Review of Japan Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Osaka in Economy

Introduction

Hello and welcome to a new short series of flight reviews on Japan Airlines. In late October 2025, we headed to Japan for our son's autumn break from school, and more specifically Osaka. This will only be the second review on the site on this route, the last one dating from 2019. 

I usually dread long flights in Economy, but never on Japan Airlines! JAL are known for their generous seat pitch and generally spacious long-haul economy cabins. The long-haul 787s are particularly spacious as JAL operate the word's only Dreamliners to have retained an 8-abreast 2-4-2 configuration, whereas all other airlines feature a tighter 9-abreast 3-3-3 configuration. 

That being said, I was happy to book this outbound flight in economy to save some cash, especially as it's a day flight. I'd booked the return transpacific portion in Premium Economy, as it was a night flight. The roundtrip with outbound in Economy and return in Premium Economy cost about $1700, which is decent for 10+ hour transpacific flights. 

Routing

Flight reviews in this series

Check-in & Lounge

We arrived at LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal about 2 1/2 hours prior to departure. 

Though we'd checked in online and only had cabin baggage, we stopped by the ticket counter to pick up some paper boarding passes. I've had several experiences in the past where flights on oneworld carriers have not automatically credited to the British Airways Club, so I usually try to get paper boarding passes as a backup to send in if it happens again. 

Luckily, with oneworld Emerald status, we had access to the JAL First class counter, where there was no wait, so it took less than a minute to get boarding passes. 

As usual, the TSA Pre-check lanes at TBIT were quiet, so it only took a few minutes to get through to the airside. 

Once airside, we headed upstairs to the Qantas First class lounge, which again, we had access to thanks to our oneworld Emerald status via British Airways Gold. 

The lounge was quiet at this hour, as there weren't many oneworld long-haul flights departing from TBIT midday. 

As it was lunchtime, the majority of the few passengers in the lounge were in the restaurant section. 

We were seated right away by friendly staff.

Here's a look at the menu. 

I almost always order the same appetiser when visiting a Qantas First lounge:

Salt & pepper squid with green chilli dipping sauce and aioli

Main:

Neil's Italialian chicken with capsicum, tomatoes, soft polenta, and fried capers. 

Boarding

As the gate was rather close to the lounge, we left about 5 minutes prior to boarding time. 

We arrived at the gate just as boarding was about to begin. 

Being in Group 1, we were among the first on the aircraft. Boarding was orderly, as one would expect of a Japanese carrier. 

Passing through the Premium Economy cabin on the way to our seats. I've previously reviewed the JAL Premium Economy experience on the 787-9 here, if you'd like to check it out: JL62 NRT-LAX Premium Economy

And here we are at out seats in the first row. 

The seats are noticeably wide for an Economy cabin in the spacious 2-4-2 configuration. At 18.5" wide on average, JAL's "Sky Wider" seats are about as wide as seats can get in Economy. 

Seats in the first row have fixed armrests as they hold the entertainment screens. You'll find a universal 110v power outlet just below the seat. 

The IFE remote, headphone jack, and a USB-A port can be found on the side of the armrest. 

The legroom is fantastic in the bulkhead row. Seat pitch is also very generous in standard rows at 34 inches–this is among the best legroom of any carrier. 

Seats in the bulkhead row are usually for purchase at a premium, but are free for those with oneworld Emerald status at time of booking (I'm not sure if it includes Sapphire status as well). 

Other seat pocket contents include a detailed guide on connecting to the in-flight Wi-Fi, an onboard shopping catalogue, and JAL's in-flight Skyward magazine. 

The provided headphones are retro, but work reasonably well. 

An ITA A350 at the next gate over–such a beautiful livery!

As boarding was wrapping up, several cabin crew came by to introduce themselves, one of whom was the cabin manager. I assume this was protocol for passengers with Emerald status, but I'm not sure. Either way, it was very nice.

A few minutes later, one of the crew came back with a choice of children's welcome gifts for my son. I really love this about JAL. He still has his JAL gear from the last time we went to Japan. 

The Flight

Though boarding wrapped up quickly and efficiently–I'm always amazed how JAL can board a full widebody in under 20 minutes–we were delayed a few minutes waiting for all baggage to be loaded. 

The cabin was all ready to go. 

Once all bags were loaded we pushed back. Despite the late start, the flight crew announced a short flight time and anticipated early arrival into Kansai airport. 

It was a quiet time, so taxi time was short and we were off on a beautiful Southern California afternoon. 

We flew climbed along the coast past the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, which had been devastated by fire earlier in the year. 

As previously mentioned, the IFE screens in the first row are stored in the armrests and can't be used during taxi, takeoff, or landing.

Once in the air, they would be deployed. The IFE system seems a bit outdated, but is available in several languages. 

The moving map was showing about a 20 minute early arrival. 

Compared to the airlines I fly most on long-haul–British Airways, Iberia, and American–JAL have noticeably less content in their IFE library, but there's still a decent choice. 

Here's a look at the cabin shortly before the meal service. With that 2-4-2 configuration, it almost looks like a [very large] Premium Economy cabin.

The Wi-Fi was available after the aircraft climbed over 10,000 feet.

Interesting to note, it looks like JAL also have streaming IFE to mobile devices through the Wi-Fi portal. That's always a good idea to have on an aircraft, even when there are seatback screens, as it's not uncommon for seatback entertainment to be broken or glitchy, especially in older cabins like these. 

All passengers have access to one hour of free Wi-Fi. For those who need to be connected longer, there were two paid Wi-Fi packages: $14.40 for 3 hours, of $18.80 for the duration of the flight. 

As this flight was over 10 hours long, in this case, the full-flight option was the better value. 

Just prior to the first meal service, moist towels are distributed in the cabin. 

The service began with drinks and a snack. There's a decent choice of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. I had a Sake. 

While there isn't a ton of content on the IFE there's at least a decent amount of children's programming and games to keep the little ones occupied. 

While the Panasonic Wi-Fi isn't particularly fast, it worked enough to track the flight or check on trains on arrival. This is the same slow Panasonic Wi-Fi American have on much of their widebody fleet, but at least JAL charge about half the price of AA. 

My son's pre-ordered child meal was served first. As usual on JAL, the presentation was cute and contents perfect for kids.

Kawaii!

The standard meals were quite nice as well. There were two options: Western or Japanese. I went for the Japanese option, which was a nice Japanese curry. 

Overall very well presented by Economy standards and quite generous portions with a main, side salad, and three appetisers. Everything was very tasty.

Cabin crew offered coffee or tea after the meal. 

Once the meal service wrapped up, there was still 8h41m of flight time remaining. 

We're priviledged to mostly travel in premium cabins long-haul, but when flying in economy, we have an inflatable airplane footrest for the kid, which is great for naps. 

He had his own lie-flat bed in economy! And ended up sleeping most of the rest of the flight.

And so did I! It wasn't too difficult to get a few hours of sleep with how spacious the seats are and all the legroom in the front row; however, I will say that these cabins are getting older and the seats cushioning is starting to harden, so my bum was numb by the end of the flight 🤣

By the time I woke up, we were about to land. I'd missed the second meal service, which they must do bizarrely early as there was more than an hour left in the flight everything was already cleaned up.  

The descent began around Nagoya, and screens had to be stowed for arrival. 

We arrived at the gate just under a half hour early.

Even through we'd already gotten our immigration and customs QR code on Visit Japan web, the arrival process felt longer and more complicated than the last time we were in Japan in 2023. We had to scan the QR codes and take photos at kiosks and then queue up several times more to then have our QRs scanned again my an agent. 

The whole process, despite no major crowds, still took over a half-hour. 

We hadn't checked any baggage so we went straight to the train station to catch the Nankai line into the city.

Once at Namba station, we didn't have far to go to get to our hotel as the Swissôtel Nankai Osaka is located right above the station. There was clear signage to get to the hotel, but Namba station is huge and can be very confusing. 

There's a dedicated lift in the station that takes you up to the hotel. 

Woohoo! So nice to finally get to the hotel after such a long flight in economy. 

And look at that view! You could see the whole city from our room on the 34th floor.