Date: 2017/04/22
Flight: JL29
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1000JST/1008JST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 1335HKT/1402HKT
Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA703J
Class: Business (upgraded from Economy using miles)
Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III
Prologue
Date: 2017/04/22
Flight: JL29
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1000JST/1008JST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 1335HKT/1402HKT
Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA703J
Class: Business (upgraded from Economy using miles)
Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III
Prologue
This is one of my regular, periodic flight to Hong Kong. Booking was done on JAL's website which is a pain to use. Painful because its design is that of typical Japanese-design from the 90s.
Pre-boarding
Check-in
I went to the usual JAL check-in aisle. All, I saw was JGC counters. That was fine as I was a member. I think business class counters have moved to another aisle. There wasn't much a wait.I didn't have a bag to check so getting my boarding pass was quick. But after the check in lady had printed my boarding pass, she'd hung on to it. She looked at her screen for may be in reality 15 seconds but what seemed liked forever. She then said that her records show that they have my requested special meal ready and I was ready to go.
I had learned my lesson (in requesting a special meal,) and had called their toll-free number (for JGC members) a few days earlier, got put on hold for ~5 minutes, and requested "oriental vegetarian meals" for flights to and from HKG.
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| Maison Kayser Baked Goods |
Lounge
Being a Saturday, security and immigration weren't busy. I soon found myself in the Sakura Lounge, having the usual lounge breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, fresh salads, and some rice. Tried the croissants for the first time and it was surprisingly good. There was a toaster to heat things up, if so desired. The sign said baked goods were supplied by the Japanese outpost of Maison Kayser. If you aren't too much into the Japanese take of a western breakfast, try the baked goods for they went very well with the cappuccino from the WMF machine. At least try the croissants.
At the Gate
JL29 to HKG used to depart from gate 112, or 113, or 114, the gates closest to the lounge and everything else. But since JAL's replacing its HND «» HNL with HND «» JFK from 2017/04/01, all the closest gates are now serving long haul flights. On this day, gates 112, 113, and 114 had flights going to JFK, CDG, and LHR respectively. My flight was departing from gate 147, in the new extension of the International terminal.
Boarding was supposed to start at 0930. AT 0926, they announced that boarding had been delayed to 0935. Though there is no first-class on this flight, there was a line for First Class passengers. I guess that line is for their top tier mileage club members and they did get to board first.
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| Why so many buttons? |
On Board
Seats
See my earlier entry about the claustrophobic "Sky Suite III". Having experienced the refreshingly minimalist design of the controls on Hawaiian Airlines, everything about this "Sky Suite III" is in-you-face.
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| Oriental Vegetarian |
Food
The oriental vegetarian meal was delicious. The only exception, was the very chewy bun in the plastic bag. Usually, their bread supplier (for business class anyway,) is the aforementioned Maison Kayser, but not for special meals. The main course was sweet-and-sour-"pork" with rice. The "pork" was actually made from soy. The texture was very close to pork. The sweat-and-sour sauce was a little too acidic otherwise it was delicious
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| Appetizers: Vegetarian wraps, deep fried mushrooms, minced tofu on vermicelli |
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| Sweat-and-sour-faux-pork |
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| Desert: White fungus (雪耳,) mango, red dates. |
Service
An announcement came on at 1000JST, the scheduled departure time, to say we couldn't leave just yet as the necessary paper work had to be completed. But that was a lie because as soon as the passenger in 1A boarded, the front door door closed and push-back commenced. The truth was that we were all waiting for this V.I.P in seat 1A. One has to be a V.I.P to reserve 1A in the first place. JAL has blocked off the bulkheads for their top tier loyalty program (JMB) members.
Flight attendants were way more interested in peddling in-flight shopping. They got on the P.A. system, therefore interrupting people's movies to announce the start of the shopping service. The first time in Japanese, then English. The second time in Cantonese. I wish they would only use the P.A. system for essential broadcasts. Meanwhile, I had to use the "call" button to get more Perrier. Had to do that three times for three refills.
Flight attendants were way more interested in peddling in-flight shopping. They got on the P.A. system, therefore interrupting people's movies to announce the start of the shopping service. The first time in Japanese, then English. The second time in Cantonese. I wish they would only use the P.A. system for essential broadcasts. Meanwhile, I had to use the "call" button to get more Perrier. Had to do that three times for three refills.
Epilogue
The only reason I flew JAL was that they where cheaper than CX.
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