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This JAL 787-9 Sky Suite III Business Class Review is from my Singapore SIN to Tokyo HND flight. See more or our Business Class airline reviews or all of our posts tagged Tokyo.
Reserving a JAL Business Class Award
At the time I reserved this award, I used 25,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles. Unfortunately, this award has now doubled in cost to 50,000 miles, the result of an Alaska Mileage Plan Award Chart Devaluation. It's now a better deal to use 30,000 American AAdvantage miles.
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Singapore Changi Lounge Access
JAL Business Class passengers have access to the Marhaba Lounge in Singapore Airport's Terminal 1, which we previously reviewed.
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JAL Sky Suite III Business Class Cabin and Seat, 787-9
There are two versions of JAL's 787-9 with the Sky Suite III, one with 52 business class flat bed seats and the other with 28 seats; ours had 52 seats across two cabins, the first one rows 1-7 and the second cabin rows 8-13. In both cases, the seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration, where each seat has direct aisle access. I recommend avoiding the first and last rows of each section, rows 1, 7, 8, and 13, to avoid potential light and noise from the galley and lavatories, or in the case of row 13, from row 17 behind it, which is a bassinet row in Premium Economy.
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Each seat already had an airweave memory foam pillow, plastic wrapped duvet, menu, headset, basic amenity bag with dental kit, earplugs and sleep mask, and slippers on it.
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Power outlets and the headphone jack are conveniently located underneath a small item storage area that is shoulder level and handy for stowing a water bottle, headset, and phone. I also like that there's a mirror inside the door.
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I do appreciate that JAL and other Asian airlines provide slippers, making it easy to stow one's shoes for the flight.
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JAL Business Class bathrooms are also generally stocked not only with extra dental kits, but also mouthwash, in addition to Miller Harris hand wash and lotion.
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JAL Business Class Japanese Breakfast
On this late (10:25pm departure) 6.5 hour flight, I was glad there were only a few late night snacks served and the main meal was breakfast, since I most other passengers preferred to sleep or at least rest most of the flight.
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The Japanese breakfast, which I chose, was a set menu without any choices, but that was fine with me. Nothing was complicated, which is just as well for breakfast, but there was a nice variety of colors, flavors, and textures, from the savory and more pungent deep fried sea bream and carrots in a vinegar dressing (upper right) to the silky smooth sesame tofu (lower right), crunchy fresh fruit and Japanese pickles, and dessert-like sweet potato with sugared apple.
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The main course of baked salmon with simmered vegetables is classic Japanese breakfast fare, and the steamed rice, wrapped in paper, was perfectly steamed on this flight as well as every JAL flight I've been on to date.
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JAL Sky Suite III Bed
As we've written in a prior review, we definitely prefer the 777-300ER Sky Suite, which in our view had a better padded bed in addition to the airweave mattress pad, plus the window seats on the 777-300ER offer greater privacy. The 787-9 seat and bed is ok, but certainly no better than other reverse herringbone products such as Cathay Pacific Business Class and EVA Business Class.
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Here's our previous JAL Sky Suite III Business Class 787-9 video review on a flight from SFO to Tokyo NRT:
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The Verdict
As a short night flight JAL's Sky Suite III on the 787-9 is a good if unspectacular seat. It doesn't have the privacy of the window seats in JAL's old Sky Suite on the 777-300ER, and there seemed to be less padding in the seat cushion, which made for a less comfortable bed, even with the Airweave mattress pad, which is thicker than other airlines' business class mattress pads.
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