Review of Japan Airlines flight London → Tokyo in Business

We live in Iceland and we decided to go on holiday to Hokkaido, in the north of Japan. I booked our flights in September 2022, a very short time after Japan had lifted all covid related travel restrictions. I usually book my flights in two separate bookings whenever I go from Iceland to Asia: I first go to Oslo and then from Oslo to Asia. The reasons is that flights in business class from Oslo to Asia are usually much cheaper than from Iceland. But this time the price was very similar so I booked the following flights under the same booking issued on a Japan Airlines ticket:

Keflavík to London LHR, British Airways
London LHR to Tokyo HND, Japan Airlines
Tokyo HND to Sapporo CTS, Japan Airlines
Sapporo CTS to Tokyo HND, Japan Airlines
Tokyo HND to Helsinki, Japan Airlines
Helsinki to Keflavík, Finnair.

I received e-mails from Japan Airlines about flight changes on 22nd December 2022. The outbound flights were changed only by a few hours but the return flights were changed from a daytime flight to a night flight and in the wrong order: the Tokyo to Helsinki flight was booked on an earlier departure than the Sapporo to Tokyo flight. It was impossible to accept the changes or modify the booking on-line or in the app. There are no public Japan Airline offices in Europe. There’s only one call centre in Europe, in London, it’s open only for a few hours a day, and I never managed to talk to anybody. Japan Airlines called me in April 2023, almost four months later, told me about the new itinerary over the phone and I was asked if we accepted the changes. Not very high-tech.

We arrived to Terminal 5 at London Heathrow with the British Airways flight from Iceland. There's a free airside bus, easy to find, running every ten minutes during daytime from T5 to T3. You don't need to go trough passport control.   

Great plane spotting during the bus ride:

There's a security control when you arrive at T3.

Let’s go to the lounge!

Japan Airlines being a member of Oneworld, its business class passengers can use any of the Oneworld lounges at T3: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific or Qantas. We went to the Cathay lounge, considered to be the best. 

It's large and well designed.

The lounge has natural light and apron views.

You can order the following Asian dishes:

We tried four of them (Wonton Noodles Soup, Vietnamese Vegetarian Pho, Korean Chicken Fried Rice and Mixed Dim Sum Basket) and all of them were good.

There's also a small and less interesting buffet.

There's a serviced bar.

There are toilets and showers at the lounge.

The lounge is great. We spent around two hours here. The front desk staff was very friendly but the waiting staff wasn't.

We then tried the Qantas lounge next door.  

The Qantas lounge is very large, it has two floors and a lot of space. Staff is a lot friendlier than at the Cathay lounge. 

There’s some natural light and an apron view.

There’s a nice bar upstairs.

There’s also a small buffet.

There’s also a bar downstairs.

You can order meals served by waiters in white jacket. It feels more first class than business class. Here’s the menu:

And the drink menu:

Pear, pecan and parmesan salad.

The buffet selection also looks good.

We got to the gate about 50 minutes before departure. Four airport employees greeted the passengers with a bow.
 
Boarding was well organised and the priorities were followed.

The plane today was a B777-300ER, registration number JA734J, built 17 years ago. It has four classes: first class with two rows in a 1+2+1 configuration with a total of 8 seats, business class with seven rows in a 2+3+2 configuration with a total of 49 seats, premium economy with five rows in a 2+4+2 configuration with a total of 40 seats and economy with 18 rows in a 3+3+3 with a total of 147 seats (some rows in economy have less seats). This is a premium configuration where about two third of the space is occupied by first, business and premium economy seats.

So business class has a configuration 2-3-2. The two seats on the side are not next to each other but are staggered: the window seats are a bit forward. The middle seat of the three middle seats is also a bit forward. All seats have private aisle access. The first row of business class is in a separate cabin between the galley and first class and is therefore a lot more private. I was not able to choose our seats neither free of charge nor for a fee.

It was not easy to take photos of the cabin with the purple dim lights on.  

Legroom is of course excellent.

The seat can be set in several positions including a full flat bed.

You can plug your headphones here.

The headsets are so-so quality. 

Photos of the cabin taken later during the flight.

My first impressions? The business cabin is huge but a bit crowded. The second impression is that a lot has been prepared for the passengers: headphones, slippers, pillow, blanket, amenity kit and menu card waiting on the seat, water and cleansing wipe next to the seat. And the third impression is, when sitting down, that the seat is a bit narrow but legroom is good. The seat is overall well designed and comfortable. Sky Suite is a fancy name for this seat.

Headphones, slippers, pillow, blanket, amenity kit and the menu on the seat. 

The content of the amenity kit.

Brochure explaining how to set the seat, the remote control, the reading lights and the Wi-Fi.

In-flight magazine and shopping brochure, both of them mostly in Japanese.

Champagne (or sparkling wine?) and orange juice were offered as a welcome drink.

Business class was full.

Push-back was at 19.33 for a scheduled departure time of 19.20. We took off at 19.54.

This is the screen of the remote control.  

Here’s the flight map on the is 23-inch screen. Fun fact: the map shows Titograd and Frunze, cities that became Podgorica and Bishkek over 30 years ago (not shown on these photos). 

There’s a short video about in-flight catering.

Let’s have a look at the menus. You have the choice between a Japanese set menu and two Western menus, beef and non-beef.

The Japanese menu looks like this: 

And this is the Western menu, with a choice between beef and fish.

A wet towel was offered about 35 minutes after take-off. Drink orders were taken another 15 minutes later. The table was set shortly after.

Drinks were served with cold nuts and olives. The nuts were good (I don't eat olives).  

The appetizer (irodori gozen), made of four small and one larger plate with a total of about 24 ingredients, was an absolute highlight of the flight. It was fresh and extremely flavourful.

This is the hors-d’œuvre for the Western menu.

This was the main course for the Japanese menu. The chicken with rice served as a main course was very good. The meat was tender and tasty. I didn't try the fish.

The dessert and some green tea from the Japanese menu.

The nuts were served in Slovenia, the appetizer in Croatia, the main course in Serbia and the dessert in Bulgaria. 

The dining table can be partly turned even when there's food on it so you can leave your seat at any time.

I slept from around Sofia in Bulgaria to near the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (about 3.5 hours). After I woke up for a half an hour I slept again for another two to three hours until we were in the middle of China. Having a mattress and a full flat the bed that can be set to many different positions allow you to sleep very well. The Skysuite is very comfortable.

The seat has separate reading and night lights which are very useful.

There’s an “Anytime you wish” option to order snacks between dinner and one hour and 30 minutes before landing.   

I ordered a seafood chowder and also some salad, fruit and chocolate. 

There are a few dozens of movies in English, mostly well-known Hollywood blockbusters. Some Japanese movies and TV shows have subtitles in English, others don't. 

The choice of music is limited to channels by genre; you can't choose to listen to specific artists.

Breakfast service started over two hours before landing. There’s a Japanese and a Western set plate that are listed under the “Anytime you wish” menu but these are actually the two breakfast options. 

I had the Western breakfast. It was a typical business class breakfast.

Our flight information one hour and 11 minutes before landing.

Getting closer to Japan.

We almost reached Obama at this point.

We landed at Tokyo Haneda at 17.13 and were at the gate at 17.18 for a scheduled arrival time of 17.15.