Japan Airlines 787 Business Class: Boston to Tokyo (JL 7)
Japan Airlines’ Boston to Tokyo was our first international flight in business class, and we couldn’t have been more excited to experience everything it has to offer.
Table of Contents
Booking
We used Alaska Airlines points to book this and Tokyo – Hong Kong flights. Alaska Air allows stop over bookings so these flights were booked in one transaction (with Tokyo being the “stop over”) and we used 65,000 points per person.
The best part about using the Alaska Airlines points is that you can purchase them at a discount so the cost of these business class flights ended up being almost the same price as an economy class ticket paid for out-of-pocket. See our detailed post on how we were able to do it here.
Lounge
Since Japan Airlines don’t have their own lounge at Boston Logan airport, they are using British Airways lounge.
We got to the lounge at about 11 am, and, surprisingly, it was almost empty. We had plenty of seat choices.
The buffet offered a variety of options: sandwiches, wraps, soup, salad, noodles and more.
My favorite was prosciutto fig sandwich, Bunky enjoyed chicken noodle soup.
Seat
Japan Airlines 787-8 business class has 2-2-2 layout which was perfect for us since we were able to sit together and had a view. In fact, Bunky’s window seat was like a mini-suite with two windows, direct aisle access, and a privacy partition between our seats.
JAL Sky Suite seats are exactly what you would expect from a business class seat: comfortable with plenty of storage.
Food
I went with the Japanese menu for my dinner.
It started with Tomato Mousse & Bocconcini and Marinated Zucchini & Shrimp.
Then came the bento box with:
Simmered
Chinese Cabbage
Roll stuffed with
Minced Chicken
Yam Jelly
Simmered
Broccoli Raab &
Abalone
Simmered
Bamboo Shoots
& Eel
Japanese Pepper
Flavor
Japanese Omelette
Tender Simmered Octopus
Mashed Pumpkin Ball
Simmered Shrimp
Grilled Duck Breast with Miso Sauce
The main course was Braised Beef & Tofu with Sweet Soy Sauce, steamed rice, and miso soup.
I finished my dinner with Strawberry Panna Cotta.
I truly enjoy food and I am always up for trying new dishes, so I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner. Can’t say the same for Bunky. But it was expected and we came prepared with bunch of snacks for her.
I did pre-order a kids meal for her hoping it would be less adventurous than the adult options.
Here is what she got:
Appetizer of egg salad & shrimp and dried apricots & figs.
What did she out of these? A tiny bite of the egg salad.
Second course was… more of the egg salad. This time with veggies, fruit, a pack of M&Ms, and a caramel dessert.
Kids main course was egg omelette and tomato rice. I have also asked for soup for her. She ate the omelette and soup, but wanted nothing to do with the tomato rice. As expected.
The second meal was served about an hour before the arrival.
It was a bit confusing as apparently we were supposed to order from “anytime menu” whenever we felt like it, but I was waiting for a flight attendant to come over and offer us a menu. Finally, seeing that we had not ordered yet and the time was running out, she came over and let us know we needed to order very soon.
There was a little miscommunication as I ordered seafood/vegetable stew and fruit, but, I am assuming, the flight attendant thought I ordered stew and then changed my mind to ordered fruit instead. Not a big deal, as I wasn’t that hungry anyway and I had Bunky’s meal to pick at.
As there was no “kid” option for the second meal, I asked the flight attendant to bring anything kid-friendly she had.
Bunky ended up with vegetables in creamy sauce, cheese & crackers, cold cuts, fruit, and a dessert.
Entertainment
JAL Sky Suites feature large 23 inch LCD touch screens that can also be controlled with a remote.
The movies selection was decent and it kept us entertained during the wake hours.
In addition to the movies, we had access to e-books (including Sky Manga), games and music.
I did purchase Wi-Fi for the duration of the flight hoping to get some work done, but the speed was so slow I was not able to complete simple tasks online.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’d say our trip was excellent. 15 hours flew by very quick. It must have something to do with lay flat seats and yummy food (and plum wine) 😉
We were able to save literally thousands on this flight by using points, and I am already stockpiling the points for our future adventures so we could experience the same level of comfort on the loooong flights.
See the video review of the flight here:
3 Comments
Josie
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admin
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GreggFlula
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