ANA B787-900 Business Class review (HND-DEL)
As I slowly begin my trek back towards normal life, this leg of my journey took me southbound from East Asia down to India. Now while I would still consider India part of Asia, Aeroplan's zone chart considers it a part of Europe, which means a slightly higher award bucket. But still, for 60k miles, not a bad deal at all.
Posts from this Trip Report:
- Introduction: A circle tour around Asia
- Swiss Air A330-300 Business Class Review (BOS-ZRH)
- Swiss Air A350-900 Business Suites Review (ZRH-ICN)
- When things go wrong on day of travel...
- ANA B787-900 Business Class Review (HND-DEL)
- TBA
Storytime
So there's a bit of a bonus storytime that fits within this trip report, I was supposed to fly the day prior but I ended up going to the wrong airport.
You can read the full details in the previous post here. In the post, I talk about how to make changes when things do indeed go wrong. And yes, when you talk to me next, you have full permission to call me a knucklehead.
ANA Lounge HND
Those travelling in Business Class get access to the ANA lounge in the international pier. The lounge is immediately after security and customs control, about a 5 minute walk to all the gates.
The lounge itself is quite spacious with plenty of seating available. There are chaise loungers, workstations, couches, dining tables, high tables, and private spaces.
I chose to sit in a semi-private space overlooking the window.
The buffet was a little small but still perfectly sufficient. I got a very light second breakfast.
Multiple drink stations serve both cold and hot, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages are all self-pour. Technically nobody can stop you from pouring multiple shots, but it's kind of frowned upon, especially in Japan. But I mean if a screwdriver or a beer is what you fancy at 9AM, then knock yourself out!
I didn't check out the shower facilities this time around, but plenty are available for use.
Boarding & Seat
I've written about the efficient Japanese boarding process before. It blows my mind how boarding time is scheduled for just 30 minutes prior to departure! The pier at Haneda is a little narrow, so the boarding area felt quite crowded, even with few passengers onboard today.
Boarding started about 5 minutes late with First and Business Class passengers.
ANA's Boeing 787-900 Business Class features an older product in a 1-2-1 configuration. This is nowhere near as spacious as "The Room" nor is it unique like JAL's bizarre 2-3-2 configuration with direct aisle access, but it's still a decent product.
The seat did remind me a little of Swiss's "coffin-style" seats with the narrow footwell and directly adjacent to the person in front. You definitely can feel every kick when the passenger behind you tosses and turns. However, these ANA seats are just a smidge longer and I had no issue with sleeping on my side with my legs bent and outside the footwell.
Waiting at each seat was an amenity kit, slippers, wired noise-cancelling headphones, a sleeping pad, blanket, and a memory foam pillow. The pillow was BY FAR the most comfortable airplane pillow I've ever slept on.
There was a remote control, reading light, USB port, and universal socket plug at each seat. Unfortunately, the seats had no individual air nozzles (I still don't get the aversion). The cabin was definitely on the warmer side throughout the entire flight, so those would have been quite handy.
The tray table slides out from the side of the seat. While the tray table doesn't slide in and out like most airlines, the seat itself is able to moving forwards for dining, which I actually prefer.
The biggest downside of this seat for me is the lack of storage. There's absolutely zero cabinets or cubbies to put anything at all. There's a literature pocket and a headphone hook, but I had to just pile the rest of my stuff on the console next to me, which got a little annoying when turbulence hit.
My FAVORITE part of the Dreamliners though by far are the absolutely massive windows. They don't have windowshades either, so allows for maximum visibility top to bottom, left to right.
But even with a delayed boarding, we pushed back a few minutes ahead of schedule. Really really really impressed with the efficiency!!!
Food & Drink
As we settled in, the flight crew came around with sparkling wine and dining menus.
The same menus are used for flights in both directions so they were a little tired from use, but it does save some paper. The Japanese airlines focus more on food than beverages compared to their European counterparts.
Here's the menu for my flight (from Japan) for the main lunch meal service:
At any point after the initial meal service, the below menu applies. This is the list that you can choose from for your pre-arrival meal.
Below is the menu for the flight going in the other direction (to Japan):
Note that beverage options are the same for both directions:
My rule of thumb is to always choose the Washoku menu when travelling on a Japanese airline. And let me tell you - ANA did not disappoint!
Each course was so intricate and perfect I almost didn't want to eat it! I finished every last bite, everything was far too tasty to pass up.
For dessert, I opted for fresh fruit and a cup of Hojicha, and came to the grim realization that I had consumed probably 2x the daily calories in just 5 short hours.
As Zootopia 2 finished playing on my screen, I passed out for 3 solid hours of rest stemming from my food coma. Here are a few pretty photos I captured before I passed out:
When I woke up, we were about 2 hours from landing and the crew passed through with any other meal requests. I chose the bowl of ramen and the matcha mousse dessert from earlier I didn't get to try.
We rapidly descended into Delhi and landed quite a bit ahead of schedule - always a welcome surprise!
Overall Ratings
- Hard Product: 7/10 - no storage, still cramped but possible to bend legs
- Soft Product: 8.5/10 - basic amenity kit but the pillow was soooo comfortable
- Meals: 10/10 - nothing beats a solid Washoku!
- Service: 10/10 - Japanese standards, what more can I say?