Review of ANA flight from Tokyo to San Francisco in Business

This series covers a trip to China for our first "post-COVID" TPAC expedition. Please refer back to Part 1 for the full background.

From HND to SFO, there were 2 options: NH108 that departs at 22:55 or UA876 that departs at 15:45. Obviously with our arrival time from SHA, there is only one option that works for us that does not cause an overnight stopover. During the summer schedule, NH108 is guaranteed "The Suite/Room" cabins so it also offers the opportunity to complete the cycle and fly 4 different cabins on NH during this trip. Not considering the A380, which is specific to HNL, the B788 long-haul is the only one we missed, but since a variation on the B789 long-haul, it is an acceptable omission. The new B77W configuration retains 212 seats (8F, 64J, 24W, and 116Y), a small fraction of the 514 they cram into their B773s for domestic routes.

This report will cover the TPAC from Haneda to San Francisco. As a reminder, the routing for this series:

Pre-flight

At booking, our plane was confirmed as having "The Room." We picked a set of 3 seats in the rear mini-cabin. We opted for "honeymoon" seats for my wife and son and an adjacent seat to our son. This meant that we all had to take rear-facing seats in order to have this seating arrangement. I'm not a fan of rear-facing since it can be disorienting sometimes, but it is what it is.

After leaving transit security, we checked the FIDS to confirm our flight was still leaving from Gate 110 before walking down to the lounge.

The main NH Lounge is located right across from our gate.

We aren’t Numero_2, so it will be left for us.

The agents welcomed us and scanned us in. Inside, the lounge has a large run of table seating through the middle and smaller seating areas along the windows.

We went to the far end of the lounge and found a group of seats. The seats are comfortable with pillows and have individual charging ports under them.

Each chair has a side table with a link to the online menu. You can order food for pick-up at the noodle bar (they will text you when ready), or you can just walk down there and order at the window where they will hand you a buzzer.

The noodle bar menu.

In addition to this small hot buffet area, there is a satellite cold buffet area by our seating area.

My offering of kake udon and my son tried the curry rice with a roll.

We stayed for a while before my wife took our son down to the kid’s play zone to burn off some energy and tire him out for the flight.

By 20:00 when they returned, there was a long line to enter the lounge and the lounge was overrun. Announcements were constantly being made for people not to place bags on seats since there is no more seating available. Staff were trying to escort people around to find empty seats. With all of the push to shift long-haul flights from NRT to HND, the lounge situation in HND is not able to handle the new premium passenger volume. We packed up and left the lounge at 21:45, despite a large number of departures already, the lounge was still packed to capacity with a number of TPACs still to depart into the early hours of the morning My other criticism of the lounge is that there is a lack of protein options. Since the late departing TPACs do not have post-departure meal services, the lounge should provide more substantial food options that compensate for the lack of a meal onboard. The food options are definitely behind JL's offering, lounge investment will be important for NH.

flight

All Nippon Airways, NH108
Equipment: Boeing B777-300ER [JA784A, delivered December 2009]
Departure: 22:55 (ATD: 23:16)
Arrival: 16:25 (ATA: 15:56)
Flight time: 8:41

We did a short walk around the duty free shopping and joined the Group 2 line at 22:15. As the agent was checking documents, they told us to join the special assistance line. Again, pre-boarding explicitly says families with children under 2, so we surely don't qualify, but she might have been compassionate since our son was already passed out in my arms.

Special assistance boarding started at 22:20, and we went in after a fleet of ~12 wheelchairs. Down we go.

The aircraft was not ready so we had to wait ~10 minutes before the wheelchairs were escorted down L2. While waiting, we can see our pilots beginning their checks.

The agent asked if anyone with children was a business class passenger. She took us aside and escorted us down L1 to board while the wheelchairs were still being processed down L2.

Joystick and L1.

It was a very warm welcome onboard by the F cabin flight attendants who took our hand luggage and escorted us to our seats. A look at "The Suite", which is nicely refreshed and ready for Numero_2.

Reaching the main J cabin. The Room is definitely a sleeker product, although with the overhead bins down it is a little claustrophobic with the high walls everywhere.

A much needed update for NH visually from their traditionally drab white/blue color scheme. The center "honeymoon" seats have the large privacy barrier that can be left up at all times. My wife and son sat in this section so we kept it down the entire time so that we could easily help him.

A look at the forward facing seats that sit closer to the aisle.

My seat for this flight, 19A, is a rear facing seat. All true "window" seats are reverse facing unfortunately.

Yes, the seat is very wide and comfortably sits two people, which actually came in handy since my son could sit next to me during boarding and meals. Pre-placed on the seat were 2 pillows, duvet, mattress pad, and a bag containing the amenity kit, headphones, and slippers.

The pillows. The white pillow is very firm and good for sleeping, whereas the blue one is better for lumbar support.

The duvet is soft and lightweight.

Mattress pad.

The amenity kit is a different Globe-Trotter design than on the SFO-NRT leg, but contained the same products from SHIRO.

Seat pitch is of course no issue when upright, but it get pretty tight when in bed mode since it is ~20cm shorter than the older product (to be discussed later).

Settling in, the first thing that catches your eyes is the enormous 24" screen. There is also a small storage compartment below the screen that fits small items during sleep.

Pre-placed on the side table were menu and water bottle.

There is a large storage compartment next to the screen that has several small storage areas on the door in addition to a mirror. The main compartment can fit laptops, water bottles, etc.

The bottom houses one of many sets of charging ports (high speed USB, universal plug, and HDMI) with a useful flip up access to just the ports. It also housed some trash that was not cleaned from the previous flight, pretty poor to see this oversight on NH in their hub…

But wait, there was more trash. A shoe horn was left on the floor. Very questionable cleaning by HND ground staff.

The shoe horn was located in this cut out below the side table, which can not be used for storage since the seat occupies this space when in bed mode.

All of the seat controls and large IFE remote are housed in the side table. As mentioned in Part 1, this cabin has the same design pitfall where these all shine in your face when the seat is in bed mode.

The IFE remote has a high quality screen as well.

On the left are the button to deploy the vertical privacy barrier and 1 of 2 audio jacks.

The other side along the window houses the other audio jack and another USB port.

The Sony noise cancelling headphones, that are of mediocre quality.

There are two reading lights, one on each side of the seat as well as a light for the tray table and coat hook.

Individual vents are a plus since NH keeps their cabins on the warm side. It is nice that they brought them back in these new cabins.

The electronic window shades. While fancy, it is hard to control them in order to just leave them open a crack.

As soon as I settled in, the flight attendant working our aisle of the rear cabin came up and introduced herself by name. She explained the service and asked us to please ask her if we needed any assistance with our son during the flight.

Boarding wrapped up at 22:55 as the doors were closed. The rain continued to pour outside.

As we began our push back, the FAs came through and offered PDBs. I opted for a champagne, which was again served in a plastic cup.

A toast to HND as my seat rumbles with the roar of the GE90s firing up at 23:02.

The safety video played during the taxi.

The safety card on the B77W.

It was a long taxi back around T1/T2 to get to Runway 16L. Crossing an old friend, a HD B763.

We took off at 23:16, about 20 minutes late, and quickly plunged into the darkness of the Tokyo Bay as we looped out of the bay to start our long trek across the Pacific. With the low density configuration on their B77Ws, the GE90s definitely have some extra oomph.

As soon as we leveled off, I did a turn down service for our son and he quickly passed out to sleep for the rest of the flight until we woke him up to eat something before the cabin was prepped for landing.

The menu on this flight. The wine list remains weak, but the sake rotation was improved from last leg. Aichi-ken is not well known for sake, so I opted to try the option from Yamagata-ken. Duval-Leroy was served on this flight.

Once deployed, the FAs came out to quick do their aperitif service. Since this is a late departing red-eye, there is no meal service at take-off to enable the cabin to remain in darkness for sleep. The light dishes are available until breakfast is served. Our FA took drink orders as she handed out packaged oshibori and I requested the sake from Yamagata-ken and water.

I then asked her for a pair of pajamas, which are available in S/M or L/XL sizing. She escorted me to the bathroom to change and waited to take my clothes to hang in the coat closet.

The lavatories were also redone during the cabin refresh and have a nice faux stone grey wall and floor.

She then returned and poured a glass of sake showing me the bottle and handed me another water bottle instead of a glass of water

The tray table is huge, sturdy, and can be slid in or out with a locking mechanism.

The amuse bouche was served, which consisted of a short-necked clam ratatouille and ANA's signature stick. The clam ratatouille was excellent and the best thing I've eaten on this series. My wife agreed, we would have happily eaten a large bowl of this.

After eating, I quickly did my turn down service to maximize sleep.

I'm 182cm, and I barely fit sleeping straight. My feet were flat on the end of the foot well and my head was against the headboard. It is a very short and narrow bed, so you are forced to sleep diagonally like on SQ. I think the old staggered seat has a lot more space from head to toe. Furthermore, the foot well is very short vertically. I wear EU 44 shoes and my toes touch the top of the foot well when sleeping on my back. It's not a very roomy seat for sleeping and I find the old staggered seat to be much more spacious for sleep.

Yes, the doors close to make it a closed suite, but I left the door open so that I could keep an eye on my son.

The cabin was plunged into darkness less than an hour into the flight, highlighting the speed of service. I fell asleep with a little over 7 hours to go.

I woke up about halfway there feeling a little hungry. I pressed the call button, and an FA was kneeling at my side less than 20 seconds later.

I requested a bowl of ramen and hojicha. They were brought out about 5 minutes later.

I ate my food and then slept again until the cabin lights in the W cabin were being turned on about 1.5 hours out from SFO. One disadvantage of sitting in the rear cabin is that the service in the other cabins (W/Y) is done at different times.

The J cabin lights were kept off until later, but when the FA noticed I was moving around, she quickly came to check on me and asked if I wanted my breakfast. She confirmed if I still wanted the washoku (pre-ordered) and asked what I wanted to drink as she laid my linens.

My washoku and coffee as delivered.

The zensai's sampling of small bites. The small dish on the far left with the crab meat and yuba (tofu skin) was the best.

No kobachi with breakfast, it will just be a fruit cup and a small platter of pickles.

The shusai served with steamed rice. The sea bass like all other fish dishes on this trip was moist and succulent.

The miso soup.

Metal cutlery, but disposable wooden chopsticks with blue paper hashioki.

As my tray was cleared, I was offered another coffee that was served with a chocolate.

The IFE is very high resolution and responsive to touch. The interface is much improved over the previous generation and makes it feel much more modern and easier to navigate/search. The content is no different than any of the other cabins though, which makes it very limited in scope. Obviously on this red-eye, I did not spend very much time watching anything so it does not bother me, but for a long daytime flight, you might be running out of options.

WiFi is also offered on this flight and was $18.80 for a full flight pass (a very good deal), but since I was sleeping I did not activate it.

The nice feature common with more modern IFEs is that you can have the moving map on the remote while watching things on the main screen.

The seat is good for lounging, but when you move the seat into a recline position, it closes off your access to the aisle forcing you to crawl out. It's just another minor design flaw with this cabin layout because the foot well of your neighbor sticks out so much.

With 45 minutes to landing, the crew asked if I wanted the CHML for my son since they needed to close service soon. I asked them to bring it out so that we could at least take some of the packaged snack items that could clear customs.

The CHML on this ex-HND sector. There was also several packaged snacks (see Part 2: Koala's March, Glico Caramels) that we took off the tray to take home.

The main was a star shaped meat patty, egg-wrapped hot dog, rice, carrots, and a fish nugget. Not the strongest of catering. I think ex-SHA and ex-NRT were the best meals. He picked around a little bit when he woke up, but wasn't too interested in anything other than the fruit jelly and the apple juice since he was still groggy.

As the cabin was prepared for landing, the captain came on and gave his remarks describing it a nice sunny day in SFO with a temperature of 21C. Still cloudy below, so I'm skeptical of his weather claim since the fog has likely already started rolling in.

The FA came and brought the kid's gift set to our son. We now have 3 of these wooden airplanes.

Then she returned and brought me some candies and NH postcards. I have all of these, but no problem having multiples of each at home ;)

Crossing over Sonoma County, the clouds certainly cleared.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge (Angel Island and Alcatraz also prominent).

Downtown San Francisco.

The Bay is always beautiful on a sunny day.

The Bay Bridge and Treasure Island (former home of Pan Am's sea plane harbor).

Aerial of OAK in the distance as we make our way to South Bay.

A plane in its short final to SFO below us.

Crossing over Foster City and the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge.

San Carlos Airport (SQL) is just visible along Bair Island, which was long proposed as the reliever airport for SFO during flight diversions. There has been immense push back from locals to the proposed runway extension to allow for planes larger than 12,500lb to land.

Bair Island.

Looping around Palo Alto as we start to make our u-turn.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Completing our u-turn to begin our approach into SFO.

Crossing over Bair Island.

Our short final into SFO on a beautiful day in the Bay.

We landed on Runway 28R about 30 minutes ahead of schedule and started our taxi back to the terminal.

Welcome to SFO.

AA A321 and WN B737 aligning for parallel take-off as we taxi over to the A Concourse of the international terminal.

A peek at the US-101 as we make our final turn into our gate.

We pull in next to an AS B739. The OZ A359 from ICN just beat us in. We used the A gates for deplaning since the G gates are usually a zoo with all the *A TATL departures in the afternoon. Since our plane will not be heading back to HND until nearly 2am, it will be pushed back to a remote stand until later in the evening.

After the GE90s were turned off, it was a short wait until the jet bridges were engaged. Making our way up to L2 to deplane.

Up the bland jet bridge we go.

We did our speed walk down to immigration since our son's Global Entry was still being processed. Luckily, only the tail end of the OZ flight was left and we had a short 10 minute wait to be processed. We were only asked about the length of our stay and how much cash we had in hand before being released. The poor guy on the other side was being berated since he couldn't understand the officer's questions in English, certainly not a warm welcome for him.

By the time we exited immigration, the priority bags were already removed from the belt and were lined up for collection. We got our bags loaded up and were quickly out through the customs exit.

Welcome to San Francisco.

We headed up to the departures level and were in our Uber home just 5 minutes later. We were able to reach our house just 70 minutes after touching down at SFO, which highlights the efficiency through immigration and customs.

That concludes this series, thanks for stopping by!

flight details