Originally Posted by
number_6
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.
My experience with JL and irregular ops is limited, perhaps because they have less of those than AA, where "regular ops" is the exception and not the rule. Perhaps my view of AA is colored after taking almost 24 hours longer than necessary to traverse from DFW to BOS a couple of days ago. My experience with JL irregular ops corresponds to one time between GMP and HND, where the plane went mechanical in HND, and so they sent another one over (resulting in two-hour delay), but in the domestic configuration. This meant that the J seats weren't as nice, and thus I was effectively "downgraded". I was given an envelope with cash for my troubles.
As for onboard service, AA in any class is a grating experience, but especially in J, where the disconnect between AA and the competition is the most glaring.
As to why businessmen may be flying CX has nothing to do with service. It has to do with the fact that JL has gotten a lot of bad press for being a perennial moneyloser and every little maintenance oversight ends up in the front page of the newspaper.