It really depends on the route. JL J service is very market driven, and varies by routes (luckily most US routes now have the better JL service). JL has in-air J service on some routes that is worse than AA J. Plus JL ground service is very polite and very ineffective. There is a complete lack of empowerment for first-line JL employees. So you get absurdly bad service, but lots of "very sorry" and "nothing we can do" -- when 99% of the airlines in the world can and will do better. Overall I consider JL to be a below average airline because of this (re-routing, irregular ops and last-minute changes are very important for me). JL J is poor, and I stand by that asessment; JL F is much better. However both are not competitive with CX. Even Japanese businessmen are now flying CX on NRT-HKG -- an unheard of act of betrayal, to not fly JL.

Sure, the onboard JL service is obsequious at all times, but I don't count that as good service, and simply cannot agree that "AA is an unmitigated piece of crap compared to JL". In fact overall I rate AA as a superior airline to JL.