Japan Airlines Premium Economy: A Full Review

Japan Airlines Premium Economy: A Full Review

It’s nice and early. I’m at the airport and I’m ready to fly. Today’s flight is from Sydney, Australia through to Tokyo Hanita with Japan Airlines trying their premium economy for the very first time. I’m very curious to see what it’s like and see how it compares to other premium economies I’ve flown recently, including Vietnam Airlines and uh Emirates. So, join me and let’s uh head to Japan. Let’s go. That was quick and easy. Now, the first difference that I’ve noticed with Japan Airlines is that premium economy passengers get lounge access, uh, which most other airlines don’t offer in premium economy. So, uh, they’re off to a very good start already. Go and grab a coffee. After security and immigration, I headed straight to the gate where today’s rider just come in, a 22-year-old Boeing 77 300 ER. Then it was off to the lounge. J uses the Quantis lounges here and premium economy passengers have access to the Quantis business class lounge. This lounge is about to be closed for a full upgrade and parts of it are already under construction. As such, it was very crowded. Luckily, through my Quantis status, I had access to the firstass lounge. So after a quick espresso, I headed there. Whilst the business class lounge is closed for renovations, there’ll be another temporary lounge made available. The Quantis firstass lounge is really, really nice. It has fantastic views out over the runway towards the city. Sadly, there were no window seats available on this flight, so I was getting my Age Geek fix in now. I was watching this A380 come in from Dallas when I managed to catch a bit of drama. At the gate, the ground crew were ready and waiting. At this point, the aircraft was supposed to turn left, but completely missed its turn. The pilot soon realized and came to a stop, but aircraft don’t have a reverse gear, so all they could do was sit and wait for the ground crew to organize a tug and come and rescue them. Eventually, they made it onto the stand. I imagine the passengers who’d been sitting in economy for the past 17 hours wouldn’t have been too impressed with the extra plane time. I also caught this Ariana A380 landing and then had some breakfast. Time to head to the gate. Let’s go. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Let’s head to Tokyo. Thank you. Thank you. On my way in, I managed to get a glimpse of the Japan Airlines business class seats. I’d be flying this product back to Australia in a few days time and also reviewing it. That sounds like a really good reason to hit that subscribe button and notification bell. Behind business class is the premium economy cabin, which is laid out in a 242 configuration with eight seats across. I’ll show you the seat features once we’re up in the air. And just behind premium economy is economy in a 333 configuration with nine seats across. These economycl class seats look like they have a good amount of leg room, too. J safety video doesn’t mess about when telling you to leave your bags behind in an evacuation. Today’s flight would take us pretty much directly north, taking 9 hours and 10 minutes to reach Tokyo’s Hanita airport. So now, let’s have a closer look at these J premium economy seats. The first thing you’ll notice is the shell seat design. This means that when you recline, the seat base moves forwards and the seat back slides down within the shell instead of moving backwards towards whoever’s sitting behind you. The positives of this is that when the seat in front of you recines, it doesn’t impact you at all. This combined with the extra leg room give these seats a great sense of space. It also makes them much easier to get in and out of than most other airlines premium economy seats. There are some negatives to this design, though. The first is that the seat is not quite as comfortable to sit in as it doesn’t sit up as straight or recline as much as traditional premium economy seats. Also, due to the extra leg room, the tray table, even when pulled towards you, is still pretty far away. This can be an issue if you like to sit up straight and have your back supported whilst you work. The provided pillow is Japanese style. That is, it’s pretty flat, so it doesn’t offer too much support. These seats had all the other features you’d expect from a good quality premium economy seat. There were no pre-eparture drinks offered in premium economy. An hour after takeoff, we received a wet towel and half an hour after that, drinks were served. I went with the special jail drink, peach and grape. lunch came next and was served around 2 hours out of Sydney so that it would be closer to our body clock lunchtime. I went with a Japanese chicken curry and it was very tasty. It came with a cup of miso soup, some fruit, a bean salad, cheese and crackers. This is exactly the same meal as served in economy class as the first row of economy was just behind me and the same crew member and cart simply continued into the economy cabin. Therefore, the only difference between economy and premium economy on Japan airlines in terms of meals is they offer sparkling wine and soju in a premium economy. The lunch service was rounded out with ice cream which typical of all airlines was absolutely rock hard. It did eventually warm up enough to eat and was delicious. For the first part of this flight until after the lunch service was finished, the dividers between economy and premium economy were left open. The premium economy cabin is made up of five rows with 40 seats in total. Once the curtains to economy were closed, these 40 passengers shared two bathrooms. We’re going to do a quick L review here in Premier Economy Japan Airlines. I like this color scheme. It’s dark. Uh some would say it’s gone dark and black the same as the entertainment system on this uh particular flight. But uh what have we got here? We’ve got a baby change table, the bathroom, the toilet down here, obviously the bin facility, which the Japanese thrive on. Uh couple of toothbrushes there by the look of it. Some fabric and air freshener. Towels and facial tissues. Another full mirror here, driver seat covers and a couple of uh handles in case you need to brace. That is the L review. Japan Airlines economy. What I was referring to in that L review is the entertainment system had been playing up since our departure. For this one passenger, it seemed to work, but for the rest of us, we just had the blue screen of death whenever we tried to select anything. That said, the maps did work, and I discovered the games work, too. So, I stepped back in time and got stuck into Angry Birds. That was fun until everybody’s screens went completely black. Throughout the flight, the crew tried to reset the system numerous times, but they could never get it to work properly. Likewise, the power in my seat was also not working, and at one stage, my reading light stopped working until another reboot got it up again. It wasn’t the crew’s fault, and they were very apologetic. It seems that the issue was confined to the economy and premium economy cabins only. And once we landed, we were given a voucher as compensation in the form of either jail frequent flyer miles or a Visa gift card. Due to the malfunctioning entertainment system and the fact that I had never bothered to read the instructions, I also assumed that the in-flight Wi-Fi wasn’t working. It turns out I was wrong, but I only discovered this just before landing. It actually worked really well. I spent most of the flight alternating between working on this video and playing Angry Birds. I never tried to sleep in these seats, but for this passenger, it wasn’t a problem, and she slept most of the flight, so I assume these seats are pretty comfy for sleeping. I was really impressed with J’s amenities offering. Each premium economy passenger was given an amenities kit containing a face mask, eye mask, earplugs, and toothbrush, and we all got some slippers and a shoe horn. As mentioned, the crew on this flight were excellent. They would regularly come around with drinks and at one stage checked who wanted noodles. I resisted the noodles and instead grabbed some snacks from the galley. Prior to our arrival in Tokyo, a second meal was served. This was a smaller meal and there were no choices. We all got penet Bolognese, which was okay. At this time, I also tried tomato juice for the very first time. I know it’s popular on flights, but I’ve never seen the attraction, so I’ve never tried it. I like tomatoes, but this was a year na for me. Soon it was time to prepare for our descent into Tokyo and I was again missing my preferred window seat. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Byebye. Uh despite a few technical issues, that was actually a really nice flight. I enjoyed that one. Okay. Uh thank you. So that was Japan Airlines premium economy. Overall, I was pretty impressed despite the technical issues there with the uh the entertainment system. The staff were super apologetic and we did all get a voucher uh as we left the aircraft. So, uh they did uh apologize and then make up for it. Overall, I thought it was pretty good. Every premium economy has pluses and negatives. The pluses here, extra leg room, and you get lounge access. Uh the negatives, it’s economy meals. Uh and yeah, those shell seat designs, although you’ve got the extra leg room, are not quite as comfortable. Uh but overall, I reckon it is worth considering. What do you think, though? Would you fly this on a long haul? Uh and based on this video, are you more likely to fly Japan Airlines or consider Japan Airlines premium economy? Let me know in the comments below. Uh also, give this video a thumbs up. Check out my channel where there’s a whole lot of other reviews including uh my return trip with in business class with Japan Airlines as well as some domestic flights that I’m taking. I’m about to jump on board a flight to Saporro this evening. Uh flying domestically in Japan is on another level. So watch out for that review as well. Sounds like a good idea to uh maybe subscribe and hit that notification bell. Hey, thanks again for watching and as always, happy travels.

Premium Economy that includes lounge access? Yes Please! Welcome to Japan Airlines Premium Economy which I got to fly from Sydney Australia to Tokyo Japan onboard their 777.

Like all premium economy this has its positives and its negatives and I cover both in this full review of Japan Airlines premium economy. JAL is one of the two major Japanese Airlines and now offers premium economy on flights to both Melbourne and Sydney.

This JAL premium economy flight review covers my entire journey from Sydney to Tokyo Haneda from checkin through to the lounge, boarding, the JAL onboard service and of course the JAL Premium Economy seat. I’ll show you the meals and amenities, we play with the entertainment system and the inflight wifi so that you’ll know exactly what you’re getting and if Japan Airlines is the right choice for your next flight.

My flight reviews provide a comprehensive review of the total flight experience including the seat features, inflight service, meals, amenities and inflight entertainment. They are designed to allow you to quickly and easily see the differences between different airlines and allow you to make an informed decision. My reviews are designed for both the business and leisure traveller and many travel agents using them as both training and selling tools. I hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for watching Japan Airlines Premium Economy: A Full Review

#japanairlines #jalanjalan #premiumeconomy
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Qantas Business Class Lounge
01:27 Qantas First Class Lounge
02:28 Boarding & Cabin Layouts
03:23 Departure, Safety Video & Route
03:47 JAL Premium Economy Seats
04:59 Drinks, Menus & Lunch
06:14 The Bathroom Situation
07:16 The Entertainment System Situation
08:06 JAL Inflight Wifi
08:29 Sleep & Amenities
08:48 Crew Service, Drinks & Snacks
08:58 The Second Meal
09:29 The Final Verdict