#17 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
229 reviews
Hello everyone!
Its another great day to fly!
I just recently concluded my Holiday in Japan. This is the most sought after holiday that my friends and i planned, it was like half a year in the making.
Since April we are discussing when to travel to Japan for this year and all of us decided to joined our friends on their planned trip last November.
Without a clear thoughts if my work will allow me to have a holiday on the later part of the year, closed one eye, we book a return flight to Japan and slowly booking for accommodations and attractions.
It was May when we booked our ticket through Delta. It was the cheapest direct flight from SIN to Japan through Narita which costs us S$720. We consider other airline and in fact, Singapore to Japan Via Manila is more cheaper however, we chose the convenient of a direct flight for a S$150 difference.
Around August we received a call from Delta that our flight with them will be cancelled. During that time, they announced that Delta will closed their NRT hub and focus on HND. They informed us that they will transfer us to ANA to fly us to Japan. Not bad for me as i haven't flown with ANA before (neither with Delta). I was half emotions with the change, too bad for me to not to experience Delta's B767 and good for me for ANA as i could experience their 5 star service and newer Boeing aircraft. They rebook us to the almost same scheduled flight as Delta.
After Delta's endorsing us to ANA i already start receiving updates on my flight and mostly aircraft changes from 777s and 787s variant, several times.
And after all the stress and anxiety of thinking that i may not be able to allow to take a break from work, the day passed by and without knowing its time to fly to Japan!
If you are a frequent reader of my reports, i prefer a red eye flight to maximized my days to my destination specially on my holiday. I call Delta's customer service to ask if i can rebook my flight into an earlier flight and they accommodate my request and informed me that on any future inquiry about my flight i can call ANA instead and gave me my ANAs booking reference.
I also downloaded ANAs app to explore and monitor my booking and flight status. As i want to experience and enjoy my flight with them, i tried to get a window seat. Tried doing it on their app however most of the available seats are either middle seats or aisle seat on the middle row seat. so i tried calling ANAs customer service but not to avail, i tried several times and tried holding the line for as long as 15 minutes but still no available agents, so i gave up. i just tried my luck to ask the agent at the counter for any available window seats.
ANA offer early check in for not more that 24 hours of you flight so i did that, i was already checked in at 830am and my flight was 1240am the next day. Their early check in counter is located at Jewel Changi.
i went to an unmanned check in counter, the other staff asked me to wait for a while as the agent went for a wee break, i dont mind that as i was so excited for my flight and instead went to redeem my Japan SIM that im going to used.
maybe after 15 minutes i head back to the counter and the agent tried to check me in. i took like 5-10 mimutes before i got my boarding pass. i dont know what happen as she need to call someone to help to check me in, maybe i was too early for my flight? she cant see my booking as it was a Delta tickets? i have no idea. anyways after that phone call she managed to tagged my bag and gave me my boarding pass, she just informed me that just check my boarding gate assigment.
After work at 10pm i immediately went back to airport and planned to go to lounge to freshen up and eat. Unfortunately when i was about to go to Ambassador Lounge they informed me that will be no available shower anytime soon. so i did not went eat and just decided to eat from the food hall at level 3.
some garden installation at check in counter level. really love Changi's classic flight information board. some self check in kiosk and door leading to immigrations and its starting to feels like Christmas!
it was a very quiet and relax evening. almost empty hallways from duty free, some entertaiment area, kids art section and more garden and ponds.
after i eat, i straight away went to the boarding gate. it was laready open yet there were no queues and only few people are going inside the gate. there were 2 lanes when you enter the gate, 1 for economy and the other one is for 1st/business class and status holder passengers with direct and immediate security check.
The gate is starting filling up with passengers and there were a enclosed section for upper class passengers. i noticed that the interior of the gates were refurbished and improved.
before the boarding time, an agent explains the boarding procedures in groups starting with elderly and passengers with assistance, followed by business class and status holder passengers then economy class passengers. the announcement were made in Japanese first then in English. elderly passengers may board ahead the time of boarding. As ANA is a Japanese carrier and they are know for being on time, i tried to observe if the boarding time of 1215 will be followed. i was watching my time on my phone and a few second after 1215 they start accepting business class passengers and asked them to queue and another agent checking each pax boarding passes if they are really on the right group of boarding. i was seating near the gate and when they allows group 3 for boarding i queue and ready to board.
As we Board the plane on Door2L when you turn right you will passed by the 2nd business clas cabin in 1x2x1 configuration and 3 rows of premium economy section in 2x4x2 lay out then a small cabin for economy class with 3 rows in 3x3x3 configuration.
Pillow, blanket and headset were pre placed on each seats. pillow is too flat for me.
i was amused when i sat down on my seat and notice the leg room. that was the most spacious economy legroom that i was flown with, i can even cross my leg and still not touching the back seat at front of me. Seat recline is also generous, i thought it will be limited as we are the last row seat of the cabin at might be restricted by the wall behind us, but its not.
while other passengers still boarding i went and visit the lavatory, it clean and OK with hand wash and toilet paper.
few minutes after i settle down back to my seat, the door were closed and ready for pushed back and guess what, we have middle seat empty and it would be more comfortable flight ahead.
Safety video were played and it really shows japanese culture on it, it was Japanese then translated in english. Video was a little too long for me.
im not an audiophile but i found that its really cancels some noise and comfortable enough to wear. some magazines, information sheet and safety card placed on each backseat. Interesting that there is a specific card to explain the service for each flight, as for Singapore - Japan flight, drinks will be served after 30 minutes of flight, meal after 1 hour and snack 1 hour before arrival. but in our case, snack goes first then meal before arrival to Japan.
as we reached cruising altitude cabin crew prepares for service, they offer drinks and asked for ginger ale, she told me to wait and get for me, after few minutes she showed up and gave me a glass and explained that they dont have ginger ale instead she gave me gin tonic, it taste like ginger ale. then they distributed a bag of snack which consist of bread, chips and a bottle of water. then lights off.
this time i explore their IFE, it has a good selection of movies in english and other foreign movies as well. they have options to have a subtitle on it or to turn it off. games are also available, thou you may only play using the controller only. touch screen is very responsive. with the help of privacy screen protector(?) it helps to miminized the brightness of the screen. and keeps the cabin dark. maps also have different animations and angle to choose from.
throughout the flight, there were cabin crew walking down the aisles to check the passengers and offer drinks, it seems like every hour they offer different drinks to passengers to keep them hydrated. with this service is really a 5 star experience. they were all smiling and energetic even thought in those time, i applaud them for that.
as we enter Japanese airspace the breakfast service began, they handed out some laminated menus. there were 2 opions to choose from, unfortunately i dont have a photo of my meal and i cant remember what i ate, which means its was ok, what i like is the cold noodle that come with the meal, with the dipping sauce that come with it. meal tray consists of yogurt, fruits and cold soba and apple juice to accompaniment.
as the sun starts to break from the sky, i tried to play around the 787s window. there were 5 options of shades but it will take time before you can really see the difference. from fully clear to the darkest tint. even the darkest mode you may still see outside the plane.
some view from the window and japanese land as we approach NRT for landing.
After we land in rainy Tokyo NRT it was a long taxi before we reach our gate in Terminal 1.
all lights up as we prepare to disembark.
as we get out of the plane, we passed by premium economy and business class cabins.
jet bridge as we disembark our plane.
and our bird that flew us from Singapore to Tokyo.
yoshi and toad welcomes us to Japan!
Immigration is a breeze, and luckily we are the only flight that arrives that time (i think so) so it was an easy clearance then headed to baggage claim area.
some of the priority tagged bags are starting to show up then the rest follows. i've waited like 10 minutes before my suitcase shows up. when i took luggage from the belt and start to pull, im having a hard time pulling that and to my surprise my luggage was damaged and one of the wheels are torn off. so i went to ANA counter to report the incident, im not expecting to get anything from them as i just want a report to submit for my insurance claim, then after some time and few questions, with some language barrier, they invite me to a room and informed me that they will replaced my suitcase with the same size, it was not branded but it quite sturdy enough and at least i not going to shell out some money to but a new luggage. after that incident i was unable to take photos of the arrival as i was rushing to get to the city to meet my cousin.
It was a memorable flight with ANA with that very generous legroom really is the widest legroom in economy class that i have flown with, it was a comfortable flight even longer than 7 hours i can dealt with it. ANAs cabin crews are one of the best in the air, even on a red eye flight they constantly checking the passengers and offering drinks. IFE is more that enough for this flight, a wide selection of movies, tv series, music, games and moving maps.
It just that, i cant find any decent restaurant or fast food at the arrival area, you need to go to the departure level for some restaurant. there is only 1 convenient store available on that level.
hope you all enjoy reading my report, till the next flight report outbound of Japan with some bonus travel photos.
comments and suggestions are welcome!
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 21 avis concernant 6 compagnies sur la ligne Singapore (SIN) → Tokyo (NRT).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Singapore Airlines avec 8.7/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 6 heures et 54 minutes.
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4 Comments
I've experienced this on my MNL-NRT flight. The Japanese really know how to board an aircraft!
This is certainly a much better offering than what SQ serves on the same route.
The cabin crew really are excellent on ANA, it's hard to find another carrier to beat their outstanding service.
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