Japan Airlines vs ANA: Premium Economy Battle

just got here after a 14-hour flight on a a on welcome to Japan today is a day for a battle of the premium economy cabins with the two big Japanese Airlines premium economy is that step above economy and it's a long flight and we wanted to find out is premium economy worth it on these Airlines and second of all which one is better I had a great flight I did too it's time to go back to the beginning and see how this experience went for both of us [Music] fly on Japan Airlines 787-9 all the way from here to Tokyo hanida Airport now why am I flying from Frankfurt you might ask well it was because by flying from here in premium economy instead of from London I saved almost a thousand pounds on the ticket price it's always worth checking different departure points especially if you're in Europe and you can hop around a little bit now it's time for us to check in and check out what this entire experience is going to be like on Japan Airlines premium economy another day another flight I'm at JFK International Airport at Terminal 7 and I'm flying from New York City to Tokyo and Ana's premium mechanical class on board one of the Boeing triple seven three hundreds right now I'm going inside and checking in okay I've got Japan Airlines check in right behind me here business class and premium economy are actually lumped together in the same priority queue so you do better than economy in this case and then first class is separated out as well so I've made it to the a a checking area sort of stowed away in the corner of terminal seven and there are quite a lot of people here waiting in mind to check in for a premium economy in pretty much every other class there are no self-service kiosks here from what I can tell so I want to see your fingers crossed today I'm all right I'm a bit hot I was just outside on the Terrace it was amazing but like now I'm like no it should not have done that it's been about 15 20 minutes and I've moved one foot everybody always makes fun of me for getting to the airport like three hours before my flight but I'll tell you one thing they wouldn't be laughing if they were standing in this line all right Bob thanks so much cheers bye hi how you doing I'm just checking in uh one bag good thank you so much I appreciate it take care okay Japan Airlines I see you things have started incredibly well didn't have to queue at all it was like one person in front of me and then they got moved to another queue so far this is just being a very easy and relaxing experience that felt more business class to me so so far onto a winner so after about an hour I am at my gate I've got my boarding pass and I checked in my bag I couldn't really pinpoint why or how exactly it took so long there were a good amount of passengers waiting to check in but not an overwhelming amount or anything like that one thing that made up for the week was the fact that I had an expedited security process with my premium economy ticket and I'm on time for my flight but my flight is not on time for me it actually got delayed by about 50 minutes so I've just cleared security that was super easy you're not given priority security actually with premium economy on child at least not in Frankfurt airport but it didn't really matter it was super quiet there so super easy to get through and the gate area is looking very quiet and relaxing I'm kind of like taking it easy this feels chilled it feels nice feels creamy [Music] oh pretty sexy [Music] thanks so much I don't think I've ever experienced such a relaxed boarding gate ever so as a premium economy passenger you are grouped three of five and you've got first class and business class and Elites ahead of you even just with premium economy it's like chill relaxed orderly I love it I'm really excited I've flown Japan Airlines before it I'm getting that new Airline excitement and I think I'm just being allowed to enjoy the experience because there's no chaos there's always chaos there's no chaos today which is I'll survive all right there seems to be a full flight ahead of us here there were not this many people here when I first got to the gate earlier so there are three lines group one which is for first class group two which is for business class and group three for premium economy and regular economy I will be in group three since I am in premium economy hello how are you [Music] how are you thanks so much oh I wish I was flying in there foreign welcome aboard this Japan Airlines 787-9 premium economy seat First Impressions I'm super impressed the cabins range in a 232 configuration across five rows the cabin feels small private but very exclusive in here it's a little bit cheaper than what I'm used to in other premium economy cabins actually and it feels way more spacious each seat feels like you've got more room to spread out in the first thing that's super noticeable is the large tray table the tray table is huge it's thick sturdy the biggest one even for a business class table this looks big this is so impressive the Ife screen also is Big so you're getting big everything big spaces and I'm only a little person but even if you were much taller I think you'd be very happy here as well you also have a foot rest down in front of you maybe a little bit too far away for me to truly enjoy but still in a good position but you have so much space here it doesn't even really matter you have a cup holder that pulls down outside of the table so if you just want to hold a drink there there's also some other small storage areas so there's a little netting and front of you once the left seat one to the right seat where you can keep your bits and pieces to the right of the seat is a privacy wing and actually it does feel private just having those sort of eight or ten inches coming out protecting you from the passenger next to you and hidden behind that is a reading light which you can swivel to turn on hand off the headrest itself it's comfy you can put the wings in and out really helpful for these long flights where you're going to want to get a nice nice sleep there's a remote control in the side of the chair to control the Ife width and then there's two buttons just to the right in the chair which control both the leg rest and the recline so I'm going to test those out now so first up the leg rest this comes out quite far actually gives some good support on your thighs it creates a very comfortable position to recline slides the whole thing oh that is good maybe makes it a little bit tight around the feet you probably have to get rid of the foot rest if you were doing this but very comfortable decent recline and because it's within a hard shell you're not affecting the passenger behind you so no worries about making other people uncomfortable it's worth noting that one thing you do not get here is an air vent and I'm kind of hot and I love an event [Music] thank you so I'm at c25a which is the first row in premium economy it's made of this gray bluish threading and at first glance it looks a little bit rough but once you actually sit down it's rather form-fitting to my body I mean my lower back feels really supported and I feel like I don't have to stretch my neck all the way back just to reach the headrest back here so off to a good start and because it's the first run premium economy there is no seat directly in front of me so there's tons of like I can stick my feet out fully and still not touch the front panel which is awesome to my right there is an armrest that comes with a couple features first of all there's a tray table hidden that you can just pull out like this and have right in front of you for meal service or if you want to put down a laptop or a notebook or just the right size where you can fit all the things that you need to fit but you don't feel like you're sort of suffocated by where it's placed in front of you underneath the tray table are two buttons to recline your chair back and forth and in this recline is also the footrest that comes out we'll get there later right underneath the headphone jack as we're going to control for your ifb screen also the lights above you and a call button in case you need to reach one of the flight attendants we've got this reading light that's attached to the side of the chair right here and it has three levels nice on the front side of the armrest or a pair of cubbies in case you need to stow away smaller items and then right underneath those Cubbies are a pair of power outlets and they come with two USB ports as well and then right up at eye level is my ifb screen which seems to be a decent size for watching movies of course we have our air vents right up top and our overhead lights and that is the entire seat let's take a look at what we give you in the sea this looks like a lot and I'm kind of excited to look at it first up headphones these are pretty sexy and I think they're noise canceling they've got switch on here to turn them on we've got a moisture mask toothbrush earplugs and eye mask we have our menu already RC I've never seen this in premium economy before even in business class you don't often see this in Airlines Japan Airlines branded slippers these are lovely a blanket blanket is soft it's in a lovely like gray color this is really nice and finally a pillow I must say it feels nice but fluffy not puffy probably wouldn't pass the Liam Spencer coffee test foreign pouch in front of me are a few different amenities some that were packed already when I got on board and then others that were handed to me as I sat down as the flight was getting ready to take off there's a pair of Sony noise canceling headphones they're slippers from a a toothbrush with toothpaste earplugs a mask with in-flight moisture control and a little towelette for your head when I got on board on top of the seat were a pillow and a blanket and this pillow it's thin but it's soft and it fills in that little gap between my neck and the headrest so that'll come in handy when I go to bed later and this blanket here is soft to the touch it almost feels like Silk or like a silk cotton Glenn it feels like it could be pretty warm in case you get cold on flights so while I've got my pillow in my blanket let's do a little recline test [Music] all right that is a nice little range of motion there you got I want to see like a 45 degree ankle uh recline that combined with the fact that I have a lot of leg room it'll definitely do foreign [Music] carrot salad Japanese sober noodles and then fresh salad fresh fruit also some Japanese rice crackers to snack on and oh the best chocolate cheese and then there's two things that are elevated in premium economy you can get a champagne and you can get Japanese shochu so I got the shochu because I thought I'd get something premium economy Vibes just to have that elevated experience having that on the rocks that could knock me out I think cheers oh lovely though first meal service has arrived they kept it really simple and I had two choices real teriyaki chicken over steamed fries or seafood garlic turmeric rice I went with the seafood dish and with the seafood dish Comes This shrimp medley with vegetables over turmeric rice noodles with roasted seaweed potato salad with ham edamame a side salad a dinner roll and a bottle of water and of course you have utensils to your meal so let's see Derby overall the meal was absolutely delicious it was big enough I think full satisfied the problem if it's sort of a shape up there's no step up on economy but if I was an economy now I think I'd be super impressed with this offering anyway no major complaints really nice I think my favorite part about the meal is the noodles with the noodle sauce the broth has this kind of like beefy really strong taste to it that honestly tastes pretty it's a hearty meal that'll last you until the next one okay it's time for the world famous call the hell challenge we're going to see how long Japan Airlines crew take to come after pressing the Corbin let's go let's do it [Music] and now we wait hi um do you do like a chamomile tea or okay thank you there's no way a a are gonna beat that [Music] yeah thank you so much that was like less than 30 seconds so awesome well after this High time that I got a bit cozy got my blanket out got the pillow I must gone earplugs in get some shut up [Music] so we're just about to make our approach into Tokyo it's been a long but very pleasant flight so first up on the ground I thought having that separate check-in area was just brilliant really gave that premium kind of experience on board I really loved the cabin it felt exclusive and the seat was very comfortable the only thing I would complain about is that if you had the leg rest up and then the foot rest down trying to sleep it was a bit of like a weird awkward position you had to get yourself in but other than that especially for the sort of more daytime parts of this flight where I was watching TV and eating it was incredibly comfortable and now the food on this flight I was a little bit concerned that it was going to be the same as the economy cabin which apparently it was but it was plentiful Not only was there a big first meal service which was very delicious there was then little snacks in the galley you could have they brought me hot noodles halfway through the flight I got a cheese cross on and then a full second meal service the crew were also up and down with drinks and snacks for pretty much the entire flight which really made a big difference you will definitely not be going hungry on Japan Airlines finally the service example the Japan Airlines crew have been brilliant so attentive so friendly and I really haven't wanted for anything for this whole 12 and a half hour flight after 14 long hours I have landed in Tokyo and by the way the airport is stunning what 14 hour flights are going to be uncomfortable premium economy on a a really takes the sting out of that duration just due to the seats recline the foot rest the amount of leg room that I had I really loved how a a executed their meal service it was really straightforward really intuitive and super quick a flight attendant would just come up to you with a menu with an ARB choice and as soon as you made your choice a flight attendant would take out a tray put it right in front of you and that was that the staff was super helpful and so incredibly kind on the ground and in the air and everywhere in between in my travel experience here overall I would say premium economy on a a is great for those who want to have a comfortable flight this is a long haul flight but don't want to spend too much for business class or first class all right that's it for me I'm off to explore Tokyo now so I'll catch you in the next video [Music] thank you

Channel: The Points Guy | Departures

Views: 140,249

Keywords: the points guy, flight review, the points guy uk, flight comparison, luxury travel expert, premium economy, ana, all nippon, all nippon airways economy class, all nippon airways premium economy, all nippon airways a380, japan airlines, japan airlines economy class, japan airlines premium economy, comparison, airline battle, nicky kelvin, airline miles, redeeming airline points, credit card points, in flight service, airline meals

Id: 6KuXhMq4DSs

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2023