Good points and bad points of JAL

JAL

☆☆☆☆☆

SIN-NRT and NRT-HKG First Class. Superb service, excellent food and champagne/wine selection. Older style seats, but very well maintained and more comfortable than some of the newer pod seats. Bathrooms look as though they are polished between use. Fantastic new VIP departure service in Singapore and golf cart ride in HK from arrival gate to immigration. I always feel really pampered on this airline. by Bill Atkins

ORD-NRT-SIN and KUL-NRT-ORD in C. Used miles to upgrade from Y to C, great use of miles. Service excellent on both transpacific sectors, lucky enough to be able to seat 19K, upper deck exit row in the shell seats makes for a very good trip. Best service on NRT-SIN, FA couldn't do enough for me. KUL-NRT is a sleeping sector for me because it's a redeye. I understand the complaints from the Aussie pax about the old C seats, they are most certainly a let down compared to the shell flat seats. Other major JAL complaint is the IFE. I rarely use it but I can see where it might lag compared to other Asian carriers. by Stephen Ostrander


☆OR☆☆


I had booked 4 Business Class tickets SYD-NRT-SYD on JL772/JL771 in April and was very disappointed with the service. This flight is sold as JAL but it is executed by Jalways which is a low-service subsidiary of JAL. The 55 seats in "Executive" Class were old and offered very limited recline. There were only 2 toilets which is totally insufficient for 55 passengers. There were no welcome drinks and the famous Japanese Aruga Blanca Clareza wine advertized on JAL's website was not served on these flights. The inflight entertainment list suggested a good selection of movies but apparently this required the "Magic III" system and the aircraft only had "Magic II" so the choice was limited to less than 10 English movies (some of which very old). Only cheap and outdated headsets without noise-cancelation capabilities were offered. The food was equally disappointing: we were sitting in the rear of the executive section and, although the flight was not sold out, there was no choice of meals left by the time we were served and we all had to accept a mediocre "western style" meal of not more than regular Economy Class standards. All in all a very disappointing JAL "Executive Class" experience and not worth any money at all over regular Economy Class. by E DeJong


Sydney/Narita/Sydney. We were booked on this flight as part of a package tour to Japan and our first experience of Y class with this airline, having previously flown Business class with them, which was excellent. The seating on the outward flight was narrow and uncomfortable, and the in- flight entertainment poor. When I asked for an eyemask, I was told that ALL amenities for this class had been discontinued 3 months before! The meal served on the outward flight was good, but on the return trip was appalling, and breakfast also poor. Cabin staff were attentive, and cared well for my husband, who was taken ill during the flight. I would not like to repeat this experience. by Pat Davies