I tend to agree with this. About a year ago I could count the AA "irregular ops" affecting me with the fingers of one hand, but since then AA has gone downhill, at least IME. I like AA, still do, but "mechanicals" have ruined many of my recent trips, far more than before, and way more than the other OW airlines I have flown recently, and since most of my AA flights are part of tight connection itineraries, this aspect is starting to bother me.

How can you determine in advance if its a three-class sold as two, or a two-class configuration? And how can you get the F seats if the former?

My JL707 December 25 seemed to be a true two-class, from a quick peek into the nose as we boarded (it looked to be pairs of seats, not single ones, but perhaps I wasn't peeking far enough forward). It also had the old J seats and only one lav upstairs.

I was originally supposed to be on JL707 on the day before (December 24) and had been under the impression that it was a three-class sold as two, and had called JL to ask to be seated in the nose, and was told that those seats were reserved for JL's own frequent flyers.

If the booking buckets for a flight indicate only two cabin classes (F/Y or J/Y) are being sold but seat maps for that flight indicate a 3 class configuration then you have a "three-class sold as two".

You've answered your second question ... become a JL frequent Flyer.

OK, but how do you determine which JL seat map to look at? The JL web page shows only vague configuration information (such as 747-400), and ExpertFlyer warns that JL 747 seat maps are often inaccurate.

From the maps provided by Seatmaestro it seems that JAL 3 Class 747's have 12 or less seats in the forward nose cabin. 2 Class have 20.

So I guess the best thing to do would be to count the number of seats appearing in rows 1-5.

If it's 3 class, it'll only have rows 1-3 in the nose. The high density JO birds (two class) will have 5 rows up front, and then coach behind the door.

Steve

The Australia routes also feature a sub-standard product. Recently took a flight Brisbane-Narita, and the seats were manual from atleast two generations ago and entertainment abysmal. However I always find JAL service to be polite and courteous, though they do show bias to those who are from a Japanese background or to those who can speak Japanese. The Sakura Lounge at Tokyo was basically a room with chairs, very dark with no food except for crackers etc. On a seperate note, with Qantas flying Skybed on Sydney and Melbourne routes, and rumours that a Qantas Club would open in Tokyo, one would think an airline like JAL will have to improve or pull out.

I think going via Hong Kong would be a bit more of a detour to get to Beijing than travelling via Tokyo. If you want a Japanese experience and shorter travel time, fly JAL. However CX from my experience is better overall.