The Over 30 Girly's Edit

I don’t do a lot of long-haul flights, which are 6.5 hours or more, in my opinion (not sure if there is an official definition somewhere on this). For example, flying from Seattle to New York is long (~6 hours), but I don’t necessarily need to worry about having a good sleep during the flight – unless I’m doing a red-eye, which I would probably never do again. Back to long hauls, I don’t do a lot of them, but in the past 2 years, we’ve done 3 long-haul flights to Asia and Europe. Luckily this time, I was sitting in business class for all of the flights – thanks to my husband, who allows it to happen! Obviously, if you can afford it or can use points to upgrade your seat, when crossing to the other side of the world with time zone changes, sitting in Business or Premium Economy will make a huge difference. This is not to say that I know how fortunate we are to be able to do this without worrying about the cost; most people can’t do the same. This post is specifically for folks who are looking to see if they should spend more (money or points) on these premium cabins and if it will be worth it.

Ground Operations

Let’s be real here – a round way ticket on Business class going anywhere isn’t cheap, of course depending on the season as well, but even with low season traveling or during the weekdays instead of Thursday/Friday, it’s pricey. On average, we pay between $4,500 – $5,500 for each trip (Seattle to Saigon, Seattle to London) on 2 different airlines (Japan Airlines JAL and Virgin Atlantic). Paying that much – you’d better get some special services, both in the ground and on the air. In general, I think it’s true for most cases.

The most disappointing thing for us is usually the ground operations for boarding the planes. I am now convinced it’s based on the airport where we depart from. At first, we thought it was just how JAL runs their boarding operations, which was surprising to say the least. It’s a Japanese company, and so I would expect their process to be smooth and organized. Nope, it’s chaotic every single time we board any plane from anywhere. From Seatac airport, to Narita Airport, to Tan Son Nhat airport. All the same – chaos. It’s not as easy to say that I can just sit down and wait until my turn to board. Flying business class usually would put you in either Group 1 or 2 for boarding, and that is at the beginning after the pre-boarding group. So yeah, when everyone else who may or may not be in those first groups is crowding the boarding area, and they’re calling your group, you bet to see me waiting in line too, because they ask my group to wait in line. It’s the rushing and unorganized environment of this process that adds more traveling stress to everyone. It wasn’t just JAL, because I was almost confidently saying that it was because of JAL, until we were flying Virgin Atlantic from Seattle, and boy oh boy, it was the same dang thing. Chaotic, confusing, and a frustrating process.

Now, I don’t know the solution to this umm… problem? It’s not a problem per se, but it does make me tense starting out a travel day. However, Vietnam Airlines does not seem to give us the same anxiety. We’ve flown with them a few times domestically in Vietnam, so these flights were short and very sweet. They board First/Business Class first after the pre-boarding, obviously, but in the way that there are 2 lines to board: one is First/Business, and the other line is everything else. People line up in their groups prior to boarding time, but for First/Business, you barely have to be there early at all. Once it’s boarding time, they let both lines go sort of at the same time, so eventually the different groups would merge into one walking down the jetway. But, for some reason, that process makes it feel so much less intense, at least for First/Business people. And I feel like if you’re paying this much for a seat on the plane, maybe the boarding process should reflect the services to be provided for the entire journey as well.

Lastly, at the boarding point, Virgin Atlantic processes from London Heathrow is where the money is at. They have a separate terminal for their business class (Upper Class – along with Delta One), and it’s the easiest process from check-in to security to the lounge to boarding. It probably took us less than 10 minutes from being dropped off at this exclusive terminal entrance to through security. Painless. No fuss. No crowd. Just On The Money. At the gate, they check your passport and ticket before going into the boarding area, and when it’s time to board, they just call the group and you can walk through the jetway without another check.

In terms of ground operations, with a business ticket, you do have access to the lounges. Usually, it’s the same lounge as other airlines that partner with the main airline that has a hub at the airport you depart from. So the lounge quality really depends on where it is. JAL is a part of the One World alliance, and so their lounge is shared with other One World airlines. The one in Seattle was fine, sort of like normal seating at the gate but with a controlled number of people inside, and there are snacks you can eat for free – yup, that was about it. Nothing to be excited about, but overall, grateful for a quieter and more calm environment before the chaos at boarding. For the Virgin Atlantic flight, they’re partners with Delta, so we went into the Delta lounge, which is a pretty nice lounge overall. More food and drink options are served in this lounge, which makes sense as Delta has a bigger presence at SeaTac than some others.

The lounges from Narita Airport (Sakura Lounge) and London Heathrow (Revivals Lounge) are a lot better, as expected. They are much bigger and more comfortable. At the Revivals Lounge, you can order espresso, latte, and cappuccino drinks that will be made by a barista, not self-served from machines like in most lounges. Of course, any other beverages can also be served in these two lounges.

Seating – How much can it help to be on Business for Long Hauls

Business class seats are, as we all know, a lot more spacious than seats in other classes.

The layout of Japan Airlines’ Dreamliner is pretty great. The route from SeaTac to/from Narita has comfortable seats and a bigger cabin (JAL Sky Suite) than the route from Vancouver to/from Narita. The seats have a movable divider in between to use if you travel alone. Although I would love to try their new business class seat on the A350, where there is a room with a door to close off completely, the JAL Sky Suite offers pretty good privacy, except for what you’re watching on the monitor. I could certainly see other people’s choice of shows and maybe silently judge the choices too, ha. JAL provides their guests with a pair of slippers and also offers a cardigan if needed, alongside a goodie bag with basic stuff (toothbrush, toothpaste, hand cream, face lotion, and some napkins, which is so Asian to me – only Asians know how helpful napkins can be!).

For the Virgin Atlantic flight from Seattle to London on the 787-9, the seating is a bit different. The seat is comfortable, for sure. The layout is rather odd. There are many reviews online about this, so I won’t need to say it again; it’s not the ideal business class layout from the guest’s point of view. Perhaps for the airline, it allows them to fit more seats in? I don’t know, and I honestly didn’t find it to be that much of a bad experience like some reviewers did. The seats are in a herringbone-style configuration, and so the two rows of seats on the right side of the plane seem like they can stare into each other’s side. We sat on both sides, and honestly? It wasn’t the case of staring into the people across from me. First of all, I was busy eating or watching the shows (on my iPad), so I didn’t have any reason to look at other people or their seats. Second of all, it’s not that directly across in the way that if both passengers sitting across look up, they’ll see the other person’s face. I’d totally do it again, as in I won’t try to avoid this configuration! It’s fine, trust me.

Here is the truth – it’s quite a difference to be sitting in Business class for long hauls, only if you figure out when we need to sleep and then actually do so. At the end of the day, the goal for international travelers is to have as little jet lag as possible when reaching the destination. I used to be a great sleeper on flights, so it wasn’t that bad for me to fly back to Vietnam from the U.S., even sitting at the back of the plane. Oh, how I miss the good old (young) days. Not anymore, now that I’m over 30 years old. I still do fall asleep pretty quickly as soon as the plane is on the jetway about to take off. And once we’re airborne, although I could be very tired, it’s not quite as easy anymore. Once the meal services were done on both of our trips from Seattle to Japan and London, we knew we had to sleep a bit to catch up with the current time in those cities, so it was time to convert the seat into a flat bed to maximize the sleep-ability.

JAL seat is pretty straightforward with their system, press a button with a bed on it and it’ll lay flat for you. If you want a mattress, ask the flight attendant and they’ll set that up.

Virgin Atlantic is another story: to lie it flat, first you’ll need to get out of the seat and clear everything you have on your seat aside (not to the lower compartment as you won’t have access to it). Only then can you press the button, and the seat will turn upside down to make it flat. Then, you can grab the very thin mattress behind the seat the whole time to put it on. Pillow, and a duvet, now you have a very uncomfortable bed. Actually, don’t do it by yourself because you’ll have so many questions as to why? Ask the flight attendant, and they will be more than happy (actually prefer) to help you with this.

Needless to say, I slept much better on JAL than on Virgin Atlantic. Also, the duration of these two flights is pretty similar (~10 hours give or take), and the hours with lights out on the JAL flight were a lot longer than on the Virgin Atlantic flight (I think, 6 hours on JAL vs 3+ hours on Virgin – but I didn’t count them so I could be so off here). Yes, I am aware that there are eye masks provided on both flights which I could have used, but I could barely sleep because of my back pain with Virgin Atlantic “bed” so the eye masks couldn’t have helped much.

Finally, the Food & Beverage Onboard

This is going to be a biased opinion from myself, because I simply think Asian food is better. And so, I enjoyed very much every thing that was served to me in all flights that were by Asian airlines. JAL is known for their food offerings onboard, and for business class, it was no exception. I obviously chose the Japanese meal and judging by the looks of the 2 meal types (Toby had his Western meals on all flights with JAL), my option was better and extravagant in the presentation. Depending on when your flight is, the menu can be different, but not by much. You can view the menu 3 months in advance on their website, and that’s what I would do so I could start imagining my inflight experience with them (because I am weird that way). Their main meal served at the beginning of the flight always starts with an snack (rice crackers and nuts) along with your choice of drinks (on top of the welcome champagne), then the appetizer course.

The appetizer contains many different small dishes – mostly served cold or at room temperature. Sometimes there are pork, shrimp, fish cake, potatoes, and so on. These pictures are from 2 different flights but as you can see, they’re generally similar to each other.

Then, the main course would have white rice (wrapped in the leaf), miso soup, and a protein (beef, pork, or fish – depending on when you fly). Finally, there are desserts and a hot green tea cup to end the meal. However, I usually skip this course because there is truly a lot of food to consume, knowing that there is another serving coming later.

One thing I have started doing this time traveling to Vietnam, that I would ask to either skip the first course and dessert or sub the first course with just a tiny instant noodle cup, depending on how hungry and tired I was at the time. I think it’s great that they do really feed you onboard, but also flexible enough that they can accommodate these requests – with a smile, no less.

JAL has the “ANYTIME” menu, which you can truly order anytime except for the main service. The menu is extensive on the SEA-NAR route (and back), compared to the very small anytime menu on the VYR-NAR route (and back), which is strange as it’s the same duration of the flight. I usually don’t order more than just one thing on the second service, again because I would not be hungry and/or very tired to eat the whole meal. As you can see below, I love their instant noodle cup (Chappon). I don’t know what it is, but this tiny but mighty cup of noodles wins the noodles competition. Their vegan ramen was pretty good as well; the noodles tasted fresh and the broth was flavorful. It was also piping hot. Their Oyakodon (Chicken Egg Rice bowl) was also delicious, big enough to break the hunger 7 hours into the flight but not too much.

The food on Virgin Atlantic was great, western style of course, so it can’t be compared to my beloved JAL food. Their bread and butter were good, though, both times. Although I found their salad/starter course to be just okay, and the main course was better coming back from London (Jerk chicken rice bowl and it was spicy!). I skipped desserts again on these flights, so no review for me, but Toby had the dessert and he thought it was just alright. The outbound flight had very low lighting (Dinner time), so I won’t share terrible quality photos, but you get the gist.

Their “anytime” menu can only be served 2.5 hours before landing, so not really anytime but oh well – it wasn’t like I wanted food while trying to sleep on a hard rock “bed” anyway. For the outbound flight, I had a breakfast sandwich (a bun and English ham – delicious delicious). On the inbound flight, I had “Cream Tea” which is an English Scone. I love English scones, and I did bring back a couple from Harrods to the States because I loved them so much, but these scones on the plane were dry and not scone-shaped. You should be able to break the top half off to put in your clotted cream and jam, but these scones are not that. Awkward spreading to be spread, coming from a non-English person. But, I do appreciate them having scones as an option, trying to let me hold onto my British dream once more.

So, is it worth it?

100% yes – I think a lot of people enjoy the food and drinks offered in Business class, as well as the bigger seat and privacy for comfortable sleeping and sitting. For me, being a person who loves food as much as I do, the main advantage is the ability to lay down flat and sleep to catch up with the time zone I’m going to. For that, I will say it’s 100% worth it. Food is secondary, as I do skip many courses and options. Airplane food, as good as it can be, does make me feel bloated most of the time, and being 35 right now does not give me additional reasons to feel that way.

This brings me to a theory though, that although it’s completely worth it to spend on that business class for long hauls, I’m not convinced First Class seats are worth paying twice or three times more. I have never flown a First Class seat anywhere, so I have no base to go on. But, in my humble opinion, besides a bigger seat (which I am reluctant to say how that would make me fall asleep faster and better – it’s really now my will to go to sleep at the hours when I’m usually awake, not the seat). Especially now with the new JAL business class, it’d be the same with First Class, no? Food on First class surely is better quality (caviar, and very expensive champagne perhaps), but it is not where I think the money should be spent on. So my opinion is to spend that dough on Business Class if you can, but skip the First Class for sure. Except, you are sponsored on First Class then go live that life!