Airline: Japan Airlines

Flight Number: JL44

Plane: Boeing 777-300ER

Cabin: Business Class

Seat: 5A

This Flight

This flight is operated by Japan Airlines, who operate out of Heathrow’s Terminal 3.  The flight departs Heathrow at 18:30 and is around 13 hours long, landing in Tokyo at 17:30 local time.

Checking In

I was actually arriving on a British Airways flight, so I had already checked in.

Having arrived in Terminal 5, I followed Flight Connections to Terminal 3, where it is a fairly long bus trip. Then I had to re-check through Security, before taking a fairly long walk to the departure lounge.

Going from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 does take an annoyingly long period of time – but at least I didn’t need to re-check my luggage!

The Lounge

In the pre-Covid days JAL did operate their own lounge in Terminal 3, which was also mixed with a Priority Pass lounge – seemingly, this has gone away.

The good news is that all and any OneWorld lounge in Terminal 3 accept JAL passengers traveling in Business Class – and there are some very good lounges in Terminal 3!

In my case, I visited the Qantas Lounge, but wasn’t that impressed with their a la carte offering, so went to the Cathay Pacific lounge instead.

The Plane

The plane was a Boeing 777-300ER, of which JAL operate 13.

The configuration of this/all JAL 777-300’s is 8 in First Class, 49 in Business Class, 40 in Premium Economy and 147 in Economy.  

I was in a fairly fortunate seat, 5A, which is in the front part of the Business Class cabin, where there were just 6 seats.

One thing I really liked about galley in JAL’s 777 is the pictures built into the wall – it’s a nice finishing touch Ive not seen before!

The Seat

What can I say about the seat?

Well, I will start by saying that the Sky Suite is JAL’s flagship Business Class product (behind their new A350 seat), and it’s considered to be the ‘best’ they have to offer, after the A350’s offering.

I have done a much more detailed review HERE of the Sky Suite and my thoughts on it, but headlines are;

• Not enough storage
• Trapped in when the table is out
• Not a lot of space to work
• Not a lot of privacy
• Poor lighting
• No air conditioning nozzles
• No UK socket for charging

Sadly, those negatives generally overbear the positives, which is that there is direct aisle access, and one way or another there is sort of a fair amount of space to stretch out and sleep (but not to work!).

I was trying to get a lot of work done on this flight, so the space issue was annoying. The saving grace was that the seat next to me was not occupied, so borrowed the table and ledge on that, which worked out well!

The Japanese think of everything

One thing I’ve always liked about the Japanese is they think of everything – and to every last detail.

On this flight, it was to a point of almost humour, as there was a HUGE amount of literature about the seat and the Wifi – all complete with detailed diagrams and instructions.

Not only this, but there was oodles of magazines waiting at my seat. 

Food and Drink

As I mentioned above, the Japanese do like their information, and the menu was no different – it was very detailed!

There is an ability to pre-order food on the website, which in the end I didn’t do as I didn’t quite understand what I was ordering – but it is possible.

Drinks

Upon boarding, I was offered champagne or orange juice – I went for the Draper Carte d’Or champagne (retails at around £50 per bottle), which I thought was quite nice.

Once airborne, I was asked what I wanted to drink, and I continued with the champagne, which was served with a nice nuts, olives and other bits and pieces.

Other drinks available included various Japanese wines, beers and of course Sake. As I was eating beef, I decided to have the Japanese red wine – I can’t say I really thought it was that nice, and had a bit of a headache afterwards. 

Food

Main Meal

For the main meal, JAL offer either traditional Japanese food cuisine, or ‘International’ cuisine. The main meal is served after takeoff, with no dine on demand.

The Japanese cuisine was a set meal, with;

• Irodori Gozen
• Shiizakana
• Steamed Rice
• Miso Soup
• Japanese Pickles
• Cherry Blossom Panna Cotta

The International was also a set meal with;

• Duck Salad
• Beef Filet (or Roasted Grouper)
• Breads
• Cherry Blossom Panna Cotta

Although I was keen to try the Japanese cuisine, it was very fishy – and for someone who doesn’t eat fish, it would have been a bad idea ordering it.

The duck salad starter I really enjoyed. Although there wasn’t a huge amount of duck, having nuts, pasta, and other things made it pretty good.

The beef was also good – although extremely rare inside! My only criticism is that it didn’t come with anything – I did ask if I could get steamed rice (from the Japanese menu) – but it wasn’t possible.

The panna cotta I didn’t like at all, but I think that’s more of a personal preference.

One thing that was unusual was after desert was collected, I was offered cheese. Most airlines these days offer one or the other – so that was a nice touch!    

Light Meal

Although the main meal is offered isn’t on demand, the light meal is. The menu was seemingly split into two, the first for ‘lunch items’ and the second for ‘breakfast items’.

I thought this was a really good idea, as this was an overnight flight, and people want different things – so to offer both made a lot of sense to me!

The lunch menu items were;

• Salad
• Pork Sandwich
• Cheese Toastie
• Seaweed Wrap
• Sushi
• Vegetable Curry
• Noodles
• Cheese
• Fruit
• Ice Cream
• Chocolate

The Japanese breakfast menu items were;

• Saikyo Miso
• Grilled Egg Roll
• Deep Fried Tofu
• Steamed Rice
• Miso Soup

The International breakfast menu items were;

• Omelette
• Sausage & Tomato
• Fresh Fruit
• Croissant

Because I don’t do breakfast, I ordered the cheese toastie – and at the insistence of the Cabin Crew, I had some ice cream with it too!

Snacks

A small amount of snacks were placed in the galley for consumption during the flight.

Amenities Kit

The Amenities Kit is something that took me by surprise a little – in a good way.

Usually, Amenities Kits are full of hand creams and lip balms. But not this! I was surprised to find a phone charging cable and a phone holder amongst other things.

Inside the kit was;

• Eye Mask
• Ear Plugs
• Tooth Brush
• Tissues
• Phone Holder
• Phone Charger

The Amenities Bag itself does come across a bit cheap, but I was impressed with its contents!

Entertainment

Perhaps this is the reason why there was a phone holder and charger in the Amenities Kit!

Firstly, the screen itself doesn’t have any controls on it. It’s basic touch screen, but everything is selected from the remote control. So you’d select what you wanted from the remote, and then it appeared on the TV – this seemed pretty old school. Although with that said, the TV was a reach away, you’d be using the remote anyway!

The screen itself is actually a good size and had a good display on it. It was just very odd not using the screen to select the entertainment.

Content wise, from what I could make out from the remote control, there were a bunch of different films, TV, comedy, drama, etc. There was a range of music, but I found it near impossible to navigate. However, I found the remote control hard to use and irritating, so gave up after a while!

The moving map was also controlled from the remote, which was also not the easiest to use – or the best.

The other point about the entertainment is that although I selected English, there was a lot of mixing up of English and Japanese – and it became annoying to use.

Another point about the entertainment system/remote is it was possible to order food and drinks from your seat – however this wasn’t working on this flight.

Wifi

The Wifi option on the plane was priced at;

• $10.15 for 1 hour
• $14.40 for 3 hours
• $18.80 for the full flight

All of these prices seemed very reasonable!

At the start of the flight, an announcement was made to say that (a) due to flying over China, and (b) other satellite availability; the Wifi was unlikely to work for the duration of the flight. I thought this was a good and helpful announcement to make – and saved the saga I had with Qatar Airways recently!

Cabin Crew

The cabin crew were absolutely excellent – possibly one of the best cabin crew I’ve ever had!

Very polite, extremely attentive, always pushing more food or drinks. Even on the occasions I went to the overhead locker to get something from my bag, they would come running in case I needed help.

Even when everyone else was sleeping and I was working, the cabin crew were still doing the rounds!

I genuinely can’t think of a flight where there has been more attentive and proactive cabin crew – even by Qatar Airways’ standards!

Landing in Tokyo

On our way in to Tokyo we had some great views over the Japanese mountains. Once landed in Tokyo, there was some paperwork to get through Immigration and also Customs – but after that, it was less than a 5 minute wait for my luggage.

Conclusion

On the one hand JAL’s flagship Business Class hard product, the Sky Suite, has many (too many) faults. I also found JAL’s entertainment system bloody annoying and stopped bothering with it – it was like something from the 1990’s.

On the other hand, the food was very well thought about and decent, the Amenities Kit was nicely thought about, and the Cabin Crew were beyond excellent.

There were also some ‘fun’ elements, such as all the literature and the funny JAL quirks – so this made the experience very enjoyable.

However, if I was flying this route on a regular basis, whilst I wouldn’t necessarily avoid JAL – but I would probably mix it up with other carriers, as it’s a long flight to encounter some of the annoyances I found.