yinxzon

Hi all, I thought all NH8 was the room from NRT to SFO. I was wrong and had the normal 777 instead. It was a really old plane and the screen still required one of those old remotes and was kinda small. I was just wondering if the soft products, food/drinks are the same amongst these 3 products.
Thank you!

pesos

Soft product is exactly the same, yes. Your plane was not any older than The Room planes - maybe you mean the seats were older?

yinxzon

I honestly thought the food wasn't great, in contrast to the exaggerated glowing reviews on YT. I thought the Turkish flight from IST to SFO was better. Maybe even worse than Asiana...did I just say that?!
The seats are older, yes, the paint was chipping off, they were using old remotes from at least 15 years ago. TV was small and the touch screen barely worked.

pesos

Yea the screen/remote is part of the seat and they are indeed aging. At this point I think there are two remaining 77w frames without the seat refurb - bummer you caught one. I flew LHR-HND last year and was in J for the first time in a good 6-7 years and didn�t find the food too bad - not as good as F of course.

yinxzon

I guess 2 things..
1) It was fine and wasn't too bad. Of course it's worse than first class. It was like barely better than their lounge food, which in my opinion is worse than Centurion Lounge.
2) If indeed all the food is the same across all their business class seats, I'd rather take Asiana.

pesos

Yeah. I enjoyed the one time I flew in that particular seat - my first business class flight ever, in 2013, NH 787 from San Jose to Tokyo. I was over the moon. Can't say I'd appreciate it much 11 years later...

dkc192

To each their own. While I prefer the Room over the Staggered seats, I'm perfectly fine with the latter on a long-haul flight. IFE screen size and resolution aren't a big deal for me.

joejones

I tend to agree that NH's in-flight catering is overrated. It's much better than the North American competition, and better than most European carriers, but not in the same league as the Gulf carriers, KE, OZ, SQ, etc. The difference is especially noticeable on short and medium-haul flights.

puchong

I just flew NH business from HND to SFO a few days ago and was quite disappointed with the quality and quantity of the food served, apart from the fact that the first meal is very small indeed, after the abysmal offering in the lounge. My last flight a month ago was on JAL and their meal offerings were much better.

Also, if you happen to be dozing while sitting up and without having the 'Do not Disturb' sign on, the flight attendants will skip serving you; considering it was NH which suggested that passengers skip meals in order to save the airline costs, this seems to be a deliberate move on their part. It seems NH is trying to copy UA a little too much where it comes to the soft product, though teey still provide an elaborate menu. Trouble is you cannot eat the menu!

pesos

Were you on nh108? Late night departures have minimized food service except in F.

CPH-Flyer

Both JAL and ANA take the approach of not waking passengers for meals. But you can just use the call button any time you wake up, and they'll be happy to serve the meal later. Even in economy you can sleep through the meal services and get your meal heated later.

Stratoliner777

IMO, having flown both Staggered J and the Room: Staggered J is out of date in the IFE and (relative) lack of privacy. Service, of course, is largely the same. To be clear, the Room IFE hardware is state of the art, but the movie and TV selection is still limited (for non-Japanese options).

In terms of cuisine, I love Japanese food and hence very much enjoy ANA J catering. That said, the portions are not generous, and they do skip a full service on late night departures. Although they have a limited dine anytime menu. I do think that their onboard and lounge catering is better than some Amex Centurion lounge food (LAX especially), but not others (e.g., SFO).

yinxzon

I don't really care for big portions but I think its not as good as SFO/LAS/NY/MIA Centurions. I haven't been to LAX since its renovated so I can't say..

puchong

Yes, I was. A late night departure shouild have not be any reason to curtail the meal service for those who may want to eat. I was rushing abut during the day and thought I would catch up on the food in the lounge; it turned out that the lounge had barely enough space to sit, let alone have a meal in peace. I could not find any food that appeared palatable other than some miso soup, which of course is not all that filling. So omssion of a reasonable dinner was unfortunate, IMO; especially since there is no elaborate (ergo, noisy) cart service for meals. The quality & quantity of snacks offered in lieu of a meal also left a lot to to be desired.

pgsanta

The truncated meal service on red-eye flights is annoying, but it's not like you shouldn't have been aware of what you booked. If the meal service is significant to you, you should avoid those specific flights.