Review of Japan Airlines flight Osaka → Tokyo in Business

Welcome

Hello! Thank you so much for your attention to my first post into this community. I wanted to show you what it was like to fly Japan Airlines for both domestic and international legs; Osaka to Tokyo Haneda, and then to New York JFK, in the end of Apr and early May 2022.

Background

As of end of April 2022, Japan is still mostly closed to overseas travelers. On the other hand, the restrictions to Japanese citizens imposed upon return to Japan from other countries was lowered in Mar 2022 to the extent where international travels were more or less feasible. Specifically, the 14-days self-isolation was waived provided that you have the 3rd vaccination and that the country you stayed before returning to Japan are on the list for this waiver option.

Under these circumstances, Japan entered a holiday season which we call Golden Week, stretching as long as 10 days, if one adds a couple of paid leaves in between.

Knowing the lowered restriction, I kept searching for first class award seats for JAL’s HND-JFK route. One happy fact about JAL’s first class is that it is sold at a fixed price (70000 miles one way) as opposed to other classes which are dynamically priced. Unbelievably, this ends up in first class seats sold at significantly lower price than business, premium economy, and sometimes even economy. In early Apr, I was lucky enough to find a return ticket at 70000+70000=140000 miles (+tax and surcharges). This meant the value of JPY20 per mile spent. For context, generally one mile is earned per JPY100 spent.

I do not live in Tokyo area; instead the nearest airport to me is the second-busiest domestic one, Osaka Itami (ITM). JAL generously offers free connection flights to Tokyo (HND/NRT) for those living in other parts of Japan.

 Therefore my travel experiences began with my check in at ITM.

Check in

Perhaps due to my arrival at ITM being a little over the busiest hours, its terminal was not crowded as it expectedly was given that this was the first day of Golden Week. I heard in some news that flights from Tokyo (NRT/HND) to Honolulu the night before (=right after the end of business) were operated in full capacity, which was surprising (somewhat sadly) in my country in the era of pandemic.

Since I had finished additional requirements for COVID as well as regular check-in activities before arriving at the airport, my check in at this first class counter (also open to Oneworld Emerald holders) was very quick. Of course this was also thanks to the very efficient staff at the counter.

At this timing I knew that they still had vacancy in their domestic business class (Class-J), offered at JPY2000 ($15). The flight was only for an hour, but I almost always take this opportunity for the upgrade at check-in; and so I did.

Lounge

At a few major airports, JAL offers two types of lounge: Sakura Lounge for Oneworld Sapphire holders, and Diamond Premier Lounge for Oneworld Emerald holders. Sakura Lounge is to business class lounge what Diamond Premier Longer is to first class lounge. Though I am Sapphire, my first class ticket HND-JFK granted me an access to Diamond Premier Lounge.

In Diamond Premier Lounge, JAL offered a few choices of bread, rice ball, and soup. Also on offer were drinks like coke and orange juice, as well as beer and Suntory’s Japanese whisky (Chita). Although Chita is not as famous as Hibiki or Hakushu, both from Suntory, I also highly recommend this single grain whisky for its clear taste.

Foods on offer are not as one might expect in many first class lounges. To be fair, though, I guess JAL is continuously trying to keep a sustainable way to serve the top-tier status holders flying within Japan, where other modes of transportation is and will continue to be the most convenient way to travel domestically; Shinkansen (bullet train) and buses, to name a few.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the lounge was very relaxing, without being over-luxurious.  

fleet

Today’s fleet was B787-8 which came in 3 classes; first, business (Class J), and economy. Class J in JAL’s domestic routes is not something seen in business class flying in many other countries; no food is on offer. This is understandable given short flight times in almost all of the domestic routes, mostly due to HND serving as the hub almost always.

boarding

Boarding was very efficient. We were grouped into several boarding groups.
1. Passengers requiring special assistance
2. First class passengers and Oneworld Emerald holders (including JAL's top tier statuses: JMB Diamond and JGC Premier)
3. Oneworld Sapphire holders (including JAL's midium tier statuses: JMB Sapphire and JGC)
4. Non-status passengers in the order of the assigned seats.
I did have a first class ticket, but it was for the leg from HND. My status being Sapphire, my boarding group was 3.

Usually, flights between ITM-HND is filled up with top-tier status holders (I guess more than a quarter percent), which some call "Diamond queue". However, since it was the first day of the holiday season, there were only a few status holders on this flight, and for this reason I was one of the first to board.

As you can see, the seat was more like premium economy than it was business. Yet getting this seat for an additional fee of JPY2000 (USD15) was a generaous offer.

The seat had a fairly large and responsive entertainment screen. Movies on offer was West Side Story and some other major ones. For these long movies, you can save the timepoint where you had to stop watching on your outbound flight. In this case a resuming code is issued. Then you can resume watching on your inbound flight by entering the code.

Take off

Our departure was immediately after a storm had passed, so the air was very clear even though the heavy cloud was still covering the area.

In-flight service

During the flight, JAL offers free drinks like apple juice, Coke, green tea, coffee and beef consome soup. When you are in Class J, you can also choose vegetable juice as a premium option. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this vegetable juice. It was a tomato-based thick juice, and tasted great.

JAL also provides free wifi onboard to all passengers. You can use your JAL app to connect. In the landing page of wifi, such entertainment as short movies and reading materials are available. This is intended for passengers on smaller fleet like B737, where no entertainment screen is available.

I was glad that they still had paper-based reading material in this era. 

Landing

We literally ran after the storm, and thus Tokyo Haneda was under a heavy rain and wind when we landed.