Originally Posted by
mrkdips
Morning. We are planning a trip to Japan around the Paralympics in Aug-Sept timeframe. I have in excess of 220K avios which I want to get a business class award flights for both my husband and I. From the award partners such as Cathay, Japan Airlines, Qatar, which airline would you frequent flyers choose to fly with for an amazing business class experience? We can connect from either Dublin or Cork. We have flown BA Club World in the past over 5-6 years ago I reckon.
Your advise and knowledge is appreciated
JAL is in a league ahead of the others, if you can get it. Failing that Q Suite in Qatar also superb and they have been flying A350s to Tokyo which is like the 787 - less dehydrating.
For all the praise of some, I find Finnair to be both an awful seat (the leg/footrest bites into your calf muscles after a few hours) and can fly with really young inexperienced crew on some flights. Their Finnair catering took a huge lurch down a couple of years ago and frankly BA food is way ahead of Finnair now. I used to go out of my way to fly Finnair- now I’ll pay a premium not to fly them.
If they are your only choice, then be wary of short connections at Helsinki. An evening summer thunderstorm (common in the Baltic in July and August) and Helsinki can go totally tits up!
Jet lag is a key issue to think of that you don’t ask but worth noting: and for this I find 6-8pm departures from Europe to Asia to be easier (you get 4-5 hours natural sleep, then get to Tokyo early afternoon so you can check into your hotel, freshen up, then have a tired afternoon but then easier to sleep late that night). In contrast the morning/lunchtime departures from Europe are horrendous for jet lag.
so the ideal would be the 7pm JAL Heathrow-Haneda flight - if you can get on it.
good luck!