Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-9 Boston to Tokyo Narita

JL7 BOS-NRT

December 30th, 2021

Posts in this series:

Getting Ready - Thailand Pass and Singapore Airlines Saga

Review - Intercontinental Boston

Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-9 Boston to Tokyo Narita

Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-8 Tokyo Narita to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

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Check-in:

Allow me to confess upfront that I’m completely biased and obsessed with the Japanese ethos of hospitality. Its anticipatory service originates from a level of care and humanity that’s not often seen in other parts of the world. Interacting with Japanese people in the service industry makes you want to become a more considerate and empathetic person, like for real.

That care on Japan Airlines (JAL) started before we even arrived at the airport. Two days before our departure date, I received an email from JAL’s Boston team, reconfirming necessary documents for our trip to Thailand. With evolving and complex travel regulations, instead of turning people away at check-in, JAL took the extra step to prepare passengers beforehand. What’s even more valuable was the direct phone number in the email. I called the number to make sure we were good to go, after getting burned by Singapore Airlines. A lady picked up almost immediately - there was no automated system, no hold, no transferring around. She was extremely patient and friendly, going through all the documents one by one, which offered us great assurance. In chaotic times like this, knowing you’d be able to travel with confidence beats any vintage champagne served onboard.

Sure enough, when we made it to Logan International Airport (BOS) at 10AM on the 30th of December, we were checked in within minutes. The check-in agents were JAL’s own employees, and they could not have been more professional. With our printed boarding passes in hand, we started to really get excited about this trip.

Lounge:

JAL uses the Air France Lounge in BOS. With the exception of its JFK lounge, most of Air France’s lounges in the US are pretty lackluster. Boston is quite a premium international gateway that’s often overlooked, thanks to its substantial financial services and biotech industries. However, the carriers have been able to command high(er) fares without investing much in customer experience. This is reflected in the Air France lounge - long overdue for a head-to-toe makeover. It reminded me of the Alitalia Lounge at JFK, which was one of the most rundown lounges as far as I recall.

The f&b selection was roughly on par with that of a United Club. While there was a menu QR code on each table, it simply stated everything at the buffet, rather than a menu you could order from. It wasn’t an issue this time because I knew our in-flight meal was going to be better. A lot better, as a matter of fact, day and night. Make sure you always reserve your Japanese meal before your JAL flight, as it tends to run out on 9 out 10 occasions.

You could find the lounge “menu” here:

We hung out in the lounge for roughly 30mins, and it was never crowded. Most of the Europe-bound flights were later in the afternoon, so the lounge mostly accommodated JAL passengers, along with some Priority Pass guests.

Boarding:

The international concourse wasn’t heavily trafficked. By boarding time, there was at most 40 people waiting at the gate, so it was a pretty light load for a Boeing 787-9.

I spotted Cathay Pacific’s A350-900 in the distance. The first time I flew Cathay’s first class was actually from Hong Kong to Boston. Sigh, will we ever be able to go to Hong Kong again?

One thing worth mentioning is that even though the Boston route doesn’t have first class, JAL still offered its full suite of first class ground services for oneworld emerald members, from luggage handling to boarding. We lined up at the first class boarding lane on account of my American Airlines Executive Platinum status. Boarding soon commenced with passengers needing extra time, followed by us. Based on my observation, most passengers were transiting through Tokyo to go to the Philippines or Thailand.

Upon boarding, we were welcomed by the purser, who wore a white blazer, as opposed to black for other cabin attendants. She introduced us to one of her subordinates who showed us to our seats.

Japan Airlines B787-9 Business Class Cabin

Japan Airlines B787-9 Business Class Seat

JAL is a bit all over the place in terms of its cabin products. There are different seats based on the markets served, resulting in 4 types of business class seats (I think?). Fortunately all long-haul flights are equipped with Apex Suite seats, which are more niche than most other business class seats such as reverse herringbone or staggered. These seats are the same ones you’d find on Oman Air and Korean Air.

I’ve sat in these seats before on domestic flights within Japan, but this was my first time flying them long haul. The cabin itself was quintessentially Japanese - sterile and tidy. The seats almost felt like office cubicles but in a good way. Although in a 2-2-2 configuration, each seat featured direct aisle access, due to the presence of a narrow walkway for the window seats. This is also the only 2-2-2 configuration in the market with direct aisle access at every seat.

Awaiting at our seats were a pillow, a blanket, a pair of headphones, menus, a bottle of water, an amenity kit, and of course, a pair of slippers with a shoehorn. I couldn’t tell the brand of the amenity kit, but it was well stocked. I believe the last one JAL had was with Maison Kitsuné, which actually, could very well be these.

Japan Airlines Business Class Amenity Kit BOS-NRT

You can find the menu and wine list below, which were quite extensive:

Japan Airlines Business Class Menu BOS-NRT

Japan Airlines Business Class Wine List BOS-NRT

One small criticism is that the font on the menu was quite small, and the content was densely packed. On our second flight to Bangkok we heard a neighboring passenger complaining that he couldn’t read anything on the menu.

When boarding completed, business class had about a dozen passengers. So in reality economy and premium economy class were much emptier. Before pushback, a flight attendant came by to offer the infamous JAL inflight cardigans. For those of you who are confused, Asians are always cold. If you walk into an Asian person’s home, you’d most likely find the thermostat sitting between 70 and 74. I’m one of the abnormalities who burns a bit hotter (with raging cynicism, of course), and luckily the cabin wasn’t kept too hot for our flight.

Inflight:

Shortly after we broke free of the thick winter clouds in Boston, service ensued.

We started with an apéritif. I asked for the Delamotte blancs de blancs, but it wasn’t loaded onto today’s flight. It wasn’t available on our next flight to Bangkok either. I instead opted for the Japanese white wine for the novelty of it, and it turned out to be pretty good. It was lacking a bit of depth but was smooth and balanced, definitely not overly sweet or fruity. My partner had the Ayala champagne, which was a reasonably decent offering for business class.

Drinks were served with some packaged crackers.

Japan Airlines Business Class Lunch Apéritif BOS-NRT

Obviously you’d want to focus on sake or shochu while flying a Japanese airline. For our meal, we asked to do a sake flight. The purser was serving our aisle and kindly obliged. She brought out all the bottles and poured each sake table-side.

Lunch commenced with a bento box of starters. In true Japanese MO, each square on the menu represented the exact location of each dish in the bento box. The appetizers included radish and carrot in vinegar sauce, simmered abalone & fish cake & shrimp & kelp roll with salmon, sweet-simmered chestnut and sweet potato paste, ginger-flavored braised beef, tuna sashimi with egg yolk vinegar, sliced duck breast, miso-marinated cheese prosciutto, savory cabbage, and sweet pickled tomato. Note that each little square contained 1-3 kinds of different dishes, so the elaborateness was truly astonishing.

Japan Airlines Business Class Lunch Appetizer BOS-NRT

Japan Airlines Business Class Lunch Beverages BOS-NRT

The food was every bit as tasty as it looked. I was slightly apprehensive about the catering out of Boston, but JAL certainly had its quality control in place to ensure the food was to its standard. It was so fun to try out such an impressive assortment of small bites, while pairing with a variety of sakes. The 14 hours flew by quickly when lunch took almost 3 of them.

To space out the food and alcohol, I found this Japanese TV show in which the hosts went on quests for the best ramen. The IFE selection was on the other hand extremely limited. Series weren’t available in whole seasons either. Later into the flight I caught myself chuckling as I was eating ramen from the snack menu while watching a show about ramen, or maybe I was over-served on plum wine. Is plum wine the most underrated Japanese alcohol or what?

Japan Airlines B787-9 Business Class IFE

For main course, beef sukiyaki and grilled salmon “yu-an” style were served. I also tried the sea bass with parsnip purée and carrot lobster sauce from the western menu, as a test of how good the catering actually was.

Japan Airlines Business Class Lunch Main Course BOS-NRT

The sea bass blew the Japanese option out of water. It was so buttery and perfectly cooked (reheated). It’s not an exaggeration when I say the sea bass was as good as a black cod. Oh wait, did I mention the rice on JAL is freshly cooked? Like there’s an actual rice cooker on the plane. The Uonuma Koshihikari rice comes from Niigata prefecture. I have no idea where that is but it sounds delicious. Say goodbye to the mushy rice served on other airlines!

To complement an already substantial meal, JAL prepared a lighter dessert of coffee blanc-manger.

Japan Airlines Business Class Lunch Dessert BOS-NRT

Needless to say the meal was excellent. Shortly after the trays were cleared, the flight attendants came around to offer a mattress pad. The pad itself was quite comfy, but it didn’t come with a mattress cover or anything. JAL also does’t provide pjs in business class, which sure is a shame.

I never felt tired during the flight, given we left Boston at noon and were traveling westbound, so we had sunlight the entire time. Halfway through the flight over the Bering Strait, I ordered the malt marinated chicken rice bowl and the soba from the snack menu. The chicken was amazing, juicy and tender, but the soba was a bit underwhelming. For some reason I had expected it to be real noodles with toppings, but instead it was an instant version of it. The char shu ramen I had in JAL’s first class before was memorable to this day, I guess hence the disappointment.

Japan Airlines Business Class Snacks BOS-NRT

Drinks were free flowing. Between me and my partner, we probably killed a bottle of plum wine and a bottle of sake. At least one flight attendant was cruising the cabin every so often to make sure everybody was taken care of. We never had to press the call button.

To wash down the snacks, I ordered a Japanese whiskey, which was a Yamazaki I haven’t seen before. Based on the label it could be either a non-aged version, or one only sold in Japan. I don’t know that much about whiskies, but it was pretty good, not nearly as sweet as the 18 years.

Japan Airlines Business Class Beverage BOS-NRT

The flight crew didn’t lock the window dimmers on this flight, so I was able to look outside as we were over Siberia, which sure was gorgeous.

About 1.5hrs out of Narita, the crew turned on the cabin lights for the final pre-arrival meal. Unfortunately we were told the Japanese option was out, even though we sat in row 2. I assume people had proactively reserved it after the first meal. Lesson learnt🤷‍♂️.

The coq au vin didn’t sound too appealing, so I asked for a gyudon just in case. The chicken did turn out to be subpar, so I just ate the gyudon instead.

Japan Airlines Business Class Dinner BOS-NRT

On Arrival:

Japan Airlines made for an epic return to my long-haul flying since Covid. It’s airlines like JAL that make flying an irreplaceable joy in life. The Japanese hospitality was particularly heartfelt after a hiatus. Granted, there were some shortcomings that JAL could’ve done better, such as proper bedding, better headphones, large entertainment selection and pajamas. Overall, JAL is undoubtedly one of the top airlines you could hope for. Trust me when I say I’ve never had a bad flight on JAL, in every class of service. Yes, even in economy.

I do want to bring up that JAL’s main rivalry All Nippon Airways (ANA) introduced a brand new business class product. I haven’t tried it out myself due to the pandemic, but from reports I’ve seen it’s poised to be the absolute best business class in the world. JAL will feel the competition as the world reopens.

Shortly we had a smooth landing at Narita, with two hours until our connecting flight to Bangkok.

Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-9 Boston to Tokyo Narita

JL7 BOS-NRT

December 30th, 2021

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