ma930407

Hi everyone - I am wondering if anyone shares similar experience to me.

I have taken over 20 JAL flights over the past two years in business class. JL26 (Hong Kong to Tokyo Haneda) has the worst crew service consistently. Recently I took the flight again - was in row 8 and was not served a meal or drink until 2 hours after take off. The crews did not introduce the menu. Asked for a cup of hot water and order was forgotten. The crew took 30 minutes to prepare a cup of green tea. No amenity (except slippers) was distributed. The senior cabin attendant gave a big smile during boarding and disembarkation but during the flight, she showed unhappiness answering requests. No crew came to collect trash or used hot towels. Except the Hong Kong base crew who was helpful, other crews seemed to be tiring, not passionate and did not care the passengers. The experience on JL809 (Tokyo Narita to Taipei) was completely opposite. The senior cabin attendant Marisa (Taipei base) was very caring on each passenger and had great attention to details. The crews introduced themselves and greeted each passenger before take off, followed by handing out amenities. While the flight time was shorter than JL26, the crews only used 45 minutes to distribute the meals and maximised the resting time for passengers. During the flight, the crews walked through the cabin every 5 minute (or even less) quietly checking if any passenger needs something. Before landing, the crews said goodbye and thanked each passenger individually.

I wonder why there could be such a big difference as JAL should have their protocol on inflight service. But the reality is, I always receive comparatively poor service flying into Haneda than Narita (except the foreign base crews). The foreign base crews are usually good, but the Japanese crews can range from exceptionally good to exceptionally bad.

Wonder if anyone shares similar experience to me.

CPH-Flyer

I can't say that I have similar experiences. I had a flight home from Moscow recently where the service was a bit disorganised, but nothing close to what you describe.

My Moscow flight seemed to have a lot of very young (inexperienced?) crew members in business class. But generally they were very helpful and nice, if not super organised.

kaka

CPH-Flyer

I don't have too much experience with the Hong Kong crews, but what I find with the Bangkok crews is that things go really well unless you don't speak Japanese.

I generally find the Japanese crews better than the off shore bases (never more clearly than with the LHR base), though I do find that language sometimes puts a bit of a dampener on the service, so I always try to switch to Japanese Especially in J and F.

rickywk

I waited near 1.5 hour for meal services in my previous JL26/29 experience, my friends also said they waited a bit long for the meal services on others JL flights.
Haven't noticed any issue with the cabin crew altitude, no matters HKG or JPN crew. I even can have small chat with them in galley due to weather delay.

Last JL26 flight they didn't offer slippers to us, but they responds very quickly after we request it and came with apology. Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong also took this flight back to Tokyo, entire J class cabin crew team is a bit nervous in this flight. Chief Purser even forgot time difference HKG and HND when she made PA.

ma930407

Perhaps it was my bad luck. The senior cabin attendant on my flight even wrongly announced JL26 was heading for Narita. The HKG crews I met were mostly friendly and approachable. But I have met rude JPN crews on a flight to Dallas before. I wanted to complete a compliment card for the HKG crew for her outstanding service. When the Japanese crew saw it, she kept on walking near me to eavesdrop what I was writing. She then started to ask whether I was unhappy with anything about her. This really made me very embarrassed. The HKG crew was smart and professional in handling the situation - she told me "oh, actually every crew is good ... so don't just compliment on my performance but also the whole team".

rickywk

My friend did complaints when he denied to got breakfast because the flight will land in 120 mins.
It's a long haul flight and my friend didn't wake up during meal time, when he woke up he asked for a breakfast. Cabin crew disappear about 15-20 mins and said they cannot offer due to only 120 mins reminds.

My friend then request cup noddles etc, just a quick breakfast still acceptable. Cabin crew disappear again, and offered some snacks for him as breakfast

He did filed complaints to JAL but just got std. reply, and my friend jumped to Avios after this case

CPH-Flyer

In business class last order should be 1h 30m before landing, though sometimes if the last bit of the flight is expected to be very bumpy that may get extended.

Unless I have asked not to be woken up for breakfast the crew are normally quite good at coming around asking if I need something more before last order

Your friend should complain though with Japanese companies the outward reply is going to be quite subdued Internally I would expect it to get more attention. I am not sure BA is a better choice, even compared to the worst of JL service, but only he can be the judge.

rickywk

My friend is choosing BA Club or JGC before this trip(thx CX MCP great devalue), he used avios redeem this long flight too.

His point is: Avios at least no expiry date, both carrier services just so-so.

CPH-Flyer

JMB is only really an attractive program if you fly JAL a lot, and you reach Emerald to, amongst others, get points with no expiry. It also helps greatly on the attractiveness of the program to live in Japan.

JALPak

kaka

i just got the iberia avios today and will switch them to ba.
JL is a shame without these promotions. I think he should switch too. so would i.

Chromie25

Suggest next time if you want to compliment specific crew, do it through an email to JL after the flight. The Japanese crew can feel that you are somehow trying to express that the HKG crew did a good job (relative to them) - the Supervisor will not pass on such compliment card to the office and will just throw it away. Complimenting the whole crew does little in terms of getting recognition from the JL management.

jgchiker

China and Southeast Asia have consistently bad service. I just wonder if this is on purpose.
I do agree with others that outstation crew sometime do a better job than japanese crew. They seem to put more effort.

ma930407

TPE base seems to be a good example ... they always have outstanding service.