A while back, I managed to redeem my American Aadvantage miles to book a business class seat on a flight between Tokyo and New York JFK on Japan Airlines’ 787 Dreamliner.  With a total flight time of nearly 13 hours, I had a lot of time to enjoy the experience. Here’s how it went:

Flight Stats:

Seat: 2A
Carrier: JL 004
Route: Tokyo, JP to New York, US
Flight Time: 12 hours, 55 minutes

Departure Time: 6:30 p.m.
Arrival Time: 6:25 p.m.
Aircraft: Boeing 787-900

At the Airport:

Business class passengers queue up in a separate area.

At Narita, business class passengers have access to the Sakura lounge, which is identified on your boarding pass.

The lounge itself is spread over two floors: sitting area on the 1st floor, and dining on the 2nd floor. After checking out the area downstairs, I headed upstairs to get some food.

 

A while later, it was time to board. Here’s a view of the aircraft:

 

In-Flight Experience

Seating configuration on the flight in business class is in a 2-2-2 configuration. And here’s my seat!

 

I’m a pretty short guy (5’ 5’’) and my legs couldn’t even reach the foot rest!

A view of my monitor. Nice and big!

 

 

Seat controls. More than I’ve ever seen on any flight!

The seat is definitely more than just a seat. In fact, Japan Airlines officially calls this their “SkySuite.”

Ready for take off!

For those sitting near the window, a sort of wall separates you and your neighbor, which made this seat particularly private.

 

For perspective, here’s how the business class section looks like.

When you’re ready for your bed to be made up, you can request turn-down service from the flight attendant. The padding JAL used was amazingly soft.

Another interesting aspect about flying with JAL was the bathrooms. Specifically, it was my first time seeing a bidet (or any option frankly) available on an airplane.

 

JAL Business Class Dining

Business class passengers had the option of going with either Japanese or Western cuisine. Here’s the menu.

 

 

 

 

 

I opted for the kobachi bowls as my appetizer. Here’s one of them:

 

 

I also thought this simple crane to rest your chopsticks was a nicely done touch. 

 

View from the Wing:

This was my first time traveling on a Dreamliner. One thing that I thought was interesting was how you raise and lower your window shades. Rather than a manual window shade, the Dreamliner had a button that gradually made the window opaque. I definitely thought that this was something different, and I’m not sure I quite like it. It’s a lot easier to simply pull up or down a shade rather than pressing a button.

 

A favorite part of flying between the US Northeast and East Asia is the wonderful scenery we got to fly over.

 

 

 

Overall

Japan Airlines Business Class Sky Suite was definitely a memorable and worthwhile experience. I’d highly recommend opting for a seat near window as it affords extra privacy. Overall I highly enjoyed this particular journey, and can’t wait to do it again!