My 1st JAL Biz Class Experience- Pretty Bad
 

Just thought I would share my experience flying JAL J for the 1st time a few days ago.

I travel to SE Asia around 6-7 times a year, I usually fly with AA or CX, and once in a while QR when the price point is right. This trip, I wanted to try a few different products. My trip from LAX to BKK was on SQ via SIN on their A350 URL seat 11K. This was my first time flying SQ, and wow was I impressed with their soft and hard product- I was able to snag seat 11K a bulkhead seat in the front cabin, and wow I had so much room! One of the best biz class seats I've experienced. On my SIN to BKK, I was on the SQ A330 for my short 2 hour flight.

Anyway back to JL. My flight from BKK to Narita was on the JL 787 with the shell seats- and WOW, the worst Biz class seat I have ever experienced. My flight from BKK was at 8am, so I was up pretty early, and was hoping to catch some sleep on 6 hour journey to Narita. Well, sleeping was near impossible on this seat. I am not that tall, at 6ft even, and it was uncomfortable the entire 6 hours. Due to the weird angle of this seat, when I tried to sleep, it felt like I was putting so much pressure on my knees- It was was bad, I was in pain for most of the trip to Narita. The IFE System was horrible, the screen was low quality, and very small for business class. The IFE movie selection was also terrible. The service was fine, meals were ok. Not bad, but not good.

So my 10 Hour flight to LAX was on the 777 Apex- I was looking forward to this seat and this flight- I chose seat 8A (I believe) which was a window seat. I was impressed by the amount of leg room and privacy. One of the most private biz class products I've flown. I ordered the Wagyu beef, which was really really good, and snacked on the ramen noodles prior to landing. The service on this flight was the worst I have ever experienced, flight departed at 5:40pm, and I did not get my 1st drink until close to 8pm. The meals came out slowly, and it took forever for the FA's to clear dishes. I ended up placing used dishes on the small ledge that led to the aisle. I also ended up taking some dirty dishes to the galley myself when I had to use the restroom. As I walked the cabin, I noticed I was not the only one who was taking dirty dishes to the galley. The seat was not so comfortable, i found the mattress pad they provided to continue to slip off the seat- There was nothing to hold the mattress pad in place, so it continues to slide up and down the seat. Very uncomfortable. Although the IFE screen was beautiful, it was not used because the lack of movie/tv selection. Maybe I am spoiled by my previous flight on SQ, and my experience on AA, but wow JL IFE movie selection was really really bad.

I am happy that I experienced JL J products, by IMO they are the worst TransPacific seats I have experienced, and will avoid them in the future. I was hoping their soft product would shine, but it did not. Maybe my flight to SEA on SQ on the A350 and A330 raised the bar, but I was extremely disappointed with the hard and soft product of JL. SQ outshined them in every potential category, and will continue to fly AA or CX anytime over JL.:(

What was so poor about JAL's IFE content, particularly vs AA? Looking at the program guide for September, there seems to be selection of recent Hollywood and Japanese movies & video, a few years ago, and some further back, along with several titles from other countries.

Just the selection in general was poor. Sure they had a few newer releases, most noticeable, some Marvel movies, but honestly they may had approx 10 movies excluding child movies, or comic book movies. With AA, they have 100's to select from, and most recently with my SQ flight, IFE had a few hundred of different hollywood films, and many genre's to choose from. For 16 hours a flight time, IMO, the selection was poor. This is not a make or break, but I expected more, and I expected a lot more from their 787 IFE- Which was probably the poorest IFE biz class product I've ever seen.

I've flown JL and SQ in J, and felt that JL hard and soft product were clearly superior. The only area where SQ was better was IFE.

I've been on dozens of JL biz class flights since 2003 and have never been disappointed.

The shell flat neo is the worst business class seat you've ever experienced? You've led a very sheltered travel life.

Stick to AA then! To each their own likes/preferences.

Again, this was my experience and my opinion- You and some others sound "butthurt" that I did not enjoy my experience All I'm trying to do is provide my honest review of my experience to hopefully give back to this forum. And yes, the shell flat neo, for a 6 hour flight was the worst biz class product I have flown. Not sure what you mean by sheltered life, please tell me a regional biz class seat that is worse than the shell flat neo? CX Regional, much more comfortable, some even have reverse herringbone, SQ A330 and 787 seats are much more comfortable.

You sound too emotionally involved.

Obviously, I will stick with AA and CX. Again, this was a review of my personal experience to help others. I did not enjoy the soft or hard product, maybe it was just a bad day, but I am extremely subjective, and honest in my review. I want to help out other travelers.

I love JAL's soft product, and often their hard products. But I agree, not a fan of the Shell Flat Neos at all. Many better hard products out there, even on shorter routes.

I'm just happy they switched to the Sky Suite III's for my KIX to LAX route. It looks much better!

It's unfortunate the OP was not satisfied with his JAL flight. I've flown JL 708, BKK to NRT several times with the Shell Flat Neo seats. This is a daytime flight and is relatively short, clocking in at less than 6 hours. I fly trans Pacific several times a year and enjoy the JL flights.

Finally flew this route and it is NOT better. Wow, I have to agree w/ OP here. This experience was one of the worst business class flights I've ever taken. Soft product was 6/10, but hard product was 2/10. I felt so claustrophobic in these little shells. ANA in comparison on the same route was leagues better.

Well, please research and choose your flights wisely. JAL has several flights out of HND/NRT to/from BKK, and some are better than others.
It is what it is.

I fly a lot of JL F and J.

1. Shell-flat Neo. Not a great seat, but well above average for a medium haul business class seat. When I have to fly this seat, I have an extra large blow up cushion to prop my fee up and always grab row 1 or row 8, which makes for a very comfortable seat. If you're flying BKK>NRT and don't bother to select the flight with SkySuite II, it's entirely your bad. Not sure why you're broadcasting it here.

2. Service - I do at least 50 JL flights a year. Never experienced what you describe.

3. IFE - Kind of agree, but that's only because I fly so much. For the normal traveler the selection is fine, although there are other carriers that have more titles.

I do feel like the quality of JAL flight attendants has gone down a bit. I was on JL 17 from YVR to NRT a few weeks ago and they didn't even have a flight attendant by the front of the plane when I boarded, and I got on 5th, never experienced that before. Maybe it's because I never ask for anything, but I have found my JAL flight attendants to be inferior to the CX and SQ (maybe it's because they're not as charming in general).

The IFE is unspectacular to me, but like you I fly enough that everything is the same after the third flight.

Compared to 30 or 40 years ago, maybe yes, but recently I haven't noticed much of a change. Agree though that's its mostly a question of style and whether union policies dictate who gets to work in the forward cabins.



Totally agree. It's like I'll watch movie X because it's the only one I haven't already watched at least 3 times.

I just flew DFW-NRT-BKK and the 787 shell seats are rather uncomfortable, better than the NH 787 torture seats but not by much. But given that NH now flies lieflat on all TYO-BKK flights, hard for JL to compete with a subpar business seat. Good thing I'm flying back via HND.

Along the same lines of service, both flights took approximately 55-60min until I got my first drink and 2h45min to complete entire lunch service on DFW-NRT, a bit too long vs. other carriers I fly.

Lastly, I also agree that IFE selection is limited. What I find more strange is that non-English movies only have limited subtitles, such as English subtitles only for Japanese movies or Japanese subtitles only for Korean movies. And yes, I wanted to watch a Korean movie only to find out it didn't have English or Chinese subtitles and I was a bit too lazy to force myself to read Japanese on a long haul flight.

I'm an infrequent flyer on JL anyways, so my opinion and business probably mean very little, just sharing feedback based on the topic of this thread.