JAL Return to Kona on September 15, 2017



Apart from the obvious cultural and language barrier, Japanese airlines really treat their inaugural flights specially. After leaving the Kona market seven years ago, Japan Airlines has finally returned with nonstop flights in both directions, which was used to be a triangular route, Narita-Kona-Honolulu-Narita on a Boeing 747-300, on a perhaps more appropriately sized aircraft, Boeing 767-300ER. In general, both ANA and JAL treat their Hawaiian flights as mostly leisure routes, and the emphasis is on more in economy class. Business class is more regional than premium international, so my expectation has lowered. With a late departure time, a one tray dinner was perhaps more fitting, but at least this inaugural flight feature some unique items. The service was obviously excellent as usual, and I was genuinely surprised at the grand reception on our arrival into Kona. I hope you will enjoy this report.

September 15, 2017
JL 770 Tokyo Narita to Kona Lv2125 Arr1010 Boeing 767-300ER Winglet JA607J

Photo link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Carfi ... tion/story

Check-in:
My day actually started early in Taipei, as my ticket was a roundtrip Taipei to Kona. It was the cheapest business class ticket I could find and I pretty much checked every Asian market.

Not busy at all, but I notice that there is no longer a separate priority line for Oneworld Emerald and JMB diamond members.

I am not going to bore you with the details on a quiet Boeing 737 flight from Taoyuan to Tokyo Narita, and went straight to the segment on the resumption Narita to Kona flight.

Aircraft check:
JA607J was in charge of the inaugural mission today, and I went to gate 62 to snap some pictures of this Boeing 767.

The aircraft arrived earlier in the early afternoon hours from Honolulu and it was quiet.





Gate 62 – no sign of activity



First Class Lounge:
With more than four hours in transit, I did some duty-free shopping and spent some times in the JAL First Class lounge. While it was not a particularly spectacular lounge for an airlines’ home base, the food especially the sushi bar, really suit my personal taste. Knowing how these Hawaiian flights could be “hit or miss,” I ate a pretty full meal.



Sushi bar and plane – best combination





The lounge got busier as we hit the last bank of flights heading to Hawaii. Japan Airlines has more than four late evening flights to Hawaii, mostly Honolulu. There were many JAL Diamond members, especially elderly couples on these business class flights.


Celebration time at Narita


There were basically a full JAL PR team and many F/As and pilots (not sure if they were actors or trainees because they look pretty young) are going around taking pictures with passengers.




Photo-taking time with JL pilots and F/As wearing “I believe the old resort” uniform


Key figures of this inaugural event


Speeches were made mostly in Japanese again, so I did not know what was going on. However, I was impressed that none of them used a cheat sheet. They memorized their speeches and no teleprompter obviously too.

This lady was a JAL representative – maybe…


Then the cockpit crews of our flight this evening, Captain Yoneyama (along with second pilot, Captain Oda, and Captain specified that his colleague was a pilot as well) made a speech in both Japanese and English.


Photo of the both the cockpit and cabin crews working on this inaugural/resumption flight



Of course, the Hula Dance


Hawaiian Tourism table



Contents of our inaugural gift bag – some of the items – I had the inaugural gift bag content later in the report.



Final group photo of all the performers and staffs


At 8:55pm, all the performances and speeches were complete, and the stage was immediately removed and things were getting ready for boarding.







Boarding:
At 9pm, we began to line up and there was a separate diamond/emerald lane, and it was a long queue.


Gift bags were passed out during boarding, and there were lots of bowing.
Farewell banner with F/As and pilots



Cabin shot:
The flight attendants were warmly greeting passengers.

Kona inaugural decoration


Name plate of JA607J – I love this feature on all JAL planes.


Business Class Cabin – Suites II








Economy Class Cabin – Sky Wide seats



Each business class seats feature slippers, good night kit (a cheap version of amenity kit for regional flights), headsets, Tempur Pedic pillow, and blanket (really thin blanket).


Pre-takeoff beverage – Orange juice or champagne in plastic glass


Unlike boarding in other parts of the world, passengers boarded in an orderly fashion. On one was blocking the aisles doing stupid things. Everyone was civilized and I was still amazed how boarding was completed within 17 minutes. Door was closed at 9:22pm.

We pushed back at 9:26pm, and here was the farewell ground team saying goodbye to our plane.



They even cared to have two teams, so both sides would have someone waving. It was more impressive than Air Asia X’s Kansai farewell.



Narita was fairly quiet in the late evening hours, but since we had to taxi all the way to the other end of the airport, we did not take off till 9:50pm from R/W16R.

Flying time was seven hours and thirty-eight minutes, and it was truly a transpacific flight. The routing was slightly longer than usual because we had to detour around some weather. The pilot apologized for the late arrival. We climbed incrementally from 35,000ft to eventually 38,000ft. We entered Hawaiian airspace by passing by the North coast of Kauai, and then crossing Oahu and Honolulu, and then onto Kona.





Suites II seat



This was my second time flying these particular Boeing 767 suites, which are way better than before, and those regional configured 767s are not to be missed at all.. It was arranged in a four-abreast staggering layout.


I like the side storage bin the most, as you can put plenty of personal items.


There were the usual USB port and universal power outlet.


Literature pockets



Shoe storage


Seat Control



As typical on these flights to Hawaii, there were much turbulence shortly after takeoff. The service was slowed down significantly, especially the F/As had to sit down for a while in the middle of service.

Similar to other regional flights, there was a hot towel service prior to any service.

Then linen and beverage service with packaged rice crackers


Here is the wine list and menu:








As I have already noted earlier, dinner was a one tray affair and you could pre-order your entrée now online. JAL published all the menus online, and you could choose between Japanese and Western meal. I went with Western tonight, and it was okay. Since I was not overly hungry, the quantity and quality was just right. I love the Cold vegetable cream soup with vegetable chips.




I love this cute note!






Breads


I love this Cold Vegetable soup


Dessert was a special Kona’s coffee Swiss roll this evening to celebrate the Kona inaugural flight.



It was almost midnight Japan time when the meal was completed. There were one more round of tea and coffee, along with bottled water and another round of hot towels. I noticed that no trolley was being used and everything was hand delivered from the galley!

Lights out afterward and I promptly fell asleep for the next four hours.

Entertainment:
Magic V and touchscreen personal television system were available, but I am not impressed with the selection of movies and television programs. I mainly stuck with watching my own TV on my iPhone.

WIFI was available on this flight, but I did not use it. Here is the list of prices!


Nice Hawaiian-themed notes in the bathroom



The F/A turned on the flight in business class cabin in about 90 min prior to arrival.



There was another hot towel service, followed by linen and breakfast, which were pancakes. It was definitely better than the corned beef sandwich with fruit and pickles option on the Honolulu flights.


Hot towel – thick


Linen


Tea – Asian Airlines used these small tea cups except Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines. I like a larger sized mug.






There was some time after breakfast, so I took pictures of the seats:


Relax position



Bed position



My number one issue was the narrowness of the seats especially on full flat positions. I had to sleep on my sides because felt so cramped facing up. There were plenty of space for my feet.

Picture of the gift bag and its contents – I like the 767 themed stuffs and the JAL’s Big Island bag.







First sign of land – Kauai


Crossing Oahu


Honolulu International airport – Reef runway






Approaching Kona International Airport





We landed on R/W17 at 10:28am, and some activities in the tarmac.








Flying this Alaska’s Boeing 737-800 to San Diego in a few hours. I was surprised the plane had a 20+ layover at Kona. The flight landed at 3:30pm from Seattle.


Of course, water canon salute but most passengers were not aware of it. I spotted the fire engine early on, so I knew there was a water canon welcome.





Seat 1K features some extra spaces (same as 1A)


Not too useful but at least you can have some additional space to put your laptop or reading literature there during flight

Then we parked next to the International Arrival building/structure, and it was a great time taking pictures. No one stopped us too.








Another picture of the international arrival building, as my onward flight to San Diego passed by. Hawaiian Airlines’ A330 N385HA had just arrived from Tokyo Haneda. JA607J parked at the same spot a few hours earlier. The plane will be towed back to a normal gate at terminal one or two, once passengers deplaned and both custom and security checks were completed. JAL uses terminal two for check-in but departure actually took place at terminal one. Hawaiian Airlines uses terminal two for both their flights to Haneda, US Mainland, and other Hawaiian cities.


JAL local staffs welcoming us



The international custom hall is small, but better than the barrack type structure San Jose International (SJC) had used for a long time, before the current terminal expansion. Since most passengers were Japanese, there was a queue dedicated to kiosks. US citizens can use one of the normal counters. Of course, there was no Global Entry kiosk. The immigration officers and customer officers were all friendly and most of the passengers were Japanese tourists. There was one single baggage claim and it took them fifteen minutes to deliver the first bags. From the number of bags featuring the red premium tags, it was really surprisingly an elite heavy route. BTW, Hawaiian Airlines is Japan Airlines’ ground agent here in Kona. I think given it was the first day of operation, thing went smooth. It was interesting that the custom officer X-rayed all our carry-on bags, instead of checked bags. It might have to do with the snack bags served in economy cabin that feature fruits.

Once I walked out the custom hall, there was more festivity. Miss Kona was handing out these typical Hawaiian Lei rings, and there was another gift bag.




JMB welcoming arriving passengers, and I have a feeling that they got a bunch of their guests arriving on this inaugural flight.


While this gift bag was mostly commercial related gifts, there was one important item – the inaugural certificate.


Pictures of contents:
Kona themed bottled waters – I drank it before checking in for the next flight.


The rest… many commercial gifts but I like the Macadamia nuts.







Stickers


There are also some light refreshment including beverage, cakes, and pastries from local Hawaiian shops. It was pretty warm outside, so iced beverages were definitely appreciated by many guests.



Of course there was a cake but not as great as the JetBlue’s inaugural cakes though!


There was another press conference featuring various JAL’s North American/Hawaiian station managers, local politicians and airport managers. Today was known as the “JAL’s Return to Kona” Day.







I like the podium:


The crews from JL 770, Captain Yoneyama, Captain Oda, Senior cabin attendant Miss Hagihara with her team, came out to greet the local press and then there was another picture. These F/As really worked hard.



In conclusion, it was a great inaugural experience and Japan Airlines is an excellent airline. I will fly the return segment next month and will report back on their ground experiences in Kona. I knew that check-in was conducted in ticketing lobby 2, as their handling agent, Hawaiian Airlines, was located there. However, the actual gate JAL used is on Terminal One, as indicated by all these signs.




I have a feeling that JAL will move to a new ticketing lobby once the current construction/expansion was completed. I personally wonder if JAL will have a lounge for business class passengers, but given Hawaiian Airlines was the only airlines with some sort of a lounge in Kona and JAL operates from Terminal One, I expect none. I also want to see if the food is sufficient in terms of quality and quantity for the return flight, which is a daytime flight.

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this special Japan Airlines’ “Kona Return” inaugural trip report!

Carfield

Thank you for your extensive, detailed JAL TR. Nice to see the Sky Suite II C product on a real flight. I also hadn't realised that JAL's 763 fleet was so young.

And I know I'm being selfish, but very pleased to see the gate photos at NRT - JL8 will be departing from one of the 60s in a couple of weeks time and I'll be on it.

I very much enjoyed your report. I am glad to see that JL is expanding their service to Hawaii. How come you did not stay for a few days in Hawaii?

Love the trip report, thanks for sharing. Pictures were very well done.
Truly is special to be on an inaugural flight, and the Japanese really do pay attention to every little detail. I admit I wasn't aware Hawaii had more than 1 international airport.