A few months ago I had the pleasure of going to Japan. I had a great trip, the people there were really nice, the city of Tokyo was absolutely breathtaking, and the even the wheather were nice (At least most of the time.)

For a cheaper fare, i had to transfer in Fukuoka (Hope it is spelled correctly), and on to a Japan Airlines 777-200, for a one and a half-hout domestic hop, bound for Tokyo. In fact, I looked forward to this flight, it was for sure going to be interisting to try one of those famous Japanesed domestic widebodies. Yeah indeed it turned out to be interesting, but not really in the most positive way.

Flight Details:

Type: 777-200 (Short Haul Configured)
Scheduled Flight Duration: 1 Hour 35 Minutes
Real flight time: Around two hours
Class: Economy
From: Fukuoka (FUK)
To: Tokyo Haneda (HND)

Long story Short, we arrived in Fukuoka in the morning, and had a little less than two hours to catch the next flight, JAL 306, bound for Tokyo. Both the International Arrivals as well as the Domestic Terminal seemed rather dated, but was relatively effective though. During the security check, I had the embarrasment of having to open up my luggage, I was tired after a long haul flight, and nervous of not catching my connection, but nevertheless the staff in the security control was really nice, and spoke good English, which definitely improved my experience.

After a short walk, we got to our gate around 30 minutes prior to boarding. It is always nice to be in time, but there was no possibilities of buying a snack for the waiting time, which I hoped for, because I was starting to get a little hungry.
Instead I spend the time looking at all the aircraft parked at the apron, our 777 had already arrived, and next to it, there was a ANA 787 bound for Sapporo in Northen Japan. Shortly after, the boarding started, and started to get exited for the flight. It is not every day you´ll get to fly in a 777 around a country you haven´t been to before.

The boarding went a bit so and so, but at least we departed on time. All 375 seats onboard seemed to be full, and it looked like most of the passengers were commuters, or at least frequent flyers, since many of them did not have a boarding card, but boarded by using some sort of electronic card. Also, litterally everyone was wearing suits, so I felt a little bit wierd wearing Jeans and a long sleeved sheeved shirt.


The Captain did not make any pre flight PA, and neither did the Purser. I don´t know whether this is a standart in Japan, or it just happened because of a busy crew on this particular flight. I usually like a nice, informing, and clear PA before a flight, but since nothing in Aviation is random, i guess there was a reason for this too.
The Cabin felt a bit like the airport, rather dated. The seats seemed rather cheap and plastic-like, but the legroom was quite decent. At least for a 5ft 11in (181 cm) guy like me. Also, there was head phones free of use, where you could listend to different pieces of Japanese Traditional Music. That was a rather cool feature, but not really useable.



Once we got airborne, i realised that this was not going to be a particullary smooth flight. There was heavy turbulence almost from the point when we left the runway. That is indeed nobody´s fault, and it could have happened on any other airline. But to be fair, the crew did not really handle it well, no announcements were made, before we started our decent towards Haneda Airport.

Because of the turbulence, the crew started the in-flight service rather late, but they served free drinks at least, I was one of the lucky ones to get served, but many other´s didn´t. I don´t really think there is any reason for blaming the neither airline or the crew for this, because it was only caused by the weather, and the fasten seatbelts sign was turned on very late, I guess around 40 minutes prior to landing.

Decending into Tokyo, it came clear that there weather wasn´t much better, a bit less turbulence, but still, very low visibilty, and heavy rain. The landing was rather hard, but given the weather condition, and the fact that we were landing in and airport that handles 85 million passengers a year, this was not a surprising. Now it was time to disembark and enjoy Tokyo, which turned out to be an amazing city, which I will definetly come back to.

So, I will try to give a few ratings:

Cabin: 3/10

Legroom: 8/10

Crew: 2/10 (Mainly because of poor English skills, and lack of information given)

In flight entertainment: 4/10 (If there has been a better in flight magazine, I would have rated it higher)

In Flight Services (Such as food, drinks, and snacks): 6/10 (Did not really expect anything.)

Value for the money: 3/10 (There are cheaper airlines operating the route, but I have not tried them.)

Would I fly with this airline on a similar route: Yes, but if there is other airlines operating the route for a similar, or cheaper fare, I would likely fly with them instead.

I am not so sure what exactly disappointed you. What you describe is your typical domestic flight in Japan: bring you from A to B in a timely and efficient manner.

I find it hard to believe you couldn't find any eateries to buy a few nice sandwiches and snacks airside at FUK in the departure lounge. Several shops there when I've been thru FUK.
But yes, serving food on board isn't a Japanese domestic thing.

TC957 wrote:

I find it hard to believe you couldn't find any eateries to buy a few nice sandwiches and snacks airside at FUK in the departure lounge. Several shops there when I've been thru FUK.
But yes, serving food on board isn't a Japanese domestic thing.

It is very like there is some, but not in the gate area from which I departed.

blandy62 wrote:

I am not so sure what exactly disappointed you. What you describe is your typical domestic flight in Japan: bring you from A to B in a timely and efficient manner.

Agreed. Not sure what the OP was expecting? There was turbulence, what was the crew supposed to do? Risk getting hurt to make sure everyone got a beverage?

"Literally everyone was in a suit."

And that's why there were no announcements. For the most part the people on that flight find it as routine as your morning commute.

RamblinMan wrote:

"Literally everyone was in a suit."

And that's why there were no announcements. For the most part the people on that flight find it as routine as your morning commute.

Yes indeed, but when something unusual happens (Such as the heavy turbulence, or the delay we experienced), it would have been nice with some sort of an announcement. When i take the train (Which I do multiple time a week), the train driver or train guard will usually make an announcement in case of a delay, or another unusual event.

DDR wrote:

blandy62 wrote:

I am not so sure what exactly disappointed you. What you describe is your typical domestic flight in Japan: bring you from A to B in a timely and efficient manner.

Agreed. Not sure what the OP was expecting? There was turbulence, what was the crew supposed to do? Risk getting hurt to make sure everyone got a beverage?

No, but they could have made an announcement explaining the situation. Also, apart from that they did what they could, taken the given situation into account. However an English course could have made wonders, that would have improved the whole experience a lot. And that was generally what disappointed me, there was so many small details that could have been improved relatively easily. The same goes for the in-flight magazine as well as the safety video. The in-flight magazine was in English, but still rather low quality. The same goes for their safety video (Which they also use on long haul flights), noone was watching it because of the low quality.

All of that was a shame, since the overall experience could have been much better, by improving the things that I have pointed out. It would not have taken that big of an effort.
To be fair, another reason for why I was disappointed was also because Japan Airlines is a great airline on long haul (I have flown with them), and I was expecting them to offer a at least decent product on short haul as well.

you can try any airlines for domestic flight it won't be much difference, ANA StarFlyer or the LCCs

And as it was pointed but an other poster, most people on those flights are just more or less like train commuters, so all the details you pointed out are really not of their concern. May be you just had a bit too much expectation because this is Japan?

blandy62 wrote:

May be you just had a bit too much expectation because this is Japan?

I think that's exactly it and I totally agree with him.
Carelessness is what causes tragedies, doing things in the "automatic" is not healthy.
If the passengers are bored, there is nothing anyone can do about and a missing pre-flight announcement has nothing to do with turbulence in flight.
Unfortunately our friend flew with a bad and apparently tired crew.
I am with him and would be disappointed too given my greatest appreciation for the Japanese people and their manners.

blandy62 wrote:

you can try any airlines for domestic flight it won't be much difference, ANA StarFlyer or the LCCs

And as it was pointed but an other poster, most people on those flights are just more or less like train commuters, so all the details you pointed out are really not of their concern. May be you just had a bit too much expectation because this is Japan?

Yes, I did have high expectations, but mainly because of the fact that JAL, is a great long haul airline, so as I wrote before, I expected them to offer a better short haul service as well.... The ticket fare was almost twice the fare of flying with Jetstar, which gave higher expectation as well...

Yeah, indeed most of the passengers were like train commuters, but I reviewed JAL like any other comparable airline, on any other comparable route. Stating what I found good, and what I found bad...

It is totally all right to state what you like/don't like. At the end that's the point of writing those flight reports and share them.

But really as you found out, flying domestic in Japan is nothing special, except may be when you could fly those short flights in economy sitting on the upper deck of the 747. But that's history...

When in Japan, I just choose my flight based on the schedule and price.