Review of ANA flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo in Economy

Hi and welcome to my new series of American Travel Story!

Return to San Francisco: Three Days in Business Trip

It seems that my flight series now become anthology series while all of them have connections^^ This series will cover my 2nd business trip to SF in Apr which features an entire different routing. For the 1st trip you can click here. In order to make the reports not so boring, I will reveal the itinerary as we go on.
The report will be broken down as follows (all in Y):
1. NH860 HKG-HND B777-200ER [You are here!]
2. UA876 HND-SFO B787-9 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-20134.html]
3. NH7 SFO-NRT B777-300ER [http://flight-report.com/en/report-20208.html]
4. NH811 NRT-HKG B767-300ER [http://flight-report.com/en/report-20581.html]

Flight Report

Different form last trip, this time I took the afternoon flight to Tokyo Haneda. In the morning on the day of departure, I did not return to office but work at home and made my online check-in. Initially I chose the window seat 26K but later I changed to 27K because I saw no people on that row at that moment.

On the way to the Airport Express Station, I was stopped by a Kirin dance performance celebrating the Tin How Festival (birthday of the god of sea in Southern China).

I arrived at Tsing Yi Station around 11.20 am. Learning from last travel, I saved my QR code ticket to my phone in advance and used it for passing through the entry gate of the station without problems.

I arrived airport 25 minutes later.

Some of my colleagues also departed in the afternoon with different carrier. I called them whether they had arrived, but they were already in the airside Lounge (they were all J). Hence I did not join them. (OK the head was not there, he already continued his American Horror Story: My United Nightmare this morning^^)
The ANA check-in counter is located at aisle E on the departure level. A self check-in kiosk in American mode.

No passengers were queuing and I walked directly to the Y counter. The counter agent welcomed me, checked my passport, and passed the relevant immigration form for me to fill.

When I was filling the form, the chatty agent asked me a lot about the procedures of applying an US Visa and any sightseeing suggestions since he was planning a trip to the US.
The agent tagged my baggage and handed me the boarding passes. He briefed me how to get to the gate. Guidelines for carry-on baggage.

My boarding pass for this flight (I took this picture later in the lounge). It was an UA ticket thus an UA codeshare no. is shown. This flight is a real NH operation (not Air Japan).

Promotion booths at the departure lobby.

I proceeded to the immigration and security. It was fast and I passed it in about 5 minutes.
I decided to go to the Plaza Premium Lounge for grabbing some food. Deservedly I would go to the West Hall one rather than the dungeon in East Hall. Walking along the Central Concourse.

The Cultural Workshop has a new backdrop.

I had a break before heading to the Lounge. Inside the smoking lounge.

And some plane spotting. 2 KA A330s parked next to each other with a MK A330 to MRU in the background. An AA B77W in the far end^^

Aw Jeez a KA A330 with the new livery! Personally I really dislike the new design which is so perfunctory and ugly. They just direct copy the shark fin from CX and change its color to red only. Please bring back the Dragon tail to me!

I arrived at the Lounge and there was a queue at the Entrance.

During queuing I was eye-caught by a UA stand. What happened?

I showed my credit card and boarding passes. The concierges swiped my card and welcomed me in. I asked why there was a UA counter and she replied that the United Club was in renovation so UA temporary arranged their passengers to use the Lounge. She even asked me if I am *A Gold so that I need not using my credit card. Sorry I wish I would had the *A Gold also lol
The Lounge was much crowded than in morning since many people went for lunch. The buffet area cleared quickly once refilled. My food offerings.

It has a designated corner for airline invited passengers i.e. AA & UA.

After lunch I wanted to use the computers which are placed alongside the hallway. OMG something wrong with them! Could you figure it?

It is wired that the computer workstations did not have chairs (only the last one had but already occupied). I then seized a seat in the resting area for killing emails.
Knowing that the United Club was in renovation, I optimistically believed that they started upgrading the HKG lounge. I decided to have a look of its progress. The UA Club is located at another end of the mezzanine floor. I walked to there by passing the corridor above the entrance of CX Bridge Lounge.

The corridor has a nice airside view.

I reached the UA Club. It was simply closed without any construction (later I found that they were just going to repair the totally broken air-conditioning lol).

I took the escalator downstairs and checked the FIDS. My flight was changed to Gate 60 which is in the Northwest Concourse. It was so nice since I was near Gate 60 then.

I came to my Gate. Boarding had not started yet.

My bird today. It is a nearly 10-year old Boeing 777-200ER which was delivered in Jul 2006.

Boarding was called soon and people lined up orderly. The agents checked the travel documents.

A Japanese Mother with her baby was the first in the priority boarding lane. An agent assisted her to pack the strollers while the other 3 agents helped taking care her baby. But in the meantime the baby felt hungry and cried. The mother then gave the baby bottle to the 3 agents and they rotated in feeding until boarding started. Wow a special privilege of being a baby^^

Embarking

Fuselage shot

A FA warmly welcomed me on board and I replied withこんにちは. Passing the 2-3-2 configured business class cabin.

I quickly found my seat 27K. My aisle seatmate, a Japanese businessman, already settled down and we greeted each other.
My seat with a foot rest. Good seat pitch.

My seatmate demonstrated the good seat pitch with good legroom

The cabin seemed to be cleaner than my last NH flight. Right?

The middle seats on this plane are not recommended because an entertainment box is placed under the seat each row. Fortunately today our row did not have a victim^^

My seat view of the economy cabin which is in 3-3-3 configuration. The flight was not full today. From my observation the Japanese occupied most of the cabin and all the FAs were Japanese.

View from the wing. A BA A380 just arrived and parked at the adjunct Gate. The weather was not good today with haze.

Although no bright sunlight today, the airport ground staff still preferred being protected by the wing.

The small, non-touchable IFE along with coat hangar.

The headphone

The blanket

The life vest under my seat

The armrest with the IFE control

The FA walked around and asked if anyone needed a pillow.
Shortly the plane pushed back on time. Safety video was played together with live demonstration.

We had a long taxiing to the South runway. The airport fire station.

Passing the control tower

The Midfield Concourse which is mainly used by HX

Although pushing back on time, we had a 10-min delay in took off because several planes cut in the taxiway. An AE B737 with special livery was being line jumped by a CX B77W behind us.

The HAECO hanger with AA, CX, AC and QF

We were aligning to the runway

We were ready…

And took off!

My seatmate already felt asleep

Hong Kong Disneyland

In fact we were above the Hong Kong Island then

Our route today

Once the seatbelt sign was off, the FAs started distributing the immigration forms. Let's have a look on the seatback materials.

Safety card

The ANA domestic route network

The ANA fleet collection

IFE Shows Guide

I browsed the IFE. Despite the model is a bit outdated, it does not lag and works throughout the flight. It also contains updated and adequate selection of programs.

Aperitif service began 30 minutes after took off and otsumami was provided. But this time I had difficulties for ordering drinks. I desired to try the ANA signature drink 香るかぼす (Kabosu) but I forgot its name in this moment. I tried describing the characteristics of the juice to the FA as much as possible: a special drink of ANA, its juice box is in green and yellow color with an orange icon… Unfortunately the Japanese FA did not understand what I said. She took out every drinks in the cart for me to identify but no Kabosu. We looked like playing guessing game and even my seatmate tried to help me but failed lol
The FA was stuck at my row, another FA came and found what happened. I repeated the description to her. She eventually knew what I want and apologized to me that Kabosu was running out on this cart and she would give it to me later.

Was the cabin really clean? At least my seat back was not.

Lunch services started when we just passed Taichung (台中).

The FA gave us the meal card with 2 options: fried chicken or sautéed fish. I chose the chicken and my neighbor had the other one. For drinks I ordered Kabosu again (I can pronounce it correctly now^^).

Here was my tray

ANA has the metal tableware for the catering.

When I opened the cover, I found something wrong because it was actually fish. My seatmate also had a strange face since he found his meal was the chicken one. The FA saw our faces and immediately kept saying sorry for mistakenly swapping our meal trays. I exchanged the tray with my seatmate.
The catering cannot be bad for the Japanese carriers^^ The appetizer (salad and ham) tasted good. The chicken and soba noodles were fantastic.

But I prefer ANA to provide ice-cream rather than chocolate.
After lunch I listened to my own music. I headed to toilet when we were flying towards Kyushu.

The rear galley

Inside the toilet, it was so-so.

Cabin shot outside the rear toilet

The sunset

Our plane began descending when we turned left at Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島).

We made several bends in the Tokyo Bay for approaching the airport

Eventually we landed on Runway A

We quickly taxied to the International Terminal

Our plane parked next to a NH B787

Tarmac staff and passengers acted instantly once our aircraft engine off.

Deplaning. Passing the old NH premium economy. The FAs said さようなら and thanked us for taking NH.

The J Class

The jet bridge

Last view of my bird.

Following the signs for connecting flights.

The arrival immigration counter, while I kept walking forward

I reached the transfer security checkpoint.

There are several FIDSs at the entrance. And my next flight was already on the list. Could you figure it out? ^^

Maybe HND is mainly for domestic flights, there were no passengers in the security but me. The custom staff even sat down and chatted with each other. When they saw me, they promptly stood up and warmly greeted me.
The friendly staff checked my boarding passes and my bag. I cleared the security in no wait. I walked through the transfer counters while none of them were opened.

I took the escalator up to the departure level.

I was here then and began my 5-hour layover in HND.

I’ll leave off this series here and please stop by the rest of this series! For the next report we will take a look at the Smoking Lounges at HND.
And here is the next report at a glance: this photo is not edited

Thank you for your reading!