Review of Japan Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo in Business

Intro To The Mother Land Series 🇷🇺

Over the past 3 weeks, I have embarked on a whirlwind adventure to one of the least documented countries on the planet, from a Western blogger at the moment: Russia.

Why Did I Go To Russia?

When I told people that I would be heading to Russia for a couple of weeks in August, all they asked was “why”. Fair enough, the West portrays a certain image of Russia, one that I’ll let you decide is true or not through my upcoming posts. However, after traveling to most of the level 4s, I often become aware that places may not be as they are made out to be online.

Anyways, here are the reasons why I decided to visit Russia:

Finishing up in-person school, I realized that I had the month of August off completely. It’s not all the time I get a full month off, so I decided to use this time to head to Russia.

Originally, my plan had been to go in September, but seeing as I could just cut out the northern part of the routing to Africa from Bali, I said, “Why not?”.

Another reason for visiting, although it ended in heartbreak, was to meet a good friend of mine who had just recently moved back to Moscow. It had been a while since we had seen each other, but uh, yeah…

Lastly, I was taking an independent study online titled “Leadership through travel”. I figured that this would be the perfect way forward for me.

Outside of those reasons, Russia has always been on my bucket list, and high up. My mum loved it (she witnessed in person the stock market crash in Mockba in 2007 as she was closing a deal), my grandmother loved it, and my sister has been dying to go. Guess it’s part of my family genetics…

Routing For This Trip!

JLA35K Business LAX-HND
JL 767 Business HND-ITM
JL 787 Business KIX-BKK
MU A320neo Economy BKK-PKX
MU A330-300 Economy PKX-SVO
FV Sukhoi Superjet Economy SVO-LED
Grand Express Train Business LED-MOW
SU A321 Economy SVO-KZN
SU A320 Economy KZN-SVO 
SU A321 Economy SVO-KJA
SU A350 Business KJA-SVO
EY 787-9 Business SVO-AUH
EY 777-300ER Business AUH-BKK
CX A321neo BKK-HKG
UA 787-9 Polaris Business HKG-LAX
UA 737 Economy LAX-DEN
UA 737 MAX 9 Domestic First DEN-EWR

How I Booked

Getting to Russia is a challenge these days from the West Coast of the United States, and the most straightforward routing is never the one I want to take 😅. With zero mileage space on OW, *A, and Skyteam (a lot of frequent flyer programs block routes to Russia), I had to settle for getting as close as I could and reviewing plenty of products.

So, for 70K American Airlines miles, I ended up booking the following:


Japan Airlines A350-1000 Business Class LAX-HND

Japan Airlines Boeing 767-300 Business Class (Domestic) HND-ITM

Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Business Class KIX-BKK


Considering all three flights came out to 70K AA Miles, this isn’t a bad deal. It’s interesting, though, as JL uses married segment logic, so the LAX-HND was solely unavailable, but adding another destination opened up space. Expert tip there for you 😉.

For reference: Japan Airlines flies their A35Ks currently from Haneda- Dallas (daily), New York (double daily), London (daily), Los Angeles (daily for summer only), Paris (every other day). 

Check-In

Waking up in the morning, hungover, as if a hurricane had come through, swirled me up and dumped me on my arse, it was time to leave my apartment around 9 am. When I say leave, it wasn’t turning off the aircon and the lights, it was handing over the keys: I have finally left America for good! No apartment, no nothing.

I grabbed a quick coffee, hopped in an Uber, and somehow, we made the drive from John Wayne Airport to LAX in 42 minutes. Best part: my driver was from Syria, and we chatted the whole time about how beautiful a country Syria is. Shoutout Lamb Kofta nom nom.

While Japan Airlines' codeshare partner, American, operates from neighbouring Terminal 4, those flying Japan Airlines will have to check in at Tom Bradley. If you head all the way over to the Western Part of the terminal, there are dedicated lines for first, business, premium economy, and economy. With nobody in line, the friendly agent issued me the tickets, and I was cleared through to TSA Precheck, which, coincidentally, also had no one. Efficiency on Japan Airlines? 👎. Efficiency at LAX? ✅

After checking out the American Airlines Flagship Lounge and the OneWorld Lounge (previously reviewed on FR many times before)… (Btw, the OW Lounge at LAX is undergoing renovations and was packed, like nowhere to sit sort of packed…)

it was time to take a short stroll over to Gate 157 for the day. With a scheduled departure time of 2:15, I was surprised to see boarding listed at 1:45, especially for a widebody.

However, smack on the dot at 1:45, as if the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, boarding commenced with First Class passengers and Oneworld Emerald members. Unfortunately, my peasant a** had to wait for Group 2 (business and OW Saphire), but it was only a couple of moments until I was observing this magnificent bird up close. 

Oh, baby, let’s get on board.

The Seat/Cabin

Stepping onboard, it was as if you had candy for the first time as a child. This cabin is marvelous. Featuring 6 First Class seats, a mini cabin of 20 business class seats (behind F), another 34 business class seats after door 2, 24 premium economy seats, and 155 economy seats, this plane is geared towards premium routes.

Seats alternate as you can see in the pics.

A view from behind. Looks great, doesn't it? Wait for it…

Laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration, business class passengers are treated to all of the bells and whistles one could dream of. Below is some of what you can find:

Direct aisle access

Closing door creating a private suite (not as high as Q-Suites, but some of the highest in the sky)

A very large footwell

Pop-up storage compartment

A larger storage compartment by your shoulder

A closet for a jacket/suit

Wireless charging

Pop down armrest

Easily accessible seat controls

No overhead vents (and the cabin is hot. Really hot)

A little storage cubby

Footwell and closet:

Seat controls, which seemed to be a bit banged up.

Those looking for seat recommendations, if you are flying solo, I recommend selecting window seats in rows 3,5,7,8,10,12, and 14 as they provide the utmost privacy. Conversely, those traveling as a couple should select seats in the middle. Doesn’t matter which ones; they are all created equally.

Remember how I originally thought the cabin was like having candy for the first time as a kid? Well, after 11 hours on board, it was as if you washed down the candy with a bottle of bleach. Yeah.

Look, the seats are really nice on paper: wide, sleek, spacious, and could have been industry leading…

But, out of the 54 seats on today's flight, 4 were inoperable. I have never seen that many seats inoperable in business class before, and this is on an aircraft that is only 18 months old. Needless to say, my seat ended up being inoperable. Not the end of the world since the cabin wasn’t full, but I wasn’t impressed that the crew spent 30-40 minutes attempting to figure out how to manually reset the seat. I completely understand if this product is 15 years old, but it is 18 months old!!

As you can clearly tell, I am not sponsored in any way, and I’ll drop a hard truth here. This is frankly unacceptable for a new business-class product. If this is what it is like now, imagine the state of this in 10 years time.


Lastly, once I converted (well, I didn’t 😅, they did) the seat down into bed mode, I found it extremely tough to get any rest due to how hot the cabin was. Exaggeration aside, I have slept better on Air Asia in economy than this… 

Not sure what this stain is either…

I did get a peek into W, so here’s the premium economy cabin…

Departure

Within 15 minutes of boarding beginning, the whole process has been wrapped up. 15 minutes for a widebody? I tip my hat to you, Barbosa. A few moments later, a cabin crewmember came over offering a pre-departure beverage of orange juice. No water (weirdly), orange juice… 

“Imagining that it was a glass of sparkling water,” the cabin doors were closed, and we ended up pushing back 5 minutes early out of Bradley. Okay, so nothing against JAL here at all, but as we were testing the spoilers and deploying flaps, I noticed how unusually loud this process was. I’ve flown many A35Ks and never heard this amount of noise. (nothing to do with safety, just interesting to notice)

It was a quick taxi out to 25R, and we were wheels up ahead of schedule, departing to the West. 

Amenities

Once airborne, I figured it was time to check out the amenities on today's flight. While certainly nothing cutting edge, I definitely think that this is a spot where Japan Airlines does shine. Each passenger is provided with:

Mattress Pad (located above the seat)

An amenity kit

A singular pillow

A cardigan (which made me look like a grandmother)

Slippers

Noise-cancelling headphones (good quality)

A blanket. But not just a blanket, I happened to score a lucky blanket that had, let’s just say, a very questionable stain on it. And honestly, that might be the understatement of the year… 

I love the design of this, but it was so warm I had to take it off later!

Amenity kit and "refreshing towel"

Finally the inseat speakers which were incredible!

Okay, aside from the blanket debacle, not bad…

IFE/WIFI

Yes, I might have tickled you a little bit with the amenities, but the IFE is where JAL drops the ball. I want to add that I mainly review airlines based on cost and reputation, so if Garuda doesn’t have the best IFE, it’s not the end of the world. But if Japan Airlines, frequently said to have one of the best business class products in the world, is dropping the ball, then that is an issue.

Positives: huge and high definition screen, Bluetooth connectivity, speakers in the headrests, new release movies

Negatives: not nearly enough content for an international carrier. I didn’t count exactly, but I’d say right around what TG offers onboard. Also, the IFE would sometimes just switch off randomly: very peculiar.

Now, let’s discuss Wifi. Supposedly, business and First Class passengers are entitled to free wifi when onboard, but a voucher was never offered to me by the cabin crew.. Alternatively, one can purchase wifi for 18.80$ for the whole flight, but I was so fed up with spending money on JL, there was no chance…. 

Meal Service

Settling into my seat, I was extremely excited to try out the food on board today. It had been a couple of years since I had flown JL, so when I looked at the menu and saw both appetizing options for the Western and the Japanese menu, it was a toss-up. 

Approximately an hour and 20 minutes after takeoff, the cabin crew came around to offer us a choice of drinks. Firstly, an hour and 20 minutes? I’m not going to ramble about that, but unacceptable. Secondly, as I inquired into a glass of Charles Heidsieck (only on the 35K and 77W), they mentioned they had it, but then poured a different champagne. I’m not fussy, but promoting the champagne on the 35K routes and not having it is quite a letdown.

As my champagne was being poured, I was feeling a little sleepy and decided to ask the crew if I could have my meal as soon as possible (I had already asked for an express meal on the ground as well lol). 

Also, they were giving out planes to the kids and asked for one after everyone else had received one, and they didn't want to give me one but eventually did.

10 minutes later, they come back and ask me, “Would you like your meal now?”. Come on…

30 minutes after that, now 2 hours into the flight, my tenderloin was presented. Usually, I would have gone for the Japanese menu (only on Japanese carriers), but for some odd reason, I chose the steak, and it did not disappoint. Juicy and packed with flavour, this was one of the best beef dishes I have had on a plane. 

For dessert, I chose a cheese plate and an ice cream to polish it all off. I do think it is a little cheap that JL decides to give you the mini ice-cream packaging instead of dishing it into a bowl. Just look at what Garuda does with their ice-creams!

All in all, it was a solid meal, but it took about twice as long as it needed to. I usually say that Domestic flights should be wrapped up in 1 hour and 20 minutes, and international flights should cap at 2 hours after departure (depending on weather). A full meal should not take 3 hours, no matter how succulent a steak is.

Throughout the flight, I decided to dive into some of their mid-flight snacks that were on offer. Not only was the pasta with tomato & garlic sauce excellent, but it was actually delivered efficiently (for the first time in forever)

Lavatories

Before attempting (keyword here) to head off to bed, I decided to check out one of the three dedicated lavatories for business class passengers. Located by door 2, you’ll find a couple of amenities around, such as a dental kit and mouthwash. 

The crew did a stellar job of keeping these clean, as I never once came across a single piece of litter on the ground. 

Service

Please never take criticism as a complaint, but I do think it is vitally important to bring this up.

Now, here is the main reason I would actively avoid Japan Airlines going forward. For starters, I want to point out that the crew were genuinely very kind, but the level of service all around was some of the least polished I have ever come across on my 160-ish airlines flown. Here are a couple of examples that stood out to me:

Never once was I addressed by name

Packaging for the bed was never picked up, and when I eventually fell into a light sleep for 2 hours, I woke up with a flat Coke still next to me. Contrast that to the United flight (Yes, United, who would have thought because I am writing this from Polaris), they came around picking up gummy bear wrappers.

The whole meal debacle. I’m sorry, one should not have to ask 3 times for a meal. Additionally, no matter how good a meal is, it should not take 3 hours to be served.

When asking for a top-up of sparkling water midway through the flight, it took 16 minutes to receive it. I headed up the galley (never done that), and they were just coming down. Never once did the crew say why or apologize. 

On a more positive note, every time I pressed the call button, the crew came over within 10 seconds, without failure. 

Arrival

By 4:40 pm, the captain came on to announce that we would be beginning our descent in the next 10 minutes, at which point the cabin crew came around to move my seat back into an upright position (remember it is broken). They tried for a bit, eventually gave up, and told me to move to the seat behind that was blocked due to maintenance. 

Continuing our descent through the clouds, the cabin crew came back around to offer me “compensation” for my inoperable seat. I’m not one to seek compensation, but what they said was more insulting than not giving me anything. “You can choose online between 2000 Yen or 2000 miles”. Considering United has given me 500 ETC for this without asking, and Air Canada 650 CAD, I just laughed and said, “thank you”.

All of that stuff quickly went away as we approached Tokyo, with some beautiful views over the greater area. It was nice to be back in Japan for the first time in a year, and watching that beautiful A350 wingtip glide in a couple of minutes behind schedule was a sight to behold. 

We pulled in to the gate in timely fashion, bid farewell to the crew, and it was off to head to the Domestic Terminal to board my flight to ITM.