TravelLawyer

I disagree. I would prefer to fly CX F than JL F. Seats are better, caviar is better, and the cabin isn’t 2000 degrees on CX. I have JL F flights coming up in December and am trying to figure out how to keep myself cool enough on the flight. I was so uncomfortable the last time that I could not even enjoy a single minute of it. I had previously brought portable fans last time. Will try portable misting fans.

Happy

Having flown JL F JFK-NRT in April, I definitely prefer CX F. Much nicer seats and cabin, (fewer seats in the same space) and much nicer foods comparing to what we had on this JL flight. JL F PJs are of very poor quality (I read about it has recently been downgraded), so as the amenity kit. FAs services CX to us are better than JL or rather, better suits our preference of style.

And yes, the cabin temperature was warm.

The only reasons we flew JL F were 1) our destination was Japan, 2) the JL J is catastrophic to us. Hence when Fs opened up 2 weeks before departure we upfared from J immediately.

ryandelmundo

Yeah I was searching the complete journey. Is it possible the agent isn't searching that way? I did some searching NRT-ORD and the availability was never as good as MNL-ORD, so I gave up on that, considering the married-segment logic.

skimthetrees

One or both of two things is going on. Either married segments or Point of Sale restrictions or both. If BA sees it, it is not a Point of Sale issue. Does the MNL-TYO flight depart one day and the TYO-ORD flight depart the next day, less than 24 hours from arriving in Tokyo? Then it quite possibly could be the agent not searching married segments correctly. It may require a few HUCA's I guess. Tell them the flights you want but ask that they do a married segment availability check on them. If they do not understand what you are asking for you are talking to agent who probably cannot help you and you should HUCA.

ryandelmundo

Called in again today after two other failures. Same story online: Qantas and Alaska show the flight, AA can't find it.

Except today, they were able to find it. I asked her what she did special, and she said she didn't do anything special. Only trick I can think is I was on the noon flight ORD-NRT and the one with avail is 13:00. Maybe the other agents only tried upgrading my noon flight and not looking (despite providing the flight number) at the 1pm. Who knows. What good is a frequent flyer system booking system that seems to rely on luck?

Moral of the story: If at first you don't succeed, HUCA HUCA again.

pafrican

flyingeph12

pafrican

flyingeph12

I should probably have been clearer in my earlier post. My understanding is that PE is available only for all-AA awards. You were trying to book a partner award with an AA segment. As far as I know, there is no PE partner award, which is why the HND-GMP segment (even if in economy) has to be separate. Basically you're booking an AA award and a partner award.

I am not sure any PE award is a good deal. For example, you could have spent 60k for business the entire way. Even if you had been able to book what you originally wanted, you would have spent 50k for PE and Y.

skimthetrees

Pretty sure the agent was wrong on denying all economy. Should be possible all the way in Y, LAX-HND-GMP, US48 to Asia 1 using the OneWorld partner award chart.

Provocateur Travel

I saved my AA Miles for a JAL First Class flight and we were really looking forward to it. All the Airline Bloggers rave about it and we were really excited. Here are our experiences:

We were greeted and asked if we would like to have champagne or juice. We said that we would love to have two glasses of Rosé Champagne. The Flight Attendant looked at us, as if we were aliens. She vanished, and we never received anything.

After take off the Purser introduced herself and recommended a special champagne to us. When she came back, she told us that this champagne is gone, sorry. She gave us some other, no big deal.

Since we were travelling as a couple seated on 2DG, I asked the purser if we can eat our dinner together. Absolutely she stated. Well, every single course we had, we waited 5-10 minutes every time, until both of us had food on our tables and could start eating together. After serving my partner on 2D they always served one of the other single travellers in 2A or 2K, then me.

The Coke I ordered after take off was refilled exactly: zero times.
The water I had with dinner was refilled: once!
Although it was sitting there empty all the time and the crew saw me drinking out of a plastic bottle, they did not bother.

The „chef“ onboard introduced herself as well. I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask her if she can tell me, what kind of cut the „Beef Confit“ would be. She had absolutely no clue. I asked the purser as well, she did not know either.

Ok, up to this point nothing really bad happened and we were still in a good mood, happy for our first time to go to Japan. I was really looking forward for the Caviar, since I only eat this when we fly First Class. Since the purser said that we should take the Japanese Meal, I asked her if we can have the Caviar from the western menu as a starter. She said, this is not possible, since they loaded only 8 Caviars, which they all need for the Japanese Meals. (7 Passengers on board) I then asked to please skip the Caviar on the Japanese Meal for us, and she finally agreed.

Of course, the caviar was not served as a starter. So I asked the purser again, for the third time. She then served an open can of caviar along with a metal spoon on a plate. That´s it. I asked, if she can please prepare it the usual way with onion, egg and some blini and she took it back to the kitchen. She returned with the Caviar dumped on the cold Vichyssoise Soup, which they also had on the menu and told me, that this is the way they serve it here. Ok, I did not want to cause any more trouble and gladly refused.

I cannot really judge the Japanese Menu well enough, but I can say that we were not impressed at all. All the dishes did not taste special or great, they were ok I guess.

Everything we tasted or ate here in Tokyo an Kyoto, if in restaurants or in several department stores, was of much higher quality and taste however.

Since I did not like many of the things they served, I asked if I could have the Beef Confit from the western menu. This was the saddest peace of meat I have ever seen. It was just dry and dull. But mostly it was cold, so was every side dish along with it.

We rejected any more of this, and did not have any desert. Ok, well, this was not so good, but at least I can get a good sleep I thought.

I started making the bed, when on of the flight attendants helped me and put one of the mattress toppers on the seat. I saw it and asked, if she can put any kind of sheet or cover on it. „No“ was the answer. I showed her all the disgusting stains that thing had in the middle, so she took it away and placed a different one on the seat. I did not look at this any more, since I did not want so see more of this dirt.

While the lights in Business Class were fully shut off, the First Cabin was fully lit, although everyone was trying to sleep. I asked if they could turn off the lights. They turned off half the lights in First (Row 2) the other lights remained on. I asked, if they could please turn these off as well. No, she said. I should please wear a sleeping mask.
Since I hate those in my face, it took me quite a while to fall asleep.

When I finally did get to sleep, the crew decided to make a full-sound-high-volume PA announcement to inform each and every sleeping passenger, the the IFE is out of order for now.

I ordered some breakfast shortly before landing, which was also completely uneatable.

This was by far the worst First Class Experience in my life.. I expect great service, great food and a good sleep, none of which I had on this flight.

I wrote to JAL about this, and did not get any reply. This was really the saddest FCL experience I have ever had. However I would avoid to travel JAL again.

Beltway2A

Without knowing exactly which route you flew or when, it sounds like there was some miscommunication going on. Quite a bit of it likely could have been saved by reading the menu.

Most JAL flights do not carry Rose champagne, and many have no Rose at all. While the FA should have explained this to you, the wines on board can also be found in the menu.

The caviar is traditionally on the Western Menu, not the Japanese. If there were any portions left over, the crew is generally happy to serve them. It sounds like they did in your case. The menu would have indicated the accompaniments for the caviar, and I'm nearly 100% certain they did not include all the accompaniments you asked for.

From you writeup it sounds like you experienced multiple service failures, which is always disappointing in First Class. I do wonder how many of them came down to miscommunication, and how were related to a lack of understand about the product on offer.

TravelLawyer

While some of it sounds like a familiarity issue, some of this I experienced on my JAL F flights previously as well. Sometimes they are so "by the book" that it doesn't translate to good service. For example, starting 2 hours prior to landing, the FA asked me to change out of my pajamas. I told her that I would later. She came back literally every 5 minutes until I did.

Provocateur Travel

I don´t see a communication problem, when the crew leaves the lights on on a nighttime flight from LHR-HND, puts a dirty mattress pad with no cover on your seat or when they make an announcement in the middle of the night at full volume.

The Caviar did come with sides, however the crew did not serve these to me. Instead they handed me a can of caviar and a spoon.

Furthermore I cannot see a communication gap, when they serve a Steak in FCL, which is absolutely cold, and so are all the sides with it. ("Oh, when we took it out of the oven, it was warm...")
Our JAL experience was terrible, and we really wanted to like it. Every other First Class flight we had before, with LH, Thai, Etihad, Qatar, even with British Airways was way better than this one.

Our purser spoke english pretty good.

Beltway2A

While I've never experienced that, and would find it to be poor service, I certainly don't doubt it. There are few airlines more "by the book" than JAL. I always feel like a rule breaker when I ask for items from different set meal offerings, but I've had good luck so far.

Thank you for clarifying your route. This definitely seems like a communication problem to me. The menus for your flight can be found here: Food Beverage

As you can see, no Rose is on offer. The accompaniments for the caviar are Onion Veloute (which you described as a cold Vichyssoise Soup), Tomato Jelly and Crab, and it sounds like your caviar was served with the veloute as described. There are no blinis, egg or red onion on offer with the caviar. I've never been airline crew, but it would not be unusual for a crew member to be confused if a passenger began asking for multiple items that were nowhere to be found on the menu. That should have been explained to you.

It is unfortunate that your mattress pad was dirty, and that your steak was cold. I'm glad that the crew correctly replaced the mattress pad, and while I've only ever had perfectly cooked steaks on JAL (in F and J) I'd imagine that receiving a cold main course would put a damper on the flight. Based on your description of the lighting and announcement situation, it does sound like not every passenger was on the same sleep schedule as you.

Communication goes both ways, and I do stand by my assessment that you and the crew did not have the same understanding of the product on offer.