Review of J-Air flight Tokyo → Misawa in Economy

Introduction

Thank you very much for stopping by & reading my very first flight review/report. I've always wanted to try & fly regional flights in Japan, & with my family living in Japan, it was a perfect chance for me to experience a regional flight in Japan and to see my family. In this flight report, I will be flying with J-Air, a regional subsidiary of Japan's national flag carrier, Japan Airlines. 

At the airport

Our flight would be departing from Tokyo Haneda Airport, the main hub for domestic flights in Japan. Japan Airlines and other low-cost carriers such as Skymark & Starflyer operate flights from terminal 1. I arrived at the airport at around 8:30, 2 hours prior to my flight. I simply used a car to get to the airport, however, Haneda has many transportation services including trains & monorails as well as buses to get to the airport. It is very rare to get lost in Haneda Airport due to the clear & easy signage all through the airport, something I really appreciate. At the time I arrived, the airport was bustling with people. Check-in is done by kiosks mainly, however, there are some desks with gate agents. Check-In went very smoothly, I had no problems with the check-in process.

Before going through security I wanted to check out the observation deck. Haneda Airport has amazing observation decks that allow you to see most of the airport tarmac and runway. The views there are fantastic and I ended up staying there for quite a long time. I saw a variety of different planes, from A320s to big B777s. I even saw the brand new Japan Airlines A350-1000 in the back (try spot it in 1 of the photos below!). It's a dream for an aviation geek!

By the time I came back from the observation deck, the terminal was rather quiet & many of the queues from the security had disappeared. The security at Haneda was super efficient as Haneda is a very busy airport. The security went super quick and I was airside in under 5 minutes. Also, it's worth noting that the airport was spotless, something you would expect from Japan, & the cleanliness didn't disappoint!

   
There was nothing particularly amazing about the airside, not as many shops and restaurants I expected but terminal 1 is a domestic terminal so it makes sense cause your not going to be spending so much time airside, especially before a dometic flight.

Lounge

I had no eligibility to go to a lounge, however I did go to a lounge called the Power Lounge. It's basically a pay-to-access lounge where you would pay a small fee to get lounge access. I highly recommend this lounge to all of you reading this right now (if you are going to travel domestic in Japan) as it's a great way to kill some time before your flight for a really cheap price. For the price of just ¥1100 (7.26usd), you get unlimited lounge access & soft drinks. There is no food (just drinks), but for the cheap price, it's definitely worth it.

It's a very spacious lounge with plenty of seating, from counter seats to comfy sofa seats. All seats have individual charging ports, which is great to charge the devices before your flight. There's also free Wi-Fi, which was descently fast. You also get free soft drinks! The selection isn't much (only consists of some juices & hot drinks) but for the price it makes sense.

Another awesome thing about this lounge is that there is a giant window overlooking the tarmac and airport. I was able to see a lot of different planes runing down the taxiway & runway. 

Boarding

Boarding was done by groups, first group being those who needed special assistance & people traveling with children under 2 years old. Second groups was those seated in Class J (Japan Airlines Domestic First) and OneWorld status members. Next groups were those in economy, starting from the front. Quite efficient…

Walking down the jetbridge. Lots of windows to see outside, something I appreciate.

Here's our first glimpse at the plane! (Couldn't see the plane from the terminal because of the jetbridge). Looks like we would be flying on an Embraer E-190!

Information on the Aircraft
Aircraft - Embraer E-190
Age - 5.7 yeras

The friendly flight attendant greeted me with a smile and I walked down the cabin. J-Air E-190s have 95 seats. Up front there is Class J (Domestic First) in a 1-2 configuration, which is great for solo travelers & couples. Behind that there are 85 seats of economy layed out in a 2-2 configuration. I like this because no one is gonna be stuck in a middle seat. My seat was 22K, a window seat right over the wing on the right hand side of the cabin.

Here is a seat map…

Here is a look at Class J in the photo above. The seat is more wider and has more legroom & I'm pretty sure each seat has it's own power outlet. The seats look very comfortable in my opinion. Do you think it's worth the upgrade?

The seat

And here is a look at the economy seats. They look very similar to Class J seats, however they are slightly narrower and have less legroom. All seats have a button to recline, although I found the recline angle to be quite restricted. Unfortunately the headrests aren't adjustable, which is fine for a short 1 hour flight. Legroom was alright and I actually found the seat to be pretty comfortable.

Legroom was definitely alright. (I am very short…)

Almost forgot to mention, but there is a descently large tray table. It's probably large enough to fit a medium sized laptop. As you can see from the photo, it's quite big it almost didn't fit in the frame of my camera.

And here is my window view. Very nice!

Pushback, Taxi & takeoff

We started our pushback at around 10:40, & the cabin crew started the safety demo. Soon after we started taxiing to the runway.

We would be taking off from runway 34L. It was a cloudy day, so the photo quality wasn't the best. I apologize about that. 

Seatback pocket content

There were quite a lot of things in the seatback pocket. There was a safety card, inflight magazine, an air sickness bag, a card showing some stuff for the inflight shop, a card about the inflight Wi-Fi & an advertisement card.

Inflight service

One thing to note about domestic flights in Japan is that all you get is a drink. That's it. You don't get any light meals or snacks in economy class, although I have heard you do get meals in first class (not Class J). Considering my flight I flew was only an hour long, it was completely fine, but for longer flights I would like to see more offered.

Anyways, the friendly cabin crew started the service quickly. As mentioned, there are only drinks, the selection being Sky Time Peach & Grape mix juice, apple juice, Coke, hot & cold green tea, water & consomme soup. I just went for a Coke and it was served with a paper cup.

It was good, nothing really special. That was the extent of the service though.

Inflight entertainment

In terms of inflight entertainment, there wasn't much. Because of the card about the Wi-Fi in the seat pocket, I was thinking there was Wi-Fi in the plane and there was. The only problem was that it didn't work for some reason. I didn't hear from the crew about the Wi-Fi or anything so I just thought there is no Wi-fi on J-Air flights. Also worth noting there is no IFE screen. At least there was window to pass the time…

It said connected on my phone, but I wasn't able to get any internet access.

Lavatory

There a 2 lavatories in J-Air's E-190, 1 for Class J passengers in the front, & 1 at the back for economy. It was small, but had all the necessary things. It was very clean as well. 

Descent & touchdown

The flight went by fast & by the time the crew had just finished collecting everyone's trash, we had already started our descent.

Also, Misawa Airport shares runways & airport codes with Misawa Air Base. Therefore, there were a few military planes, which I had no idea about cause I'm no military nerd.

Disembarking

Class J wasn't entirely full and since I was seated close to the front of the economy cabin, I was one of the first to disembark. Once again, the cabin crew kindly farewelled me as I got off the plane.

One last view of the plane!

Well, that concludes this flight report.