Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner

Introduction
Tale of Two Lounges - Dulles Airport
Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner
Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo
Day Trip to Kamakura
Tokyo Hilton
A Blast From the Past - American First Class
Tale of Two Lounges - Narita Airport
The Joan Rivers Hotel - W Chicago Lakeside
Wrap-Up of Trip

In this segment of my trip report, I will discuss how I got to Tokyo. My initial plan was to spend 60,000 United Miles for business class seats by flying through Frankfurt (FRA). My options were surprising plentiful, but that could have been due to it being Christmas Eve.  Two weeks before the trip, I decided to spend 7,500 more United miles to fly First Class from IAD to FRA, as I didn't like my seat in business class. Unfortunately, the ANA Dreamliner does not have First Class, so my change to first class did not benefit me there.

When I first boarded the plane, my first impression of the seat was muh.

What I really liked was the amount of storage around the seat especially this deep bin against the window:

Also, this cubby with the mess pocket:

And another smaller bin.

While the storage was impressive, the food options were college cafeteria at best.

Warm Appetizer: Vegetable Spring Roll and Coconut shrimp skewer with mango chutney

First, both appetizers were cold. The shrimp skewer was ok, but the chutney was AMAZING.

The spring roll reminded me of my college cafeteria. I took one bite and wish I didn't:

Soup: Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Bisque

I love soup, so I was excited for this. It was luke warm, chunky and had no flavor.

Fresh Seasonal Greens: Roasted tomatoes, Kalamata olives, baby mozzarella and croutons

This salad was an odd combination of items and it did not work. The non-first class thing was that they gave me a package of croutons. I should have asked for a business class salad.

    

I think this orange thing was the roasted tomato??

Main Course: Grilled Salmon with Lump Crabmeat - Beurre blanc sauce, barley with vegetables, collard greens and tomatoes. 

This part of the meal was ok! I don't remember it, so it must not have been great.

Sundae with everything!

No question this was the best part of the meal. I had it with coffee with Baily's

Breakfast: Chilled Deli Selection with Fruit Cup

Awkward breakfast, but I know its typical for European.

Last thing, I'll talk about this flight was the bedding. 

First, look at the difference between a business class pillow and first class pillow. The former in from of the latter . . .

The length and width of the bed were nice and gave me a good few hours of sleep.

Overall, I should have stuck with the business class ticket. I did not find the experience all that great. I don't know if it was Christmas Eve and the staff was upset by working, but they were very cold. I did not see any diffrence in the First Class and Business Class experience other than the soup course.

While my United First Class flight was blah, my ANA Dreamliner flight was AMAZING!!!! Before boarding, I was giddy like a little child on Christmas. Actually, it was Christmas Day, so maybe I shouldn't feel so bad. 

I took many pictures of the plane from the gate waiting area. Actually, some people came over and asked me why I was taking pictures of the plane. I explained that this not just any plane, but the next generation of airplanes...that led people to start taking pictures of plane with me....

Look at the size of the engine!

This flight only has business and economy class. The airplane seats less than 200 and business class took about 60% of the airplane. There were three separate business class cabins (2 to the left once you entered and 1 when you turned right). I choose the one to the right at booking, because it had the least number of passengers in it. In the end, only five of us where in this cabin.

Seating is staggered with single seats on the aisles and either 1 or 2 seats in the middle.

Your seat is a little box (coffin like). 

One of the pitfalls of this airplane is storage in the seat. It was nonexistent. I had to put my draw string bag under my feet rest.

Thinking back, I think the reason for the lack of seat storage was that their was plenty of overhead bin storage. The storage bin pull down at an angle, so the airplane felt tall.

The seat had tons of buttons located on the side panel of the table. Most of the them controlled the seat ie turning it into a bed, reclining and moving the seat forward. The button I think is the nicest is the "Do Not Disturb Button," it lights up something on the top of your seat, so the flight attendants allow you to sleep.

If you guessed the Side Table Light controlled the little lamp below, you would be wrong:

The "Side Table Light" actually turns your seat into the outside of the disco....

One of the highlights of the Dreamliner are not old fashion window shades. Instead, they give you a button for your desired window shade:

The flight attendants have the ability to black-out all of the windows for sleep time.

        

Even a button to turn on the light in your foot cubby..don't know what you would use this for, but good to know you have it.

Your dinner table is locked under your entertainment system:

The menu was very complicated with two separate menus (one for leaving from Japan and another for leaving from Germany) with each menu in three languages: Japanese, Germany and English. With the"leaving Germany Menu" there was a Japanese and International menu to choice from. I wanted to pick and choose various things from both menus, but I was told I had to stick with one or another. I played it safe with the International Menu.

As a pre-appetizer, I got two small sandwiches with mystery meat, a bowl of olives and sun dried tomato:

Appetizer: Smoked Duck with Honey and Mustard flavor

This was extremely tasty and the honey/mustard was a nice side.

Main Plate: Fillet of beef steak with grated daikon radish soy sauce

The meat was tough and the sauce was bitter.

Dessert: Pistachio and vanilla ice cream with plum sauce

The ice cream was good, but the plum sauce interesting.

In the middle of the flight, I had Ratatouille Soup and a Herb Grilled Chicken Focaccia Sandwich:

I went with the Japanese Breakfast: Japanese Savory Omelet, Rice, Japanese Pickles

First, before going on the trip, I did not like Japanese Food. Afterwards, I can tolerate it, but I would not go out to a restaurant for it. However, one of my goals was to push my limits on this trip, so I started with the Japanese breakfast. Yes, nothing earth shattering, but small steps.

The staff was super attentive throughout the entire flight. There were 2 flight attendants for five passengers, so requests were fulfilled instantly. Actually, the reason why I went to Kamakura (to be reported later) was due to a recommendation of one of the flight attendants. One of the attendants suggested I watch a 15 minute video on Tokyo on the IFE, that I would never have found, on my own. 

Speaking of the IFE, the TV screen was small and choices very limited. Actually, the choices that they had were similar to the ones on my earlier United flight. 

A trip report would not be complete with out the pics of the bathroom. The bathroom was huge and one could get changed easily without bumping into anything. No amenity kit was provided, but everything you needed was in the bathroom:

Lots of buttons for the toilet:

A window to watch the clouds while doing your business:

Traditional PJ Bathroom Pic....

 

 The only mention of it being Christmas was a little note in the bathroom:

Overall, I was very impressed with ANA and the Dreamliner. I am so grateful to have flown the Dreamliner before the entire fleet was grounded. It is a very impressive plane. While I did not like the food that was more my choices rather than the quality. The staff treated me like royalty. They are the reason why I will fly ANA again. 

Next Up: Castle in the Clouds

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