Japan Airlines - JAL > Reviews > Come Fly With Me

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Excellent
Customer Service	Outstanding
Punctuality	Always on time
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Good choice of food, big TV's in every seat, friendly staff
Disadvantages:	same films to and from Japan

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

At the end of Febuary, my girlfriend and I travelled to Australia for 9 weeks to get away from work stress. We knew that it was going to be expensive and the organisation was going to be a tad stressful but mostly exciting.

We decided to fly Japan Airlines firstly because it was the cheapest we could find and it had a stop off both ways in Tokyo, somewhere my girlfriend and I were interested in visiting.

We hadn't flown with them before, but I have travelled with many other Airlines such as Quantas, Monarch, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Leisure.

We didn't know what to expect but I knew people that had flown with them and they said it was their favourite Airline, not only because of that, but because of the excellent service, good food, decent leg room, good entertainment facilities and a rather larger than average TV.

This eased our minds completely and we were really looking forward to this journey with them. As you know, I have travelled with many other Airlines before and I can tell you that the leg room on Japan Airlines Planes is the biggest, Quantas I found, being the smallest. Not only is the leg room a comfortable size, they supply you with a foot rest aswell.

I cannot put into words the excellence of the check in. As always and unlike my girlfriend I am always on time or very early. On this event we were 6 hours early (i like being in airports-call me sad-but I do)

We looked up at the board a couple of hours later and it was telling us to check in at a particular place but we could'nt find where. After searching around for 20 minutes we started to get a little worried when all of a sudden a JAL assistant helped us along with other assistants, with our bags and literally checked us in themselves. They were incredibly helpful and friendly and I haven't come across great service like that in my whole life, and I know that i would not see that sort of customer service in England (Apart from Ciao customer services)

The take off scared the living daylights out of me, I am not a good flyer anyway and this made it worse. It was nothing to do with the pilot but because it was a Boeing 747,(and i had never been on one before) it was heavier and therefore takes a longer run-up on the runway. As the plane got close to the end, we were till on the ground and then it started to lift up slightly, only to fall bacl down again.At this point my stomach sank, just then we took off properly. Boy, was I scared or what. I know this doesn't have any relevance to the opinion but I thought you might be interested to know.

The landing was also a little scary. As we landed, instead of landing straight on, we must have came down at a slight angle. The place hit the runway and started to swurve quite dramatically, but the pilot kept it under control and reassured us that it was perfectly expected situation. It put my mind at rest.

The service was superb on the journey, I was pleasantly suprised, especially when I got up to go to the loo and without me even asking, one of the stewards helped me, even opening the door and telling how to flush and all that, just in case I didn't happen to know.

They were all very friendly and happy to help with anything. I have been on some Airlines, and flight attendants have lost their cool and therefore not very professional. Everything was all run very smoothly aswell, the food was on time, drinks were available at reasonable intervals.

The food on the Airline was suprisingly nice. Not being a great fan of Airline food, I was not very enthusiastic about eating but it was very nice. We had a choice of either Japanese food or western style food. I went for the beef lasagne which was lovely. It came piping hot which was excellent as other food on other Airlines sometimes come warm or even cold, and at times I have had to send food back. There were not any problems about the food.

All meals and snacks were delightful, nutricious and filling. Tea and coffee was available at meal times and a few other times.

One of my favourite things on planes is the entertainment and let me tell you, I was not at all disappointed. TV's were available for everyone so yuo could watch what you want to watch and when you want.

The choice of films was brilliant. On the way out there we had 'The Ring', 'The Tuxedo' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' and other great films. It really kept my girlfriend and I entertained throughout the entire journey. There is also computer games like Backgammon, blackjack, tetris, tic-tac-toe and other games to keep children amused for hours. Some other Airlines don't even other private TV's let alone console games. I felt very privilidged. The game pad/TV remote also had a phone on it so you could call home if you wanted to, but at £7.99 a minute, you might want to make it snappy.

Another great thing about the airline was the fact that the pilot made several speeches and kept us informed waht was going on, like where exactly we were, and when the duty free came around. He also made us feel very welcome and warm and most importantly safe.

If you are like me and hate turbulence than you would be glad to know that the pilot informs everyone that there will be turbulence, rather then not saying a thing and let everyone think that there is something wrong. The flight however was very pleasant and mostly smooth all the way.

Cameras looking in front and below the plane were also available on the TV channels so you can look where you are going. This is something I haven't found on other Airlines.

Overall I agree with my friends who said that this was their favourite Airline. I do recommend that if the opportunity arrises for you to fly with Japan Airlines, then do so because you will not be one bit disappointed.