration – and move on to the things I really enjoy like spending time in the premium class lounge.

Today I had a choice of multiple lounges. Although Japan Airlines operates its own dedicated lounge here at Taipei, I also had access to a couple of Plaza Premium lounges. One of those I visited ten days ago when I flew through here. Why not visit the other one today? There’d be plenty of time to check it out and then relocate to the JAL Lounge conveniently located at gate D6, just up from my departure gate at D7.

One nice aspect of the Plaza Premium lounges at Taipei is that they each have an on-site chef who will cook up a variety of freshly prepared items including eggs, potatoes and sausage during the morning hours. That’s what I had, along with a couple cups of fairly decent coffee. A copy of the Taipei Times provided intellectual entertainment and – after about an hour or so – I returned the paper to the rack and relocated to the JAL Lounge.

Oooo – now this is a nice facility! It isn’t a very large lounge and it may not have its own chef but I immediately liked the bright, open ambiance of the place. It also had a nice spread of finger foods available. I actually took a couple of pictures with my little Canon SX-160 but I didn’t particularly like the way they turned out so I dumped them. Sorry about that, but the way I see it - just because I took the picture doesn’t mean I need to publish it – especially if it’s blurry or poorly composed. As it is, this report will have about 90000 words of text and approximately 500 photos. I’d like to think that between those two mediums I will have supplied enough intellectual and visual stimulation to have satisfied most readers.

Arriving at the gate about 30 minutes in advance, I took a brief moment to admire my steed for the day – I think the 787 is a particularly good looking aircraft from the nose back – and then I proceeded down the jetway and onto the aircraft.

JAL operates two different versions of the 787 – one for regional flights and the other for international flights. JAL’s regional 787s have two separate Business Class cabins totaling 42 angled-flat seats. The seats in both cabins are upholstered in attractive brownish-black fabric that I found to be every bit as comfortable as it was good looking. Seat pitch was a generous 60” and the overall ambiance was both pleasant and welcoming.

A menu was located in the seatback pocket and covered meal offerings for each of the months that comprised the spring season. I wasted no time in checking it out. This month’s offerings were as follows:


LUNCHEON
Taipei to Tokyo


WESTERN MENU

Appetizer
Bacon Quiche
Smoked Salmon Cheese Ball
Parma Ham

Consommé with Vegetables

MAIN DISH

March: Beef Stew with Mushroom Sauce
April: Pan-Fried Pork with Tomato Demi-Glace Sauce
May: Beef Stew with Mustard Demi-Glace Sauce

Fresh Salad

Bread

Ice Cream

* * * _ * * *

JAPANESE MENU

Sautéed Potato Julienne

Chicken Breast & Cucumber marinated with Orange Vinegar

Soy Milk Tofu

Grilled Chicken with Almond
Egg Roll with Eel
Smoked Salmon & Egg Yolk Sushi
Stuffed “Shiitake” Mushroom
Fried Taro
Skewered Baby Cord, Prawn & Cucumber

Dainomono

March: Grilled Sea-bass “Yuzu” Flavor with Steamed Rice
April: Grilled Chicken Japanese Pepper Flavor, Steamed Rice
May: Grilled Salmon Miso Flavor, Steamed Rice

Miso Soup

Ice Cream


Once the ubiquitous hot towel and welcome drink were dispensed with, the captain came on to give his welcome while advising us of a surprisingly expeditious flight time of just 2 hours and 27 minutes for today’s 1360 mile flight - this despite the fact that we’d be battling a 58 mph headwind.

Push back was on the dot. I thought it was a nice touch that the ramp agents lined up and waved goodbye as we taxied off. Seven minutes later we soared into the beautiful blue skies over Taipei. I watched out my window as we passed over the coast of Taiwan. The sun sparkled off the East China Sea as I reclined my seat a bit and settled in for the ride. Today was a day made for flying.



Route of flight: TPE-NRT



The view out my window


We were 38 minutes into the flight by the time the drink cart made its way back to me at row 9. Hmm… let’s have a look at that beverage list…


WINE LIST

Champagne
Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve N.V.

White Wine
Louis Max Mâcon Villages (Bourgogne)

Red Wine
Louis Max Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune (Bourgogne)

Japanese Shochu
Imo Shochu “Tomi no houzan” (Kagoshima)
Mugi Shochu “Nakanaka” (Miyazaki)


Hmm… got anything stronger? Ah… here it is:


Spirits
Suntory The Hakashu (Single Malt)
Chivas Regal
Jack Daniels
Bombay Sapphire Gin
Absolut Vodka


“Jack Daniels on the rocks, please.”
“Would you like a chaser with that?”
“Sure, why not?”

I’ve ordered a lot of JD over the years and I don’t believe I’ve ever been asked if I’d like a chaser before. Again – a nice touch.



Cocktail hour at 37000 over the East China Sea


Turning my attention to the menu, I thought it interesting that it covered three months’ worth of meals – March, April and May. I saw this done on ANA a few years back when I flew from Beijing to Osaka. Though ANA’s menu presentation was nicer, the Business Class meal I was served that day was not particularly impressive, the main course being a scrap of meat better tossed to the dog under the table than presented for human consumption. I looked forward to seeing what JAL might offer by comparison. When the flight attendant returned to take meal orders, I requested the western option.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What words come to mind for you when looking at the colorful array of foods? If I were to apply just one word to this meal, it would be Delicious!



Pan-Fried Pork with Tomato Demi-Glace Sauce
Consommé with Vegetables, Bacon Quiche, Smoked Salmon Cheese Ball, Parma Ham, Consommé with Vegetables


Ice Cream and Coffee


After the meal, I had a refill on the JD (Hold the chaser, please) and decided to look into the entertainment options. It was the usual mix of current film offerings – stuff I generally like to wait and watch on the big screen back home – so I moved on to documentaries.

OMG! I could hardly believe my eyes! There – under sports – was NFL Films’ America’s Game documentary covering the Denver Broncos’ 2015 season and victory over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. As a Broncos fan, I’ve been wanting to watch this for over a year but it’s never been released in DVD form. I have about 20 dvds of these well produced films covering other teams that I like such as the mid-seventies Steelers, the early 70s Raiders, Jimmy Johnson’s Cowboys and the Bill Belichik led Patriots – and of course the 1998/1999 Denver Broncos. I never would have thought my first opportunity to watch this particular video would come aboard a Japan Airlines flight.

By the time the video ended, we were well into our descent into Narita. It was a beautiful afternoon as we flew just off the coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. I tried to imagine how we might have looked to a young aviation enthusiast as he or she watched us head north into the Narita approach pattern.

When I was a boy, I used to take pause and watch as airliners made their approach into Denver’s Stapleton. Those early Pratt & Whitney turbofans – especially the JT3Ds that powered most 707s and DC-8s – had a distinctive whine to them, especially when they were powered back for slower approach speeds.

Conversely, I remember the thrill of seeing brightly colored Braniff 720s climbing away from Denver as they sped southeast to Dallas. Golden tailed Continental DC-9s were also common sights as they headed for Colorado Springs or Albuquerque. Of course I envisioned myself on each of them – in First Class, of course

We landed smoothly at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport and taxied into our gate on the satellite terminal. I should have known – a longer walk than even last time I was here was as a transit passenger in 1987. I’d arrived in First Class aboard a Swissair 747-300 and departed aboard a United 747SP bound for LA. Two days later I was stranded in a three day blizzard on the Colorado-Kansas border as I was driving east to join friends on the Grateful Dead’s Spring Tour. It was the last good year of touring with the Dead.

Once I’d cleared customs, it was a simple stroll to the outside of the terminal building where – at slot 25 – a courtesy bus from the Narita Tobu Hotel would depart every half hour. I didn’t have long to wait though I wouldn’t have minded given the beautiful spring day. The temperature felt close to 70°F.

Warning signs lit up as we approached the hotel. It looked to be an older facility and of particular note was the fact that about a third of its windows were open. At check-in I asked about air-conditioning and was informed that because it was still early spring it hadn’t been turned on yet. Open your window. Oh, geez… well, you get what you pay for, I guess – in my case about $65.00 USD per night. I asked for and was given a room on the non-sunny side of the hotel.

The room was small but functional. Getting a room on the shady side of the building was also a good call as climate control was never an issue. I turned on the flat screen TV and found English language programming from the usual source – CNN. While it was nice to be able to understand what was being said, my ongoing complaint with CNN is that it seems to cover and discuss nothing but Donald Trump. To be sure, ol’ Donald and his minions do provide plenty to discuss but you’d think there’d be more news to cover than just the president. CNN: The Trump Channel.

That night I had a beef risotto in the hotel restaurant that was quite possibly the best risotto I’ve ever had. Who knows – maybe I’ll come back to this hotel just for the risotto.

Back up in my room, it sounded like a party was going on next door. I had a 6:00am wakeup call and figured I’d give them until 11:00pm to mellow out. Thankfully, they must’ve had an early flight as well because at about 10:30 their television went off, the boisterous conversation ceased and we quickly transitioned into blissful silence.