Sky Suite detours flight vs Shell Flat Neo direct flight
 

Planning a RT SAN-NRT for next year in J. I have already booked the direct flight JL65 from SAN to NRT in order to get there as quickly as possible. On the return flight, however, I am debating between NRT-SAN and NRT-DFW-SAN with a 3-hr layover in DFW. The latter will add a total of 8 hrs extra to the trip. I will have access to Admirals Club at DFW for the layover if needed and DFW-SAN will be in AA F. The only reason I am considering NRT-DFW is that it offers SS8 seats while NRT-SAN is still stuck with Neo for the foreseeable future. I have not flown either products.

Here is my question: Is SS that much better than Neo seats to justify this detour?

I personally would stick with the direct flight both ways. Adding 8 hours to the trip is not worth the difference between SS8 and Neo.

Thanks. That was my inclination too.

The NEO seat is not that bad. I would not take a DFW detour to avoid it.

LAX and take a car service to SAN, I might do. But an expensive option.
Flying LAX-SAN is a bit annoying as the layover will be close to 10 times your actual flying time. I would probably only do if the direct was unavailable.

Thanks for the reply. You are absolutely right about LAX. Most likely I will book the NRT-SAN direct flight and hope for an updated SS seat by the time of travel (April 2017).

The is a huge hard difference between neo and suite, but soft is essentially the same. I would say it's up to you . I would take a detour for a sky suite. But if you are willing to go from A to B only, neo is perfectly fine.

NRT-SAN ran as a SS8 on June 1st. I took JL12 the other day, and I will admit, the SS8 product is very nice. If you aren't in a rush, it is very enjoyable. I would consider it.

There is always the chance of the NRT-SAN flight being SS8.

Seriously? NRT-SAN on SS8 now? That would be awesome! Or did you mean Neo?

That would have an unplanned sub of the aircraft, not a fixed scheduling.

Yeah, It must have been an anomaly.

Just out of curiosity, anyone has an educated guess on how soon JL will proceed with replacing/updating the Neo seats for this particular route? I have yet to hear any rumors, let alone official roll out schedule.

There is only 1 787-8 left to be delivered, so it will be somewhere down the line as the remaining 16 787-9 are delivered. Only one is scheduled for 2016, so a good guess is nothing is going to happen until somewhere in 2017 as earliest option.

However, with a daytime slot to the US from Haneda, and potentially bringing F to DFW from the winter schedule, we may see a bigger shake up of plane allocations from end October.

The last/25th 787-8 with registration #JA845J is due to arrive this end of the month and I think this has already been allocated for the additional NRT-DME frequency starting July 1st.

As for the 787-9s, only 4 frames are scheduled to be delivered until Mar2017 with the following deliveries: Jul, Nov, Feb, Mar/Apr. So unless there is a big revamp, I agree with CPH-Flyer that NRT-SAN/YVR and KIX-LAX might take a while to get upgraded until sometime after FY2017.

As for the AM HND flights from Oct, some news outfits reported last week that JL was not allowed by JCAB/MILT to fly to JFK/ORD due to existing restrictions as part of the rehabilitation process and so only the current flights - SFO/HNL will be moved in the morning. JL is said to be looking at Oct 2017 to offer HND-JFK/ORD after restrictions end by Mar31st.

Although F would be a nice option, it would be sad to see DFW lose the 787. It is such a comfortable ride.

Any updates?
 

Sorry, I know this thread is old but I am flying LAX-KIX next September. Has anyone heard any new information on when the 788's will be updated to the sky suite? I thought with JAL removing two rows of J it would be a good time to install the new seats.

Thank you for any updates.

There is currently no announced plans to update the NEO equipped 787-8. When they remove the two rows it is not part of the plan to change the J seats to a newer generation.