This is part of our Thanksgiving Round the World trip, you can find my initial thoughts / intro here, The Grand Hyatt Tokyo review here and The Grand Hyatt Beijing here. 

This will be part one of the ANA Flight 1101 -Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Tokyo-Narita (NRT) review as I flew in ANA Square (First) Class and my wife and mother in-law flew in business. ANA Flight 1101 was operated by a 777-300ER (77W).

I always try to get my initial thoughts on a particular flight down either onboard, or very soon after. Then I let them simmer so that I can ensure I’m covering everything.

I boarded through 1L, and the cabin had at most 3 out of the 8 seats filled when we took off. The seats were roomy, however it was a bit of a challenge to actually look out the window (see below).

Seat

I was quite excited to see a Rimowa kit sitting in the seat waiting for me — this is my second Rimowa kit (my first was Lufthansa), but it doesn’t get old. There was also a blanket, slippers (that didn’t fit, much to the despair of the flight attendants), a pair of pajamas and a cardigan.

Amenities

Kashima, introduced herself as purser and apologized that we would be delayed due to de-icing. She and her team were consistent to a fault.

Of course, I couldn’t help but enjoy a glass of Krug while we boarded (as I did pass back and forth to the Business Mini-Cabin to check on my wife and mother in law).

Krug

Krug

The dinner service was wonderful. I started out with Caviar (it was a lot, as you can see below), which was good but I couldn’t finish it.

Next was a salad.

For my entree, I had steak – it was a bit under cooked to my tastes, but by the time I realized it, it was a bit too late to send it back.

And I finished off with some ice cream.

It was efficient, and it even included a quite enjoyable Sake tasting.

Sake Tasting

Since the cabin was 3/8, Kashima and her colleagues set up 1G for a bed, midway through dinner. The bed was wonderful. Kashima was entirely proactive in this regard, which is something that I can say I’ve seen on many other airlines. The duvet was narrow but the mattress pad was posterpedic, ultimately, the bed was very comfortable. I slept 5-6 solid hours which is better then a night at home.

Bed

As we got close to landing, I changed out of my pajamas, and had a light meal of Chicken Curry and rice.

I did ask Kashima for assistance as far as what the best solution to get to our hotel would be, since we were arriving so late. Her colleague came out and wrote out all of the directions for the bus or train (giving us two options), and was kind enough also to write in Japanese the hotel’s name, for easier navigation with a taxi.

We all disembarked via 2L, so it was easy for me to link up with my wife and mother in law. Then it was the normal rat-race to Immigration.

And just to show how much Kashima followed up; My wife, mother in law and I were waiting for the bus to take us to the hotel (Grand Hyatt). This was the option we didn’t think we would make because of the delay. Well, Kashima happened to see me and stepped out just to make sure that we were in the right queue. That’s dedication.