JAPAN AIRLINES First Class and Business Class Seat reviews

JAPAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :  BOEING 777

LHR to NRT return Business Class. Seats are not lie flat, and I found them OK for sitting but sleeping was a different matter. The seats are very narrow and almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep in, particularly if you prefer to sleep on your side. You also feel the bars in the joints of the seat when trying to lie out, and of course suffer from the sliding down the seat that this type is prone to. The seat also feels short when extended if you are 6ft or over again making it very difficult to sleep. There is also zero storage space at the seat. All-in-all, the seats in JAL Business Class are poor compared to their competitors.

JAPAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :  BOEING 767

Vancouver to Narita. The seat is like a narrow recliner so OK if you are comfortable with sleeping in a lounge chair. Difficult for tall people to find a really comfortable position. Fortunately the flight was not full otherwise there would not have been much space. Food and service was excellent and the decor of the plane pleasant for a 767.

JAPAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :  BOEING 777-300

Shell Flat Neo Seat (JFK-NRT). As others have stated, slant prevents comfortable sleep due to slipping down. Seat is definitely not long enough for anyone over 5/8". The presence of a middle seat is truly ridiculous given the $12,000 price of a business class seat. As is having to "walk over" your aisle seatmate to exit the window seat. Food is ok, good variety of western and Asian foods. Movie selection limited. Amenities also limited. All in all I've had much better business class experiences on other airlines.

The JAL seat is simply not up to the standard set by Cathay. It does not lie flat and it is incredibly uncomfortable for anyone over 6 feet tall. It is impossible to fully extend your legs, making sleep equally impossible. Additionally, the seats are set up in 2-3-2 alignment. The very notion of a middle seat in business class seems unfathomable. I spent many years saving up miles for this trip and felt like half of them were wasted due to a vastly inferior JAL business product.

Entertainment system has updated to on-demand, but selection is fairly limited. B777 seat angled lie flat, sliding is a problem when trying to sleep. Front row seats are far more spacious. B767 seat was the equivalent of Premium Econ for other airlines - zero chance of sleeping on a 9 hour flight, very disappointing.

ORD-NRT-SYD The seats were incredibly hard, the pod is first generation which is unusual considering JAL had so much time to consider the standard problems with other airlines such as the ridiculous sloping angle from head to toe. When I first converted the chair to the bed, I thought my legs were going to break as the leg rest pressed upwards under the seat compartment in front. JAL runs the temperature on their aircraft at 24 degrees which is very hot considering the number of people on a 747 sitting in close proximity. IFE was obsolete, with very few movies on offer. I would not recommend this product.

The seats were the new Solo seats, which are very nice except when flat. They, like others, have still not figured out how to take the lumps and valleys out. Japanese prefer a hard seat, and that was just too firm for me. Food was excellent, but you will not have to worry about your weight because the portions are so small - but delicious.

B767 between Incheon/Narita & B747 between Narita/San Francisco. This was my first experience on Japan Airlines as I usually fly with either Singapore Airlines or Korean Air. Incheon to Narita was a short flight; therefore, I didn't expect too much with its service. Business seat was comfortable and lunch was great. The JAL business lounge at the Naritay had black-out and very crowded with less desk spaces for laptop plug-ins. NRT-SFO, I was given upper deck seat on B747-400. The modern shell-type business seat comfortable. Very similar to that on Qantas Airways B747s. Inflight service excellent.

An OK product with attentive cabin crew and good food. The seat was old-style. It was comfortable and wide, although legroom could have been more as should the recline.

Earlier reviews have been archived (prior to the date of last review above).