#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
Welcome back, dear readers, to part 2 of my newest review series! When I left things off after the previous report, I had just gotten off a 45-minute Lufthansa A321 flight from Amsterdam, and was ready for a 3 hour layover at Frankfurt Airport. I left you in suspense by revealing nothing more than the fact that I would be continuing on to my absolute favorite place on the planet.
Well, the wait is over, and here we are. I hope you'll join me as I made my way back to Tokyo aboard my favorite airline, All Nippon Airways.
I'll reveal the entire routing of this trip as each new report is posted. Here's how it's shaping up at this point:
This stretch of the itinerary was booked with 49k United miles. While definitely not the greatest redemption, prices for revenue tickets were also very high, and the fact that I'd be flying ANA made it worth it.
My flight from Amsterdam arrived toward the end of the A pier, and my connecting flight would be leaving from the B pier. While a bit of a distance, I had more than enough time during my layover, so I first went to the A+ pier in search of a shower. Frankfurt Airport offers shower rentals for €6, which was a pretty good deal. I went to the shower area next to gate A50, which was very close to this Lufthansa 747-8i, prepping for its journey to Los Angeles.
After freshening up, I began the trek to the B gates, which started off by walking through the 270 meter-long passenger tunnel.
The switch between the two concourses didn't take nearly as long as I had remembered, and soon enough I had cleared immigration and was in the non-Schengen portion of the terminal.
I had hoped to spend most of my layover on the terrace that I had discovered on one of my 3 FRA layovers in July 2021, though unfortunately it was too packed to be enjoyed. Instead, I found a so-called "Leisure Zone" and chilled there until it was time for boarding.
Shortly before boarding, I headed to my gate and had a double take when I saw that my flight would be departing from gate B61, a gate below the main departures floor meant solely for aircraft parked in remote positions. I thought that all ANA flights from Frankfurt left from jetbridge positions, but it turns out I was wrong. While surprised, I realized that meant an up close and personal look at a gorgeous ANA Dreamliner would be provided. Fine by me!
Boarding was called right on time, and while priorities were respected, in reality all passengers were herded into the same busses.
While I appreciated that the busses were not packed to the hilt, perhaps the worst thing about Frankfurt Airport is the fact that unless you are flying Lufthansa First Class, there is no distinction between premium cabins and economy class when it comes to the many flights departing or arriving from remote stands. Hopefully, for the sake of business class passengers, some reform in that regard will come.
The ride to the aircraft, while long, did provide for some pretty nice spotting opportunities. This Lufthansa Cargo 777 had just arrived from Shanghai Pudong.
Another Lufthansa Cargo 777 was being unloaded after a flight from Beijing, while across from it, I caught my first glimpse of a Condor aircraft painted in the company's new livery. While I was very skeptical about it at first, I've actually grown to like it, and it looked pretty good in person!
Moments later, our bus pulled up to the literal star of the day: JA875A, a 2015-built Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which had just been repainted into the Star Alliance livery two months earlier.
Just about as close as a passenger can get to the mighty Rolls Royce Trent 1000!
As much as I loved boarding the Dreamliner by airstairs, the fact that they were covered did take away a great deal of the fun… But oh well.
At the boarding door, two flight attendants were enthusiastically greeting passengers in Japanese and English. It felt great to be on an Asian carrier again, and ANA's awesome boarding music really added to the moment.
Walking through the business class cabin (perhaps hinting at a future installment of this series? ?)…
…the mini Premium Economy and Economy cabins…
…back to the main Economy cabin…
…and my seat 26A.
I was expecting a great economy class cabin on ANA, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Firstly, the legroom was superb, and the presence on a legrest was very much appreciated.
The TV monitor was a good size, and could be controlled both as a touchscreen and with a remote.
Additionally, actual headsets were provided, and they were of good quality (by economy class standards) as well.
In the seatback pocket, there was an airsickness bag, as well as the safety instruction card, but sadly no inflight magazine.
Very classy antimacassar.
The wing view from my row was quite good as well.
I also love colors of ANA's cabin, as well as their flight attendant's uniforms.
Another bus load of passengers showed up, but I was thrilled to hear the announcement that the boarding door had been closed… I had scored 3 seats to myself!
Once all passengers were on board, the chief purser added her welcome announcement, stating our flight time of 12 hours and 25 minutes. The perfect length to fully enjoy the flight, especially with so much space to myself! She also informed us that we'd be waiting at our stand of a bit more due to runway congestion. I took the time to browse through the entertainment selection.
ANA has a fair selection of movies. While not mind-blowing or on the scale of Lufthansa's great entertainment selection, you certainly wouldn't get bored, even on the longest of their flights. You can find the full entertainment guide for July 2023 here.
Until takeoff, I kept the moving map on. ANA's 787 moving map uses one of my favorite interfaces.
As we were finally getting ready to leave the stand, the safety video played.
Around 12:50, we started up our engines. Our neighbor was a Lufthansa 787-9 prepping for its flight to Montreal.
Due to our remote parking position, our taxi to Runway 18 took no more than 5 minutes.
After holding on the runway for another 2 minutes, our majestic engines roared to life spooled up to what I imagine was TOGA power, due to the amount of force I felt pushing me back during our takeoff roll.
Name a sexier wing. I'll wait.
Flaps up and heading southeast.
A peek into the cabin after departure.
As soon as the seatbelt was switched off, the cabin crew changed into their service uniforms and began preparing for the lunch service. First up was an oshibori.
That was quickly followed up with a snack mix.
In the meanwhile, the wing was still looking absolutely stunning. I also love the inclusion of the Japanese flag - making an already perfect wing even better!
Around that time, we passed good old Vienna. While I very much disliked living there, it does look pretty decent from 35,000 feet.
The same applies for my former home airport, Vienna-Schwechat.
Navigating around some storms near Budapest.
As the crew approached each row, a menu with a picture of the two options was passed to each passenger. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement.
While I wasn't initially thrilled with either choice, I went with the Chicken Ratatouille. A few seconds, I was presented with this full tray of food.
The meal was served with real cutlery.
My choice ended up being great, and everything on the tray was absolutely delicious! Easily one of the, if not the, best economy class meals I had ever had. The portion size was perfect, as well.
I devoured every last crumb on the tray, and as the meal service ended, we were over southern Bulgaria.
Given that I had had a sleepless night before, I immediately went to bed after the service concluded. I must have been really tired, as I only took two pictures of the bed that I had set up for myself, both using portrait orientation on my phone… sorry!
The bed I made for myself was suuuuper comfy, and I slept all the way from Istanbul to Inner Mongolia, waking up just briefly to snag a nighttime shot of the wing and cabin, as well as to pay a quick visit to the loo.
The crew on this flight was great - attentive, but not overly so. Went I went to the lavatory, I briefly stopped by the galley to grab a banana from the snack basket, and the flight attendants kindly offered to get me any drink I wanted. It's super hard to say no to Japanese flight attendants, but all I wanted at that moment was to head back to my pillow, and they seemed to totally understand.
Shortly after I woke up, with a bit less than 3 hours of flight time remaining, the cabin was being readied for the breakfast service. It seemed a bit early for that, but I was up and hungry again, so I was looking forward to it.
As I mentioned above, ANA's cabin crews change uniforms during the service, and switch from their jackets to these gorgeous aprons.
I was once again presented with a menu (which unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of), but if I recall correctly, the choices were between eggs over rice and an omelette. I selected the latter.
Airplane breakfasts are usually sucky in any class of service, yet this omelette was definitely the best egg dish I could recall ever having in the sky.
Breakfast was served just as the sun was beginning to rise.
I rewatched Captain Phillips during breakfast, and took a stroll through the aircraft as we neared Tokyo.
For the final hour and a half of the flight, I was mostly glued out the window, enjoying the scenery of Asia for the first time in far too long.
Turning left over a hazy Tianjin, China.
Dalian, China.
Left turn over the Yellow Sea.
Incheon Airport, South Korea.
I had hoped to have some clear blue skies over Japan so I could enjoy the beauty of Mt. Fuji from above, though little did I know that early June is rainy season in Japan, and I'd have no such luck on this flight.
Slowing down during our descent. I didn't think the Dreamliner wing with the Japanese flag could look any better than before, then we turned in our descent with the speedbrakes open, and this beautiful shot emerged ?
Final glimpses of a blue sky before getting the bird soaked on our final approach.
Absolutely zero visibility on final…
…until just a few hundred feet above ground.
Despite the slippery conditions, our pilot flying greased the landing on Runway 34L. We touched down at 8:24 AM, 14 minutes behind schedule, after being airborne for exactly 12 hours and 25 minutes.
Vacating the runway.
Docked at our gate next to an ANA 787-9 which was prepping to fly to Houston.
One final look at the economy class cabin before disembarking. As far as international economy class goes, ANA's is the crème de la crème.
Walking past the business class cabin.
After a very warm farewell from the crew, it was into the jetbridge and out to explore Tokyo!
One final look back at JA875A, the only aircraft on which I didn't want a flight to end while sitting in economy class.
Stay tuned for more from this adventure, coming soon to a flight-report.com near you!
Wow. There's really nothing more to say then that. ANA proves that longhaul economy class can actually be a truly enjoyable experience. The cabin was fantastic, the crew was polite and super professional, and the meal, like almost everything else, was just about as good as it gets in the back. The entertainment selection was the only thing that left a bit to be desired, but that's also just my movie taste, as well. Frankfurt Airport was far from great but the transfer was easy. Haneda Airport was spectacular - more in that in a future report (spoiler!), but definitely one of the best airports I've been to. After landing, I hopped on the monorail, and was in the center of Tokyo at Hamamatsuchō station after around a 30 minute ride.
4 Comments
With an empty row, there is certainly no complaining in terms of comfort on this long flight. The 3-3-3 on the B787 is probably their best Y product now that the 3-4-2 configuration B77Ws are all but gone (think there are just a couple left to be reconfigured).
It's good to see that NH has almost fully returned Y service to pre-pandemic standards. They used to offer real oshibori, but at least metal cutlery is still present for both meals. I think their menu cards are one of the most practical aspects of their Y service since it means they can operate faster without people asking them elaborate on the standard "chicken or pasta" you get on Western carriers. Both meal trays look quite substantial, but agree that the curry for the Japanese option is weak.
Thanks again!
My thoughts exactly, it's pretty clear that NH is countering the trend of cost-cutting in Y, which is great. Didn't know that even SQ is cutting costs in Y nowadays.
Indeed, the configuration is very comfortable, and especially with the generous legroom. A pity that those 3-4-2 777s are just about gone, I did want to experience that unique configuration at least once.
Honestly I'm really surprised that no other airline (that I've flown, at least) offers such a menu. As you say, it makes things easier for both the passengers and the crew. And I can't imagine it costs much at all to print them out and place them on each flight.
That is true, I was a bit surprised that ANA wouldn't have a more traditional Japanese meal in Y. Then again, who am I to judge what's a traditional Japanese meal or not :)
Thanks again for stopping by!
As you say, it is very nice that some carriers still make an effort to offer a good long-haul Economy experience!
Great report and thanks for sharing!
It sure seems that way! Many friends of mine are also heading there this year. Though hopefully it'll be more than just this year, for me ;-) Hope to see your JAL report at some point, would be great to compare the two! 2-4-2 sure does sound great for an economy configuration. Thanks for stopping by!
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