Review: ANA Business Class (787)

If you are interested in vacationing in Japan, there are most likely two options at the top of your list when it comes to booking flights: All Nippon Airways (ANA) business class and Japan Airlines (JAL) business class. 

All Nippon Airways offers two distinctly different premium cabin experiences as they are in the process of updating their fleet. While ANA’s The Room Business Class is the superior product, it is currently only available on some of their Boeing 777 aircraft. On the other hand, ANA’s Boeing 787 aircraft currently still offers their legacy business class product.

With that in mind, you may end up on either the updated Boeing 777 business class or the retro Boeing 787 business class, depending on the route you are flying. If you have a future flight coming up on ANA’s Boeing 787 aircraft, let’s take a look at what you can expect when flying on ANA business class to and from Japan.

Booking ANA Business Class

To book this round-trip ticket, I used ANA Miles transferred from American Express US Membership Rewards. If you don’t know, ANA Mileage Club has extremely favorable pricing for their own flights, but they restrict redemptions to be only round trip or open jaw. They charge 75,000 miles round trip per person plus about $600 USD in taxes and fees. 

While those taxes and fees are high, to book the same itinerary with Aeroplan would be 110,000 miles and about $150 USD. The main caveat to that is it’s been difficult to find ANA space on Air Canada Aeroplan lately as the Japanese airline has been restricting premium class bookings to their Canadian partner.

I booked this trip within one week of departure time, and I was surprised to see that ANA had multiple seats on many days. Even though they are not releasing seats to Aeroplan, award availability is plentiful when using their own mileage currency.

The only annoyance with using ANA miles directly (other than the elevated taxes and fees) is that the points take about 48 hours to transfer from American Express US Membership Rewards. So you need to be more flexible than other programs, as your desired award flight could be booked while you wait for the points to transfer.

Cabin Arrangement

ANA has a rather unique layout that is similar to SWISS Airlines business class, with a 1-2-1 odd row of seats followed by a 1-1-1 even row. The window seats A and K have the most privacy, but the F seats are massive throne seats. Unlike SWISS, ANA doesn’t charge for selecting the throne seats in advance.

All seats do have direct aisle access which is a major plus. If you are a solo traveler, the best seats would be either A, K, or F for the most privacy and room. Couples traveling together may prefer seats D and G, however, there is a slight partition and storage space between the seats which may make it difficult to talk.

Ground Experience

Departing Seattle, ANA premium passengers get access to The Club, which is a standard issue Priority Pass lounge. It’s slightly elevated compared to most of the other “Club” locations as it used to be a Delta SkyClub, but it really isn’t worth showing up to the airport early for.

However, if you are departing from Tokyo Haneda International Airport, you can experience the ANA Lounge which is well worth showing up early for.

The ANA Lounge at Haneda has ample seating throughout the lounge and offers shower suites if you want to refresh before your flight.

Two of the bigger highlights when it comes to food and beverage at the ANA Lounge are a made-to-order noodle bar and a perfect pour Sapporo beer machine.

The food choices are uniquely Japanese with rice balls, Karaage, and of course, hot and fresh noodles.

Needless to say, if you are departing out of Haneda on ANA business class, ensure you arrive at the airport earlier to take advantage of this excellent and unique lounge experience.

Seat

Boarding the plane it’s almost like being transported back in time to the 90’s with ANA’s retro design, but the seats are always perfectly prepared. For the journey there, I selected a window seat, “K,” and then tried one of the throne seats, “F,” on the way home.

The “walkway” to the window seat was spacious, even though the seat wasn’t extravagant. There was definitively more personal space than the more common reverse herringbone seat design like we have at home with Air Canada Signature Class.

Waiting at the seat was the bedding, headphones, slippers, and amenity kit neatly arranged. While it looked great, nothing compares to ANA’s elevated business class experience, The Room.

Across the aisle was a look into the 2 by 2 middle seats. In the unfortunate event that you can’t select any other seat, they would provide a comfortable flight and are much more private than Lufthansa Business Class.

Exploring the seat further, the side table carries the literature pocket and has a handy “beverage holder ring” for lack of a better term.

Directly in front of you is the (very dated) entertainment screen and a coat hook.

The footwell underneath the TV is larger than average, and the shoe storage is useful.

The tray table on this product is unique as it pulls out from under the TV and is on an extendable track. It’s quite helpful during meal service as you can push it out of the way to move around the cabin.

Over your left shoulder is a moveable lamp that looks quite dated but works just fine.

Controls for the seat and entertainment sit flush into the side table and provide a good amount of adjustment but lack my favorite “zero G” setting. There are also quick buttons for landing and bed positions.

Each seat also has individual air vents, which is a huge plus.

The window control is the usual Dreamliner adjustable tint. It’s quite a dramatic change when the darkest setting is selected.

On my return flight, I found that the throne seat was largely the same, except you had double the storage area with two armrests.

I will say the window seat was more aesthetically pleasing (if you care about that in your airplane seat) as the throne seat is like staring at a wall with a hilariously small TV pasted onto it when compared to the window seat entertainment console.

Overall, the cabin has a nice design to it and feels homey with the accent lighting, especially after meal service as the lights are dimmed in preparation for some sleep.

Bed

The sleeping experience was solid on the ANA’s Boeing 787. The seat has an interesting design that gives a bit more width once it’s in lie-flat mode.

The window seat was slightly more private, but it was nice that both armrests on the throne seat could be raised for some extra space. I don’t think the sleeping experience was too different comparing the two.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kits varied greatly going to, or leaving from Japan. Going to Japan, it was a more complete amenity kit with ear plugs, lip balm, hand cream, dental kit, and eye mask.

Leaving Japan, the Amenity kit was a more beautiful bag but only included lip balm, lotion, and an eye mask.

Dining

Since I had the opportunity to fly both directions on ANA’s Boeing 787 business class product, I’ve included menus for both flights below.

On the flight departing Seattle to Tokyo, the food and drink menus were as follows:

On the flight departing Tokyo to Seattle, the food and drink menus were as follows:

On both flights, the pre-departure beverage was a choice of champagne or orange juice.

Meal service began with a white tablecloth and an amuse-bouche.

Next was the Zensai, which is a selection of morsels. It was a great way to kick off service, on the way home included a similar menu with a few changes.

The main course on the way to Japan was Tilefish and notably lacked the ANA signature rice wrapped in paper. On route to Seattle, Mackeral was served and thankfully had the familiar ANA-wrapped rice.

Snack service from the anytime menu is a must order, in my opinion. Ramen on a plane is just too cool to pass up!

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

While the entertainment system is not bad, it’s certainly outdated. The headphones did a nice job of noise cancellation, but the resolution of the screen is quite poor.

The controller is neat, and it has a small screen with the ANA logo. The backside is a keyboard and gamepad.

Entertainment options included some new releases and had a decent selection for the 10 hour journeys. The live TV is a nice addition compared to some other carriers. While it’s limited to general sports on Sport 24, I know previously the Super Bowl was aired on that channel. Spotify and HBO Max headlined the other entertainment categories.

Charging is available just under the screen when you move this flap. Here’s where the seat really shows its age, as there’s a hookup for an iPod!

WiFi

In-flight WiFi was available at an added cost. Service is available from about 10 minutes after takeoff until 10 minutes before landing.

I didn’t purchase WiFi on this flight so I can’t comment on the speeds, but the pricing was reasonable enough.

Conclusion

ANA’s Boeing 787 business class is a good product with great service and excellent catering. Personally, while I would take a positioning flight or be willing to connect through another hub to fly on ANA’s The Room Business Class, ANA’s Boeing 787 is perfectly acceptable if you are looking for a strong redemption option to cross the Pacific Ocean.

The value proposition when using ANA Miles to fly their business class product is very high, and it doesn’t get any better than redeeming 75,000 points for 20 hours in Business Class! If you’re a Canadian who has yet to get started with US credit cards, now is the time to look into them to see how you can make a trip like this happen!