Best Airline to Japan?

[TripleAAA]

I'm going to visit a friend in late April '09 and have no idea which airlines I should look at. Obviously cost is important, but I'm willing to pay a couple hundred more for a more comfortable flight.

I've flown British Airways to London a few times and have always enjoyed it. I like that you have your own personal tv screen and that they feed you several times.

Anyone have any experiences or recommendations? I live in Kentucky, but would probably fly out of Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinatti, or Detroit but am open to other options as well.

 

[JS80]

JAL, KAL

 

[Doggiedog]

ANA is one of the best.

 

[TripleAAA]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
ANA is one of the best.

What do all those stand for? JAL = japan airlines, KAL=korean? ANA =?

 

[Doggiedog]

All Nippon Airways

BTW, I haven't flown KAL in a long time but the times I have to Japan, it was terrible. Maybe it's changed like Hyundai has over the last decade or so but I have a long memory.

Also, avoid airlines like Northwest at all costs. I felt like I was on a refugee flight when I took it.

 

[hiromizu]

jal no less

 

[summit]

do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

lol sounds like OP needs to take a private jet then!

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

I actually had a steward yell at me for taking a picture out the window on a flight. I was younger back then but I still remember it.

 

[zoiks]

I've flown JAL many times to Japan. I have to say that the airline is okay but definitely better than anything the US has to offer. The main problem is that the seats in economy are designed for midgets in mind.

 

[Baked]

SIA's pretty hot too.

 

[LS21]

cathay or singapore

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

lol sounds like OP needs to take a private jet then!

Korean Air is trash if you've flown tons of Asian flights. I've taken Singapore, United, JAL, Eva, China Airlines, KAL, and United and KAL rank at the bottom.

 

[Shaotai]

We use Northwest airlines. I live in Seattle and there is a direct flight over to Narita. (Tokyo)
They use the Airbus A330-300, so coach class all has individual screens. It's a nice plane. A330
NW has a lot of partner companies so mileage can be used with other airlines too.

 

[summit]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

lol sounds like OP needs to take a private jet then!

Korean Air is trash if you've flown tons of Asian flights. I've taken Singapore, United, JAL, Eva, China Airlines, KAL, and United and KAL rank at the bottom.

flying on korean air 30% of the time the pilot is drunk, 30% of the time rough landing, and 40% of the time drunk rough landing.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Summit

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

lol sounds like OP needs to take a private jet then!

Korean Air is trash if you've flown tons of Asian flights. I've taken Singapore, United, JAL, Eva, China Airlines, KAL, and United and KAL rank at the bottom.

flying on korean air 30% of the time the pilot is drunk, 30% of the time rough landing, and 40% of the time drunk rough landing.

I wouldn't expect any less from a Korean pilot.

 

[Pepsei]

northwest is one of the cheapst......

here's a link to airline meals

 

[AVAFREAK182]

I would not prefer NWA to anyone. Uncomfortable seats and mediocre service at best.

 

[ivan2]

If money's no objective there's no point taking KAL. The Koreans packed their 747 so full that there's no one good seat on the plane. Also Air China is the worst and they cross code with United, both of them just overall sucks, crappy service, shitty plane.

 

[Pepsei]

yeah, for better food, i'd fly JAL or EVA AIR (from Newark, SF, seattle, or LA)

 

[txrandom]

Singapore Airlines.

 

[Farang]

I think all economy class flights are more or less the same but the worst I had was with EVA Air, where I was on a 747 without personal screens on a trans-Atlantic flight. In my experience of long range flights that is unheard of.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Farang
I think all economy class flights are more or less the same but the worst I had was with EVA Air, where I was on a 747 without personal screens on a trans-Atlantic flight. In my experience of long range flights that is unheard of.

Eva specializes in flights to and from Taiwan. Their trans-pacific flights are decent, but they use older 747s for those. Their better flights go to Bangkok, Korea, Japan, Europe, and Australia from Taiwan. On those flights I've ridden newer 767s, 777s, and once a brand new A330 with the new airplane smell still.

I've never had a flight on Eva without a personal screen. Since I was 7 I've been flying to Taiwan every year. The times I took United my 2nd grade, 7th and 8th grade, there were no personal screens. Eva had it every time. Now by the end of high school it was kinda the standard to move to LCD screens but that's when Eva's older 747s shone through. With that said I believe I'll be flying with them again this Dec when I fly to Taiwan. I will miss Singapore's huge screens. They had like 24" screens for Business (eyeballed it to be the size of my Dell 2405 at home). First class' screens looked bigger than my Dell 2707 =[

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: TripleAAA

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
ANA is one of the best.

What do all those stand for? JAL = japan airlines, KAL=korean? ANA =?

People suck that use non-laymen's terms in basic threads. While NWA is standard, KAL is never used that much....Korean Air is.

Korean Air is a favorite of my wife and many of our friends. She loved NWA, but they don't have the flights anymore from here. She flies a lot, less recently but went to Bangkok last month to open a store for her company. They have private movies even in coach, she watched three new releases and had decent food. It was a tight fit though in coach...there was an obese guy in the middle of her and her co-worker that insisted on reading his newspaper fully open...

So how you fly can also make a big difference. First class varies in accommodations in many airlines...coach is about even keel. Business class can vary in many too.

First class/business class has really risen though in the last few years over coach in price.

I know to travel from PBI to NRT (airport codes for Palm Beach International, Florida to Narita, Japan), I can score coach for $1200-1400. If I want business class (with a nice wasted first class hop from Palm Beach to Atlanta) it's $7200-8000...first class all the way they don't quote. You pretty much book it and they tell you the cost. It's got to be insane.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Summit
do not fly korean air it was the worse rides of my life. northwest was good and so was delta.

lol sounds like OP needs to take a private jet then!

Korean Air is trash if you've flown tons of Asian flights. I've taken Singapore, United, JAL, Eva, China Airlines, KAL, and United and KAL rank at the bottom.

worse than china airlines? i'm calling shens. china couldn't even be bothered to clean their fscking airplane the one time i flew on them.



singapore is awesome. so is malaysian. the continental flight i took to japan was pretty nice. then again, not having to wait in LAX for 4 hours would make anything better.