Genius1

A Five Star Journey Through Japan: Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines First Class

Index to Genius1 Trip Reports

Japan is a country that has long held my interest, and so it was with anticipation that this trip edged closer in the calendar. Taking advantage of some excellent ex-Italy fares with Qatar Airways, this trip began the day prior to this report’s opening scene; you can read all about the positioning flights for this trip, overnight hotel and our experience of the city of Venice here.

Highlights ahead in this report:

• Qatar Airways Business Class VCE-DOH-HND including the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business lounge and First Class lounge in Doha.
• ANA InterContinental Tokyo in a Kaze Club Corner Suite with 3 days exploring Tokyo.
• Shinkansen bullet train in the Green Car (first class) from Tokyo to Osaka.
• InterContinental Osaka in a Club InterContinental room with 3 days exploring Kyoto.
• Japan Airlines First Class ITM-HND – a unique experience.
• Qatar Airways Business Class HND-DOH-VCE including the Japan Airlines First Class lounge at Haneda.

VCE-DOH

After a morning exploring Venice, we arrived via taxi at Marco Polo Airport somewhat early a little over three hours before our 6pm departure. The agents were just finishing set up for check-in when we arrived, and after a couple of minutes we were greeted and escorted to the single Business Class desk where formalities were completed quickly, and bags priority tagged. There was no queue at Fast Track security, with the single security lane neatly segregated from the main security area. Moving aside a Tensabarrier to avoid the mandated detour through the duty free shop, we headed to the third party Marco Polo lounge, located one floor above the gates.



The Marco Polo lounge is reasonably modern in design, with excellent views across the airport through floor to ceiling windows along the full length of the lounge, and from its small outdoor roof terrace (although annoyingly smoking is permitted out there).







A number of small workstation nooks/phone booths flank the entrance corridor, with showers located behind reception; see my separate positioning flight trip report for a review of those.



The lounge then opens out into a principal large space, with a mix of armchairs and sofas, high back single chairs by the windows and small dining tables.





To the right of the lounge, flanking the buffet, are two recessed oval quiet areas with a confusing lack of seating, whilst at the far end of the lounge adjacent to the roof terrace is a sort of conservatory area with outdoor-style seating and planted features.





The buffet had a pretty limited food offering, with mountains of carbohydrates (think pizza, pizza and more pizza). The tended bar was a particularly odd concept, where an invariably miserable barista would operate the coffee machine with their back to the lounge and the inevitable growing queue, whilst at the same time scolding any person brave enough to help themselves to a bottle of something alcoholic from the glass-fronted fridge. The design of the space did not really allow for a tended offering. Paper plates and plastic knives and forks did nothing to add to the buffet experience.



Washrooms (with a particularly grand entryway) are located in the right-hand corner, adjacent to a small TV lounge and high-top work area. The maroon high-back chairs in the TV lounge had been relocated to the windows on our return visit (a much more sensible location for them) and are incidentally the same design as those found in the BA First lounge at LGW and Concorde Bars at SIN and DXB.









After passing a couple of hours in what is a well-intentioned but ultimately unmemorable lounge, we headed down and through immigration to Gate 20, where the priority line was in the process of being combed by an agent to check eligibility. Although QR don’t differentiate between status passengers and Business Class passengers for priority boarding, the short line moved quickly, and we were soon being welcomed at Door 1L and escorted to our seats onboard A7-ACC, a 15-year-old A330-200.



Qatar Airways have two different types of seating in Business Class on their A330 fleet; some aircraft, including the one we were on this evening, feature the B/E MiniPod seat, whilst others (such as the A330 we would fly on the return sector) feature the B/E Diamond seat. Both seating variants are marketed as flat beds (although I have my doubts about the MiniPod seat being truly flat) and are in 2-2-2 configuration, meaning window seats do not have direct aisle access.



Our particular A330 had three rows in the spacious forward cabin, and a mini cabin with just one row behind Doors 2 that remained empty for the flight.



As I settled into 3B (at the rear of the forward cabin), the tranquillity was steadily shattered by the entire aircraft load of passengers traipsing through the cabin; all gates at VCE have just the one airbridge, and for some reason (perhaps due to stand configuration), the airbridge was at 1L today rather than the more usual 2L. Despite this intrusion, the cabin crew did an excellent job of welcoming passengers personally with a choice of drink (mint and lime for me), and hot or cold towel. Menus and wine lists were handed out, and the CSD also made the rounds welcoming passengers individually.



















Whilst clearly dated and not a patch on the B/E Super Diamond product found on QR’s 787s, A380s and non-Qsuite A350s, the seats and indeed the entire cabin on our A330 was spotlessly clean and well maintained. One distinct advantage of these older style seats over their modern business class counterparts is the oodles of completely unrestricted leg (and, importantly, foot) room; there are no silly cubby holes to contort your feet into here. The backs of the seat in front provide a home for a large IFE screen, small storage net, literature pocket and shoe storage. Bulkhead seats come with an elongated low level divider between the seats to house the IFE screen, and lack the net and shoe storage spaces of their non-bulkhead counterparts.



The centre console of each pair of seats houses the table, touchscreen IFE controller, a small and completely inadequate privacy shield and adjustable reading lamp, below which are various inputs, including a USB port. Below the IFE controller is a pocket where unbranded noise-cancelling headphones are pre-placed. I do think headphones are an area where QR could improve; Bose (or similar premium brand) sets would be far more in keeping with the otherwise high-quality experience. Even American Airlines manage Bose in international and transcontinental J. A power socket is located above the lifejacket compartment adjacent to the footrest. Although additional overhead reading lights are provided, there are no personal air vents up there which meant the cabin was uncomfortably warm during the flight.







The other side of each seat is home to the seat controls within the armrest.



As if to highlight the unacceptable lack of storage space around the seat, the water bottle and smart Bric’s amenity kit were precariously balanced on the centre console of each seat. Whilst the colour of the amenity kit and its contents on this sector had changed to a lighter blue, the kit was otherwise identical to those I received on my recent Singapore trip; I’ll have a photo of the contents on the return sector of this report. On-seat amenities included the usual large pillow and thick, quilted blanket first introduced on Qsuite routes.





Once boarding had completed, newspapers were offered, and dinner orders taken as the captain announced a very specific flight time of 5h17 cruising at 41,000ft. In what with hindsight was a rather pointless attempt at adjusting to Japan time and stay awake through a long layover in Doha, I decided to skip dinner and sleep on this sector, but the sector time (at what was in fact 5h25) wasn’t really long enough to enable a good night’s sleep, exacerbated by the early evening hour of departure and the lack of mood lighting on these older aircraft.





Straight after takeoff, my requested hot chocolate arrived as a nightcap, and I settled down for a few hours’ rest. The MiniPod seat is a little droopy at the foot end when in ‘fully flat’ mode, and the manual extendable foot rest is very annoying. It’s seats like these that make one appreciate the BA Club World seat; despite its failings, it’s streaks ahead in terms of sleeping comfort and privacy (in window seats) when compared to older style business class seats such as the MiniPod. In a nice service gesture, a box of Godiva chocolates had been placed at my seat whilst I was asleep.



The A330-200 has two washrooms for Business Class passengers; one in the forward galley on the port side, and one in the Doors 2 galley on the starboard side. Both were kept spotlessly clean as is the norm on QR, and were well stocked with Rituals amenities, dental and shaving kits.



On returning from the rear washroom during the evening, I was proactively asked by the crew whether I wanted anything to eat or drink; my sparkling water was brought in lightning quick speed.

As we approached Doha, the nicely presented seasonal fresh fruit I’d ordered when dinner orders were being taken arrived along with an Americano. As I enjoyed this refreshing snack, I tried out the wifi but gave up when I realised that a user account had to be created in order to take advantage of the free 15 minutes/100MB, something I haven’t had to do before on newer QR aircraft.



The CSD thanked each passenger for flying Qatar Airways as we came into land at around 00:30 local time, after which there was a short wait for stairs to arrive at Door 2L at a remote stand. The advantage of a remote stand at DOH is that QR provide a dedicated Business Class bus to whisk you to arrivals and flight connections, and tonight was no exception. Unlike my previous visit to Hamad International Airport in February, this time I successfully located the priority security line to the right at transfers security, where there was no queue.