Review of Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Seoul in Premium Eco

After a nice 3 days in Tokyo, I headed back to Seoul on JAL's 777-300ER. The three days were a blast, and I had an amazing time especially on the last day, when there was snow in Tokyo.

I wrote about my ticketing experience and decisions on my previous report, but I'll briefly write about it here. 
I managed to grab a RT ticket just 2 days before the departure for about 480,000KRW which I'd say is an amazing price all things considered. Even if I just look at the price in itself and the route, I'd say it's a pretty good deal. The secondary factor in selecting this itinerary was the fact that I'd be able to fly on JAL's 77Ws which are rarely deployed on the GMP-HND route which is full of 787s and 767s.

This was my return flight on the 77W. I had selected my seat pretty far back, seat 52K. It is one of the last rows before the fuselage narrows down to make a 2-3-2 layout. It's pretty far back to get any good view of the wing, but I had to make do with this seat as I booked the flight very late and all the seats in front were occupied.

However, less than 48 hours before the flight, when I checked the app to see how the seat selection had gone, I realized that there were some empty seats in the Premium Economy section open.
Turns out, the GMP-HND route doesn't offer Premium Economy class on JAL, but the 777s which are definitely not a regular in this route are equipped with it. So, while it's all my speculation, I think they only let higher class Economy class passengers select these seats in advance, and unblock the other seats just 48 hours before departure. This ends up creating this ironic situation where The Economy bulkhead seats are set as a paid seat while a Premium Economy seat is free for selection. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to grab a window seat on the Premium Economy class cabin for free.

I had to double check to make sure I was actually able to select this seat, and that it wasn't some sort of software issue.

Our flight was given gate 110, which was right after the immigration check, right at the center of the airport.

Our flight plan for today, which was pretty straightforward.

My plane for today would be JA739J, a 2008-built 777.

FR24 was showing that my plane was scheduled to go to BKK the day before, but that ended up not happening due to the heavy snowfall at Tokyo on February 8th.

Our menu for today would be a miso pork cutlet.

Our route to the airport today would be Joban Line - Keihin-Tohoku Line - Keikyu Main Line. I took the first train out of Minami-Senju station at 4:47AM, but was surprised at just how many people were already waiting for the train.

There were loads of people on the Keihin-Tohoku Line, with lots of suitcases presumably all going to HND. Most of the people got off at Hamamatsucho station to transfer to the Tokyo Monorail, but I headed on to Shinagawa station to transfer to the Keikyu main line.

When you get to Shinagawa station, you'll be greeted by this monstrosity that is the platform. 

I took the rapid train to HND, which only took about 15 minutes. But, there were so many people that the doors weren't able to be closed. I also had a bit of a rough time when exiting the train, because the train itself was filled with suitcases. T3 is the main international terminal, so I expected most people to get off here, but to my surprise, only a small portion of passengers got off here. I'm thinking most passengers in the early morning are domestic passengers.

The counter here for JAL opens at 6AM. There were about 2 full JAL check in desks with kiosks and self baggage drops, but I walked past them to the counters. I wanted to get a real boarding pass, and not those flimsy ones from the kiosk. 

I got my boarding pass, which was indeed in good quality. It was the same design as the one I got from GMP, and both had the passenger information section for US-bound passengers.

This is the kiosk you'd be using if you didn't mind doing everything by yourself.

I headed straight to the departures and went airside. So, I got my boarding pass at 6:01, took this photo at 6:03, and made my way airside in 9 minutes. All in all, 12 minutes from going to the check in desk to going airside.

This was the FIDS right after I went airside. You can see the JAL flight to BKK being just about 24 hours delayed. Interesting to see that Indigo has a codeshare on JL31. Also, I don't know why they included the T2 flights on the FIDS as well. 

I bought some snacks from the duty free shop, which had these Tokyo Banana cakes with a HND-only flavor.

I checked my gate and my flight which was 2 hours away. I honestly did not think it would take this little to get through everything. I'd say 90 minutes before is perfectly fine at HND as well.

I got a glimpse of the JAL A350-1000, but couldn't get an unobstructed view due to how the terminal was designed. The planes are pretty far away and the window frames are very tightly spaced out.

Predictably, the tarmac was filled with JAL aircraft. Mainly because this was Tokyo, but also because most ANA flights depart from T2.

Gates 142 to 149 are structured a little differently, so you have to go downstairs to get to the gate. This means you can get a good view of your plane, like so.

I managed to catch a maintenance worker cleaning the windshield. We also had this awkward moment when he made eye contact with my phone, so I went back upstairs.

Another nice picture I took, this is a JAL 777 with the Tokyo Skytree in the background. You can see just how close HND is to the city.

This was basically the best I could manage. The window frames really got in the way of a lot more traffic.

There also was a nice little bridge which allowed for some cool shots.

This! is my plane for today. As you can('t) see, it is a 777. Gate 110 was right in the center of everything, so the duty free shops was in the way of where there'd normally be a seating area.

In the end, with nothing else to do, I just sat and waited for boarding for about 40 minutes.

Finally, one kind of nice shot of my plane.

The nose wheel housing has 739 written, signifying JA739J.

Some more pictures of the plane from the air bridge.

This was the view from seat 20K. It was pretty much right over the wing, but not right over it as to block the view below. I still managed to get some nice shots, as you'll see down below.

The safety card for JAL aircraft have the diagrams included in them. Pretty cool feature, satisfying the enthusiast's needs.

A pair of headphones were provided, which were not the same design as the previous one. This one had the double plug, which is probably why it's different.
The good thing about the Premium Economy seats is that there are universal power plugs at every seat, not two for three seats, so you don't have to awkwardly ask your neighbor if they need to use it.

We pushed back pretty much on time, and it was such a pleasure to hear those GE90s start up.

Flaps down to takeoff configuration as we start to taxi. Again, after my previous flight, my flight today also didn't have a flight controls check as flaps were deployed.

The safety video was played in Japanese and English.

The markings left by the deicing fluid, presumably from the delayed flight yesterday, was very easily identifiable.

Like the flight before, the flight controls check was done during taxi. First time I've ever seen that done while taxiing. It's probably SOP from the airline.

A JAL A350, registration JA06XJ was following suit, bound for CTS.

We took off from runway 34R. Our taxi route from the gate to runway 34R was P9-L-L4-H-C-C5. Interesting thing here was that we didn't use the whole runway, and entered about 2000ft down 34R via C5. Didn't mean much, because it was such a short flight.

As we sharply turn right following the BEKLA FOUR B departure SID, we get a nice view of the ocean with the rising sun reflected.

Then we turn a sharp left to head west towards Korea.

As you can see, it'd be wise to sit on the left side if you're departing from HND. Don't know if it's the same when the winds are reversed.

As we climb, you can see the snow covered Tokyo below.

Like the Korea-registered planes, Japanese ones also have the registration written on the right wing. One difference is that the right wing also has the red circle signifying Japan. Would be pretty cool if Korean planes also had the Taegeuk symbol on the wing. Another difference, this time within thee Japanese aircraft, is that JAL planes have the red circle and the registration on the right wing, while ANA planes have the red circle on the left wing and the registration on the right. I'm guessing the red circle placement is up to the airline.

With the phone camera at 2x zoom, this is more of a realistic representation of how the wing looks from the naked eye.

This is the 'Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park'.

As I got ready for the meal service, one complaint I have about these seats is the fact that the tray table doesn't extend to a comfortable position for the passenger. This picture is the farthest it goes, and I still had to bend down to take a bite. I guess with the amount of legroom this seat offers, it is a bit of a victim of its own success.

Again, the meal was served in a meal box. 

The menu was shown on the side.

A pair of chopsticks and a wet wipe were also provided.

This was the meal, pork cutlets with steamed rice and some side dishes. Honestly, apart from this being a cold meal and there not being a proper desert, I'd say this is the best meal I had in the skies. The presentation here was top notch, and it also tasted great. This meal really was the experience that made me realize the importance of presentation. After having meals that were crammed in to a dish, having something like this really increased my appetite. 10/10.

I rewatched the classic that is 'Knives Out' from the screen. Of course, I utilized the flight map feature to get the most out of the flight.

View of the cabin, as the meal service concluded. The Premium Economy section is pretty small with just 5 rows of seats in a 2-4-2 configuration. Density wise, it's actually not too different from the Economy class, as it is configured in a very generous 3-3-3 layout for a 777. I found that even in Premium Economy, the armrest situation wasn't really better with two grown men. I found myself making contact with my neighbor's arm, which was pretty awkward. You're better off just resting your elbows here.

A cup of tea or coffee was offered. I went with the coffee, which came in this stylish cup.

We were now crossing the ocean after all service had concluded, about 50 minutes into the flight. Duty free sales were also available, but no one from my cabin opted for anything.

This was the seatback pocket contents, with some magazines.

The seatback pockets even had this information card about the seat features. Pretty useful, as I couldn't find the headphone jack at first.

As we got the Korean peninsula in our sights, we turned right at SAPRA.

Descending over Eumseong.

The sound of the wind makes it unmissable to notice when the speed brakes are deployed.

You could see that we were getting close.

As we are on our approach, you can see Seoul below. The very tall building right under the flap fairing is the Lotte World Tower in Jamsil.

View over Gangnam and Jamsil with the Hangang river.

The isolated land with lots of buildings is Yeouido, the financial district, which is technically an island. And across the river from Yeouido, the mountain is Namsan, with the Namsan Seoul Tower faintly presented. Gyeongbokgung Palace should also be somewhere behind the mountain, but my phone camera fails to capture that far. 

View of Gimpo Airport, meaning we'll be taking a right turn and landing on 14s.

We take a pretty sharp right turn to line up on 14R.

On final.

We touch down pretty gently at about 10:30 local.

We go past the domestic terminal and make our way to spot 40 in the International Terminal.

A look back at my seat before I deboard. The seats were amazing considering I was still an "Economy class" passenger. The hard shells made it very easy to recline, and it made the journey very comfortable. The amazing legroom was great, and width wise, I honestly didn't feel too much of a difference from the 'Sky Wider' Economy seats on the 767. I think it probably has to do with just how shocked I was when I tried the 767 Economy. Think there may be a bigger gap between the standard Economy class seats and the 'Sky Wider' seats than the 'Sky Wider' seats and these Premium Economy seats.

According to Aerolopa, the 767 Sky Wider seats are 18.9" in width, while the 777 Economy and Premium Economy seats are 18.5" and 18.9" wide respectively. So basically my gut feeling wasn't too wrong. As a comparison, Korean Air's 777s with a 3-3-3 Economy layout are 18.1" in width, and the 787s are 17.1" in width. 

The legroom is amazing as you'd expect. And I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the seats fully reclined.

The Premium Economy cabin.

The Economy class was laid out in a very spacious 3-3-3 configuration.

This was definitely the attention grabber in the 777. The apex suites in a 2-3-2 configuration, with direct aisle access for all seats.

These seats are commonly used across the globe, but I believe JAL is the only carrier to use them in a 2-3-2 config. It was amazing seeing this peculiar layout in practice, in a 2-3-2 layout. The middle seat does seem kind of cramped/confined, but it's certainly better than other 2-3-2 middle seats.

I deplaned and looked at the GE90 one last time. The 777-300ER is a magnificent piece of machinery to fly on.

I tried getting as many photos as possible due to a lack of those from HND, but GMP is not really a photo-friendly airport as well.

These welcome signs I feel like dates back to the '88 Olympics.

The immigration process, 'as a Korean citizen', only took 6 minutes from deplaning to getting through. I say this because the foreigner line seemed to be very long compared to next to no lines on the Korean citizen line. 

I waited another 15 minutes for my baggage to arrive, and was able to get on the Line 9 express train just 30 minutes after deboarding.