• Introduction
• Starting Out and American Airlines’ Flagship Lounge – Chicago
• Review: Japan Airlines First Class 777-300ER Chicago-Narita
• Review: Japan Airlines First Class Lounge – Haneda
• Review: Japan Airlines Business Class 777-200 Haneda to Bangkok
• Review: Thai Airways Orchard Spa and Royal Orchard Lounge
• Review: Thai Airways 787-8 Business Class – Bangkok to Denpasar-Bali
• Review: Grand Hyatt Bali
• Review: Denpasar-Bali Airport and Premier Lounge
• Review: Singapore A330 Business Class Denpasar-Bali to Singapore
• Review: Grand Hyatt Singapore
• Review: Singapore Airlines Private Room
• Review: Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class Singapore to Hong Kong
• Review: Emirates Lounge – Hong Kong
• Review: Emirates A380 First Class Hong Kong to Dubai
• Review: Emirates First Class Terminal – Dubai
• Review: Emirates A380 First Class Dubai to Washington, DC (Dulles)

We boarded our Japan Airlines flight pretty early. Despite that it was a bit of a jockeying for position, as we soon found that our seats were in the cabin just aft of Door 2L (despite us boarding via door 1L). All in all, things worked out.

The seats are only angled lay flat, but, for a 6 or so hour flight, they weren’t horrible (but certainly not what I’m used to).

The part that was more difficult, was the lack of a true meal service after departure. I ended up having some noodles, and some potato soup, and luckily that plus a couple of vodka and orange juices was enough to tide me over until the pre-arrival breakfast.

The crew, I felt was particularly good. Before departure, they had put my wife’s purse up in the overhead compartment. As soon as we reached 10,000 feet, the same flight attendant came back and took my wife’s purse down and passed it to her. The level of detail and memory was truly appreciated.

About 2 hours before arrival, the crew started serving breakfast. Both my wife and I had chosen the Western option, which was eggs, yogurt, potato salad, some bread, and some fruit. Under the eggs was a chicken sausage. It was sufficient to keep us going, but by no means anything to write home about.

The crew going out of it’s way was something to write home about. Within an hour or so of landing, a gentleman in front of us was getting rather nervous. He was checking his briefcase, his sports jacket (after receiving it from a flight attendant), and still he looked very nervous. Before long, he had the purser, in addition to at least two more flight attendants. Clearly he had lost something.

Flashlights were broken out. Eventually he moved to a different seat. For me, this was giving me flashbacks of a Swiss Flight from Beijing to Zurich where I had momentarily lost my cellphone. I was feeling for the guy, despite not knowing what was missing. The three flight attendants continued to work, pulling apart the man’s seat. Eventually, one pulled out a slightly ruffled Japanese passport.

Disaster was averted, and just like that, the flight attendants returned to their normal duties. I’m sure they realize how big a deal this was, and their perseverance, but I just want to highlight it, because, if I were in that situation, I’d be screaming from the rooftops, about their awesomeness. I do recall doing so when my phone was temporarily lost on my Swiss airlines flight. At a minimum, there were hugs.

Wrapping up

Regional flights are seldom anything to write home about. This wasn’t necessarily anything special, except for the crew going out of their way. It is kind’ve a shame that Japan Airlines is still flying angled lay flats, when I think Thai Airways is flying lay flats (on some of their aircraft), and regionally, Cathay has been putting more and more full lay flats (like what we flew to and from Singapore back in September)