Japan Airlines Business Class

BACKGROUND

Today, I am flying Japan airlines for the first time ever. My flight on the 787 Dreamliner takes me from Melbourne to Tokyo’s Narita airport.  We were meant to fly JAL in August 2020 in First class. Bought a ton of Alaska miles for that redemption, but ALAS, we all know what happened that year. Since then, I was supposed to fly JL774 in April 2023, but JL cancelled their entry into Melbourne, so that slipped too. Finally, this year, I got a chance to fly JAL initially booked in economy.

GROUND EXPERIENCE

Japan airlines operates only three times a week to Melbourne. Their flight leaves at 7:20am which means a very early start, but also a quiet airport. This meant a rather smooth checkin process. 

Next, it was time to hunt down the lounge, which in this case is the Maharba. As JAL is part of Oneworld, you do have access to the Qantas lounge if you prefer that. Here is a look inside the Maharba lounge, which is a nice quiet space, but nothing extra ordinary. It is better than the Qantas lounge in one way however and that is that it has tarmac views. The food selection was limited and I decided to save myself for the JAL experience. Lounge comes with shower facilities and you definitely see some similarity to the Emirates lounges here. 

BOARDING EXPERIENCE

Soon, I headed to my gate where the JAL 787 was already waiting for us. With less than 10 minutes to the boarding time I was surprised by how calm the gate was. My flight for today is a 9 year old 787-8. JAL has 24 of these in their fleet. The international ones are configured in 2 classes. There are 30 seats in business and 156 in economy. In business the seats are in a 2-2-2 layout, but everyone still has aisle access.

(Source: Aerolopa) Japan Airlines 787-8 seat map

JAL uses the Apex suites on their 787s which offer an entry path to the window seats. The seat featured plenty of legroom and privacy. As a result of this, the window seats had plenty of privacy especially when the a retractable privacy divider was used. There was a small booklet with information about the seat and a magazine. To the side were the touch screen controls for the remote, the AC and USB power outlets and the adjustments for the seat. And at the back was extra storage, with a reading light. And behind the seat, there was more additional storage.

INFLIGHT AMENITIES

Waiting at the seat were all the standards including pillow, blanket, amenity kit and water bottle. Unique to JAL was the cardign hire service which lets you borrow one for the flight. The amenity kit which was from Parisian brand Maison Kitsune. While it wasn’t overflowing with stuff, it had all the basics that you would need. The toilet were clean and as you guessed it is Japanese style with all the bells and whistles.

INFLIGHT MEALS

Now it is time for the best part of this flight which is the lunch. The meal service began with a drink and I went for the JAL original which is a super refreshing peach and grape juice mix.  JAL offers both a Japanese and Western option and if you can, I recommend going for the Japanese option here. This bento has to be one of the most beautifully presented meals on an aircraft. This is almost top restaurant style catering from JAL and all the items in the bento were really tasty. This was followed by the salmon for mains. Once again, this was another high quality presentation from JAL and the food was equally excellent.The crew were attentive during the whole meal service and kept coming to check on my food. And also explained about the various items in the menu. The tray table can be swivelled out of the way making it easy to get it an out of the seat even during the meal service. 2 hours before landing, the second meal service started, I went for the teriyaki chicken this time. JAL does really good meals in business class and you will be impressed by the food selection offered onboard. 

INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
The movie selection was quite basic, and the touch screen remote wasn’t very responsive. With the poor IFE selection, I turn my attention to the WIFI, which is thankfully offered on this flight. While it is not free, it is not too badly priced and actually the plans can be used across another connecting flight.

THE BED

With 8 hours of the flight remaining, I decided to catch some sleep. This is how the seat becomes a flatbed. A mattress topper is provided which was quite comfy. Despite this I struggled to get much sleep thanks to these 787 electronic windows. They don’t fully dim and it is really noticeable on a day flight like this. So make sure to take an eye mask, which thankfully was part of the amenity kit. 

SUMMARY

10 hours went by fast and this flight was sadly coming to an end. To recap, JAL business class offers one of the best hard products in the sky with Sky suite. The seat offers a lot of privacy and comfort. The meal service on JAL is simply the best presentation of meals I have ever seen on a plane and the quality of the food is simply amazing. The disappointing part of this entire flight is probably the average inflight entertainment, but that is easily taken care of by the excellence of everything else including the inflight service from the crew. While JAL may not be rated as the best business class, we can see how they are definitely one of the top contenders.

BOOKING JAL BUSINESS CLASS

The way to book JAL business class using points is via Qantas. Using Qantas points, you can book this flight for 90,000 points. However, JAL availability can be limited. Bests advise is to check 1-2 weeks prior to departure (I know this is very last minute).

As another option, JAL provides customers with an opportunity to bid for an upgrade. And on this flight with no premium economy, I offered the minimum bid plus $10. This was enough for my upgrade to come through 1 day before my flight.