Hello, my name is Paul Stewart, and I'm currently at Tokyo Haneda Airport
we're about to fly to Sydney with ANA in their 787-9 business class product.
Welcome back to what was the final leg of a trip to Turkey which, by the way was very cool and well worth adding to
your bucket list. This trip was also a bit of an experiment with Star Alliance Airlines as I usually stick to One World
After an average experience with Lufthansa, I was keen to test out Japan's largest airline All Nippon Airways or ANA
In fact the footage you're seeing now of an ANA 787 is from the top deck of a Lufthansa
747-8 so make sure you check out the review of that and I'll put the link in the video description below.
As always the journey began in ANA's own business class lounge where I actually had 10 hours to kill.
ANA have this very interesting thing going on with Star Wars
And in fact, you may see a few of their 777s and 787s painted in Star Wars liveries.
The lounge itself was perfectly comfortable with heaps of seating and a decent selection of food and drinks
Importantly for me there was also a great view of the apron and this Boeing 747-8
was the actual aircraft I flew in to Haneda in.
And also, rather importantly since I had three days of non-stop flying, there were a number of showers available.
The lounge made for a perfect place to spend the afternoon watching planes and amusing videos on YouTube
Overall, it was a perfectly sturdy lounge and I really appreciate how quiet and polite everyone is.
Now on with the journey!
Because it was dark. I didn't get a great view. So I headed on board.
I usually try and get on board early to do some filming without other passengers
although I got stuck at the gate with the dodgy boarding pass.
Business class is split into two cabins with my seat at the back of the forward one and the seats are all in a 1-2-1
layout which means everyone gets direct aisle access, which is now the norm in business class.
Now the actual window seats
alternate between being more private and closer to the windows versus being more open and closer to the aisles
Here's a comparison between the two I shot after we took off now
I selected this seat because it was more private and I feel like a bit of a dork filming everything and
because I figured that it would have a good view of the wing and engine
Now let's go through seat
8K in more detail. In front of you is a touchscreen which works perfectly well and I'll mention that in more detail later
Below that is a decent-sized ledge which obviously forms part of the bed. While my bag obstruction the view,
it's a good width as some other new business suites have quite narrow foot wells
We'll turn our eyes to the ledge next to you which includes the buttons for the seat adjustment and fold-out table
Here's a map reading light and power plugs which are positioned within easy reach and there's a remote for their lighting and in-flight entertainment
Above there are lights, but unfortunately, there's no air vents
which is frustrating as I find cabins are often too hot and I did wake up cooking.
Although the friendly crew dropped at the temperature and I got back to sleep
And of course for me, here's something very important, a great view out of the window of the wing and the engine!
Now one more thing to show you is the armrest which folds up making the bed slightly wider
An amenity kit was brought around and I'll be giving that away to a subscriber with more details of that giveaway later in the
video
Although unfortunately, no pajamas are offered on this flight.
Noise cancelling headphones were also provided and they can be stored on this rather odd looking thing.
One slight criticism is that it would have been nice to have integrated a bottle holder as
it was free to roll around during the flight. But otherwise, I think it's a really good seat.
A drink was offered and I saw back and awaited our departure.
Now I really love this little bow and wave that the Japanese ground crew seemed to do when the aircraft leave.
Now for reasons, I don't really understand, the cabin lights were all left on therefore my view out
The window was rather destroyed by well and unfortunate reflection
as you can see. Feel free to close your eyes and listen to the engines spool up
In fact, I do encourage you for your sanity to close your eyes!
I was a little cranky about the cabin lights being left on as takeoff is my favourite part of the journey
and I couldn't see anything! Now in my experience
they're always dimmed with the idea being that your eyes are already adjusted to the dark in case of the emergency exit
Although someone who might be able to explain that this isn't the case in Japan.
Anyway bigger problems in the world and a wet towel was brought around.
There's three toilets for business class passengers which are perfectly reasonable and well equipped with the usual amenities
A round of drinks was offered. ANA have a special wine list where they choose one a premium one and I went with this.
On board tonight's flight was a Chardonnay from Washington state in the US which tasted fantastic. A big shout-out to my American
subscribers
You're the greatest country between Canada and Mexico and seriously have fantastic aviation museums.
Seattle, in particular, is a must for any aviation geek.
There was a Japanese or western meal option and I went with the latter. I'll include the menus at the end of the video.
I thought it tasted pretty good. And it was washed down with some dairy drinks.
After dinner it was around midnight local time and the friendly flight attendant made up my bed
They placed this air bubble filled mattress over my seat and it made for a really comfortable place to sleep.
I ended up watching a movie and had a nap.
A few hours later. I was up and ready for breakfast since it was light outside
I finally got a good view of the Rolls Royce Trent 1000s engine.
The wing view in the Dreamliner is
Stunning and this particular aircraft was only two years old having been delivered to ANA
in mid-2016
Before I show you breakfast, I have to complain about these windows. While they are massive, as you can see in this footage
I took just after we landed in Sydney, the electromagnetic dimming is infuriating.
It doesn't completely block out direct sunlight!
It takes ages to adjust and for nerds like me who like to take photos out of the window, it blocks some of the colors!
I had to use some iMovie magic to get these outside images remotely colourful
Hopefully they revert back to normal sun shades with the 777X.
A coffee and a reminder of the magic of flight put me in a better mood. A bigger breakfast was offered
although I don't usually eat much in the morning. Anyway, I
gobbled that down and then sit back and watch TV.
I should mention that Wi-Fi is available for a fee, although I didn't use it.
I wouldn't be using it for important business and don't mind being isolated from social media for a few hours
But on the topic of that make sure you check out my Instagram account for heaps of aviation photos such as these
Also search for me on Facebook.
I'll also quickly mention the in-flight entertainment. As I said before, it's a touchscreen, although you can use the hand-piece if you really want to.
The hardware is fine with good touch response and you move through the menus quickly.
The actual English content was only okay, which I suppose isn't surprising being a Japanese airline
There was live TV
which is what I actually watched and there's a good quality inflight map. As I've said in previous videos,
I love orientating myself with the map and then identifying sites 40,000ft below you, out of the window.
I'll conclude with my thoughts as we started our descent into Sydney's Charles, Kingsford Smith Airport.
As I've said in previous videos, I'll pay for these flights,
I'm not looking for favors from the airlines and I'm keen to be honest and impartial. If something is no good,
You can be assured that I'll say so. Although I always feel a little uncomfortable being unkind. Thankfully this flight was great!
I'll start with the service which was really good. My primary flight attendant and the customer service manager
both came and introduced themselves and addressed me by my name.
They are also very keen to help and get my thoughts on the airline since it was my first flight with them. In fact, as
A gift they gave me some ANA playing cards, key rings and stickers which was a nice touch.
The food and drink was also perfectly good and was served and promptly removed. This was particularly
appreciated since it was a late scheduled departure from Tokyo and I was keen to sleep, and that Chardonnay from Washington was really good, too.
The seat itself is perfectly comfortable with decent storage, privacy and easy
aisle access although I still think that it would have been nice to integrate a bottle holder in somewhere.
It's otherwise quite large so you wouldn't miss at few of square centimeters.
The stagger design of the seats also allows you to choose something more private
versus easier aisle access. And of course if you're traveling with someone and you want to see them you can select middle seats
Apologies. I didn't capture any footage of them as they were occupied by the time I got on board
Overall, it was a really impressive flight and I'll happily fly with ANA again.
Before I get to the menus, I'll mention the amenity kit giveaway, which includes a few other ANA goodies.
To enter simply comment below with (ANAamenitykit) surrounded by brackets
I was previously using hashtags
But that confuses Youtube's search function. Full details of the giveaway are in the video description below.
But essentially you've got 30 days from me uploading this video to enter and I'll happily be shipping internationally
Now I'll just pause and listen to the engines on landing.
That's it from me.
If you enjoyed the video, be sure to click the thumbs up button and check out my channel for heaps more similar videos.
Don't forget to find me on Instagram and Facebook as well. Thanks for watching. I'll see you another time and coming up are the menus