Howard Long

I'm on this flight in 3 weeks, it's an overnight scheduled 22:05-0620+1.

I will have arrived from the UK nine hours earlier, and will be on UK time, so I doubt I'll be too interested in sleeping, this effectively being late afternoon/evening for me.

The food menu suggests a less than inspiring light snack / a la carte on departure, then, before arrival, what looks like a substantial breakfast.

Presumably this is dine on demand, so theoretically I could have anything at any time?

Better still, perhaps someone has experience they could share of this flight in F?

I've flown F on JAL quite a number of times, but it's always been on the LHR-TYO-LHR route, so I go with the flow on meal times.

CPH-Flyer

The BKK to HND F flight is a light on the service levels. It is the exception to the rule that JAL does not light service on red-eye F flights. Though admittedly if they did a full F menu after departure they'd basically leave no sleeping time.

You can probably get them to serve the Japanese breakfast after takeoff as well, but whether there is then a second breakfast before landing is a question of loaded meals and other passengers' choices. But generally yes, after take off it is a la carte.

Not sure what your final destination time zone is, but if it is Japan, this flight would, in my opinion, be great to get some sleep and more adjusted to Japan time.

Howard Long

Thanks for the feedback. Doesn't sound too positive TBH!

Of course, there's a backstory: originally I was due to go the following day to make a dinner appointment, travelling in J on the JL32 arriving at 6pm (no F on this service). My appointment was changed to the afternoon, so I moved to the overnight flight half a day earlier.

I have a hotel room set up for my early morning arrival at the Royal Park in T3 departures. I've stayed here before: while it's basic, its convenience is second to none. Thus, I'll be able to take a rest upon landing.

I leave 30 hours later on another JAL F flight, and I'm quite happy to remain close to UK time rather than unnecessarily fight the jet lag any more than I need to, not just when there but also when I return a few days later. It's a strategy I used back in January too for a similarly short trip to TYO. I might lose the mornings, but I have the afternoon and evening, and then work overnight.

pesos

Makes sense. I had the same choice for later this year and ended up going with JL32 as I live in Tokyo and would want to be sleeping if I took the redeye, which ultimately seemed like a bit of a waste of an F flight for such a short route.

CPH-Flyer

Just take J and sleep?

pesos

I considered it but I am an awful sleeper in general and can’t sleep at all on planes 😂 so I decided to get a decent nights sleep in the hotel and back at home and do the daytime flight.

Howard Long

I did the JL34/JL31 route a few days ago now BKK-HND-BKK, with a day and a bit between.

The BKK-HND JL34 is quite short and overnight, 2205 to 0620+1, about five hours duration. The cabin had 7 of 8 seats filled, and everyone went for the small first meal service, most of them significantly indulging fairly robustly on the booze front. Thus, only a minority woke up 2 hours before landing to enjoy the main food service of breakfast.

I did ask hypothetically if you could have the breakfast first, but I could tell that the suggestion wasn't what they wanted to hear: so much for dine on demand!

I believe that JAL have missed a trick here. A substantial dinner service, with a subdued breakfast service prior to landing makes more sense to me.

I barely managed an hour's sleep.

Best part of the journey, other than the crew, was arriving at gate 111 which is immediately by immigration. From doors open to getting to my Hotel (the Royal Park in T3 departures) was exactly 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the hotel had messed up my booking despite me having written assurances from the that they were expecting me to be a late check in, so I lost a further ten minutes just trying to check in to the hotel.

Anyway, here's the first JL34 BKK-HND meal, you'll see I augmented it with a cheese plate...





And here's the breakfast...







On the JL31 HND-BKK, it's a different experience altogether, slightly aided by an extra half an hour's flight time. Here's lunch, which was all I could manage, although there is a far more substantial a la carte compared to JL34 if you so choose, including the legendary JAL Wagyu Curry. Again there were 7 pax in F, and only one bottle of Salon between us.















The TL;DR is, if you're looking to make the most of the F experience, arrive with an empty stomach and go for the JL31 HND-BKK for your indulgence. For the JL34, BKK-HND night flight, probably best to opt for a biz seat and sleep as much as you can, safe in the knowledge that the passengers in from of you in F are probably going to feel rougher than you when you've landed.