Note: This flight was taken in February 2022. Certain travel restrictions and service protocols described in this review may not be reflective of the current state of travel.
To kick off my round-the-world, end-of-three-year-chase trip, was an early morning flight to Tokyo-Narita. I’ve shared the background of why I took this trip in an earlier post Introduction: The Three Year Chase. I do recommend reading that, to understand the context behind this trip.
I’ve flown ANA’s 787-9 before, so this flight was nothing new to me. It was just a necessary precursor to my real target – ANA First Class. Given the early timing of this flight, I ended up sleeping through most of it anyway. It was pretty much a typical ANA business class flight, though the meal service was reduced because it’s a breakfast service. I’m generally a fan of ANA’s business class as a whole, though not so much the seat. This flight allowed me to refresh myself on this product, and cast a more critical eye over some of its feature, or lack thereof. Overall, it’s an acceptable product and an average flight, but definitely doesn’t come close to ANA’s latest ‘The Room’ which I tried just before Covid hit.
Booking
I booked this flight as a single ticket through to San Francisco via Tokyo-Narita, with the second leg in ANA First. This was booked through Avianca Lifemiles. Lifemiles is a tremendously versatile Star Alliance programme, if you can navigate around the challenges, and have patience to deal with Lifemiles support when things go wrong. I’ve managed to snag some great redemptions through Lifemiles, so it’s worked out well for me so far. I buy Lifemiles only when they run promotions, typically I only buy with minimum 145% bonus.
This redemption cost me 88,200 Lifemiles plus USD114.47 (SGD154) in taxes and fees. At an average of 150% bonus on purchased miles, that redemption equates to a cost of around SGD1,700. That’s incredibly cheap for one-way premium cabin to the USA, with one leg in First class. Lifemiles allows for mixed class redemptions (unlike KrisFlyer), so it was fairly easy to book this, as long as the inventory is actually available.
On the Ground
Check-in
With a 6.35am departure time, I got to the airport around 5am. Most passengers flying ANA during that period seemed to be transiting onwards to the US, as SATS (ANA’s ground handling agent in SIN) had a counter checking US attestation forms before passengers would be allowed enter the check-in area.
There was no queue at the business class check-in counter. An agent checked through my attestation form, ESTA and pre-departure test (no longer required now) and vaccination certificate. She also rather curiously enquired what class of travel I’m in for the onward sector. After I responded First class, she affixed the appropriate First class priority tag to my checked bag, and issued me both boarding passes, for SIN-NRT and NRT-SFO. I was also given an invitation to the SATS Premier Lounge.
Lounge
ANA was, and still is using Terminal 1 at Changi Airport. That being the case, the SATS Premier Lounge is the default lounge for ANA passengers.
The main area has various seating options, ranging from the usual armchairs with side tables, high tables, and some booths. Close to the buffet area, there’s some dining tables.
Going further into the lounge, there’s a separate area that’s a bit like a Japanese garden. The furnishing here is quite different, and there’s even a garden-feature sort of thing in the middle. There’s also solo productivity pods in here.
At the time I took this flight, buffets were still rather limited in scope due to the prevailing Covid protocols in Singapore. There were some self-serve light snacks and wrapped sandwiches, and the beverages were also self-serve including spirits. The bulk of the food however, was ala carte. The menu could be viewed via QR codes on the tables and ordered through staff. I haven’t been through the lounge since, so I have no idea if it’s still ala carte or full buffet.
Because of the segregation protocols in place when I took this flight, I didn’t have the option of going to Singapore Airlines’ lounges in Terminal 3 instead. If you’ve got time to spare before a Star Alliance flight at T1, contract lounges are basically the only option, unless you want to make the trek to Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris lounges at T3. The SATS lounge is decent for a contract lounge, but nothing great. It’s not a lounge I would plan extra time for.
Onboard
I got to the gate around 15min before the 6.35am departure. The load was quite light unsurprisingly, and I was the last passenger through the security screening at the gate (the second last passenger was just in front of me). In fact, I was pretty much rushed onboard by the ground staff. Business class ended up being maybe 25% full or slightly less, in a 40-seat cabin. ANA has another more premium 787-9 configuration, with 48 business class seats. All the passengers were in the front the cabin, with the rear cabin empty.
The Seat
ANA’s 787-9 business class seat, known as the ‘Business Staggered‘, has been around for quite awhile. It’s configured 1-2-1 on the 787-9. The long haul 787-8s though, alternate between 1-2-1 and 1-1-1. Unlike some staggered seats which alternate between “honeymoon” and “divorce” seats in the middle column, the ANA configuration has the middle pair always separated. It’s not ideal for couples for travelling together. When flying alone on such staggered seats, I prefer the true window seats, with the seat console separating the seat from the aisle. For this flight, I’d selected 6K on the right side of the aircraft, which was a true window seat.
As with any staggered seat, the footwell extends under the console of the seat in front. Unlike some similar seat models which have one side of the footwell exposed, the footwell on these seats are fully enclosed. That could make the footwell a bit tight. There’s some storage below the footwell for a carry-on, but not quite big enough for full-size rollaboard.
The seat controls are just below the surface top of the console. The controls are fairly basic, just buttons to adjust the position of the seat, lumbar support and a do-not-disturb. I like that it’s proper solid buttons, not touch buttons
On the vertical surface of the console was the IFE remote, reading light and literature pocket. There was a universal power outlet, headphone jack and USB-A port.
ANA provides a mattress pad for the seat on this sector. It’s one of the better mattress pads around, from Nishikawa Sangyo. It makes the sleeping surface flatter and softer. My only complaint about it is that there’s nothing to keep it in place on the seat, so it may move around a little.
This version of the seat has the tray table extending from the side console. It’s a large, quite stable single piece.
My main issue with this seat is the lack of storage for electronics and other small items. There’s none to speak of. The only spot to leave small items is on the side table itself, and that’s definitely not a good spot for take-off, landing or even when sleeping. It’s probably the biggest flaw of the seat.
Another drawback of the seat is a slight lack of privacy. This is especially so for the seats directly next to the aisle. Some staggered seats try to mitigate that a little with ‘wings’ of the seat shell wrapping round partially, but there’s no such thing on this. Take a look at how exposed the aisle-side seat is here:
The true window seats are slightly better, but with about half the side table exposed without a privacy divider, that’s fair a bit of exposure to the aisle even when sitting next to the window.
The ANA staggered business class is definitely one of my lesser-preferred staggered seats. Storage is nonexistent, and the footwell is slightly cramped. I also like a table that is stored under the IFE screen rather than in the side console. It’s an ok seat and about adequate for some of the longer routes the 787 is used for, but I favour the similar Thompson Vantage XL or even Singapore Airlines’ regional business class from Stelia.
Meal & Service
Service started soon after boarding with a predeparture drink, a bottle of water and a couple of cleaning wipes handed out by the crew. Being 6.30am, I opted for an orange juice . Menus were also distributed. This is still being in the midst of the pandemic, at least as far as Japan considered it, I was both surprised and pleased that ANA were still giving out paper menus. After all, this is something SIA did away with and only resumed in mid-2022, 4 months after I took this flight.
Meal orders were taken on the ground. While the catering was obviously from SATS ex-Singapore, I rarely look beyond the Japanese meal when flying Japanese carriers, especially on single-meal flights, so that’s what I went for. After takeoff, there was a round of post-takeoff drinks prior to breakfast. I opted for another OJ, which was served in proper glassware this time.
I normally consider breakfast to be the weakest meal offering from airlines. It’s usually truncated compared to lunch or dinner. The Japanese meal on this flight was certainly less elaborate than a lunch or dinner service. It was a single tray service, which I’m pretty sure was more to do with it being breakfast than a pandemic measure. Somehow despite the light passenger load, the crew still managed to serve me the wrong meal initially. I corrected them, and they eventually brought out the Japanese breakfast a few minutes later. I also ordered some green tea to go along with breakfast.
Breakfast was fine, not quite the same quality as flying ex-Japan I felt, but probably better than the eggy alternative Western breakfast. I found the salmon portion rather small, seemingly because it had to fish into the dish beside the rice packet. On the whole, this breakfast did nothing to dispel my belief that breakfast is the weakest meal offering on any carrier.
Service on this flight was fairly good, apart from the initial mistake with my meal. Around 90min before landing, the crew came round offering to prepare something from the ‘Light Dishes Anytime’ menu. When I declined, they seemed a little concerned about my lack of hunger. Normally, I would go for an order of ramen onboard, but on this case I had a couple of hours in the ANA Suite lounge and First class meals to look forward to, so I opted to save the stomach space. I did accept a piece of chocolate offered just before landing.
The crew did leave some cute notes in the lavatory. These were in Japanese so I didn’t understand a word, but I found it quite amusing and it was nice to see the crew free to express themselves somewhat.
Inflight Entertainment & WiFi
With the early departure, I mostly slept after meal service and didn’t use the IFE much. I did scroll through, but there wasn’t anything that caught my eye. The airline wasn’t entirely to blame here, since the pandemic had reduced the number of movie releases. I did notice that the media selection tended to have separate listing for each title, depending the audio language and subtitles. That’s a little annoying as it makes the list longer than necessary. Not really the best UX/UI design.
ANA offers inflight WiFi on their 787-9s, but there’s no free allowance for business class. As such I didn’t use the inflight WiFi. The inflight WiFi plans are time-based with no data caps. The prices range from USD6.95 for 30min, USD16.95 for 3h, or USD21.95 for the full flight. More info can be found here.
Conclusion
ANA’s 787-9 business class is a decent, but largely underwhelming product. When you consider how amazing ‘The Room‘ looks – and it is really phenomena, the staggered 787-9 business feels positively pedestrian and outdated. It’s lie-flat, all-aisle access seat, which is the bare minimum for a widebody long haul business class seat nowadays. The main flaws of this seat are the lack of storage and privacy, and the footwell is on the tighter end as far as staggered seats go. ANA is a good enough airline that I wouldn’t necessarily avoid them because of this product, but against their competitors this offering is a little weak.
Stay tuned for the next part of this series, as I explore the ANA Suite lounge in Narita and embark on my long-awaited ANA First flight!
Other posts in this series:
- Introduction: The Three Year Chase
- Review: ANA 777-300ER ‘The Suite’ First Class (NRT-SFO)
- Review: Jetblue A321neo Mint Suite (LAX-JFK)
- Review: TAP Air Portugal A330-900 Business Class (JFK-LIS)