F in JL003: JFK Midnight- Reduced Service?
 

I searched everywhere but could not find any data points. Has anyone travelled recently (as in past two or three years) in JL 003 F, departing midnight 1:45AM from JFK to HND or NRT?

Was the service or food reduced vis-à-vis JL 005 (the afternoon departure flight)?

thanks!

JL only recently transitioned JL3 to be a midnight departure ex-JFK. Prior to March 2020, it was the daytime JFK-NRT flight, running on a broadly similar schedule (and thus meal service pattern) as JL5 on JFK-HND. You could try looking for reports from when JL1 was a midnight departure ex-SFO (many years ago at this point, maybe circa 2015?) for an indication of what service/food on the "new" JL3 will be like.

The menus for the website seems to indicate that there is only one menu for JFK HND.

JAL's midnight service would start with a-la-carte and the main meal service will begin after 8 hours into the flight. The main meal shall be the same as the daytime flight. I believe this also applies to the purposed JL41 midnight LHR flight. The only "reduced service" I could think of is that the main meal courses may not be available before 8 hours into the flight, but they have some very good a-la-carte choices anyway.

For JL41 the initial setup was that the main meal started about 6 hours in, which gave a really weird setup where they'd wake the flight up, serve a meal, and then dim the lights again with 4-5 hours to go. They seem to have moved that to the main meal being served about 2 hours before landing. Much better setup.

But yes, then a la carte options as the option in the early part of the flight.

I think the worry is the old SFO setup when that was still late night departures

I took the HND-SFO midnight flight a number of years back in F and was grossly disappointed with the service. Very little on offer after takeoff and the "full meal" later was breakfast, which doesn't excite me at all. I would never book a JL midnight flight in F again after that, it completely took away from the F experience.

That's not the case with the current published menu.

The menu for JL 3 for June is already released on its website.

Link to business class meals - main meal served 8 hours after takeoff... with its typical a la carte menu with a range of noodles/rice dishes/hot snacks, as well as two kinds of set meal (one tray with main and dessert).
https://www.jal.co.jp/inter/service/...006_202008.pdf

First Class seems to have a similar menu but they did not specifically when the main meal will be served. Knowing the airline well, it is likely to be an "on demand" service.
https://www.jal.co.jp/inter/service/...006_202008.pdf

For economy and premium economy class passengers, I feel bad. There is a late night snack with sandwich served after takeoff, and there is no hot meal offered till breakfast service prior to arrival. This is really low. West Coast to Tokyo is 10 hours but east coast to Tokyo is 13 hours.
https://www.jal.co.jp/inter/service/...y_m_202006.pdf

PS. I really give JAL credits for maintaining its meal services in all classes. I might stay with JAL for the near future on my eventual transpacific flights back to LA.

Carfield

does JAL still fly those birds with first class(77W, I think) given the non-existent business travel demand?

For the once weekly flights to Chicago and Los Angeles, yes they are operating with the 77W.

Thanks.

I see HND-ORD flights still have award availability in June as early as tomorrow.

JAL is really generous.

Thanks for posting these links ;)