I like to try new airlines, and a recent trip to Japan gave me the opportunity to work in a day’s worth of flying through the nation on a series of short-hop flights. While All Nippon Airways is not necessarily new to me — I flew ANA’s mid-haul business class last year — I had never flown it domestically. And so, I booked a 1hr 10min flight from Osaka Itami to Tokyo Haneda, a classic Japanese trunk route, as a start.
Domestic flights can only be booked on ANA’s dedicated domestic website, which caused some initial confusion. Once I got to the right place, the process went pretty smoothly. In a twist that, so far as I can tell is unique to Japan, you can choose to hold a reservation for several days from booking without payment. If no payment is received, the reservation just drops off. I used this repeatedly to take advantage of price fluctuations until I settled on an $88 one-way fare.
Check-in was easy on the airline’s app.
While transit in the city starts at around 5am, it would have taken over an hour to make the trek out. With an unprotected onward connection in Haneda, I didn’t want to risk ending my day before it even started, so I took a pricey but quick cab to arrive 90 minutes early. That turned out to be a mistake!
For one, the airport, doesn’t even open until 0530. A handful of people, myself included, sat outside the doors until an employee let us in at 0530 on the nose. Though I’d already checked in, I wanted a printed ticket for posterity. The counters were un-staffed still, but at least ANA’s self-serve kiosks were up and running. JAL, on the other hand, had neither until after 0600.
Second, it turns out security doesn’t open until 0600 either. Thankfully the pre-security outdoor observation deck was open. It was nice to relax for a bit in the pre-dawn air.
Security, once it opened, was quick and painless. I had plenty of time to wander around the mostly empty terminal. Lesson learned: next time I’ll take the train. Or at least show up a lot later.
Boarding began exactly on time at 0650. If you’ve done the math you’ve realized ANA only left 15m to load the plane and push back, so you’d be forgiven for thinking today’s bird was something small like an ATR or CRJ. But no, today’s jet was a Boeing 777-200 widebody, configured to carry just over 400 passengers.
If that passenger load seems really high, even for a 777-200, you’d be right. The big jet was envisioned to carry 250-300 people across entire oceans, not so much for short-haul use.
The Japanese domestic market is another animal though. With seemingly limitless demand between many of the country’s major cities, modified widebody jets have long been par for the course on short-haul Japanese trunk routes. You’ll see Boeing 767s, 777s, 787s and Airbus A350s running 45-90m flights like mine all day long. Up until 2006, ANA even operated a fleet of Boeing 747s customized to carry over 500 people.
The country is known too for its incredibly fast boarding times. Maybe it’s the culture, maybe it’s using four boarding lanes at once instead of one or two, maybe its the dual-aisle nature of the 777. It’s probably a bit of all three. Nonetheless, boarding was completed and the door closed in — and I’m not making this up — nine minutes.
Boarding the jet, the first thing you see is a sea of economy class seats. There are 384 of them to be exact, in a 3-4-3 configuration. A handful of rows, especially around exits or toward the rear, are in 2-4-2. There is a small premium cabin with first-class-esque recliners that occupies the first three rows in a 2-3-2 layout. I didn’t get to see it.
I settled into seat 40A, deep in the rear economy cabin. Several minutes later we were hurtling down the runway and off for Tokyo Haneda. Turns out that a lightweight Boeing 777 takes off like a rocket, making for a super fun climb-out over Osaka.
While the flight wasn’t completely full, I still lucked out with the row to myself. I expected a spartan seat, after all this plane rarely does anything over 90 minutes, but was pleasantly surprised to see seatback entertainment screens and in-seat power.
Turns out the seat product is called the T1, and it’s a direct collaboration between ANA and Toyota Boshoku Corp. It first debuted in 2019, and appears to have seen a slow but persistent rollout across ANA’s domestic widebody fleet since then.
I was grateful for the 11.6” touchscreen IFE monitor and USB-A power port.
The seat was comfortable too, with a modest recline and passable padding. I especially enjoyed the above average 31-32” seat pitch and average 17” width, which left ample legroom. High capacity, it turns out, does not necessarily have to mean high density.
What I didn’t especially like was the broken international-style plug outlet (it wasn’t just mine, the entire row didn’t work), and the fixed armrests: no poor man’s lie-flat for me.
Signs in the aircraft noted that the airplane was equipped with Wi-Fi. While my phone consistently found the signal, it never succeeded in connecting. I asked a crew member about it, but the language barrier proved to be too much to navigate trouble shooting.
A short beverage service began not long after takeoff. I didn’t see any food, but the usual assortment of water, soda, juice, coffee and tea was available. A hot cup of green tea gave me a badly needed caffeine boost.
The last feature of the flight was the stunning early-morning view of Mt. Fuji as we neared Tokyo. It recently gained back its famous white cap, the first snow of the season having fallen the week before.
We landed and pulled into the gate a bit behind schedule, but still with plenty of time to make my onward connection.
I expected my first domestic Japanese flight to be a cramped, spartan experience. I’m glad to say that I wound up with quite the opposite on All Nippon Airways.
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All images credited to the author, Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
