SFO777

Thanks ASUDan130. Good question about QR and EK. It's a tough call but ranking QR ahead of EK is just a personal preference. While EK has doors on their A380 suites, the single side suites are smallish. I like the more subtle color palate of QR than the in-your-face EK bling. I tend to prefer the food and wine on QR, and DOH is newer and easier to navigate than sprawling DXB. I like the DOH Al Safwa Lounge despite it's cavernous and sterile feel. IMO, any lounge with La Grande Dame as the well champagne is hard to top. Not that I've flown it but from what I've seen, QR's J is much better than EK or EY. And the new Q-suites seem to be a game changer. So that the narrower distinction between F and J would seem to be natural.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

See again, this is all subjective. Personally, I don't care who else sits in the F cabin. I'm paying for a seat in F, I get a seat in F. It doesn't worry me if the cabin is filled with upgrades or whatever (as long as there's no undue noise or intrusion, like a party!).

I think UA offers one of the best F beds out there. For me, the bed, good crew, and the sundaes make for an enjoyable flight. Others looking for an 'experience' may be disappointed. I rank HN F below UA F, based on the bed being too short for me, and a bad design where the window seats have this annoying wall covering the adjacent windows. And NH's IFE is woeful, at least for pax who aren't in to Japanese programs.

BRITINJAPAN3

I also agree, the other pax should not really be one of the measures. One notch can mean a huge diffrence, as i think in this case. Not many more qualified to give his opinion than SFO, not that he is asking anyone to agree.

And last note while NH IFE not great, recently it is much much better for non japanese speakers

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I flew them a couple weeks ago and it was really bad - worse than I ever remember it being. They had 'boxed sets', one of which was Glee... season 2 (yes 2!) and on opening it up they had just two episodes. All the CDs were cut down to just a few tracks... Adele's Greatest Hits had just 6 tracks. And it was the same for the others. The service and food on the connecting flight in biz class was better than F (although if I had the Japanese meal it might have been better).

thbe

I don't agree.

First of all it doesn't make any sense to defend someone in a way, that it's his personal preference, who commented others personal preference with "OP needs to get out more. IMO... "

SFO777 writes trip reports. Personally I appreciate every kind of trip report and I also appreciate SFO777's trip reports. Trip reports can help a lot of other travelers with information and pictures.

But a trip report is not enough as a base for a rating , especially not for 20 airlines. He obviously travels for fun and with that approach it's absolutely reasonable to choose the best way to travel with an airline. But it's not even close to represent the F of an airline. And it's not correct, to ignore ground or irreg handling in F. The main goal for most travelers is still to get from A to B in time, even in F.

Even if I don't know even half of the 20 airlines in F, I know the F of some of the airlines much better than SFO777 does. So I know, that he is definitely wrong at some points. And I use wrong in the meaning, SFO777 write about the OP. I totally understand, that he can impress much less experienced travelers. But I'm very sure, that there was no reason at all to bash the OP. No reason at all to be arrogant.

MikeFromTokyo

Of course it is all subjective, and usually I do not care who the other passengers are, but I have had abysmal experiences on AA where non-reving employees sitting in F were carrying on loud conversations with on duty, uniformed crew members, while the same crew members basically ignored me and a couple of other passengers. Not that it matters, but this was paid J + miles for upgrade.

It's also subjective because I live in Thailand, and when I travel with Thai family members, we are treated exceptionally well by TG both in J and especially in F. Sometimes "clicking" with a great flight crew gets the already great sevice kicked up a few notches. A flight goes by like a dream, and we even chat a bit if the crew is really great. The same can be true on any airline, so again very subjective.

And I really love the TG F semi suites on the 747-400 (my favorite aircraft ever) and the even better seats on the 380. The simple fact that I still get to fly on a 747-400, in its nose, and hear the lovely sound of those four CFM engines is enough for me to adore TG. Lovely service, and Dom Perignon etc... make it even better.

It's so funny that we're all talking to such a ridiculous extent about the differences between all of these more or less good airlines. It's all a personal choice. But that's to be expected, and to be fair this is the TG forum and the "home" of loyal TG fans. So, a derisive post insinuating that fans of TG F are ignorant and need to "get out more" to experience other airlines is bound to evoke an emotional response from some people, as it did from me.

Anyway, happy and safe flying to all, on whatever airlines we may prefer

kittiyut

You are absolute right. No reason at all to be snobbish and arrogant.

kittiyut

I totally agree with you! And I'm not even a TG loyalist - But I do want to see them excel and make people happy with their product and services - very happy to see that the OP was pleased

kittiyut

Oh yes oh yes, NH IFE totally sucks! (But I really don't care that much, the seat, food and services matters more to me)

But hey, I think the food - esp. Japanese choice ex-NRT/HND - my favorite - more than compensate for the crappy IFE

I must say that I "LOOK FORWARD" to having the Japanese food on NH (esp. when flying out of Japan) - even in Business class! The only airline food that can get me excited about

Anyone who sampled JL first care to compare with NH?

MikeFromTokyo

NH is usually better in my opinion, but JL F is great as well. If you have time for a Tokyo stopover, and if that's possible on your ticket, then completely apart from from airline food, the best thing to do is go out for a few meals in Japan

5khours

I used to fly JL quite a bit but found the service to be excessively robotic so for a long time mostly flew NH on JPN<>NA routes. Recently I've started flying some JL again. So briefly in order of what's important for me (other things might be important to other people), here's how I would compare the two airlines.

Seats - Comparable. Usually have access to two seats on either carrier. Neither carrier is great for traveling as couple. JL might have a slight edge on seat comfort, but I think that will vary by the individual.

Quiet/privacy - Both airlines do a really good job of keeping the F cabin very quiet and peaceful. (The things I hate most about UA F class is a) the fact they don't have good curtains separating F from the galley and from the aft cabin, and b) the cabin is always full of non-revs.)

FAs - Both are really good. Extremely professional but also personable.

At the airport - I slightly prefer the JAL lounges at HND and NRT. In the US it varies depending on the the partner lounge. NH check in/security is better at NRT. No TSA Pre for either in the U.S. totally sucks. On balance, NH might be slightly better than JL, but compared to TG both NH and JL miles behind in terms of the airport experience.

Food - Both very nice. Currently I have a slight preference for JL.

IFE - Rarely find a movie that a) I haven't seen and b) is not boring/awful. What is the point of having a 100 movies if there is not a single one you want to watch. Recently I've seen some good Japanese movies and older U.S. movies on NH so I'd probably rank them slightly ahead.

IRROPS - Mechanical usually not a problem. Have had a couple weather related issues on NH and they've done an outstanding job. Cash compensation for delays (brand new bills in an envelope on arrival), walked to a complimentary limo because of late NRT arrival, phone calls from a human to update me on status, etc.

brodielayne

I'm flying 7,8, and just above AA's First on a trip early next year and am sure that all will be great. I will not check a bag either, so as long as check-in is not laborious, the lounge is not out of booze, and I do not have a misconnect all will be good. Should I expect more considering I paid less for all of my flights than I would have paid for a oneway coach seat?

I see a lot of assumptions in this thread. One that stands out is that SFO "obviously travels for fun." You clearly do not know what you are talking about. SFO is the real life James Bond, and if you read his trip reports like you said you have it would clearly have presented itself.

SFO777, I appreciate your wit, sarcasm(smart ...), and thorough trip reports. Thanks for keeping it direct, and kudos for your humility with your apology.

Thaikwai

I agree 100% with MikefromTokyo.........it is indeed subjective. I have only ever once paid to travel in TG F to Europe and the 4 or 5 times a year I travel in F to London or Paris are always a reward for the fact that I am sitting on TG metal in J or F regionally for between 140,000-160,000 miles annually.

I have only flown F in three of the other airlines on "the list" and that was a long time ago. Like Mike, I also live in Thailand and use TG almost exclusively. It has its problems, sure, but this thread is about the F experience.

When comparing the cost of TG F with other Premium Asian airlines, it offers good value for the experience, unlike the J class long haul which seems to be way over priced and offers nothing special compared to the other regional competitors.

I am not bothered about having oceans of space in an "apartment" or "residence". I need a comfortable bed, good food, exceptional service and a non-stop flight that allows me 8 hours comfortable sleep, and THAI provides this in F.

My only gripe is that THAI F is only available on the midnight departure from BKK and the lunchtime departures from LHR or CDG. I would much rather have it on the lunchtime BKK departure and the nighttime LHR departure as the arrival times make jet lag recovery much easier.

kittiyut

The needs of business people who fly "for a living" are different from those who fly for fun and write trip reviews about it - and I'm not implying that anyone here does that. I respect other people's opinion because all have different needs and wants (and interesting to read) - just don't shove it down other people's throat. I can't comment anything on most of the long haul F "on the list" other than UA, TG, NH, CX and EK.

My partner flies too much and is too busy with his work he doesn't even have the time to frequent these forums (that's my job), let alone post anything about his experience. To him, the bling-bling, IFE, food is lesser of importance - ground service, getting from point A to B direct at the time he wants, have a seat that he can work and then sleep well, being taken care of in case of IRROPS is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, we are stuck with United. But the tight cooperation with NH & LH (ability to use GPUs, earning RDMs & PQDs as if flying UA metal) is a big relief.

We are now based in BKK like ThaiKiwi (used to be in HKG) but the difference is that we use LH for Europe (better mileage earnings and better F, IMHO) and NH/UA for the US. We use the miles (will earn >2M RDMs this year) for TG. Of the almost 20 flights in TG F BKK-Europe and vv. I've taken, NONE were paid for with $$$. If F is not available, then I would try to get on BR - much better seat - until the A380 and 77W came along. That's why I do care about the product as whole and very happy to see that others are happy. TG goes up and down over the years but, IMHO, I feel that they are on the way UP.

I agree with Kiwi - I don't like flights that leave after midnight and arrive early in the mornings - harder to recover from jet lag. Having to stay awake for the caviar service is also torturous

BinSabai

are you mixing up Kiwis and Kwais... fruits and animals?