20170416

20170319: JL26: Hong KonG » HaNeDa


Date: 2017/03/19
Flight: JL26
DEP/Actual Push Back: 1540HKT/1538HKT
ARR/Touch Down: 2025JST/2004JST
Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA710J
Class: Business (Restricted Fare)
Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III

Prologue

This is the return flight from Hong Kong

Pre-boarding

No bag to check and I had printed out the boarding pass at the hotel.  So, I went straight through the formalities.

Lounge
JAL customers were directed to the Qantas lounge.  It is spacious, and always empty this time of the day (~14:00HKT)  Ample hot foods and beverages.

At the Gate
Today's gate was 25.  Boarding was to start from 1510.  At 1457, when I was already at the gate, they announced that boarding wouldn't start till 1520.  In the end, boarding started at 1515.

On Board

Seats
Today's seat was 11K.  Note to myself; this seat has one less window than others. Don't use this seat again.   The aircraft was a retrofitted 777-200 with the latest "Sky Suite III"  See my previous flight for more details.




Food
I had requested a vegetarian meal at Haneda.  Other than the bun sealed in a plastic bag, which was stale, the rest was fresh and tasty.

Vegetarian Meal


Appetizer; mushrooms on mashed potato


Main Course: beans, carrots, squash, onions, mash potato

A tiny salad.

Service
The business class cabin was 90% full.  The crew was more interested in promoting in-flight shopping.  They were so eager to sell that the chief purser interrupted everyone's movies by announcing the start of the in-flight shopping.  I wish they wouldn't do that.

In the beginning of the flight, a flight attendant offered newspapers. I asked for English-language ones and she said only "New York Times" and "Japan News" were available.  Though I was hoping for Financial Times and/or Wall Street Journal, I took New York Times.  A few minutes later, I saw another flight attendant walked past on her way to the main cabin with both Financial Times and Wall Street Journal.  It was too late to flag her down so I asked the flight attendant, the one who said they only had NYT and Japan News, for a Wall Street Journal.  It took her a few minutes to get one for me.  




Epilogue

JAL's business class product to/from HKG is mediocre. Their latest and greatest offering of hardware, Sky Suite III is a mistake. Their only advantage over competitors like CX is that it's cheaper to fly JAL.

Bibliography

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/service/business/seat/skysuite3.html
https://www.jal.co.jp/en/jalmile/jgc/

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