Kumar2013

I have always found JAL a shade more Japanese than its rival ANA. Nonetheless both are great premium airlines (perhaps the last of a dying breed) and I never hesitate to fly them given a chance.

Recently I flew DEL - HND and HND - LAX with return from SFO instead of LAX. On the second flight (HND - LAX) I noticed the attendants were handing our Miso soup to the Japanese passengers in small styrofoam cups - but I was not asked. Being somewhat partial to Miso soup (my wife is Japanese, as it happens) I gently asked the attendant who seemed surprised but acquiesced in a manner suggestive of entertaining a request for more alcohol or freebies. I gave her the benefit of doubt and forgot about the incident soon thereafter.

On the return leg a month later, the exact same thing happened on the SFO to HND leg - once again I was ignored for the Miso - and once again I apologetically requested some after the cart had gone by.

The interesting bit occurred on the HND to DEL leg when they ran out of the beef meal (the attendant strangely informed me that it was very popular with Japanese and hence run out!?). I'm allergic to shrimp (the alternative) and I had already enjoyed a full breakfast at the ANA lounge so I politely declined their offer of some plain rice (and standard accompaniments) - apparently there was no fruit either. After some questioning on what other tidbits they had (rice crackers, nuts, chocolate - only the former was available) it occurred to me that there was Miso soup but this had not been offered.

What's with this - am I getting a persecution complex or is JAL just blind towards non-Japanese?

CPH-Flyer

It used to the way that the meal that was considered the Japanese came with miso, and the one that is considered western did not come with miso soup as a default. But you are free to ask for it. If you listen to the Japanese passengers, you'll hear that they more or less automatically ask for miso soup if it is not being offered.

When they ask what you want to drink, just say miso soup if you were not offered it automatically. It happens to all customers, even the Japanese customers.

f4freeJunior

Everything went smoothly as described above.

Ghoulish

Agree with your assessment of JAL vs ANA and both are great. ANA "Room" better J seat while food / service slightly better on JAL.

Ever notice ANA has international crews while JAL exclusively uses Japanese FAs?

CPH-Flyer

JAL does not exclusively use Japanese crews. There is a crew base in London that operate on JL44/43, though interestingly not on 42/41.

There used to be crews based out of Thailand, Hong Kong, and I think some Singaporean crews as well. Not sure what happened to them during the pandemic.

kaku_jinbutsu

Agreed. Not sure where she was based but recently (July 1st, I think?) I had Thai cabin crew on JL8009 from Chicago to Narita.

CPH-Flyer

Normally (read pre covid) they would be based in Bangkok, start with a flight to Tokyo, cycle through a flight plan, and end with a flight to Bangkok.

lcpteck

The Singapore crew were given basic pay while they were grounded.

mhy

Definitely had some Hong Kong based crew a few years ago. I think the first male FA I had on JAL was from HK.

minizian

In BKK there is Thai cabin crew who worked in check in area as well as BKK Sakura Lounge staff.
You can spot them with the scarf that was different from ground staff, also not sure why they need to wear massive name tag (basically enlarged version of their nametag)
My flight BKK > NRT have 3 BKK based crew with one working in BC.
While my flight NRT > KUL was full Japanese team, previously they have at least 3 HKG crew serving this route.