kentauta

My apologies. I forgot to put "NRT" in the title!

JL say they won't be able to serve normal meals on intl flights departing NRT on Sep 10, 2019 as Typhoon Faxai cut food supply to the catering facility and also it suffered power outage.

https://www.jal.co.jp/en/info/2019/i...909/index.html (in English)
https://www.jal.co.jp/info/2019/inter/190909/index.html (in Japanese with more details)

I know it has been a hectic day at NRT with thousands of arriving passengers stranded at the airport due to severely reduced ground transportation, but didn't think of this problem.

I believe this pretty much means reduced meal service in both quality and quantity. This will be a let down to many passengers, and I will be one of them. Will report what I get. The good thing though is that I have already had so much good food in Japan.

vindor

Well if anyone was lucky enough to actually get out on a JAL US bound flight they should consider themselves lucky, food issues notwithstanding. My LAX-NRT flight scheduled for 13:30 today, JL61, is delayed 5 hours due to inbound JL62 cancellation and unable to get details via JAL website and can't get through on the phone. Wouldn't be a big deal but the email I got mentioned an upgrade and almost certainly an equipment change. Any ideas where to get info? Thanks in advance.

bakaneko85

kentauta

I don't understand why the returning JL61 has not been cancelled yet when the inbound JL62 has been cancelled. Is it possible that you have been rerouted as LAX-KIX-NRT(or HND) assuming your final dest is Tokyo? LAX-KIX uses 789 so that would be an equipment change.

vindor

I finally got through to JAL and they couldn't give me any more info than I already had which was flight delayed almost 5 hours but definitely scheduled. Flightaware has it leaving as JL61 on JAL equipment though a 777-300, not ER which is the usual situation. Could be that they're bringing in a plane from Hawaii where they operate a lot of flights out of a least 2 airports but I think those are mainly 767and 787s. As you probably all know, JAL is a little wonky when it comes to communication, especially on their site, so I'll probably just have to see when I get to LAX later. I was more concerned about possibly being rebooked on one of the AA flights out of LAX which I wouldn't have been thrilled about.

JALPak

They don't show 777-300ER on flightaware because that's what JL inputs. If you look at flightstats, it shows

vindor

Ah, I've noticed that on Flightaware. And the flight that they showed as cancelled just a few hours ago, the inbound JL62, appears to be landing in LA in about an hour. I need to start using Flightstats

JALPak

It has more to do with JL using 773 as equipment type than the website itself. They will eventually change it back to 77W on flightaware, most of the time.

kentauta

Just got back from an affected flight. According to the crew, they were serving reduced Y meals to all 4 cabins. I was flying J, and just got a single Y main plate, miso soup, and Ajari Mochi (my favorite!) as dessert. This was substantially below the normal Y meal quality/quantity. After the dinner they had very limited "anytime you wish" items such as vegetable curry, udon, and ramen, and tuna zuke don. I didn't hear anybody complaining. They were handing out forms for compensation (the one they normally use for non-functional IFE) in either JAL coupon or JMB miles but I am not sure about the amount.

I totally understand that this was a result of a natural disaster. However, it would have been nice if they served such small meals much quicker so people can go to sleep.

jamsoh

Was on NRT-JFK flight in C on Sept 10th. Flight delayed 5 hours due to previous day's typhoon messup.

The main meal for this 12 hour flight was rice with tomato sauce. Paper Napkin and soup given in a paper cup.
Worse than typical JAL Y meal for sure. Sent it back after opening it and had Udon "order anytime you wish" which was just ok.
I'm surprised that JAL didn't take care of the problem during the 5 hour delay. (typhoon affected was 8-9 th of september). If they had announced that there was problem in catering, I would have had more of JAL curry in the lounge..
Crew passed around paper that stated we would get compensated (paper was for entertainment/seat malfunction?) JAL coupon or milage, but no one knew how much. It's not crew's fault (the crew was wonderful btw), but not at all impressed how they handled this situation, especially on a premium route.

Funny though, my flight from GMP-HND (which was also 1.5 hour delayed) didn't have any catering issue. So I'm thinking it's just outbound from NRT. I wonder if ANA had the same problem..

kentauta

It probably was impossible to take care of it when the catering facility suffered power outage. Electric power might have been restored before your flight (not sure) but I would imagine lots of food (before and after prep) just perished, and there was just not enough time to restock food and to process them. JL posted some more details in Japanese than they did in English, so that's probably why you think that way.

I was hoping that JL could secure meal supply from other sources, but it probably didn't happen (hard to believe other facilities have that much slack in capacity to be fair).

vindor

A significant power outage even in a place like LA where I live will prompt the health dept to close restaurants down. I'm sure commercial facilities like airline food prep in Japan are regulated in a similar fashion. Public transport was essentially shutdown during the typhoon over here as well which would have made getting employees to work pretty difficult as well. When I checked in for my delayed JAL flight at LAX yesterday we were all given a $15 voucher for any restaurant in the terminal. I've been on many delayed flights at LAX, much longer than yesterdays 5 hour delay, and thats the first time I've seen that. I had an inflight wi-fi issue with JAL a few weeks ago and received a mileage credit without even reporting the issue to them. I'm sure you'll be taken care of.

RS250Racer

I have friends in Chiba who are still without power...and it has been VERY hot. Give em' break!!!

jgchiker

Selfish thinking. This was a major disaster.
Be happy you could fly.

kentauta

It would be nice if you could make it claear which post you meant to address when you make a strong statement like this.