dat4life

I thanked the excellent KLM crew on the way out, and then found myself in the crowded arrivals hall. Now that I knew where it was located, I marched straight to the transit desk to get my boarding pass for my Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo. Just as I expected, the same rigmarole I went through a couple weeks ago awaited me. Only this time, I sat in the arrivals hall for over an hour before a manager was available to assist. It wasn’t ideal, but it was still better than clearing immigration and hanging out landside. Besides I had more than enough time to kill and plenty to keep me occupied. A manager showed up eventually. After a quick inspection of my American eticket, she led me through the now familiar back way to lounge .



As Japan Airlines check in didn’t open until four hours before departure, the manager instructed me to hang out in the lounge, and she would return with my passport and boarding passes as soon as it opened. I was still a little apprehensive about parting with my passport. But it worked well last time, and this manager seemed on the level so why not.

Of course, I was “just” in the Business Class side of the lounge this time around. Except that it was larger, the Business Class side wasn’t no different than the First Class side.





Right down to the same meh food selection.



The manager returned with my boarding pass and passport as promised an hour or so later. She wasn’t able to print the boarding pass for my AA flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, but I had plenty of time to take care of that in Tokyo. In the meantime, I busied myself by starting on this trip report (and then promptly forgetting about it obviously) and checking in with work. My heart sank when I got my updated schedule. Originally, I was supposed to be in the office the week after I returned. But something popped up, and I was now hitting the road immediately the day after I got home. The schedule giveth, and the schedule taketh.

I had enough of sitting after a couple of hours in the lounge. With another 24 hours of more sitting ahead of me, a walk was in order. So I packed up and went for a stroll around the terminal for the rest of my time in Jakarta. Jakarta’s airport isn’t very nice, but I did find the “tropical hut” architecture pretty cool. There wasn’t much to see or do around the terminal, but there was more than enough square footage to get a solid walk in.

Japan Airlines 726
Jakarta (CGK) - Tokyo (NRT)
Depart: 9:55 PM
Arrive: 7:25 AM
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 7K (Business Class)

As expected with any Japanese airline, boarding began right on time with oneworld Emerald members invited to board first. I lurched toward the boarding lane out of instinct, but then I remembered I didn’t have my AAdvantage number on this ticket. So I grabbed my Executive Platinum card out of my wallet, but that wasn’t enough to grant me passage. So I fell back and waited until Business Class was invited to board. The horror.

Just as the flight attendant standing in the doorway smiled at me, my inner klutz emerged and my passport and boarding pass slipped out of my hand. I quickly glanced down in horror expecting them to fall down through the gap between the jet bridge and the plane. Fortunately, my things fell forward into the plane. The flight attendant scrambled to help grab my things and even apologized for MY clumsiness. Yep, I’m definitely flying a Japanese airline.

Operating the flight to Tokyo was JA866J, a Boeing 787-9 delivered brand new to Japan Airlines just a year earlier. Although it logged hundreds, if not over a thousand, hours aloft since, it still had a very pleasant “new plane” smell in the cabin.



Japan Airlines outfitted most of their longhaul fleet with the Apex Business Class suite, which as I’ve heard is supposed to be one of the most comfortable and private Business Class seats out there. Natrually, I was very much looking forward to checking it out. On the 787s, the seats are arranged in a staggered 2-2-2 configuration. I selected seat 7K, which is the first true window seat of the larger Business Class cabin just aft of the mid cabin door.

Just past the bulkhead was the narrow entrance to my seat.



There was already a pillow, blanket, slippers, and an amenity kit at my seat already.



Seat controls were located to the left.



Next to the seat controls was an USB charging port and universal AC power outlet.



The touchscreen controller for the IFE system was just above all of that.



Because the seats are staggered, I could see my neighbor during take off and landing. But once aloft, a partition is raised greatly increasing privacy.



Right up front was a large IFE screen with a decent amount of storage underneath the screen and the foot cubby. A bottle of water was placed on the ledge next to the screen.



I also had access to two of the 787’s (in)famous shade-less windows.



Menus as well as a room service style breakfast card was soon passed out, followed by a very welcome cold towel.



Despite every last seat taken on the 787, the boarding complete announcement was made 18 minutes after boarding began. A couple minutes later, the plane was pushed back, and its massive engines whined and rattled to life. Captain made his welcome aboard announcement after we were underway and warned us of the possibility of strong turbulence en route.

As the 787 roared off Runway 25R into the tropical night sky, a symphony of water bottles falling reverberated through out the cabin. I love the idea of water immediately available at each seat, especially in a tropical place like Jakarta. But putting them on a ledge with no possible way to hold it in place wasn’t the best idea.

The seat partitions were raised just moments after takeoff.



The seatbelt sign was turned off shortly after, and the cabin crew got hard to work getting ready for the snack service. There was a single choice for the snack service, though I’m sure the cabin crew would have happily made something from the Anytime menu if asked.

The snack consisted of:

Egg Cake
Fried Chicken with Sweet Vinegar Sauce & Vegetables
Scallop

It was small but pretty tasty.



For those interested, the Anytime menu consisted of:

Champon de SKY
Udon de SKY
Soba de SKY

While I could have eaten more, rest was more important especially since I had to go back to work immediately after I got home. So after hitting the lav, I put the bed in the lie flat position and hit the hay.



The seat was comfortable in the sitting position, but I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it was in the sleeping position. Padding was excellent, though a bit on the firm side which I like. As I mentioned before, the seat was very private though I didn’t feel at all claustrophobic. There was plenty of room in the footwell, making it easy to change sleeping positions. I conked out pretty much the moment my head hit the pillow.

A strong jolt of turbulence briefly awakened me from my slumber, but overall I slept like a baby. Next thing I know, we were less than two hours away from Tokyo and it was chow time. I got the seat back upright with a quick press of a button. Breakfast orders were already taken via the aforementioned room service style cards before I went to sleep. A flight attendant showed a few minutes later with a hot towel and a glass of orange juice as requested.



Another flight attendant followed shortly after laying tablecloths.



I chose the Japanese option, which was so so at the best. The hot beef dish and the rice were alright, but the rest ranged from meh to flat out terrible. The award for the worst dish of the day went to macaroni salad, which was terrible and really out of place.



I finished off breakfast with a tasty cup of green tea.



At this point, we were speeding past Okinawa and less than hour from Tokyo.



As per my past experiences with Japan Airlines, the selection of Western movies on the IFE system was just alright. Having been flying for the better part of the past two weeks, I’ve already watched all of the usual suspects at this point. So I settled for alternating between watching Suicide Squad half heartedly and watching the sun rise outside of the window.



Just as we began our descent, a flight attendant asked me to fill out a survey about the flight. Of course, I was happy to do so. The survey covered a wide range of aspects of the flight. Naturally, there were plenty of questions about service, which was impeccable. Interestingly, there were a couple of questions about the crew’s English proficiency. Admittedly, I did note that this crew’s command of English was noticeably better than on my previous Japan Airlines flights so I made sure to give them good marks on that. I got a good laugh at the handful of questions about the crew’s smiles. I can’t imagine any of our esteemed US airlines would consistently do well on those questions.

The weather continued to worsen throughout the descent. Big drops of rain started pelting the fuselage and the wind buffeted the aircraft. Despite the foul weather, the pilots did a masterful job guiding the plane to a smooth touchdown at Tokyo Narita International Airport. Engines were shutoff after parking next to a Dallas/Fort Worth bound American 777-200ER.

dat4life

With ten hours to go before my flight to Los Angeles, I had planned to actually leave the airport and either check out the town of Narita or hop on the Narita Express and walk around Tokyo for a bit. However, the squally weather put a wrench in my plans, and the weather forecast indicated it wouldn’t be clearing up anytime soon. As much as I would have like to get out of the airport, especially after getting washed out in Thailand, it probably would not have been much fun trying get around in the rain. So lounger hopping it was!

Since I was flying American anyways, I figured as might as well hit up the Admirals Club, which is actually a pretty nice facility. Compared to Admirals Clubs back home, the Narita club is head and shoulders better. It is spacious and comfortable facility with a food and beverage selection that’s more up to the standard of a proper international Business Class lounge than your typical Admirals Club. However, unless the offerings have been improved since my visit, the new offerings at Flagship Lounges at American’s other hubs are now far superior. My primary purpose for visiting the Admirals Club was to shower. While the shower rooms at Japan Airlines’ lounges around Narita are far better appointed, I actually prefer the Admirals Club as the shower rooms are more spacious. After a short wait, I got the deed done quickly and got a bit of breakfast.

After a few laps around parts of the terminal for exercise, I headed to Japan Airlines’ main lounge facility which was packed to the gills. The friendly agent asked me to go to their satellite facility where it was much less crowded, as I had a very long layover. Fair enough. As an added bonus, the satellite lounge was over a mile away per my Apple Watch. So thumbs up for more exercise!



Admittedly, I technically did not have access to the First Class lounge as I had my Alaska Mileage Plan number attached to my ticket. But I figured I might as well try my luck and handed my Executive Platinum card to the agent along with my boarding pass. The agent looked a bit puzzled and asked why my AAdvantage number wasn’t on the ticket. I gave some flimsy excuse about inputting the wrong frequent flier number when I purchased my ticket and since I didn’t catch the mistake until after I started travel American told me to fix it when I got home. After a hurried discussion with her coworkers, the agent welcomed me into the First Class Lounge.

The lounge was blissfully near deserted when I arrived, and there were never more than a handful of people in the lounge the entire day. In fact, most of the time I was the only one there. Score!











The view of the tarmac from the lounge was also very nice.





The bar was fully stocked, despite the early hour, and it was a glorious sight.





And the crown jewel of them all… Drum roll, please!



Free flowing Hibiki! If this is what heaven is like, I want in. I don’t touch hard liquor this early in the morning, ever. But man, this is Hibiki we’re talking about here. Besides, it actually was five o’clock back home, and it’s my last day of vacation. Might as well live it up! I was also quite thankful I tucked in a spot of breakfast at the Admirals Club.

I settled down in one of the easy chairs facing the tarmac with a delicious pour of Hibiki in hand. As I was cruising at high above the Pacific Ocean a few hours, my beloved New Orleans Saints were taking on the Detroit Lions in the Superdome with the opportunity to have their first winning record since 2013. When my plane touched down in Narita, I finally received the deluge of texts from my friends about the game. And what better way to wade through those texts, watch highlights, and read about the big win than in a comfortable chair with free flowing fine whiskey.

Sidebar: I am all too well aware there has been recent event travesty affecting devastating my beloved hometown team. Unless you have plenty of cheese to go along with my whine, don’t @ me. You feel me? I suppose this is what I get for taking over a flipping year to finish a trip report.

Soon enough, lunch time rolled around. Lunch was served in a partitioned off dining area.



On offer were beef curry, chicken katsu, and some salad. Nothing special, but it did the job.



At mid-afternoon, I packed up my things and did a few laps around the terminal before heading to Japan Airlines main lounge complex. I have to say it worked out well getting turned away that morning, as the satellite lounge was a pleasant and far less crowded place to be. By the time I got back to the main lounge complex, the crowd had thinned substantially. I was admitted without issue, and I was even able to snag a table right by the then newly opened sushi bar, which was the goal of my trek.



The sushi bar didn’t open until 4:30, and not a minute sooner. Since my flight departed at 5:25, I lined up a few minutes before 4:30 to make sure I maximized my time.



Selection was limited to tuna, yellowtail, and temago (sweet egg cake), and each trip was limited four pieces. I was able to tuck in two plates, before I had to make the dash to the gate. It wasn’t the best sushi I ever had, but it was pretty damn good and much better than most of the places back home. The view of the tarmac made the meal even better. Sushi and heavies? I could really get used to this!







I had just enough time to scarf down two plates before I had to dash halfway across the airport to catch my American flight to Los Angeles.

dat4life

American Airlines 170
Tokyo (NRT) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Depart: 5:25 PM
Arrive: 11:30 AM
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 4L (Business Class)

By the time I managed to make it to the gate, boarding was well underway. One of the gate agents who was managing the crowd spied my boarding pass and ushered me to the front of the line. My boarding pass was scanned and off I went into the massive line in the jet bridge. Eventually, I made it to the plane where a flight attendant greeted me and directed me toward the far aisle of the aircraft.



I had flown American’s Boeing 787-8 several times before, but this was my first flight aboard their larger and newer -9 variant of the 787. The 787-8 was equipped with American’s proprietary Zodiac seats in the Business Class cabin, arranged in a 1-2-1 “ying yang” configuration. I found those seats nothing to write home about. However, problems with the production of those seats forced American to go with a different seat on the 787-9 and the reconfigured 777-200ER. This turned out to be a boon for passengers as the replacement seat is the far superior B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seat. The seat is comfortable, private, has plenty of storage, and equipped with all of the bells and whistles.



















As much crap as I give American, one thing they do get right are the Bose noise canceling headphones in Business Class. Seems like American has started upgrading to the newer QC25 model.



As kind of expected, the crew basically ignored passengers for most of the time on the ground. To their credit, they were busy getting things ready for departure, but it basically set the tone for the rest of the flight.

Pre-departure beverages consisted of the standard orange juice, sparkling wine, and water served in the ever classy plastic stemmed glasses. I went with orange juice.



One thing I was really happy to see are individual air vents, which most foreign carriers neglect to equip their planes with. They really make a huge difference in ensuring a comfortable temperature.



The rain tapered off during the early afternoon, but it started coming down in sheets shortly before pushback.



Orders for dinner were taken during taxi, or in my case my preordered Japanese meal was confirmed. The captain did his welcome aboard spiel afterwards and announced a short flying time of 8 hours and 49 minutes.

Once safely at our initial cruising altitude of 29,000 feet service began with the same old crappy hot wet gauze pad.



Tablecloths were then slapped down. Once again, tiny tablecloth big tray table.



Drinks and warmed mixed nuts were next on the docket. I asked for Glenlevit on the rocks. The flight attendant proactively served me a double, which sounds nice on the surface but then she added, “That way you don’t have to bother us for a refill.” Alrighty then. She should have quit while she was ahead.



I was especially looking forward to dinner having pre-ordered the Japanese meal once again using American’s excellent entrée pre-prder system. The Japanese meal is well regarded over on the American Airlines forum especially on flights originating from Tokyo. Judging by the menu, I was in for a treat.

APPETIZER TRAY

KOBACHI
nameko mushroom yamakurage vegetable and carrot tossed with grated radish

HASSUN
Shrimp paste terrine matsukaze, grilled mash sweet chestnut, prawn, sweet potato and sweet Pacific saury

KUCHITORI
salmon with rice malt, diced cucumber
jellyfish and crab roe with sesame

SHIIZAKANA
Miso rencon lotus root, kobashira scallop, shrimp, cucumber and mixed baby leaves

MAIN TRAY

DAINOMONO
Grilled white warehou yuan-yaki, turnip, green beans, momiji carrot, millet gluten cake, simmered eggplant kanoko and grilled pork and vegetable roll

TOMEWAN
Miso soup with tofu wakame seaweed and chives

Crab Fried Rice

Japanese green tea is available upon request.

One nice benefit of ordering a special meal was that it was served before everyone else. Shortly after the round of drinks, my appetizer was unceremoniously plopped down on my tray table by a harried flight attendant. The lack of theatrics aside, the tray was composed of a colorful and tasty looking medley of food. Too bad it didn’t taste nearly as good as it looked. Everything was very fresh, but most of the dishes were on the bland side. The only thing worth mentioning is the jellyfish and crab roe dish, which was actually quite good.



It was more of the same with the main tray: fresh but bland. Surprisingly, even the usually reliable anywhere miso soup was close to tasteless. But it was nothing a little salt and pepper couldn’t fix.



Dessert was a choice of the ubiquitous American ice cream sundae or a green tea cake. After years of eating ice cream sundaes on American, I was quite over it. The green tea cake did sound amazing, but it wouldn’t be doing my waistline any favors especially after the past couple of weeks. So I passed on dessert in favor of getting into the lavatory before the post dinner rush.

Once back at my seat, a quick push of a button turned my seat into a bed. While not as great as the seat on Japan Airlines’ 787-9 the evening before, American’s seat still offered a comfortable wide and flat sleeping surface. I didn’t feel at all cramped or constrained in any sleeping position. American also has the advantage with respect to bedding, offering a mattress pad in addition to a decent duvet and pillow. Apparently an entire day of doing nothing but eating and boozing is super tiring, as I pretty much fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

But I paid for it. Oh did I pay for it. I woke up a couple of hours later with one of my worse hangovers in recent memory. After chugging the bottle of water placed at my seat, I went to the snack bar in search of more water, only to come up dry. So I resorted to ringing the call button, which would typically the absolute last resort on just about any US flagged airline. But I was too rough to care at that point. Fortunately, no one showed up to cuff me and put me into the brig. In fact, the flight attendant was kind enough to bring me one of the big bottles of water they use in the galley. But once again, she followed that up with “so you don’t have to ask for more”. C’mon, quit while you’re ahead!

Feeling better after hydrating, I fired up American’s excellent IFE system. As much as I rag on American, they really shine when it comes to IFE and, just as important, content. That is, of course, when they’re not ripping out seatback IFE. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Anyhow, over the years I’ve come to realize IFE content is pretty much the same on every airline. When it comes to movies you have the typical new releases, some more fairly recent critically acclaimed movies, and maybe some international movies. TV shows consist of your typical sitcoms, a documentary or three, and a couple of dramas. Sure American has all that too on their system, but they usually have a great selection of classic movies as well. With Halloween around the corner, the selection had a bit of “spooky” flair with a number of classic horror movies. Watching The Shining again was a good enough way to pass time.

As I was halfway through nursing the big water bottle, the midflight snack was served. The menu listed a choice of udon noodles or a pork katsu sandwich. Unfortunately, they ran out of the Udon noodles by the time the cart reached me. Pork katsu sandwich it was. It would have been more accurately described as a soggy breaded pork on two stale pieces of bread. At least the fruit was good.



I dozed off after finishing the movie, and when I woke as breakfast was being served.

BREAKFAST
Offered prior to arrival

SELECTIONS

ALL-AMERICAN BREAKFAST
scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, tomato

FRESH FRUIT BOWL
berry muesli, yogurt

Warm breakfast breads, choice of beverage and a mango-banana smoothie

I probably should have gone with the lighter option, but grease is my hangover cure and grease the All-American Breakfast definitely had. I chose a biscuit out of the bread basket. It was tasty enough.



As I was buttering my biscuit, the steady hum of the engine was interrupted as the pilots eased off the throttle and pushed nose earthward into a very gradual descent toward LAX. I undimmed my windows and was rewarded with a view of the Transverse Range Mountains with a clear California day as the backdrop. And man was it perfectly crystal clear. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen anywhere.



Breakfast was cleared by the time we went feet wet over the Pacific one last time, somewhere off the coast of Santa Barbara, flying parallel to SoCal coast before turning inland



As the plane banked into a turn to line up with the runway, the Los Angeles skyline and the iconic Hollywood sign came into view.





It was fitting that we were landing on Runway 24R, the foot of which where my vacation officially began the week before. I cracked a smile when the In-N-Out slid into my window followed by the plane spotters at the park. Moments later, the gentle thump of the landing gear settling on the runway and the deep rumble of the thrust reversers reverberated through the cabin signaling my return to the land of the free and home of the brave. The CBP made it official with a quick glance at my Global Entry receipt, a jerk of the head toward the exit, and a grunt. God bless America.

dat4life

American Airlines 6064
Los Angeles (LAX) – Houston (IAH)
Depart: 1:00 PM
Arrive: 6:10 PM
Aircraft: Embraer E175
Seat: 8D (Economy Class)

After a pleasant quiet couple of hours at the thinly disguised former Delta SkyClub now pulling duty as an Admirals Club in Terminal 5, I hopped back on the bus to the Eagle Nest where I found my flight already boarding.



For whatever reason, First Class was completely sold out weeks before this flight. So I was relegated to the back of the bus, which is still pretty comfortable on the Embraer E175. I was able snag a seat in row 8, which has oodles of legroom, and actually has more legroom than any seat in First Class. Over the years, I have experienced a wide breadth of seatmates. Some are very pleasant, some are not. Some are overly talkative, some wouldn’t acknowledge my existence. Some take up too much space, others leave me plenty of room. On this very flight, I had the best seatmate. Ever.



Our only interaction was a quick sniff of my feet, but otherwise he was quiet, polite, and I hardly knew he was there. Oh yeah, his owner was perfectly pleasant too.

A couple of minutes after pushback, the engines were throttled up and off we went on one of the coolest take off rolls I’ve ever experienced. LAX is a fantastic airport for plane spotting. Even so, this take off roll was exceptional



At that time, both United and Delta were retiring their Boeing 747-400s and celebrating the venerable aircraft by flying ceremonial retirement flights around their hub system. That happened to be the very day United’s celebratory aircraft was visiting LAX, and I was able to catch a brief glimpse of the queen.



Next up, a couple of A320s of the airline formerly known as Virgin America with the ever iconic former Encounter restaurant serving as the backdrop. Yeah.... I know what you’re thinking. “This guy put off writing this trip report so long that quite a few airlines are no longer in existence.” … Fair point.





I’ll take the Queen over the far more modern Whale Jet any day of the week, but the Whale Jets of Emirates, Lufthansa, Air France, and British Airways made for a nice picture just moments after lifting off the runway.



And for the cherry on top, some of the most hawkeyed readers may have caught the Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 on its take off roll in the background of the above picture. It made for a nice view while climbing out over Dockweiler Beach.



And that’s the last thing I remember before waking up to the flight attendants preparing the cabin for landing. Like the well trained passenger I am, I raised my seatback to the upright and locked position and raised the window shade to take a peak outside. The sight of the brilliant orange and pink of the setting sun was both beautiful and fitting. It had been a wonderful couple of weeks, but the figurative sun was setting on the trip and reality was just around the corner. I could easily get right back on this plane and do it all over again. But there was this pesky matter of work, and more importantly actually showing up to work.

So that’s all folks! Again, sorry for taking so long to finish this trip report, and thank you very much for sticking with me!

Top of climb

Thanks for the write-up. KLM ground and cabin staff wear stripes as well, so the cabin member helping out on your CGK flight was most likely the assistant purser.

https://blog.klm.com/what-do-the-str...uniforms-mean/

LondonElite

Great report!

offerendum

Indeed a great seatmate. I guess I would have had Problems not to touch this cute paws

dat4life

Ah! Interesting. Thanks for the info!

Thanks for reading, LondonElite!

Haha. After two weeks from being away from my dog, you betcha I got a few pets in!

injian

Thoroughly satisfying read. Appreciate you taking the time to write this up and post pics. Looks like the AA long haul flight was the best part of your trip! :P

Wickersley

SQTraveller

Two great photos!!

dat4life

Thank you for reading, injian! Though the service was meh, at least the AA flights were a comfortable ride.

Thanks, Wickersley!

Thanks! It was really a complete accident, but a very happy one!

SightseeMC

Really great report. Loved reading all of it today! Going to pepper you with thoughts.

• Interesting dichotomy between your approach to the shuttle driver mooching the Chinese tourists vs the camel guy riding you for tips. Kind of the same thing: hitting up the out-of-country people for extra money. I have the same attitude as you: people usually need it worse than I do. And I honestly would have approached both situations the same: been kinder to the Egyptian than the American. Not sure what that says about me though.
• Thai customs asks about income to keep down the western "begpackers" that inundated them a few years ago. Technically I think you're supposed to carry a certain amount of cash to prove you can pay for your stay, but generally I'd bet you just have to "look the part." Or fly business .
• Our Marriott Nai Yang experience was similar. Nicer weather, though not much to do. But we really enjoyed it as a place to turn off everything else and just read/eat/sleep.
• I'm rather fond of the noodles at the Air China F lounge; not great but a good bowl by the tarmac is pleasant. With a layover that long, next time look for the "bed" rooms at the at the far left near the tarmac. They seem to be a secret: I rarely see people choose them. Also, the J lounge is a mirror of the F lounge, with the most significant difference being that the F noodles come from a manned station, and the J noodles are carted out to a storage cubby. And good choice on the tea.
• Love those last two pics.

dat4life

SightseeMC

Just realized that sounded harsher than I meant it. I was agreeing that I would approach the same you did, and couldn't figure out why, not that it made either of us bad people. Your explanation was solid, Thanks!