Review: ANA First Class (B777-300ER)

After visiting a few times in recent years, I was angling for another trip back to Japan with a few specific redemptions in mind. Since I was planning to travel solo, I had no issues finding availability and was able to book Japan Airlines First Class on the way to Tokyo, and ANA First Class on the way back from Tokyo.

While I had booked into the older ANA first class product, they have been occasionally flying the newer first class product on the Tokyo Haneda to San Francisco route, so I held out for a positive equipment swap to the newer product. While I didn’t luck out and ended up flying what I had originally booked, I did really enjoy the experience and would love to fly ANA’s newer first class product in the future.

Let’s take a look at my experience with ANA’s older first class product on the Boeing 777-300ER.

Booking ANA First Class

First Class	Aircraft	Route	Flight Duration
NH 108	Boeing 777-300ER	Tokyo Haneda (HND) to San Francisco (SFO)	10 Hours 12 Minutes

I booked my one seat on ANA First Class 355 days before departure, redeeming 85,000 ANA Miles and paying ~$400 CAD in taxes and fees. I had transferred American Express Membership Rewards in the United States to ANA Mileage Club in order to make this redemption happen.

The American Express Business Platinum Card (US) is still my go-to card for earning Membership Rewards in the United States, and when you take into account the potential welcome bonus of up to 300,000 Membership Rewards, it is a no-brainer for the redemption options and value offered.

Ground Experience & ANA Suite Lounge at Tokyo Haneda

Arriving at Tokyo Haneda airport for my late-night flight, the ANA First Class check-in area is simply a roped-off line, not a specific area like it is at Tokyo Narita airport.

I was checked in very efficiently and provided details on the lounges that were available to me. First class and business class passengers are able to utilize a separate security line, and with only two passengers in front of me, I was through security in minutes.

There are two ANA lounges in the international terminal (Terminal 3), and I chose to visit the one near gate 110 as my flight was departing from gate 114. Both the ANA Lounge and ANA Suite Lounge are side-by-side, but with my first class ticket, I was able to access the ANA Suite Lounge.

I arrived around two hours before boarding, as I planned to indulge in more food on the ground than in the air since it was a late-night flight. Upon entering, there are two sides to the lounge, and I first headed to the right-hand side, which has the made-to-order food.

There was more than enough seating for the number of guests in the lounge, varying from standard airport lounge chairs to countertop bar stools. A major plus is that the charging ports were very accessible in this lounge.

Upon sitting down, a lounge attendant asked what I would like to drink, and I requested a glass of champagne. There is also a self-serve bar available, as well as juice, soda, and coffee.

As for the food, there are some small bites and snacks buffet-style.

I wasn’t all that interested in the buffet options, as the real winner of this lounge is the made-to-order food options/noodle bar:

If you are interested in ordering food, there is an attendant near the kitchen who will take your order and provide you with a buzzer to notify you when your food is ready.

I started with ANA’s signature chicken curry, which was excellent; curry is one of my favorite meals when I am in Japan, so this was a huge hit and was just as good as many other curries I ate during my trip.

The second meal I opted for was udon noodles with deep-fried tofu, paired with a reasonable pour of Wild Turkey Rare Breed whiskey. It was another fantastic choice.

After eating, I moved over to the other side of the lounge, the left side, which has different seating and tarmac views. There are several good options for solo seating on this side as well.

As I sat down, I was once again asked if I would like a beverage and requested another glass of champagne. The lounge attendant brought it over with a small plate of appetizers which was a nice touch.

The ANA Suite Lounge was a solid experience, and I’m glad I showed up early enough for my flight to be able to enjoy it. It was relatively empty with the late-night flight, but the service, food, and beverage were all still excellent.

Cabin Arrangement

ANA’s older first class configuration on the Boeing 777-300ER has a total of eight seats in a 1-2-1 arrangement.

As all seats have direct aisle access and more than enough room, there isn’t exactly a bad seat to be had. 

That being said, if you are travelling as a couple, you might be better off selecting two window seats, as while the middle seats do have a privacy partition that can be lowered, it is in an awkward location. I can’t imagine it being realistically possible to enjoyably converse with your travel companion with this configuration.

If traveling as a couple, I would recommend picking 1K and 2K instead. I ended up selecting seat 1K for this flight, and I have no regrets about my choice.

Seat

As I boarded, I was pretty pleased to see the cubicle-like space I would be enjoying for the next 10 hours.

The seat itself was a roomy armchair, and while it doesn’t look super modern, it was more than comfortable enough for the journey.

While this first class seat doesn’t have a door, it does provide significant privacy as you can’t see into other suites, nor can other passengers see into yours.

The entertainment consoles in these suites are starting to show their age in size, display, and technology. There is a small ledge for storage in front of the screen, which houses the amenity kit and headphones.

The tray table is located below the entertainment console and pulls out with a handle. It was easily adjusted and could be shifted out of the way, meaning you aren’t stuck in your seat during meal service.

The footwell is quite wide and not restrictive in the least. There is a luggage storage section underneath the footwell that is large enough to fit a decent-sized bag.

On the right-hand side of the seat near the windows, there is a small side table that can be rotated towards the passenger, making it a perfect place for drinks.

Directly below the side table is the literature pocket, containing safety information and a few magazines.

The right side of the seat has all of the various controls, cabinet space, and lights.

Moving from left to right, we have a storage compartment with a mirror, the entertainment console remote and a plug, and then another storage compartment.

The seat controls are also on this wall via touchscreen.

Even though it shows its age, and outside of the technology, I did really enjoy this seat. It was a good mix of comfortable, private, and roomy, and I thought it was sufficient for the flight.

Bed

Since the first class cabin was only half-full on my flight, the flight attendant offered to make a bed for me in the empty neighbouring seat, 1G. A mattress topper, two pillows, and a blanket were provided.

The bed itself was quite comfortable and roomy, particularly in the footwell. Side sleepers and back sleepers will both be happy with this seat, and I was able to get around 5 hours of sleep mid-flight.

A tied-up bunch of lounge and bed amenities was provided at the seat upon boarding, including slippers, loungewear, and a blanket. The loungewear itself was quite nice with ANA embroidered branding on the arms of the long-sleeve shirt.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit, in partnership with Ettinger, was waiting at my seat when I boarded.

The contents of the amenity kit were typical, including earplugs, an eye mask, a toothbrush, lip balm, and a few extras, including a skincare kit.

The additional skincare set included a cleansing oil, scrub wash, lotion, and cream.

During the boarding process, a flight attendant also came around with a basket of additional amenities if you needed anything extra.

Bathroom

Two bathrooms are available in the first class cabin. The bathrooms are slightly bigger than normal size but still compact, and include a flip-down changing board and a large mirror.

Fabric hand towels are available, giving an elevated feel over normal paper towel.

Additional amenities, including toothbrushes and mouthwash, were also available.

Dining

For a long time, this late-night flight used to not be a full meal service, even in first class, but instead a collection of à la carte items that passengers could choose from. This has changed in recent years, as a full meal service is now offered, a very positive change for first class passengers.

While boarding was still being completed, I was offered a welcome beverage and opted for champagne, knowing that we would be getting into the higher-quality options once in the air.

Menus were also provided at this point in time, but for those unaware, you can actually check your food and beverage menu online in advance of your flight here.

The food menu was as follows:

The drink menu was as follows:

Once we were up in the air, another drink order was taken, and I opted for a glass of Krug. Fantastic champagne, and I happily indulged in several glasses over the course of the flight.

Shortly thereafter, an amuse bouche was served, consisting of a nut and chili pie stick, foie gras mousse with pineapple glacage, escalivada tart, and mussel chaud-froid. These were all pretty good and I appreciated the variety of different tastes and textures.

This is where I deviated from the full meal service, as I had eaten in the lounge and planned to get a variety of smaller bites during the flight. I started out with a bowl of the Negi Miso Ramen, a pretty delectable choice.

I also opted for a glass of the Suntory Hibiki 100th Anniversary, which I had heavily indulged in on my flight to Japan in Japan Airlines First Class, even opting to purchase a bottle via their in-flight duty-free shopping. It’s an excellent whisky, and I recommend trying it should you get the chance.

After that whisky nightcap and a five-hour nap, I chose to order a few more items from the menu, starting with a cheese plate.

I followed it up with an order of Udon Noodles garnished with chicken. This was probably the best thing I ate on the flight, and I opted for a few bowls.

Roughly an hour and a half before landing, I opted for a cappuccino which was served with a small macaron, cake, and chocolate.

While the food was pretty good in-flight, I definitely enjoyed what I had in the lounge more. If this weren’t such a late-night flight, I think I would have been more open to eating a full meal but I have no regrets choosing sleep instead.

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

Being an older hard product, it’s not surprising that the technology in the suite isn’t current, and I tempered my expectations accordingly. But it was probably worse than I expected, and I feel like this is an area where ANA’s newer first class suite would shine comparatively.

The in-flight entertainment console offers a variety of options, but you’ll find all the movies and TV shows in the ‘SkyChannel’ section.

There was a decent selection of television shows and a good selection of movies. Clicking into the “Hollywood Hits” category presents you with 172 options, which, upon initial look, are not shabby. But if you want to see what is available, you have to press the down button 171 times on a remote that works 75% of the time. There is no way to filter by category or alphabetically. It’s laughably bad.

I’m not really one to watch movies on flights, outside of perhaps during meal time, so I was happy enough with putting on the flight map, of which there were many configuration options.

Headphones were also provided for all first class passengers. I can’t speak to the quality as I didn’t utilize them during my flight.

WiFi

First class passengers receive a free in-flight wifi voucher upon boarding that is good for the entire flight. I actually received two, as I received the physical voucher and a code emailed to me a few hours in advance of the flight.

Getting connected to the wifi was straightforward enough, but the connection is simply ok. I could very lightly browse the internet and check emails, but the connection would randomly drop and I would have to reconnect to the service. 

There was no way I would have reasonably been able to get any work done on this flight, and with the leaps we have seen with in-flight wifi technology, it was disappointing.

Conclusion

Even though ANA’s older first class has far less “wow factor” than their newer first class, I still think it’s a worthwhile redemption for what it costs.

While the major shortfall was the technology, the rest of the hard and soft product was pretty good. The food was tasty, the beverage menu is excellent, and the bed was one of the most comfortable I’ve experienced. And as always with any Japanese carrier, the service is unmatched and the most memorable part of the experience.