Japan Airlines Review

Overall Rating

Service at Japanese airports
Service inside aircraft
Clean, well maintained aircraft
Meals from Europe to Japan

Service inside aircraft
Meals from Japan to Europe
Inability to speak or understand English
Trainee stewardesses on-board intercontinental flights

I have flown with Japan Airlines 3 times now (from Amsterdam Schiphol to various destinations in Japan and back), usually the outward bound flights have excellent food for economy class.

Since I am not the skinniest person in the world, I usually just get the seat-belt buckles closed when seated.
On JAL flights this was not possible, and I had to ask for an extension so I could close the buckle.
This caused some embarrassment from the stewardess, as everyone was already seated. Having learned from this, I requested an extension to the seat-belt the last two times I flew with JAL, and this was promptly delivered before everyone was seated.
I have heard people state concerns about leg space. Well, KLM was a lot worse with 2 inches less!

Overall: Pleasant experience on outbound flights, check in at Schiphol is sometimes annoying due to some staff being unfriendly.

Arrival in Tokyo can cause delays at customs checks for luggage inspections. I have found out that it helps to go with a group towards 1 customs officer, if you are travelling in larger groups.
Even though sometimes you need to have your luggage inspected by customs, I find that Japanese customs is much nicer about it than for example US customs, who are often quite rude.

On the return flights however, I have always had the same monotonous food.
On my first trip back from Narita the stewardess offered me some of the staff food, cutlet sandwiches, which was great. On my second and third flight, they had the same food again, which I declined to eat, and I was not offered anything else.

On the second and third flight from Japan, most of the stewardesses did not speak English at all. My Japanese is limited, but I could understand most of it. However, they did not (or did not want?) to understand me. I never become rude, and I just let it go. I must remember to request different food for return flights.

Since I am a fan of Japanese movies, I usually buy a lot of stuff in Japan, and my suitcase is usually heavier than the allowed 20kg. The friendly JAL staff at Osaka (Itami) and Narita airport never complained about my suitcase being heavy after I said that my suitcase might be a bit heavy. At Narita it was 26kg, at Itami it was 29.5. An English person at Narita who only had a 3kg overweight suitcase started out by being rude to the staff that his suitcase may be overweight, but that should be no problem. Because he was loud, and obnoxious (I think?) He got fined 6000 yen per kilo overweight.

My experience in Japan with ground staff is that as long as you (can) remain polite, quite a lot is possible to deviate from standard behaviour.

Also, you can bring quite a lot more into the country than the allowed amount if you have the items gift-wrapped in quality gift-wrap paper and report the items as gifts, Omiyage. I was allowed to bring 4 litres of strong liquor in for friends without having to pay import tax on them (normal allowance is 1 litre) because they were gifts.

In conclusion:
Jal Outbound from Europe is great. Inbound from Narita, the food is bad. Sometimes they have trainee stewardesses on-board that do not speak English at all, and do not belong on intercontinental flights. Sometimes the normal stewardesses do not speak English, but will usually fetch someone who can if they can not understand your request. Punctuality is usually fine too.

Members' Comments onNielsV's Review

• Bertie on 6th Apr 2006

  A free Japanese lesson for you NielsV.....
  
  http://www.ilovewavs.com/comedy/AnsMach/AnsMach%20-%20Learn%20Japanesse%20in%2020%20sec.wav

• NielsV on 7th Apr 2006

  My japanese is passable. So I am not in need to those lessons :)

• headtrip on 25th Oct 2006

  I didn't quite understand why you gave such a poor food grade to Japan Airlines. I thought their variety of food was excellent, and they certainly had a variety of meals on all my flight segments, including a choice of chicken, pork, fish, rice roll, and the cutlet sandwiches in between for snacks. I think they have the best food service of any airline in the Far East, hands down. As far as communication problems with the flight crew, I did have a similar situation, and I confess I don't speak any Japanese at all, but when I raised my voice just a little bit to express my frustration, the attendant brought the lead flight attendant and all was well again. Or just continuing to press the passenger assistance button might be another method if you didn't want to bring too much attention to yourself. I wasn't on your flight, but just food for thought...maybe you can request a vegetarian or kosher meal on your next flight, depending on your needs. Thanks for sharing your experience.

• NielsV on 26th Oct 2006

  Hi. As I said, my experience on inbound, Europe to Japan was excellent.
  Only on the way back, Japan Airways always have the exact same meals, which are bland and usually overcooked too.
  
  On the flight to The Netherlands there is never a cutlet sandwich or anything like it as a in-between snack.
  
  That's why I listed the food as bad. I do agree with you that food towards Japan was great. Just the stuff on the way back is not that good.
  
  My experience on other JAL flights is limited, but the overall experience is usually great.
  I would not advise to do the things you mentioned for getting attention.
  The best way to attract proper attention and get an English speaker would be:
  Sumimasen, watashi, nihongo shabaranai desu. Anata, Eigo shabarimashita?
  I am sorry, I do not understand Japanese. Do you understand English?
  If the answer is negative, the stewardess will get you an English speaker just to be polite.
  It works much faster, and you would not be seen as a silly foreigner.