Haneda/ RJTT / HND RWY05
Date: 2017/08/18
Flight: JL29
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1000JST/1010JST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 1335HKT/1329HKT
Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA703J
Class: Business
Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III
Prologue
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| Haneda/ RJTT / HND RWY05 |
Date: 2017/08/18
Flight: JL29
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1000JST/1010JST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 1335HKT/1329HKT
Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA703J
Class: Business
Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III
Prologue
Another regular trip 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
There wasn't a wait at the JGC counters. The lady who processed my check-in quickly confirmed that I'd pre-ordered an Oriental Vegetarian Meal. So far so good. But then, the lady noticed that my passport was to expire in about 3 weeks' time. She asked if I had a visa to visit Hong Kong. I said my passport/nationality doesn't require a visa to enter Hong Kong. Moreover, as she could surely see on her system, I had a paid-for, non-refundable return flight in a few days' time. But that wasn't good enough. She called for a supervisor and it took a lot of convincing before they would let me proceed.To be fair, the Hong Kong government said that my passport must have a 6-month validity for a visa-free entry. But then, why was I allowed to travel on JAL to Hong Kong in April then again in June 2017 when my passport had less than 6 months of validity? If for whatever reason I'm refused entry, I have already paid-for the return-ticket to Tokyo. So, it's not like JAL would be stuck with the bill for repatriating me. Anyhow, the two ladies (the original staff who helped me, and her supervisor,) gave me a hard time before letting me go.
When they finally gave me my boarding pass, I asked if the satellite Sakura lounge has the same selection of foods and drinks as that of the main one. (I had learned my lesson when I flew from Narita that the satellite Sakura lounge there only had a subset of breakfast offerings.) The lady said though the satellite lounge is smaller, it serves the same food and in fact, it's less crowded/busy than the main one.
Lounge
The satellite Sakura Lounge (officially named "Skyview") is located in the newer part of the Haneda international terminal. Also, since last April, when JAL replaced its HND » HNL route with HND » JFK, flight JL29 (to HKG) had been exiled to the farther gates of 140-something. So using the satellite lounge made sense as it was closer to my of the day, gate#146.
The dining area was smaller but the food was the same so no complaints there. Also, as the check-in lady said, it felt less busy as the main lounge. But for First Class passengers, they would have to put up with people like me going to and from the washroom. That's because First Class passengers don't get their own exclusive lounge. Instead, maybe 1/4 of the area was condoned off and we could see them and them us, on our way to the bathroom.
Boarding
Passengers were funneled to 2 queues for boarding. One for business class, premier economy, and upper tier One World. The other one was for economy passengers. When I got to the gate, priority boarding had already started. But my queue was long and slow-moving. That's because there was only one staff re-checking people's passports and boarding passes, and inevitably there were quite a few people who got into the wrong queue. But they weren't told to move to the other queue until they got their passports/boarding passes checked by the lone staff. There were still quite a few people ahead of me when they started boarding economy passengers. You would think JAL would be more experienced in boarding passengers smoothly but on this particular flight, "smooth" was nowhere to be found.
On Board
Seats
See my earlier entry about the claustrophobic "Sky Suite III".
Déjà vu! It's the exact same Oriental Vegetarian Meal from my last two JL29 flights. One in April 2017, and one in premium economy in June 2017. Even the chewy rubber-like bun was the same. I read recently that around 5% of the Japanese population is vegetarian (as compared to ~13% of that of Taiwan.) So, I guess that's why JAL doesn't care about vegetarian passengers. However, considering JAL is the Japanese flag carrier and that it aimed to serve foreign passengers too, this was very disappointing. Also, I guess that's why China Airline Lounges in Taiwan has a dedicated selection of vegetarian foods.
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| JL29, 2017/08/18: Oriental Vegetarian |
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| JL29: 2017/08/18: Oriental Vegetarian, Appetizer. |
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| JL29: 2017/08/18: Oriental Vegetarian, Main. |
Service
The rear door was closed at 0948. At 1001, i.e. one minute passed the scheduled departure time, an announcement said that we were waiting for delayed transit passengers from Osaka. (Fun fact: JAL, the flag-carrier of Japan, doesn't operate any flights between Osaka and Hong Kong. They only have code-shares with Cathay Pacific.) In the end, the front door was closed at 1006 and I didn't see anyone boarding since the announcement.
A young boy of maybe 5 or 6 six years old sat across the aisle from me. His mother sat behind him. Not long after the seat belt signs were turned off, he went to toilet. I knew this because not long after take off, I heard loud thumping and banging, and the boy's yell for his "mama." Note, I heard this even when I was using the JAL headphones, though I had yet to turn on the noise-cancelling function. It took me a few seconds to realize that the boy was trapped in the bathroom. I looked around and saw that no one was making a move to rescue the boy. I unbuckled myself and got up to make my way to the bathroom. I saw his mother was oblivious to the situation. She was listening to whatever with her own headphones. I then saw a male flight attendant talking to another passengers a few rows down from the toilet. He was facing fore and I motioned to him about the noise. It was only then when he started to go to the toilet to free the boy. I was saddened that both the mother and the crew did nothing till then, till I had already started to make my way towards the toilet. And that sums up the service of this flight, it showed much the crew cared for the passengers. I'm sure the boy's cry for help was heard throughout the business class cabin.
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| Noise cancelling headphones. |
Epilogue
The only reason I flew JAL was that they where cheaper than Cathay Pacific.
