Review: ANA First Class 777 Tokyo To Chicago

Update: In the meantime ANA has introduced an all new first class suite — see here for a full review of that.

It’s time to finish up this Japan trip report, because I’m doing an insane amount of flying this week that I want to start writing about.

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I’m going to do something very different for this trip report installment — I’m going to make it very brief. I wrote a ~2,800 word review of our outbound flight from Chicago to Tokyo, so I’m just going to be covering the very basics of the return, about what made it different.

ANA is incredibly consistent, so let’s see just how short I can keep this report.

All Nippon Airways 12
Tokyo (NRT) – Chicago (ORD)
Friday, June 7
Depart: 5:10PM
Arrive: 2:55PM
Duration: 11hr45min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 2D (First Class)

My cubicle… I mean, seat, for this 11h30min flight to Chicago. There were a total of just three people in the cabin.

As was the case on the outbound, the crew was excellent. They even put sleepers right on my feet, Garuda Indonesia style!

ANA first class seat

ANA first class seat

Amenity kits were different than on the outbound — the other flight had Samsonite amenity kits, while this one had different ones.

ANA first class amenity kit

ANA first class amenities

The menu for this flight read as follows:

The drink list read as follows:

We had dinner after takeoff — while they served 2004 Krug in May, in June they switched back to the standard Krug Grande Cuvee. The injustice of it all!

ANA first class champagne

Next up was the amuse bouche, consisting of nut chili pie sticks, marinated seabass and miso flavored egg yolk, marinated oyster and tuna, and duck rillettes

ANA first class amuse bouche & champagne

ANA first class amuse bouche & champagne

For the appetizer I had the steamed abalone, scallop, and zucchini mousse with caviar. The way ANA serves caviar is unusual — they seem to always serve it with some unrelated appetizer, and without the standard accompaniments.

ANA first class appetizer & caviar

ANA first class appetizer

ANA first class caviar

Next up was a salad.

ANA first class salad

Ford had the corn soup.

ANA first class soup

For the main course I had the tofu steak with dashi basil sauce and vegetable salad.

ANA first class main course

Ford had the curry from the snack menu as his main course.

ANA first class main course

For dessert I had the Japanese sake castella, which was phenomenal.

ANA first class dessert

During the meal I watched “Just Getting Started,” which was cute enough.

ANA first class entertainment

ANA’s entertainment selection is pretty limited, so I then watched SponeBob SquarePants.

ANA first class entertainment

While I haven’t seen SpongeBob in well over 15 years, I’m happy to report that drinking Krug and watching SpongeBob is pure euphoria. 10/10 would recommend.

ANA first class entertainment

The meal service was done just over two hours into the flight.

ANA map to Chicago

ANA map to Chicago

ANA map to Chicago

So it was bedtime!

ANA first class bed

I slept for nearly seven hours, and woke up about nine hours into the flight, with under three hours remaining.

ANA map to Chicago

ANA map to Chicago

ANA map to Chicago

I ordered a cup of coffee.

ANA first class coffee

The breakfast menu was fairly limited, but I had some granola and fruit to start.

ANA first class breakfast

There was a bit of a mix-up, so I ended up being served chicken thigh and fettuccine with poached egg, which was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever eaten (or tried to eat — I had one bite and sent it back).

ANA first class breakfast

So then I just had a cheese plate.

ANA first class cheese plate

Moving map approaching Chicago

We ended up landing in Chicago at 3:40PM, a bit behind schedule due to our delayed departure.

ANA first class bottom line

This was another excellent flight in ANA first class, wrapping up what was an exceptional award redemption. ANA first class is very good, though isn’t my favorite in the world. I can’t wait to try ANA’s new first class seats.