Review: Japan Airlines First Class Boeing 777 (SFO-HND)

Hard to believe it's been 7 years since my own JAL F flight. I landed in Narita though, and it took over an hour for my bags to come out. Honestly not a great ground experience, but the air experience made up for it. The FAs were ecstatic after finding out I was more interested in sake than any of the other alcohol choices, and gave me a tasting of the 3 options then kept me plied with my favorite for the rest of the flight. That plus being a daytime flight made for a difficult and late train ride to Kanazawa, and I slept like a baby once I got to the ryokan despite the futon and tatami.

Despite the age, the seat was great and IMHO I didn't feel like there were any privacy issues despite being the window seat and having a center seat occupant across from me.

@Ben beautiful shots on the approach and taxi, and I love that you and Ford and yall's buddies managed to get 4 F seats together. That makes for an awesome flight!

JAL's IFE is pretty bad overall. I find their UI to be pretty clunky. Especially if you're on any of their 787s.

Also, I thought you normally do like to showcase the FA names on these kinds of reviews? Did they not properly introduce themselves? Or was is it because the service wasn't as good this time?

It's a very good product, had the opportunity to fly it once and it was 5/5. Great food, service, and the seat/bed is extremely comfortable. I agree the IFE is a weak spot, but with free WiFi I won't complain too much. It's a great option flying to and from Tokyo.

The food,beverages, and service is what sets JAL ahead of the rest
done and done

it's a flat bed. I sleep on it, soundly, after tyhe yummy food,drinks, and service.
ymmv

I flew this exact flight in F class in 2019. It was a flight I was really looking forward to. It was a dream come true. A few years prior to this, before I knew anything about points and miles, I saw a photo of a friend of mine flying JAL F Class. I asked him how much he paid for it and I was shocked when he told me he flew it using points. I had no idea you could do that. My friend then taught me how to fly using points and the rest is history. It was my dream to fly JAL First Class.
Unfortunately I wasn't impressed. Yes, the seat is spacious and comfortable but the design and colors looked plain and boring. Food was not awesome. Definitely not bad, but not great. Service was just so-so. Surprised that one of the stewardesses barely spoke English. I had assumed the ones serving F Class would be their best ones. I understand many Japanese don't speak English, but was not expecting this on a F Class flight. One thing that did annoy me was they kept walking back and forth in the cabin, just checking to see if any of the passengers needed anything. Once meal time is over, they don't have to keep going back and forth, that's what the call button is for. Also, at SFO the JAL lounge at that time was really mediocre, way inferior to CX or SQ. And once we landed the experience was no different than what I would experience when flying economy class.

Why so many of the desserts served in JAL's F look like something kids make or play in? What happened to a nicely presented slice of cake or pie.

The gooey slop does not look appetizing nor something that should be served in F class. I hope it tasted better than it looked.

Not bad. Fly four friends transpacific for about the price of one 8hr flight in La premiere!

Hi Lucky!

Congrats on the score of the Century!

I have 1 F and 1 J for my birthday trip in the fall, praying for a second F to open up. Never heard of 4!

How far ahead did you book? Did you use Seats.aero, point.me or some other tool to help find availability? Did you use an alert?

I landed at HND this past fall after a flight in F and it was easily the worst, most chaotic arrival experience I've ever had. Was not expecting that arriving into Japan, but it was insane. The reliance on QR codes and the health/arrival form, plus unclear instructions and 50 different staff members all yelling directions (not to mention half the pax not paying attention) made it a disaster. I flew into Ashgabat a few weeks before that trip and that was chaotic. HND made that look like a breeze.

That sucks. My trip in J into Haneda in late 2022 was fine, didn't have any trouble with the health/arrival form or QR code stuff, and staff was organized. Passport control took like 45 minutes just because we came in with a pretty big bank of arrivals, but we didn't have to wait for our luggage thanks to that and got on our way pretty quickly once we were through. That 2019 arrival into Narita still sets the bar for worst arrival experience I've ever had in Japan.

I'm sure the anmitsu tasted great, but yeah it typically isn't in water/liquid like that. I'm assuming the matcha is the green mochi-looking balls in it, and then you have the other fruits in there and the translucent anmitsu gelatin cubes.

I love the ignorant comments from white people here.

Was thinking the same. Clearly little/no experience with Japanese (or any other?) culture.

@ Beachfan -- I shared the answer to all those questions in this post:
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/booking-japan-airlines-first-class-awards/

Good luck! 🙂

"We booked our Japan Airlines first class tickets using American AAdvantage miles. Specifically, we booked the following in first class for 80,000 AAdvantage miles plus $16.80 in taxes & fees:

2/28 AA2426 Miami to San Francisco departing 7:40PM arriving 11:20PM
3/01 JL1 San Francisco to Tokyo departing 12:55PM arriving 5:20PM (+1 day)

While AAdvantage miles aren’t as valuable as they used to be, I continue to be delighted by the outsized value I get with these miles, and this is the perfect example of that. You’re not going to get deals like that with Delta SkyMiles or United MileagePlus."

You must have some kind of special access to these flights. I can NEVER find award space like that at those prices. I look almost daily...