In September last year, I discussed some of the premium economy products I’ve flown longhaul so far. In doing so, I crowned Qantas’ premium economy product my favourite of them all, due to the excellent catering, good ground experience, and very comfortable seat. However, I didn’t consider their win to be slam-dunk – they have no WiFi (which is a big deal for me, especially if I’m flying them on a daytime flight), and power ports were shared between seats, which meant that you and your seatmate couldn’t charge a laptop at the same time.
When I wrote the post, I figured that Japan Airlines was one of the most likely airlines to give Qantas a run for their money. After all, they have industry-leading seat pitch and the only electronically controlled premium economy seat in the industry, they give lounge access, and I imagined they’d have a good soft product to match as well. So when the opportunity arose to fly Japan Airlines’ flagship A350 in premium economy from Tokyo Haneda to Paris, I couldn’t help but jump onboard the opportunity.
The flight was today, and I probably have more questions than answers at this point. On one hand, the seat has some awesome features, having lounge access was unique, service was great, WiFi worked as well as it could’ve (except over polar regions), and the catering tasted spectacular, easily some of the best I’ve had outside of business class (both in terms of food and drinks). On the other hand, I’m not actually sure if I’m the biggest fan of the seat, and the product offered some of the least service differentiation between premium economy and economy class that I’ve seen so far – that’s not an issue in principle, though does make for an assembly line-feeling experience. This is in stark contrast to Qantas, which offered an experience that felt very “business class minus”.
I probably have a skewed impression of this flight since I’m fresh off it, so I’ll share my first impressions, saving a full review and comparisons for a future post.
Japan Airlines’ A350 Premium Economy Seat: Impressive, But Not More Comfortable Than Other Carriers
Japan Airlines’ A350 features the world’s only electronically actuated premium economy seat. Seats are laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration, and feature big slide-out privacy partitions.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy Cabin
On one hand, just because the seat’s electronically controlled doesn’t automatically mean it’s more comfortable than on other carriers. On the other hand, airlines don’t randomly decide to electronically actuate their seats without comfort in mind, given the extra maintenance costs. So, are these seats actually more comfortable than on other carriers?
The seats are fixed-shell (meaning the seat slides forward, and nobody reclines into “your” space) – I’d say recline is roughly equivalent to what you’d get amongst better premium economy seats out there. The legrest goes up all the way to form a 180° angle with the seat pan, which no other airline does in premium economy class.
I mean, that’s impressive and all, though I have lower legs and I have feet. It was still not too difficult to get comfortable – I could either just have the footrest up halfway and sleep the same way I’d do in most other premium economy seats, or I did find it quite comfortable to have the footrest up all the way and sit with my knees leaning against the fuselage. I like the flexibility this offers, though it’s not a significant difference in comfort compared to a “regular” premium economy seat, and there are seats out there that offer better padding and lumbar support.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy Seat Recline
In terms of other seat features, there are two storage compartments under the armrest on either side, one of which houses a 110V power port, one USB-A power port, and one USB-C power port. There’s a tablet holder in front of the seat, though I wish that doubled as a storage compartment as you see on some other carriers – it doesn’t. I also found the seat pocket to be flimsier than what I’ve experienced on many other carriers (particularly my own, which kept swinging down and hitting my shins).
I know some have reported warm and stuffy cabins on Japan Airlines A350s. I did notice that the cabin was just a bit warmer than what I’d get on e.g. British Airways or even Cathay Pacific, though just by a couple of degrees. This really didn’t bother me at all as a southeast Asian man (and I didn’t notice a difference towards airflow particularly), though you may want to wear a T-shirt if you run warm.
In terms of other cabin observations, there are two bathrooms right behind the premium economy cabin. Theoretically one of the bathrooms is reserved for premium economy (the curtain is even shaped to promote this), though it wasn’t enforced on my flight.
The bathrooms on Japan Airlines’ A350 are a good size and quite snazzy (even in economy)
The screens are excellent (and you can connect your own Bluetooth headphones), though the entertainment system is on the limited side. However, Japan Airlines has WiFi with very reasonable pricing – for US$18.80 you get 24 hours of WiFi with unlimited data caps. This was some of the fastest onboard WiFi I’ve experienced when we were flying out of Japan, but it did drop out when we were flying very far north.
Japan Airlines’ Premium Economy Amenities: Okay, Not Great
Japan Airlines offered a set of amenities that were waiting at the seat during takeoff.
The pillow was thin – almost paper thin, though was made out of memory foam. So while I was underwhelmed when I saw it, it was a bit more comfortable than I was expecting. You can roll it up to make it act functionally like a supportive memory foam pillow – I prefer a standard, full-sized pillow, though appreciate that some may like this.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy Pillow
The blanket was soft (though not very substantial), and the headphones had active noise cancellation technology. There were also slippers (which came with a shoehorn), and an amenity kit, which featured a moisture mask, eyeshades, earplugs, and a basic dental kit.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy Amenities
I prefer when amenities provided in premium economy are plush and duvet-like, somewhat similar to what you can find in business class. It seems like these amenities are thoughtful, though in a different way to what I’m used to. I’m willing to roll with that if other people prefer it, and was able to get comfortable on this flight (especially with two pillows – the seat next to me was empty).
Japan Airlines’ Premium Economy Ground Service: Industry-Leading, Along With ANA
Japan Airlines is one of two airlines I know that offer lounge access to all premium economy passengers, regardless of airline status (the other is ANA). You don’t get standard Oneworld lounge access eligibility – you can only use the lounges that Japan Airlines assigns for that particular departure airport.
For example, at Haneda, I could use both of the Japan Airlines Sakura lounges (otherwise available to business class passengers), though not the Cathay Pacific lounge upstairs, even though I would’ve been able to use it too as a business class passenger. For a couple of other examples, at London Heathrow they use the (mediocre) British Airways Galleries lounge, and in Hong Kong they even use the brilliant Qantas Lounge Hong Kong.
At Haneda, I checked out both the main Sakura lounge, as well as the Sakura Sky View lounge located one floor above it. There’s some delicious beef curry and ice-cold self-pouring draught beer on offer, and you can shower (expect a waiting list, though, as the lounges tend to be quite crowded). Neither of these lounges offer a particularly impressive experience, though as a premium economy passenger I was a very happy camper.
Japan Airlines Sakura and Sky View Lounges at Haneda Airport
There’s also priority check-in and priority boarding, in line with industry standards. As someone without any airline status, I always find Japan Airlines flights to have a huge number of Oneworld elite members (presumably due to the prevalence of domestic air travel on business), though I didn’t mind this on this flight.
Japan Airlines’ A350 Premium Economy Catering: World-Class Taste, Economy Class Presentation
I can’t imagine an airline that puts more effort into their economy class meals than Japan Airlines. The airline collaborates with restaurants to design their economy class meals, and execution is really good, especially out of Japan. The catch is that in premium economy, there’s zero differentiation in the main meal service from what you get in economy, including in the way it’s presented.
This means that I got two meals that tasted fantastic, easily some of the best-tasting meals I’ve had in premium economy. At the same time, this is one of the only times where I remember eating out of an economy-style plastic casserole when flying premium economy. So I’m a bit conflicted – it’s still an extremely competitive offering (and more high-effort than many airlines that offer dedicated premium economy menus and meal presentation), though I’m not sure I can give it full marks.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy Meal
The airline also features an on-demand “Udon de Sky”, which is their in-house instant noodles. I’d say that this is more similar to the instant noodles you can get on-demand on Cathay Pacific, as opposed to a substantial on-demand offering as you get on Qantas. So I’d say that Qantas still leads the way in that regard.
Japan Airlines A350 Premium Economy “Udon de Sky”
In terms of drinks, Japan Airlines offers sparkling wine and Japanese shochu exclusively to premium economy passengers. Other notable offerings on the menu include whisky highball, non-alcoholic beer, and Japan Airlines’ “Sky Time” peach and grape drink – they’ve changed up the recipe since the last time I flew them, and I far prefer their current recipe.
Japan Airlines’ Premium Economy Service: Faultlessly Friendly, But Confusing Service Flow
Let me shoutout the flight attendants on this flight – they couldn’t have been friendlier, and I also really appreciated the attention to detail, especially how they would clear any rubbish they saw every time they passed through the cabin. They were also incredibly friendly, and eager to please – for example, when my snack was cleared, I was asked how everything was going so far, and I was proactively offered snacks and refills along with anything I ordered outside of the meal service.
Service also felt polished and premium – for example, when I asked for some umeshu, I was asked whether I wanted it with soda and/or on the rocks, which was a great touch.
However, I’m a little confused by the cabin lights being turned on during the halfway point of the meal service – it was dark outside (this flight flies eastbound over the polar route from Tokyo to Paris, so essentially feels like an eastbound daytime flight, even though you fly westbound), and many passengers were asleep. I was excited to see when the crew came to notify passengers of an upcoming meal service and to take any extra orders.
The contents of the snack? “Bread.” That’s literally what the menu said. In reality we were served a packaged cake of sorts, and were also asked whether we wanted the airline’s signature “Udon de Sky”. It’s nice for the crew to pass through the cabin with food in between the post-takeoff and pre-arrival meal services, though it really isn’t worth turning up the cabin lights for.
Some snacks are worth waking up for. This was not one of them
Similarly, while breakfast was delicious, it really didn’t need to be served three hours before landing. The cabin lights were turned up a full 3h 20m before landing – I can imagine being quite annoyed at this if I was trying to get some sleep!
Does Japan Airlines have the world’s best premium economy product?
My impression of premium economy on the Japanese carriers was that they invested in different parts of the experience compared to what we’re used to on other carriers. This was more or less verified after my first impressions, though I’m still trying to figure out exactly what to make of it.
On one hand, I don’t mind if a certain element of the experience is left identical to economy because the experience is already otherwise so good – for example, I don’t really mind the lack of inflight meal differentiation compared to economy, given that their economy meals are of a mindblowing standard. On the other hand, one of the reasons you pay for premium economy is to receive an elevated level of service (both on the soft and hard product front) compared to what you’d get in economy.
From my current read of Japan Airlines’ premium economy product, the hard product is good (and with all the bells and whistles, I’d call it roughly equivalent to some of the better seats you see on other carriers), the ground experience is industry-leading, catering ranks among the better Asian carriers even though it’s identical to economy, and there’s WiFi, which Qantas doesn’t have. While I’d fly Japan Airlines’ premium economy again in a heartbeat, my initial gut feeling is to rank this product above EVA Air and Cathay Pacific (my current premium economy runner-ups) due to the better seat and service respectively, though probably still below the Qantas flight I had a couple of years back. I think that flight had a better set of amenities and a more polished soft product to me. However, I’ve got to give this a bit of further thought.
Qantas gets to keep their crown as the world’s best premium economy product
My major qualm with EVA Air’s premium economy is their seat, so I’d imagine EVA Air’s 787 premium economy product (which I haven’t flown yet) would be on par with this product, if not better. I’ve also yet to fly Singapore Airlines, ANA, Starlux, and/or Air New Zealand’s premium economy products, and haven’t flown Virgin Atlantic’s in almost a decade – I imagine those would shuffle the rankings a bit as well.
EVA Air’s hard product lagged behind, though I imagine with a better seat they’d compete with JAL
Conclusion: Japan Airlines’ A350 Premium Economy
Japan Airlines offers a very competitive premium economy seat, though in different ways to what I’ve been used to from my other longhaul premium economy flights so far. They offer a superior ground experience with lounge access, a seat that they clearly invested a lot in (and is very comfortable, despite not being that much more so than competitors), and extremely tasty catering, though have eccentric amenities and not much service differentiation from economy.
While I wouldn’t hesitate to fly this product again, I can’t use my normal criteria and weightings to determine where it stacks up with other premium economy products. Regardless, I’d be very surprised if this product didn’t end up in my top five.
Have you flown Japan Airlines’ premium economy before? How was your experience?
I’ve only flown JAL’s B787 Premium Economy but I did not find them comfortable at all.
There was too much space between the leg rest and my legs if I used the footrest and not enough space if I didn’t so my legs didn’t have good support at all. The shell design was great though, I felt like it was the best when positioned halfway between upright and full recline.
Good review as usual. I think it would be helpful if you had a ranking table of all the premium economy products you’ve flown at the end of each of these, with a link to the review for each. The columns could include ratings for the seat, food, service, etc with a total score showing how the rankings came out the way they did.