First dinner course in ANA's Business Class The Room. I’m a travel writer. I don’t earn enough income to pay outright for business class; however, I do hoard enough miles through travel and credit card SUBs (sign up bonuses) to score relentlessly-hunted award tickets. I’ve flown business class in many international premier carriers including
Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas, to name a few. Domestically, I’m loyal to United’s Polaris product, for better or worse (lately, it seems, for the worse). I’ve walked away from all these flights with mixed feelings. Recently, I had the pleasure of flying on All Nippon Airways (ANA) from Saigon-Haneda-New York. The HND—>JFK leg was in The Room, which I purposefully secured after reviewing aircraft and seat layouts aligned with times and dates that offered this specific product. I’d been reading about The Room on several first- and business-class airline enthusiast message boards and after weeks of stalking availability, I landed a seat. In my twenty years of flying, I’m smitten. Here’s why. ANA Business Class One-Way HND—>JFK in The Room Flight Code and Aircraft: ANA110 / NH110 on
Boeing 777-300ER View of my seat in ANA's The Room. History of The Room In July 2019, ANA debuted its new first- and business-class suites designed by the renowned architect Kengo Kuma. Kuma, celebrated for his work on Japan's National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics, incorporated several elements into ANA's suites that make it stand out from the competition. First, The Room features a blend of elegance and subtlety through the incorporation of wood paneling, evocative of Japan’s forests, while lending a sense of privacy through two sets of closing panels inspired by traditional Japanese living quarters. Summary Pros : Fantastic, helpful, knowledgeable service. Total privacy. Plenty of space to lay down and stretch out an arm. Multiple pillows and a cozy blanket. Large monitor with good movie selection. Excellent wine, sake, spirits, and tea selection and great, creative food. Cons : Hard-ish seats, even with a thin coverlet. Bed length is a bit short for taller passengers who will have to sleep on their side with their knees up. Verdict : Outstanding. Would fly ANA The Room for life if I could afford to. The Details Aircraft : Boeing 777-300ER Seats : 7A, window seat facing the rear. Configuration : 1-2-1 staggered configuration with seats alternating between forward- and rear-facing. Bed length: 71 inches. I’m 5’2” and found it perfect. Taller travelers will have to curl up on their side. Seat width : At its largest, the seat runs 38 inches wide, which shames many first-class products. The space narrows towards the footwell. The footwell is 13 inches high and wide. Capacity : There are 3 "cabins" on the flight for a total of 64 seats. There's a small two-row mini-cabin just behind the first-class section. Then a large 10-row cabin between doors 2 and 3. Finally, there's a four-row cabin just behind the wing. ANA's The Room with the doors closed for privacy. Check-in and Boarding I booked the ticket on United’s portal but was unable to check-in on my phone or laptop, despite attempting to do so on ANA’s app and website. I started my journey in Saigon, so I went to the airport to check-in. There was no line, so I was processed quickly, efficiently, and with a courteous attitude. Landing in Haneda, I went to the lounge for the 4.5-hour layover before The Room leg to JFK. Having seen photos of ANA’s lounge in Narita, I suspected the Haneda lounge to be less impressive. The lounge did offer showers with a reservation and quite a bounty of food, including Japanese whisky and sake, and a noodle station at which I ordered a tasty ramen. I tried to nap across two seats because the lounge doesn’t have sleep pods or lounge chairs. Finally, after a few hours of waiting, it was time to board. Unlike U.S. carriers, ANA is remarkably swift in its boarding process. I read my ticket six times out of concern I wasn’t understanding the boarding time and was at risk of missing it. U.S. carriers board as much as 50-60 minutes prior to departure, while my experience across Asia including flying ANA, was a mere 25-30 minutes. Upon boarding, I was offered a glass of Champagne (actual Champagne) and water. Staff were incredibly friendly, polite, and gracious. Perhaps I’m accustomed to the perfunctory style of U.S. carriers, but I was blown away by the service alone which was consistent throughout the entire flight. The seat in The Room made up with the coverlet. Cabin and Seat As mentioned above, the seats are configured in a generous, staggered 1-2-1 layout with seats alternating between forward- and rear-facing spread across 3 separate cabins. ANA’s The Seat looks like the first class product on many European carriers and according to others I’ve spoken to, completely outshines and outclasses the Qsuites on Qatar Airways. I’ve never flown Qatar, so I cannot comment. The seat itself is generous, laid out like a bench that could theoretically fit another person, especially a toddler or baby with plenty of room. That generous design would prove The Room’s best feature when it came to sleeping, as I could lay on my side and sprawl my arms out straight instead of tucking them beneath my head or on my side like many narrower business seats require. Other observations: I found I had plenty of space for my belongings, from the bottom footwell storage area to space on the bench next to me, to space on the table as well as inside the small storage closet which was just deep enough for loose items like eyeglasses or a phone. So much space for my arms while laying down in The Room on ANA. My only minor complaint about the seat was that it was somewhat hard. However, The Room comes with a coverlet, plus 2 pillows and a blanket, so by the time I laid down and tucked myself in to all the cozy bedding, I felt perfectly comfortable and very, very happy. I was so happy, in fact, that I reflected on the concept of “business class.” While I had work to do, it seemed an utter shame to do anything but relax with drinks, food, movies, and take advantage of the chance to sleep. I put my laptop next to me on the seat and never opened it once. Small cabinet with charging portals and door for loose items. In-Flight-Entertainment and Amenities The first thing I noticed after entering my “room” was the size and clarity of the monitor. It’s probably the highest-quality IFE system I've seen on a plane, with its 24-inch 4K screen that was so crisp, it reminded me how old my television at home was. The touchscreen on the monitor is fast and responsive, though the retractable touchscreen remote is helpful during meal service or when laying down. A pair of Sony noise-canceling headphones is included with each seat. A crisp 24" monitor provided a mini movie-theater experience. Packed with movies, tv shows, live tv, and soundtracks to suit the mood, whether meditative of jazzy, there was plenty to watch and listen to, if one wanted. I felt like I was in a mini-movie theater once I finished dinner, glass of wine in hand, closed the doors, and slumped down into my lounge seat to watch a silly movie about an influencer in
Thailand. The amenities kit and slippers on ANA's The Room. The amenity kit was designed as a cute mini suitcase. Not at all practical for reuse on future travels due to its hard, boxy shape, but I took it anyway to gift to a niece to inspire her future travels. Inside was cleansing foam, face “lotion” which is actually a liquid, a cream, a sleep mask, and ear plugs. I wondered why there wasn’t a dental kit but discovered that the airline stocked them in the bathrooms. I appreciate that the airline decided to let travelers take one as needed as opposed to putting them in a kit only to be discarded later, used or not. Despite being flimsy, I appreciated the thin gray slippers for use during bathroom breaks or simply walking the aisle to stretch my legs. I had read about amenities including pajamas, but there were none on my flight. Charging Options Seats were equipped with an HDMI port, a universal power outlet, and fast-charging USB port on the table, as well as a USB port in the armrest along the window. I mostly charged my phone using the seat outlet as I was texting and emailing half the time, after paying $21 for Wi-Fi access for the entire flight. The main course for the Japanese menu served in The Room on ANA during dinner. Food, Drinks, and Service For me, a wine and food writer, the drinks category was one area ANA excelled. The Room features a robust drinks card with several wines, spirits, and sakes, each with a description of the origin, brand, and taste details. I opted for Chablis since I felt it would go best with the Japanese menus I selected. I also enjoyed the Champagne at the start of the service, and a small glass of sake, one of three selections, at the end of my meal. There were two choices of meals: Japanese and Western. I opted for Japanese at both dinner and breakfast, as I figured they’d handle their cuisine better than western food, as well I wanted to take advantage of the rare chance to eat a multi-course Japanese meal during a flight. Coming from a background of flying U.S. carriers on which food is often, literally, inedible, I was impressed with the quality, care, and presentation of ANA’s meals. Dinner included a starter of marinated mussels, cheese, and olives. Not a fan of shellfish on a plane, I took a hard pass. Moving to the main course, the tray featured a selection of zensai or “small morsels” which included sea bream sushi, deep fried stuffed lotus root with chicken, and green pea tofu. The two kobachi or “tasty tidbits” were salmon salad style with egg yolk vinegar and icefish and bamboo shoot in a soy-based sauce. The shusai, or main dish, was simmered beef and wild vegetables with grilled Spanish mackerel with saikyo miso. I went with cheese for dessert, though I could barely finish the dinner given the volume of food. In comparison, on the flight over to
Japan, I used miles to fly United’s Polaris class. I couldn’t eat my pre-ordered dish of spicy chicken noodle curry, as it amounted to a pile of completely disintegrated, wet noodles. The staff, for once, were embarrassed about it, and apologized, saying they’d be sharing feedback with corporate about this dish being unacceptable to serve in business class – or to anyone ever, at all. They scrambled to find me another meal and came up with a pasta dish that didn’t get eaten. Otherwise, I’d be fasting, as they had no other food on the flight except small snacks, until breakfast. A delicious midnight snack of ippudo noodles. In contrast, on ANA mid-flight, when I couldn’t sleep, I ordered from their light dishes menu. They offered a spicy chicken sandwich, “healthy” rice bowl with a plant-based cutlet, a Japanese rice ball set, several soups, and Ippudo noodles with a plant-based broth. The ramen blew away any meal I’ve ever had on United airlines. (Hey, United, get those Ippudo noodles and I’ll never ask you to take away a meal again.) Though I’d just slurped down ramen and wasn’t particularly hungry, I accepted breakfast anyway, to see what it entailed. The Japanese menu featured stir-fried vegetables, deep fried red rockfish with a soy-based sauce, and steamed rice. It was quite good, though I only picked at it, with ramen still lingering on the palate and brain. Breakfast in The Room on ANA. Finally, returning to the service component of this review. From start to finish, the friendliness and bend-over-backwards-to-help attitude from the ANA staff was nothing short of remarkable. It turns out there are flight attendants in the world who are not just trained in safety but also in world-class hospitality. The
Women in my cabin all knew my name, they knew the wines, the sakes, the differences in the dishes, and were never bothered to get me another glass of water. They didn’t leave your dishes lingering, and constantly check up on guests, discreetly, to anticipate needs. While one flight an airline does not make, The Room left me feeling a sense of loyalty to ANA. Though I can’t fly them with regularity due to my geographical home base, I know that when the opportunity arises, ANA’s The Room will be my first choice.