Japan Airlines B787 Business Class review

22 Jun, 2025

Posts from this Trip Report:

My journey continued further into Asia, with an overnight flight heading west (which is quite rare). Though I slept a few solid hours on my flight from LAX, the lemon drop shots and food at SG Low kind of used up all my leftover energy.

But I knew this was going to be a little less comfortable than the other flight. The short 6-hour flight time meant that I would probably only get about 3 hours asleep, after factoring in takeoff, landing, food service, etc.

Boarding + Seat

The boarding process remained just as efficient as the experience in Los Angeles. Boarding commenced right on time 30 minutes before departure at around 00:55AM. This flight wasn't nearly as full as the transpacific one, and I would estimate the plane was only about half full.

Now one thing I felt was quite iconic and funny - Shohei Ohtani were in so many ads all around Japan. Even when boarding your flight, you couldn't escape the presence of the GOAT ballplayer!

JALs B787-900 business class product features the "Sky Suite III". This produce is a Saffran reverse herringbone seat that's commonly seen on other airlines. I've griped about the reverse herringbone configuration before. While it's a lot more comfortable than the narrow herringbones, I find it can't really accommodate my long legs when sleeping. My knees always get a beating as I try my best to contort my body within the little cocoon.

This plane had a whopping 52 Business Class seats arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. I was expecting a much less premium-heavy configuration for this route, especially for such an oddly-timed flight. But given the flight was only half-full, even though I booked pretty last minute I was able to assign myself 10A, a window seat on the left side of the plane.

Waiting at each seat was an amenity kit that contained what you would typically expect from a medium-haul package. Had all the basics, but wasn't anything super special.

To the left of the seat is a cubby that has a wide mirror, which I did appreciate. There was also a pair of headsets - I can't sleep with full over-ear headsets so I didn't end up using it this flight.

The tray table for this seat folds down from the side, which isn't something you typically see. The good news is it's out of the way of my knees! The extra couple of inches really made a big difference.

Seat controls were tucked away to the side. Thankfully, these were a lot less worn than some of the really beat up ones I've seen.

Food + Drink

I was just as impressed with the food offerings for this overnight flight. Even though it was nearly 2AM and the flight was just about 6 hours long, JAL was offering a full meal. Sure, the menu was a little smaller than the transpacific flight, US airlines would probably just offer some snacks and call it a day.

I didn't have any food on this flight because I ate a ton both at the Izakaya restaurant and also in the lounge before the flight. In hindsight, I sure wish I ordered it just to try out the flavors!

I managed to get about 4 hours of solid sleep. When I woke up, we were already descending into a foggy Bangkok airport.

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#tripreport