Well, it started out a bit wet- but thankfully it was all uphill from there. Hi there, my name
is Kevin and I make honest, unsponsored and to the point narrated video tours about hotels and
flights all over the world. This is my 89th video and today we’ve got a Business Class trip report
on Japan Airlines from Saigon to Tokyo Haneda. I hope you’ll stick around and join me on the trip.
Welcome to monsoon season in Saigon where things tend to escalate pretty
quickly. If you’d like to know more information about my flight's full
fare and my next five videos in queue, please check out the description below.
From the center of the city- District 1 specifically, the airport is only
five miles to the north, but during the rainy season always plan enough time to
get there because those five short miles could take 45 long minutes.
Each time I come back to the international terminal here in Saigon I’m happy to see
more and more passengers as things begin to return to normal throughout the country.
I’m also happy to see you here taking the time to watch my trip report and would love it if you hit
that like button and subscribed for three new videos each week. I’m a bit of a perfectionist
and right now I’m focused on making my content even better- so if you have any suggestions or
comments, please feel free to leave them below. And if you’re feeling really generous, a link to
my new Patreon will be in the description below soon. A big thank you in advance.
Check in was easy for Business Class or Oneworld elite passengers, with no one waiting in line.
While I appreciate how apologetic and proactive JAL was about today’s flight’s delay- I gotta say,
it kind of falls a bit flat since this flight is late just about every single day. In fact,
in April, May and June combined- this particular flight was on time 6 times.
Considering my next flight was retimed to give me only 80 minutes to transit in Haneda,
it was a bit more stressful than necessary. Anywho, at least the immigration lines were
short and well staffed. Let’s make our way up to the lounge.
As this gentleman ponders his life’s lounge related choices, let’s head inside.
The Le Saigonaise Lounge is I think what I’m going to start referring to
as “Premium Mediocre” meaning, it’s a nice and comfortable lounge and by Vietnamese standards,
one of the best outfitted in the country- that said,
the food in every Vietnamese lounge leaves quite a bit to be desired.
With some lounges in the airport still closed, it was also busier than I’ve
ever seen it since essentially all airlines except Vietnam Airlines use it at the moment.
Let’s head to the gate. Gate 26 to be exact, the last gate lounge so it’s a bit of a walk.
I was mildly surprised at how busy the flight turned out to be. Japan Airlines
blocks an abnormally large number of seats in all cabins on this frequency
so it was tough to get a feel for the load factor before getting to the gate. In fact,
JAL blocks ALL of the window seats in Business Class on this flight for their elite members.
Luckily I was able to snag the last one at check in. Based on the mix of passengers
on board- and this being the Haneda flight, I believe this is a popular commuter flight for
the Japanese firms that are in charge of building the yet to open Metro in Saigon.
While we wait for boarding let’s take a look at today’s
stats. We’d be taking off a little over an hour late and heading up to
39,000 feet for our five hour sunrise journey up to Tokyo, where we landed 40 minutes late.
Even if I didn’t get a window seat today, it was still a nice surprise
as typically this flight is operated by a 787-8 with a regional 2-2-2 layout
in business class. The upgage surely to haul a bit more cargo on tonights 787-9.
That said, if you look at this seat and say “yah, standard reverse herringbone” I’m sorry
to tell you, you’d be wrong. These new Sky Suite III cabins as JAL calls them are replacing some-
hopefully not all- of the 787-9s with Apex Suites. These seats are cramped and you will notice it the
second you step out of the aisle. To be clear, I love reverse herringbone. Just in the past few
months I’ve flown in American’s Superdiamond version, British Airway’s Superdiamond with
doors and Avianca’s Zodiac Cirrus. Today’s seat though is the Zodiac Aires, designed specifically
to increase density by up to 20% and not many airlines use them. They very simply feel, cramped.
Let’s take a closer look. JAL has two versions, one with 28 seats and one with
52 in business class. We are on the former. There aren’t really any seats to avoid,
the only missing window is between rows 5 and 6 and is behind the entertainment
module anyway- so I was perfectly happy in 5 Kilo.
Going in a bit closer, there are a few areas where the seat is smaller than most. From my
own measurements, the seat itself is just 19.5” wide and a really short 17” deep, leaving your
legs fatigued if you’re taller. The seat tapers quite a bit at the shoulders though- at just 17”
wide and surrounded by a privacy shell. Just to put that into perspective, JAL’s economy seats are
actually an inch wider based on their numbers. The one measurement that sounds really good is the 78”
bed, which is very long, but the foot cubby tapers so much most of that length isn’t usable. On a
five hour flight, the seat was fine for me, but I really wouldn’t want it on a long haul flight.
When boarding, a bottle of water, full menu and amenity pouch were waiting on the side table.
For the length of the flight, the pouch was really nice and something
I do actually use on a daily basis to hold my cinema mount. Next to the seat was a
small compartment where you could find some very mediocre noise canceling head phones.
Below the cabinet was a universal outlet, a standard USB-A port and the headphone jack.
As JAL’s 787’s don’t have individual air vents and their cabins are notoriously warm, the USB port
was perfectly positioned for a mini fan- though the cabin was comfortable throughout the flight.
A thin but soft blanket sporting their business class branding was also at the seat along with a
really strange pillow. Was not a fan of this one. I’m not sure if the pillow case was too big or the
pillow was too small, but it was just a bunch of extra fabric and did not feel particularly fresh.
Here’s a better look at the foot cubby itself. Just big enough to fit a small carry on.
One way the seat saves space though is by putting the electronics under the foot rest so if you’re
taller you cannot really stretch your legs out as you’d expect in most reverse herringbone seats.
The literature pocket and seat controls are located on the back of the seat shell in front
of you, where the tray table also deploys from. The table wasn’t particularly large but was sturdy
and could be angled away so you could escape to the restroom without packing things away.
Lastly,
there's more storage in the armrest which can be lowered. That bit of
dust inside there was truly the only I saw on this otherwise immaculately clean
aircraft. Finally the seat also had a four page guide to the seat itself.
Pushback finally came and the very literal safety video started rolling.
Taxiing was fast and dark and soon we were lining up for our departure which would be to the west
before a series of left hand turns around the city pointing us north. The spool up is next.
After takeoff I checked out the IFE system. You could control it from either the handheld device
or the touchscreen monitor- the handheld was pretty laggy though. On offer was a beautiful
moving map, not the latest generation but close to it and a wide selection of movies.
Soon after takeoff I believe the entire cabin, except for me, went to sleep.
I was already on New York time, which meant it was just about lunch time. Always nice
when jet-lag prevention can afford you an extra meal, free of charge.
What was on offer though was disappointing. I’ll show the full menu in a moment but there is no
designated meal service after take off. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense because it was past
midnight. On the other hand though, every fiber of my body expects a meal after takeoff, regardless
of the time. I chose an Udon and a sake. Having flown the same route some months earlier on ANA, I
was expecting a comparable noodle snack with- real noodles in a real bowl. JAL sticks to pot noodles.
I did like the business class branded wet wipes
though. Funnily enough, JAL considers these premium to real wet towels as on my next flight,
business class received these while Premium Economy was given small actual towels.
A few hours and around 10 packs of rice crackers later,
the cabin came to life- or, at least my window did.
Breakfast service began with I’m sorry, but a truly disgusting apple juice that
was proactively brought with the table cloth. Do you remember those
frozen canned Minute Maid concentrates from like, the 80s? Yeah, it tasted like that.
Feel free to pause and zoom into the menu. Interesting to note that the drink menu on
this flight was identical to my connecting flight to New York. We could look at that
as a great feature on this flight or I suppose a disappointment on the next.
Before takeoff, my order was taken for the Japanese Breakfast set which came on
a single tray. Along with the tiniest plastic fork that I don’t even know what I’d do with.
The breakfast starters included: assorted fresh fruits, sauteed burdock and carrot
julienne with vegetable omelet and snow peas, a deep fried shrimp cake,
yam jelly and delightfully crunchy Japanese pickles. That accompanied the main dish of
deep fried chicken simmered with egg, served with steamed rice and miso soup.
Everything was tasty- but for a regional breakfast service, I think ANA still has
them beat- beat for service as well which was very polite and detailed as you’d expect- but
it stopped there. There was no personalization like I’ve experienced on ANA, but I’m nitpicking-
both carriers’ service is leaps and bounds ahead of anything from the US or Europe.
A quick trip to the standard no-window bathrooms revealed a
pretty sparse setup. It was cleaned in between every single use though.
Our descent started shortly after breakfast service was wrapped up as we passed
through multiple cloud layers before finally breaking out on a short final over Tokyo Bay.
I genuinely love flying and staring out the window so I think even the
cloudiest of approaches are still beautiful- but,
I can only imagine how stunning this path would be on a clear day, all of Tokyo before you.
We touched down and started a bit of a lengthy taxi to the gate through what felt like a Boeing
factory. 787s as far as you could see. Before landing, I asked a flight attendant if they
had any information of my connecting flight to Kennedy- if she had any gate information,
she didn’t but assured me ground crew would meet the aircraft. With the late arrival time, I had 41
minutes to make the connection. As we pulled up to the gate, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were
next to my next aircraft since it was the only 777 I’d seen on the long taxi and sure enough, it was.
As the doors opened all passengers remained seated as we were instructed to do and the flight
attendant signaled to me and two other passengers to disembark first. We were led by three or four
ground agents and passed off from one to the other on what my video timestamps can confirm
was a six minute transit before I was standing at the gate for my next flight, which was delayed.
So, what are we thinking? Overall,
I was happy despite the cramped seat.Overall it was a very nice flight. Not the best,
but I think close to as good as you’ll get on any five hour regional flight.
Now onto the Flip Flop Score. Feel free to pause to take a closer look. I really
hope you enjoyed this video today and hope you’ll subscribe for much
much more content to come. I’ll see you on Sunday at the VOCO Orchard in Singapore.