It might be reasonable to expect that a business class seat on a mid- to long-haul flight in Asia on a five-star airline in 2025 would lie flat.
Not so with ANA, which still operates Boeing 787 Dreamliners with cradle recliners on intra-Asia (and trans-Pacific, for that matter) routes. I expected to be a little disappointed on my flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, but due to the early afternoon timing of the flight and the short five-hour hop to Tokyo, I didn’t miss having a bed at all and while in-flight, didn’t even recline my seat that much.
I’d booked the seat for just 36,000 Avianca LifeMiles and less than $50 in taxes and fees. So, even if I was disappointed with the outcome, I certainly had not lost too much. By the end of the perfectly enjoyable flight, though, I realized that I had not only gotten a deal, but I had scored a steal. And what’s more, I learned a valuable lesson – namely, that you don’t actually need a bed on a daytime flight of under six hours.
The business class cabin on ANA’s Boeing 787-8
The cabin on ANA’s Boeing 787 reminded me a little bit of a shinkansen train. Bright and airy, the high ceilings of the cabin bring to mind my second favorite mode of transit. Because of the open layout, there is nothing like a suite door or anything other fancy constructions to obstruct the windows, so each window seat has the lighting and brightness of two and a half or three Dreamliner-sized windows. The cabin is similarly spartan as a shinkansen. You will have everything you need at your perfectly comfortable seat, but do not expect any sort of additional luxuries. ANA’s Dreamliner cabin is not particularly decked out. The inflight entertainment screen, while certainly not boasting the latest and greatest such as bluetooth connectivity and 4K, is perfectly serviceable although the movie selection is not particularly vast unless you are a fan of Japanese cinema and anime.
And, just like on a shinkansen, you do not have much privacy. I( would argue that there is even less so on the Dreamliner due to the fact that there is no seat directly in front of you to cover you up a bit. While the seats do have a small plastic divider between them, I could still see plenty of what my neighbor at the window seat was up to the entirety of the flight.
A small bottle of water was placed at each seat as well as slippers and a menu and landing forms. There was no amenity kit per se, but there were toothbrushes and toothpaste in the restrooms. A pre-departure beverage was offered, and I chose champagne, like a sane person. Although the seats don’t recline fully into beds, as discussed, I did see a couple of salarymen dozing off throughout the flight while in recline mode. But then again, Japanese salarymen can sleep anywhere.
The food on ANA’s Boeing 787-8
While the hard product is more utilitarian than glamorous and not going to win any awards, the soft product is where ANA shines. And of course, that includes the meal service. I will always choose Japanese food on a Japanese airline and the Japanese option for my flight consisted of both chicken and fish as the main dish – simmered chicken with vegatables and miso-marinated black cod.
There were a couple of Thai-influenced amuse bouche options, but after that it was traditional as it comes, beginning with small bites, moving into the main with rice, pickles and miso soup, and ending with green tea and fruit. While the miso-marinated black cod was outstanding (I would have been happy to have it on the ground), the sticky smell of baked fish wafting through the cabin for about a half hour was a bit much. And, most importantly, the champagne kept flowing throughout the meal.
While I did not snap any photos of the menu, ANA posts up to the menus on its website and is very specific, listing each menu on every individual route.
The service on ANA from Bangkok to Tokyo
If you have been to Japan, you probably are aware that English is not spoken to the degree that you might expect, even in the service sector. This trend tends to continue to apply to Japanese airlines. While in many countries, a lack of English can lead to a lack of service, this is very much not the case with ANA. The flight attendants do not ignore you because their English isn’t quite up to snuff. On the contrary, they pamper you because they feel a little bad that their English is not as good as it should be. My water and champagne glass was never empty and I scored a couple tea refills without having to ask as well. True to form, although our flight experienced just a minor delayed, the flight crew continued to express their apologies and disappointments, even for just a couple of minutes, something that a flight crew would not bat an eye at in the United States.
The bottom line
While most points people are talking about ANA’s The Room these days, I went back to the basics and rediscovered what made me love the Asian airlines to begin with – their friendly and attentive service and their wonderful food. This combination made me a convert to the no fully flat business class approach. Don’t get me wrong. You won’t catch me dead voluntarily booking a cradle recliner in business class for a redeye or a flight longer than eight hours or so but for a mid-haul daytime flight, a little leg room and plenty of champagne is really all you need. For the return flight to Bangkok, I flew in JAL First Class (stay tuned) but the ANA outbound was probably 85% of the way there.