yamanote8

I compiled these images and short comments for a phone picture thread on another forum and figured why not post it up here as well

Had to visit Vancouver during January and decided to include a two-week stop in Tokyo as well.

Basically, my itinerary was:
HKG-YVR (AC J), YVR-NRT (AC J), NRT-HKG (NH J)

Didn't bother with the AC J segments since there are plenty of reports on the herringbone J seats already, but I haven't seen many detailing NH's relatively new short- and medium- haul Business Cradle product.

All Nippon Airways NH911 (operated by Air Japan)
Tokyo-Narita International Airport - Hong Kong
ANA Business Class, seat 3A
Boeing 767-300ER (JA621A)
6:20 PM ~ 10:05 PM (4h45m)

Exterior of the ANA Lounge:


There's a made to order noodle bar (three choices iirc), but they only offer rice bowls to F
Plenty of drinks available from the drink machines. There are cold sandwiches and packaged snacks too.
There's free Wi-Fi which is pretty quick. NRT recently got free Wi-Fi, so you can stay connected even after you leave the lounge now.
Not too many power ports though, you might need to unplug a lamp or two to be able to connect your laptop

Overall, I'd say it's better than the DL SkyClub (serious shortage of food options there), but falls behind the JL Sakura lounge (more food options).
I know these are three lounges for three different alliances but it's the only comparison from me

The gate:


I was surprised to see nobody at the originally assigned gate. Turns out there had been a gate change. Oddly, there were no announcements at the lounge or over the general PA about the gate change but I quickly checked the departures screen and got to the correct gate on time.

Priority boarding for J and *G, nothing out of the ordinary.

After boarding, settling in for the 5 hour ride:


All passengers board through 1L.
A headset (not noise cancelling, but has a single 3.5mm prong so it works with normal devices), a blanket, a pair of slippers and a pillow was at every seat. No amenity kit on this short flight.

After take-off: Snack/drink service before the meal (dinner)


Small snack packet containing the usual Japanese rice crackers.



Suntory ginger ale. Nice change from the usual Canada Dry / generic ginger ale served on other airlines, I guess?

Main meal:


I seem to have misplaced the menu, but if I remember correctly there was a Western option and a Japanese option- the Western option being a steak and the Japanese options being this.

Appetizer: Prawn, sushi, sashimi, marinated dried mini-fish, miso soup
Main: Fish with rice and vegetables
'Dessert' (if you can call it that): Two crispy crackers with some cream in the middle, chilled

Slightly disappointing not to have a proper dessert, but otherwise it was pretty tasty as one would expect for a Japanese meal catered out of NRT.

Washroom:


Nothing special...



...other than the fact that it has a bidet Pretty cool, but I wonder how one would fare if the airplane encountered turbulence while it was spraying water up your bottom

Let's take a closer look at the Business Cradle seats.


There's a hard shell so the person in front doesn't intrude into your space even if he/she reclines- it was a bit of a problem with the old Business-II seats that this replaces.

Do keep in mind that it isn't a lie flat seat- it reclines much more than the old Business-II seating but your legs are still pretty much vertical with the legrest fully extended.


(stock image)



Plenty of space, with a cut-out in the front seat for your legs. I'm not particularly tall, but I'm fairly certain you won't have any issues even if you are a taller person.

(continued on post #4)

jv66

Good report! Quick tip though, instead of inbedding the url, you should just imbed the image: [img] [/img] instead of url /url like the example above. Makes for an easier read with the photos, cheers!

somedude3210

Thanks for the report. My brother and I are going to fly ANA PVG-NRT this fall and this would seem to be the cabin that is typically on the route. Looks like a perfectly nice way to travel on the short-ish hop over.

yamanote8

Grab handles so you don't trip over your seatmate (if you're in the window seat)

One thing to note: if you are a solo traveler, you may think that the center seat is the obvious choice, but I wouldn't be so sure: the plastic wings don't provide much privacy and if you're trying to sleep you might be bothered by people passing. There is a large storage bin to the side of the center seats (it seems large enough for a briefcase).



Large & high resolution IFE screen. The touchscreen function is a bit pointless since it's so far away but it works with the regular remote as well.
There's a coat hook- I can't remember if the FAs offered to take your coat.



There's an iPod socket. It uses a proprietary connector, but the FA was happy to lend me a cable. Didn't work with my iPad, but it worked with my iPhone and iPod nano. Basically it mirrors everything on your screen if you're jailbroken and you have a screen mirroring app installed; otherwise it just shows things that can be output to the telly as Apple intended (pretty much limited to videos).

There's also a USB port on the armrest- it only worked for charging though, no iPod functionality from there. I think you can plug in a USB thumb drive and play music from the thumb drive.



Popped back to Economy class for a look. I believe these are the new Inspiration of Japan seats. Also has a large IFE screen with AVOD functionality and USB/iPod inputs from what I saw.





ANA are asking roughly 180k yen for HKG-NRT RT. Personally, I wouldn't pay for this when I can get DL BE for 80k yen. The soft product on DL does leave something to be desired, but their hard product is just as good, if not better (77L herringbone) and their I/S fares are so much cheaper.

Thanks for reading this through, and do feel free to ask any questions you might have ^

yamanote8

Thanks for the tip- edit made. I wasn't entirely certain which embedding method to use as the images are quite large. I'll have to remember to resize the images to an appropriate resolution next time

Thanks It's definitely more than sufficient for a short flight, but bring your own snacks: the only snacks they have on offer are the rice crackers

One thing I forgot to mention is that there aren't that many Western movies on offer, it's definitely more catered toward a Japanese audience. Most of the Japanese movies do have English subtitles though.

PK777

Great photographs. Looks very professional and stylish! ^

yamanote8

I found the menu The meals for December, January and February are all printed on the same menu. It makes sense, I guess, since the actual sets are only a few lines long, but it gave me the false impression of there being many options at first glance lol. It is printed in Japanese, Chinese and English.

Judging by the small text on the last page, the menu is the same for both NRT-HKG and HND-HKG routes.

The following meal transcription is from the February selection:

Japanese Course (as shown in the pictures):

International Course:


Beverages were as follows:

Following that is the usual list of aperitifs & cocktails, beer, cognac, spirits and soft drinks. Let me know if you want me to list those out too.
'ANA's original Aromatic Kabosu' was also offered- definitely give it a shot if you have the chance.

Cheers