Hello everyone, welcome back to another flight review. Today, digging back into my pre-flight report archives, I noticed quite an extensive amount of material from my JAL flight which took me from JFK over to HND on their flagship A350s. I was genuinely quite surprised that I had so many pictures from this journey even before my flight-report days, I guess the passion was always here!
Let’s go!
This was another instance where I was trying to get home from STL, and a great fare came up that allowed me to try one of my long sought-after cabins. The only down-side was I needed to change airports after arriving in New York from St. Louis, taking a short ride over from Newark to JFK, where our journey begins.
JAL departs out of JFK T8, along with all it’s one world partners. Most prominently, of course, is American Airlines. The check-in process for J was rather lengthier than expected, understandably so as the cabin was completely full.
With my J ticket came access to the Greenwich lounge. This was my first time flying out of JFK, so I wasn’t too familiar with the lounge situation. After doing some later research, I’m determined to return in the future to give the other lounges a try.
There was a rather average buffet spread, with only three or four hot options. I opted with a little bit of everything, some marinara pasta, meatballs, greens, and a chicken breast. Not great but not too terrible. My apologies for not doing a more extensive lounge review, this was still a time before discovering this website. Stay tuned I’ll look to return in the future.
After spending two hours or so in the lounge, I decided to hop back down to walk around the terminal. It was very quiet this time of night, making it extra peaceful and beautiful with the snowstorm occurring outside.
Something I found adorable were these little writings by kids that JFK hangs up. I took a good half hour reading through some of them.
Some plane spotting with limited visibility considering the strange angles and lighting reflection. I gotta be honest I was quite proud with this shot. Oh nothing like beautiful widebodies hanging out in the gorgeous New York snowy night.
Over to my gate, I came across my bird for the evening. What a unique angle I was at, we really were face to face here.
. I did know, however, the layers of snow meant an inevitable de-icing to come. Among the late night Asian departures were another One World family member, CX to Hong Kong.
Interestingly, we didn’t have any delays with boarding, and I boarded alongside my fellow J passengers after the JAL Diamond and F passengers embarked.
Here we are, the first look at my seat this evening. Looking back, I was extremely proud I even had a picture of the seat during these pre-Flight Review days. It must have been a snap for my family or something, and oh how glad I am for having it!
Waiting at my seat were a bottle of water, amenity kit, menu card, and (hidden under my coat) a pillow and fleece blanket. Seat controls were available on the panel on your seat’s left-hand side. The IFE was touch-screen but also controllable with the small gadget on the left. All things considered, this was an incredible business class seat, a massive step up from that on their other planes. I have a flight aboard JAL’s F on this same configuration coming up later in May, stay tuned for that.
Type c charging was offered along with the traditional port, there’s also an option for wireless charging shown by the battery icon on the left side of the table.
Ahead, there’s a coat hanger area, but my jacket was too puffy to fit there.
The IFE screen was quite big, and on par with many F offerings.
Over on the left, there’s some storage space which opens along the table.
What was then offered was technically a welcome drink, but only one option was available featuring a special JAL juice. It’s been nearly two years my apologies for not remembering the exact name, but I recall it was some mint infused citrus drink. Very refreshing.
Directly below where the drink is located is where your tray table is hidden.
Headphones (again, sorry for no close up) were noise cancelling and worked very well. They also didn’t hurt my ears despite wearing them for a good few hours.
I took some time browsing the JAL in-flight magazine, especially the Duty-Free options looking for a souvenir to snag. More on that after take-off.
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One of my favorite features of this aircraft must be the tail camera. I could just have this on my IFE the entire 13 hours and have no complaints. Absolutely gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the inevitable arrived after leaving our gate. The de-icing process ended up taking nearly 2.5 hours, nothing new it seems at JFK. Our fellow CX jet was also held standstill while we all awaited the ground crew. Credits to them, this was a very heavy snowstorm and it must have been difficult with the weather.
Considering we were now nearing 2 am, most of the cabin began dozing off. Any other day, I would’ve been one of them, but oh man I was starving. That’s only in addition to the fact I was ecstatic to try JAL’s famous dining… all that was put on hold :(.
Around what must now have been 3:00 am, two hours past scheduled departure, the incredible de-icing team finished their work and we were cleared to take-off.
A few interesting things of note immediately after we left. First, I had done some research before this flight and noticed some passengers mentioning either a JAL luggage tag or a mini plastic plane model being offered as souvenirs. When I (very shyly >.<) asked my crew member, she apologized and said those were only for children. She then showed up immediately after take off with one of these and said “don’t tell anyone!” thank you sooo much!!!! I do unfortunately need to admit that I never saw this specific crew member again, and all my future crew interactions felt rather distant and cold. I guess it can be part of the Japanese culture being reserved, but nonetheless they remained extremely professional and diligent.
The second point of note after take off was the initial main meal that was scheduled after take off was simply eliminated. I sat around for nearly an hour and a half before ringing the crew bell and inquiring. She mentioned that due to the delay, they decided to straight up eliminate the meal. I guess it could be understandable with a delay, but most of the J passengers had woken up and also wanted a meal. There was no PA or any indication the meal wasn’t going to be offered, this was rather odd.
Upon confirmation, the crew prepared my dinner. Sorry again for no pictures of the menu card, I went with the Japanese option.
Quick feature of a cute Year of the Snake keychain, sadly wasn’t available.
This was my main meal, and it left lots to be desired. I’ve always believed that Japanese carriers provide an excellent Japanese meal, but in the recent years the overwhelming number of grilled fish I’ve been served has left me reconsidering. Sorry for the dark image, the top left hand side featured a crab salad, and the small dish in the center I genuinely cannot remember. Miso soup in the top right. The fish itself didn’t taste bad, but it just felt slightly below expectations with JAL’s famous catering. There was also lots of rice (wrapped on the left side) left over after I finished the tiny piece of fish, just not nearly enough. Although still hungry, it’s difficult to stomach down plain white rice with nothing on the side.
There was also no dessert service, I was unsure it this was due to the de-icing delay. On the bright side, and among one of my favorite aspects of this trip, there was an a-la-carte menu available anytime viewable on the IFE.
Still incredibly hungry after that tiny dinner, I began digging into the snacks on offer. First up, the signature JAL curry. Genuinely, this was better and more filling than the dinner. I also went with a fruit cup, and there were some pickled vegetables in the plastic container that came with the curry. Similar to the dinner, it would’ve been nice if no plastic containers were present with the otherwise lovely plates.
(Please don’t judge me I was really, really hungry) I then went with the ramen and a green tea/red bean dessert. I found JAL’s noodles to be tastier than ANA’s, but the broth not as much. Regardless, whether it’s the MSG or extensive salty seasoning, this made me very happy! I also went with a gin and tonic on the side, preparing to doze off with a nice kick.
After my additional snacks, it was time to head off to bed. The seat was quite comfortable when fully reclined with JAL’s bedding, and I dozed off to some Suits on the screen.
A good 8 hours or so later, the cabin lights were turned on ahead of breakfast service. And for those who missed out on dinner, this would be the only full meal. Service began with some nuts and olives, along with my choice of an iced americano.
Before the main meal, some cereal and yoghurt were provided. Despite this not being a substantial or otherwise elevated feature to breakfast, I’ve only ever experienced a separate cereal/yoghurt offering in F (Korean/Singapore/Starlux), so this was a nice touch.
The main meal then came around, and it was resemblant of dinner, but slightly better. The miso soup and rice were identical, but the main meal came with a mix of chicken and vegetables, which were tastier and more filling than the fish. I wonder of JAL would consider swapping the two meals. Some pickled vegetables also on the side.
Although it was more filling than dinner, I was still quite hungry. I also hadn’t returned to Asia in a while and was desperate to grab any food I could get. I returned to the a-la-carte menu and ordered the Pork cutlet sandwich and a Western scallop fried rice with marinara sauce.
As soon as I received these, I began questioning whether JAL offers these smaller portions of main meals knowing they have a hearty a-la-carte menu to compensate. These were large portions! The pork cutlet sandwich was great, and although marinara sauce with egg-fried rice can seem quite strange, it worked. Just like dinner, the main breakfast meal was tiny compared to the a-la-carte offerings. I think the top left corner featured a little raspberry dessert.
As breakfast concluded, so meant our imminent descent into Haneda. We landed at 6:06 am local time, only an hour behind schedule meaning we made up over an hour in the sky. I grabbed a snap of my A350-1000 along with another in the special livery in the distance.
