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Japan Airlines JAL Sky Suite 777 First NRT-JFK
So, I just finished up a two-week trip to Hong Kong and Japan. The itinerary, for anyone who is interested, was:
-American Eagle DCA-JFK -JFK AA Flagship Lounge and BA First/Business Lounge -CX F JFK-HKG -4 nights at the Conrad Hong Kong -HKG Cathay Pacific First/Business Class Lounges (hit all of them) -CX F HKG-HND in the 747 -4 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, exploring and sightseeing in Tokyo -Shinkansen to Osaka -4 nights at the Hilton Osaka, exploring Osaka, and day trips to Kyoto and Kobe/Mt. Rokko -Shinkansen to Yokohama -2 nights visiting family stationed at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka -1 night at Hilton Narita -NRT lounges (JAL/AA/CX/QF) -JAL F NRT-JFK -AA Flagship Lounge JFK -American Eagle JFK-DCA (talk about an anticlimax) The trip was paid for with: -130,000 AA miles per person total for the JFK-HKG and NRT-JFK segments -30,000 BA Avios per person for the HKG-HND segment -Cash for the DCA-JFK trip (award space on that leg is apparently like some sort of magical unicorn) -Hilton points + money redemptions for the Conrad Hong Kong (32,000 hhonors points plus about $160 US per night; rack rate is about $450/night US and award redemptions are 95,000 hhonors points/night so it basically comes out to about 1/3 the points and 1/3 the money) -Hyatt free night certificates for the PH Tokyo (Thank you Chase; that card has not seen the light of day since we hit minimum spend) -Cash for the Hilton Osaka -20,000 hhonors points for Hilton NRT (What is this “devaluation” that you speak of?) -Cash for JR green car passes which covered the Shinkansen, Narita Express, and lots and lots and lots of short-distance rail travel. For anyone wondering, we bought 7-day JR passes and activated them the day we left Tokyo. So they covered the big legs and the only things we paid out of pocket for were rides around Tokyo (not many) and some private lines like the Keikyu main line. The vast majority of the stuff we did on this trip has been absolutely beaten to death on FT and the blogs, so I’m not going to pile on more of the same. Yes, CX F suites are still large and the Park Hyatt Tokyo still has good views. That said, feel absolutely free to ask any questions on the above if you’re looking for current data points – they were all great experiences and I’d be glad to talk about them. However, what I wanted to provide that I think could be of some interest is be some discussion of the JL NRT-JFK flight. There seems to be only a few trip reports that I am aware of on the new Sky Suite first class product (the best being this one, in my opinion). I thought it would be perhaps of use to some people to provide another data point. So, here goes. Take or leave what you will of this, and pardon any verbosity. The day started out with a 6 AM wakeup at the Hilton Narita. With an 11 AM departure and a desire to see all we could at NRT (particularly of the various lounges), there was no time to waste. After partaking of the Hilton’s generous breakfast spread (though nothing compared to the spoiling we had received at the Conrad Hong Kong’s Garden Café), we hopped the punctual 7 AM hotel shuttle bus to terminal 2. Upon arriving we headed directly to the JAL F check-in, where our bags were checked and BPs were issued. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3822/1...742be885_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3701/1...cc9e1505_o.jpg We were then directed to the JAL priority security line, which did not open until 7:30 (the first JAL flight went out at 9:10 that day). At 7:30 to the very second, the door opened and, along with the other passengers who had gathered, we were whisked through a set of three dedicated security lines with the utmost efficiency. Then through immigration, who removed our departure slips, and we were on our way. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7329/1...abefb2e7_o.jpg |
Our first stop was the JAL First Class lounge right up the escalator on floor 4 (more on this in a bit). The lounge was sparsely occupied at this time of morning and I set off to explore. On one end was a small bar with a soft drink machine and reach-in cooler, espresso station, automated glass-tilting beer dispenser, wine, and some snacks. There were also PCs, a lot of seating, and two massage chairs. In the middle were some telephone rooms and the bathrooms. On the far end was another bar, this one pretty much the same as the other except fully stocked with liquor (including some very high end whiskies), and the dining room. The food options in the dining room were not quite up to comparison with the offerings in the Wing first class lounge in HKG, though this might also be a slightly unfair comparison since we were at NRT rather early in the morning and only breakfast (my least favorite meal) was out. There was a selection of salads and Japanese small plates, as well as some rather basic western offerings such as sausage, eggs, and potatoes.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3831/1...0d2f4563_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3676/1...488e7a6e_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3821/1...0e43e79e_o.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2658/1...6de886ea_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3678/1...07c803dc_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3772/1...4525763c_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7358/1...39e026d5_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3767/1...fd8a3fdc_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7392/1...d6349afe_o.jpg After some food and drink and time well spent in the massage chairs, we decided to check out the other lounges available. So, we headed down the escalator and came across…what was apparently the REAL JAL first/business lounge. I’m guessing that since we were literally the first customers into the terminal at 7:30 AM, the signage hadn’t been up yet, or the lounge not open at all, when we first came through, and that we were thusly diverted to the smaller 4th-floor lounge. At any rate, we went and checked the main lounges out, and they were basically the same as those just directly above them, except with a more open layout and better views. So, very nice architecturally, but from a food, beverage, etc. perspective, we hadn’t missed anything upstairs. They were also absolutely packed with travelers. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7442/1...24f025ea_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/1...717b1e6a_o.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2303/1...ab0c4d12_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7320/1...1e5e5ca0_o.jpg After popping out of the 3F lounges, we decided to head over to the satellite building. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7346/1...28809bde_o.jpg For fun, we walked the loop of the gates and also checked into the other lounges available (QF biz and JAL biz/F satellite). The JAL lounge attendants were a bit confused as to why we were over there since our flight was going out of gate 63, but as I found to be the case in dealing with any misunderstandings throughout my stay in Japan, it wasn’t something that a smile and a bow couldn’t take care of, and we headed in. Finding it pretty much the same as the lounges over in the main building, we then checked out QF (nice space, nasty Australian beer) and headed back to the main building to hit CX (not quite The Wing, but finger sandwiches and…ice cream!) and the Admiral’s Club (which actually wins the award for best lounge design in the whole airport). |
After the tour de lounge, boarding came right around at 10:40. We headed to the gate 63 entrance on floor 3 and then took the gate-specific escalator down to the boarding area on floor 2. Wow, what a great idea. I’d never seen this before – physically separating the common areas of the terminal from the boarding area by a floor, thereby completely eliminating gate louse overflow into the walking/shopping/etc. regions. Once down on 2F, we headed into a roped-off area, which we presumed to be for J/F, until a staff member came around with an F placard, at which point we were ushered off into a separate line and given some seats to wait in. About 30 seconds into waiting, a staff member came by and gave us the horrible news – our boarding had been delayed by FIVE MINUTES and she was terribly sorry. Of the things I will miss about Japan, punctuality will probably be the biggest, as I am a planner and scheduler at heart. With the interminable five-minute delay over, the rope was unclipped and we were on our way, through a gauntlet of bowing ground crew and into the new Sky Suite 7 F cabin.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3750/1...768a30d9_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7393/1...9f6f2f06_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3670/1...a7f5be72_o.jpg Once on board, we were shown to our seats and I started to check out the offerings. Having just flown CX F twice in the last two weeks, once on the 777 and once on the 747, I was curious as to how the 4-wide F arrangement of JAL would compare. While on board the CX flights, I developed what could be considered a skeptic’s view on the seating. That goes to say, of course 3-wide seating on a 777 will offer a lot of room, and row 2 in the nose of the 747 was hilariously spacious. But, of the room there was to offer in the width of the fuselage, I wasn’t actually sure that it was used ideally by the design of the suite. There seemed to be a lot of excess space in the main seat, with the comically large armrest area basically being wasted, tapering down to a comparatively small footwell. Additionally, it seemed that the left flat deck area of the seat, while obviously containing needed mechanical componentry, was rather large and did not add much value. And moreover, while the closet is nice, I’ve never had issues with height of overhead bins on widebodies (I’m 6’2”) – so I don’t see the need to bring the storage down to the floor and open up space above that is less functional (it’s really the square, not cubic, footage that matters). In my mind, while sitting in CX F, I actually thought that 4 seats could be accommodated without sacrificing any actual passenger comfort, simply by reducing or eliminating the size of spaces that weren’t being utilized or weren’t needed to begin with and reallocating the space thusly. Sitting down in the JL Sky Suite F seat confirmed this. Perfect seat width, with permanent armrests, tons of length (owing still to the only two rows of F suites), and everything within arm’s reach. (A note before I go further – I never flew the previous JL F seat. Some people may have mentioned that the upgrade to Sky Suite was just more or less a refresh, or perhaps maybe more substantial changes went into it. That said, I’m just stating things how I saw them from the perspective of someone who was new to the product.) http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3720/1...74dde6c9_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7431/1...87884314_o.jpg The seat itself is leather or vinyl and features full control of the neck, upper back, lumbar, and lower leg regions, as well as translational control over the whole seat fore and aft. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2609/1...ab17edb9_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7302/1...7a99365a_o.jpg To the left are a series of four compartments: -Deep storage bin for briefcases/laptops, also holds the phone receiver (separate from IFE controller) -Shallow holder for pens/stationery, also holds the IFE controller -Open well for literature such as safety manuals, magazines, etc. -Forward bin also containing the AC power/USB/etc. ports http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7353/1...24731030_o.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2086/1...8b2d95c5_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7401/1...49221a50_o.jpg Additionally, there are two reading lights (one also serving as a headphone holder), a seat controller with 3 preset positions (upright, relax, bed), the full-detail seat controller allowing manual optimization of all aspects of the seat, the 23” flat screen monitor, and a control up front (middle seats only) to raise the divider between seats. Additionally, there is an up-front buddy seat (which is full-width, unlike that of CX), and the table, which I think is a great design – it is fixed upright and moves on a horizontal track to the desired position. This is nice for people like me who hit the lav a lot and can thus easily just slide our whole mise en place (laptop, drinks, food) right forward without disturbing anything. It also seems to be perfectly configured – with the seat in “relax” mode and the table all the way back, I am set up just right to work on my laptop. And for anyone who can’t figure the seat out by intuition or trial and error (me), there is a 3-page front/back illustrated how-to manual accompanying the seat. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3683/1...116ccc3b_o.jpg Upon entry, the seat was already equipped with Bose JetSet II headphones and a TempurPedic pillow. We were then issued a blanket, presumably in case the cabin temperature of approximately 100F wasn’t warm enough, a sleeping kit (this in the zippered amenity kit bag), and a supplemental body care kit in a plastic bag. They also distributed immigration documents, which CX never did on the JFK-HKG leg, instead leaving me standing in the immigration line in HKG looking like an idiot once I realized I needed the docs. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3764/1...df52042d_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3750/1...7e577d61_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/1...0f7d91a3_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/1...4ab51879_o.jpg Once we settled in, PDBs were served, which was a surprise given a number of previous reports to the contrary. Orange juice, as well as champagne, was offered. After that, it was a quick push back and long taxi, and a very apologetic announcement regarding an ATC delay of 10 minutes. The 10 minutes ended up being about 5, and we were airborne in no time. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3679/1...82550b61_o.jpg |
Once up, the seat belt sign was off very shortly, and service began right away. The wine/drink list was presented first, and is reproduced in lesser detail below.
Apertif – Cocktail Tio Pepe Dry Sherry Martini Rosso Sweet Vermouth Martini Extra Dry Vermouth Campari Lejay Crème de Cassis Plum Wine Martini Mimosa Kir Royal Kir Bloody Mary Whisky Chivas Regal Royal Salute 21 Years Suntory Hibiki 17 Years Old (but not the 21 year from the lounge!) L&G Woodford Reserve Spirits Bombay Sapphire Gin (Which – side note - I had seen 2 days before at Costco Yokohama for 2700 yen a handle – what is this about Japan being an expensive country??!) Absolut Vodka Beer (no further description; none needed I suppose) Brandy – Liqueur Remy Martin X.O. Premier Cru Cointreau Bailey’s Port Wine Graham’s Tawny Port 30 years Champagne Salon 2002 Dom Perignon 2004 White Wine Bourgogne – Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru La Gran Montagne 2011 California – Clard-Claudon “Wild Iris” Sauvignon Blanc 2012 Austria – Schloss Gobelsburg Reisling Gaisberg 2012 Japan – Arvga Branca Vinhal Isse’hara 2013 Red Wine Bordeaux – Chateau Rauzan Gassies 2004 Bourgogne – Nuits Saint Georges Les Vieilles Vignes 2008 California – Kenzo Estate “rindo” 2008. New Zealand – Kusuda Martinborough Pinot Noir 2011 Sake Isojiman Bijofu “Sekai no Tsubasa” Shochu Gokujo Mori Izo Kanehachi Premium Japanese Tea Royal Blue Tea “Queen of Blue” And then a selection of other soft drinks, including a specially-featured coffee from a small producer located on the slopes of Volcan Baru in Panama, which struck a chord with me because I had the good fortune to be able to visit that absolutely beautiful region just about a year previous to this trip. Drink orders were taken (I chose the Salon over the Dom), and then a set of three amuse bouches (“amusees bouche”? I never took French) were brought out. Well, it turned out, it was a pre-amuse-bouche, because there was another, more formal, one later. Anyhow, the set consisted of prosciutto, some sort of raw shellfish in olive oil, and beef in a plum or apricot jelly. Then came some dried natto and rice cracker snack mix. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3669/1...1dfae1db_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3816/1...e5a246ea_o.jpg After this, dinner menus were brought out by the FAs, who worked through our orders step by step. After that, the menus were left for in-flight ordering. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7421/1...78a636eb_o.jpg The menu read as follows, with some detail removed: Japanese Menu Zatsuki – Clam and bamboo shoots with Japanese pepper miso sauce Japanese Appetizer – Kobachi – Simmered conger eel and eggplant, steamed chicken and yam julienne with vinegar jelly, steamed abalone with liver and simmered spring vegetables Choko – Broad bean and udo vegetable dressed with sesame cream Shiizakana – Simmered prawn; smoked mullet roe; grilled chicken cake topped with sea urchin; skewered braised duck Mukouzuke – Sea-bream and squid, sashimi style Dainomono – Grilled Wagyu beef fillet with green miso steamed rockfish with sakura leaf Soup – Japanese clear soup with prawn mousse ball Hanmono – Steamed rice with bamboo shoots, or steamed rice (freshly steamed Koshihikari rice) Japanese pickles Sweets – Japanese wafers (these turned out to be awesomely stamped into three-dimensional fish shapes) with soybean flour cake, green tea ice cream, and sesame sable Western Menu Amuse Bouche – Rich onion gratin soup flan topped with fresh uni sea urchin; spring bamboo shoots and bigfin reef squid coated with spicy Japanese pepper sprout sauce; foie gras mousse tarte with framboise sauce. Hors-d’ouvre – Caviar (tarte of favorite caviar condiments topped with crystal chips, and cauliflower bavarois with consumme gelee); warm tarte kaleidoscope of spring shellfish and littleneck clams, scallops, aroma of dried sakura shrimp; medley of fresh spring vegetables, fava bean cream, ginger and orange gelee, with flower petals. Main Dish – Kuroge-wagyu fillet consommé style served with nagaimo potato poelee; beef cheeks stewed until tender in red wine, accompanied by apple puree; poelee of salmon, lightly smoked with fresh seasonal vegetables and pine nuts. Artisanal breads – Lemongrass and mint; cherry blossom; ginger; rice powder. Dessert – Warm, fizzy strawberry tart with pistachio ice cream. A la Carte Otoriyose – Soy-marinated sea bream carpaccio on steamed rice in Iki Island style soup Snacks – Seared Japanese Amberjack from Hokkaido; Chinese appetizers (Chinese pancake with beef and sweet bean sauce, fried shrimp with mayonnaise, jellyfish with sesame sauce) Light meals – Chinese hot and sour soup; roasted Wagyu beef sandwich; deep-fried pork cutlet sandwich; Tokyo curry; boiled spring vegetables and Iberico raw ham salad Noodles – Chines ramen in soy sauce flavored soup; Japanese hot udon with edible wild plants Japanese cheese selection – goat cheese (Fermier); Bloomy rind (Sakura); Firm (Moritaka farm 24-month); washed-rind (Mattone Rosso); blue (Kobayashi Farm) Refreshment – Seasonal fruits; petit dessert tray; chocolate (Jean-Paul Hevin “Fleure”) Fumiko’s Japanese Set Plate Dainomono – Sea bream dressed with sesame sauce; egg roll with Japanese pepper leaf and cherry blossom flavored lotus root Soup – Japanese clear soup with Nonohana vegetable Kobachi – Japanese pickles; steamed rice Fumiko’s Western Set Plate Main dish – Pistachio curry with prawn and zucchini; orange and carrot mousseline Dessert – blanc-manger of fromage blanc and fresh herbs with acacia honey syrup Special bread (Maison Kayser) Then the table was set and a very nice bread selection offered (about 5 selections in total; two shown). http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7339/1...7e3c5465_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/1...0d88ccd1_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3799/1...b72e0dcc_o.jpg Through some combination of luck, charm, and translational difficulties, I managed to order all three appetizers, alongside the Wagyu beef entrée. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but all three appetizers and the second amuse bouche were excellent. In particular the foie gras mousse with berry compote was phenomenal, and I preferred this caviar to that offered on CX (the actual caviar tasted much better, with a less bitter aftertaste, not even to speak for the accoutrements). And the filet was very nicely done, not afraid to even be a bit on the rare side. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7327/1...dfe4cbea_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3728/1...40ec1393_o.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2042/1...70a2f8b6_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7439/1...ecfe45ed_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7447/1...922a5597_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/1...6290d8c4_o.jpg After completion of the entrée, the FA said, “We are about to serve dessert. But first, would you like some cheese?” Of course! I would have to say that this was one of the better put together cheese plates, with five cheeses, each with a dedicated accompaniment, and an instruction to work from left to right. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2278/1...4e507bc5_o.jpg After that came dessert, which did have a pop-rock effect as noted by some previous reporters. The Japanese dessert is also shown. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2072/1...3f940f6d_o.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3759/1...ba0ee024_o.jpg And then it was time for coffee and chocolate. http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3833/1...1b1b2746_o.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7430/1...3e693f1d_o.jpg Overall, throughout dinner and beyond, the service was excellent: punctual, formal, and yet friendly. It was, in fact – prepare the tar and feathers – as good as or better than what we encountered on either Cathay Pacific flight. Everything was instantaneous, often pre-emptive, with a smile and a bow and attention to every little detail. In the past I had read of purported preferential treatment of Japanese passengers, but I can in no way whatsoever say that I encountered this. What I encountered instead was some of the best service I’ve ever seen in my life in any context. The degree of English communication proficiency seemed slightly lower than what we had experienced on CX, but it was nothing that pointing to a menu, smiling, and a head bow couldn’t fix. |
Shortly after dinner, we headed into darkness and the cabin lights were fully dimmed. The FAs disappeared from F, and from the traffic it seemed that it was all hands on deck to finish up the J class service. A push of the call button drew attention in about 10 seconds, and I stated my intent to keep on with the champagne while others slept (my rule #1 of long-distance flying is…Do. Not. Sleep.). I finished the last of the Salon on board and the FA apologetically moved me over to the Dom.
Things quieted down a bit after that. Pajamas were given on request (request I did, since despite my lack of intention to sleep, I wanted to stay comfortable), and I really liked the quarter-zip design of the top. The pants were pretty nice, but that top I’d think could pass for more than pajamas – I’ve seen people wearing lesser items out on the golf course on a 50F day. And man is it comfortable. For the darkness portion of the flight, I pretty much read, ate and drank, and explored the aircraft. Like I said, I don’t do sleeping in-flight. My method is to show up at my destination absolutely beat, stay up as long as needed for an appropriate local bedtime, and then force myself into conformity with the local time zone through 8+ hours of hard sleep and a sunlight wakeup. Caveat on this – I’m purely a leisure traveler when it comes to international. It would probably be a different story if I had to show up ready for a meeting. My GF had her suite made up into a bed in which to watch movies. It was extremely spacious, and again I think it beat the CX suite. There is none of the constraint in the foot area as seen with CX, and the armrests disappear into the bed to make the flat space the largest possible. So at the end of the day it is a functionally larger area, and more uniformly shaped, than what CX offers. There’s a bit of an in-flight bar up front of the F cabin with some sake and packaged snacks. Not really anything to speak of, but I think rather just a checking of the box so that they can say on paper that they have such an offering. In actuality, there are so many a-la-carte options, and the FAs are so attentive, that there’s no need for this. That said, there was also discovered to be a better-stocked J-class snack bar aft of the two-row mini-cabin, and we made a couple runs back there for natto and bottled water, which we figured weren’t worth bothering the FAs over. I took some time at this point to play with the IFE system. Probably the most sophisticated hardware I’ve seen to date, with the controller containing an integrated touchscreen that acts as a trackpad for navigating maps, etc. There is a little bit of clunkiness – such as having to select a language during each selection within several sub-menus rather than just setting it once through the overarching menu, but overall this is an impressive system. The electronic food/bev ordering system through the controller never seemed to be activated. I don’t know if that was intentional or a glitch, but it was probably for the better, because if you removed the fact that I am somewhat bashful about ordering things in person, I probably would have eaten and drunk the whole plane empty. About 6-7 hours in, somewhere around Juneau, the FA started excitedly pulling pax who were awake over to the unoccupied seat 1A to watch the aurora borealis, which was dancing neon green over the moonlit mountains of the far north. Now that’s service! During the night period, I made a few runs to the more sizeable J-class bar for water and snacks. Sorry, J pax. I noticed that there was a sign on the curtain separating the J mini-cabin from F reminding J pax that their lavs were to the rear…nice. I also ordered a tonkatsu sandwich (with salad and chips; delicious) and a Wagyu sandwich (equally delicious). http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3809/1...eab55bd4_o.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2363/1...69c205cc_o.jpg My GF tried the Chinese appetizers (shown) and the vegetable curry, and they were very good as well. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7370/1...ca6e20f4_o.jpg FAs kept emerging out of the darkness, bottle of Dom in hand, my glass hardly ever emptying. I began to have thoughts of, well, you know. With about 2 hours until landing, the cabin began to wake up, water was distributed, and…nothing else happened. I kept waiting for a meal to be served. Then - wait a second, did I once read something somewhere about everything being a la carte after the first big meal? CRAP. Missed that one. Oh well, be warned. I won’t make that mistake again! One aspect of the service that I did not try out: JAL made a bit of a deal about the fact that they offered inflight wifi throughout the duration of the flight. It was offered at about $21 USD. I didn’t partake, solely on principle (we were traveling on Sunday, didn’t need it, and had spent enough money over the past few weeks). That said, on one hand it would be an absolute no-brainer to anyone who needed to get work done and/or could expense the cost, while on the other hand it seems sort of odd that this is the one added cost they offer to first class passengers. Not the Dom, not the foie gras, but wi-fi. One would think that, since the actual provision of the wi-fi service costs nothing on margin, they could roll this into the cost of an F ticket to round out the package. No matter to me, but just throwing this out there as an obligatory trifling gripe to “keep it real”. After all the usual formalities of changing back into street clothes and storing items, we prepared for landing. The purser came around and gave a long and thoughtful thank-you to each passenger in the F cabin. On the ground and up to the gate in no time, we departed through 1L to a flurry of goodbyes and bows from the F cabin crew. So, that’s all I’ve got to say about that. I think this is a great product, and I’d fly it any time. While a lot of folks talk like CX is the only game in town for OneWorld flyers getting to and from Asia, I’d say that this certainly warrants a look. More to the point: in a JL/CX grudge match, JL wins on all accounts except for lounges and lack of a second formal meal. There, I wrote it. I came into this trying to make an honest comparison thinking that CX would have an unfair advantage in my mind, but JL just won me over. In particular, I was really surprised by the service, which people had previously described to be very formal and impersonal, which was not at all what I experienced. Of course, things will obviously vary from crew to crew, but what I saw was absolutely fantastic. People also say that this is a hard ticket to get, but I had no issue booking this trip way out front. I’ve also got the NRT-ORD route locked in in F for early 2015 on a routing home from a trip to Thailand for Christmas and New Year’s. You can bet I’m looking forward to it! http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3749/1...e0e10309_o.jpg |
Wonderful detailed report, thank you very much for taking us on your journey!
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Really good report, terrific photos. The food photos were amazing and made me hungry!
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That dinner looks fantastic!!
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Great report! JL new F looks Skytrax 5 stars :)
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wow!!!
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Great report :)
The IFE meal ordering is intentionally disabled in F because JAL wants to provide a more personal experience to the F passengers. Definitely agree with the CX F and JL F comparison. I am not a fan of the CX F seat at all especially with its narrow foot space. Also, CX doesn't give you a proper spoon for caviar. It shouldn't be served with a metal spoon as it would affect the taste. That's might be one of the reasons other than the quality of the caviar that differentiates the two. And FYI, it's SKY SUITE 777 :p Yes, the New JAL Suite is only a refresh with a different trim, bigger screen, and slightly rearranging some of the storage compartments. |
Originally Posted by arlflyer
(Post 22518706)
I finished the last of the Salon on board and the FA apologetically moved me over to the Dom.
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Originally Posted by Kangol
(Post 22521015)
Wow, did you remember how many glasses of Salon you had? Did they say how many bottles were loaded (of either)?
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Was that a mother of pearl spoon for the caviar service?
I chuckled bait when you said Tour De Lounge. ^^ |
Originally Posted by GmK
(Post 22518907)
Wonderful detailed report, thank you very much for taking us on your journey!
Originally Posted by halfcape
(Post 22518990)
Really good report, terrific photos. The food photos were amazing and made me hungry!
Originally Posted by drzoidberg
(Post 22519132)
That dinner looks fantastic!!
Originally Posted by oneworld82
(Post 22519146)
Great report! JL new F looks Skytrax 5 stars :)
Originally Posted by yerffej201
(Post 22519189)
wow!!!
Originally Posted by JALPak
(Post 22520820)
The IFE meal ordering is intentionally disabled in F because JAL wants to provide a more personal experience to the F passengers.
Originally Posted by JALPak
(Post 22520820)
And FYI, it's SKY SUITE 777
Originally Posted by Kangol
(Post 22521015)
Wow, did you remember how many glasses of Salon you had? Did they say how many bottles were loaded (of either)?
Originally Posted by JALPak
(Post 22521146)
It used to load 3 bottles not sure if that's still the case.
Originally Posted by tycosiao
(Post 22521335)
Was that a mother of pearl spoon for the caviar service?
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