Sampling oneworld Premium Services: Japan Airlines First Class New York JFK to Tokyo Narita inflight shopping and turndown service

Cabin attendants handed out bottled water and First Class amenity kits after first meal service

Towards the end of the first meal service, the cabin attendant handed out bottled water and amenity kits to each First Class passenger. Japan Airlines (JAL) used bottled water from Naya on JL005 from New York JFK to Tokyo Narita. These bottles are made from 100% recyclable post-consumer recycled plastic called rPET. Although I am not sure if that was one of the reasons JAL selected these bottle water, at least this helps save the environment!

When the senior cabin attendant handed me the male amenity kit, I asked if I could have the female version instead (note not both as I am not greedy). She said definitely and asked me to wait as I believed the extra kits were stored somewhere else. She went to the back cabins and came back minutes later with not just the female amenity kit but also the entire set of business class amenities. She even put the female kit inside a plastic bag for me to carry it home. This is the kind of attention to details that made me fell in love with JAL in the first place :) Obviously the female kit wasn't for me so she proactively gathered the business class kits to make sure there were at least some amenities accessible to me during the flight :)

JAL Happi-style tenugui with old logo (front)

JAL Happi-style tenugui with old logo (back)

Couple of years ago, I bought a JAL Happi-style tenugui set, which is basically Japanese hand towels that folded into a JAL Happi at Osaka Itami. This was back in the days when JAL still used the Arc of The Sun logo. I have been hoping to get an updated version with the new logo but didn't seem to recall seeing them in Japan.



Nowadays I rarely buy stuffs from the inflight duty free as JAL kind of stopped selling some special JAL branded items, such JAL plane models and special edition of PlayStation games featuring JAL, onboard. But not this time! Before my flight, I found out JAL is actually selling the new one onboard! A set of 3 costs JPY 1,700.  And that's exactly the item I was going to get :)
The inflight duty free shopping service started shortly after the first meal service. When I placed my order, the senior cabin attendant asked if I want it wrapped individually. I told her no wrapping is needed! I could tell she was surprised by my response so I explained "This is for myself not a gift", which now I think about it is actually more surprising than no wrapping LOL Who would want 3 of these for themselves right? :P I guess now the senior cabin attendant could kind of tell I am a big fan of JAL already :D

I used my JAL USA Card to pay for it to get 10% off and double-dipped on the miles (inflight shopping miles + credit card miles). The senior cabin attendant tried to look for my JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) number on the JAL USA Card because according to her it is usually printed on the JAL Card. Oh well, I wish this is the real JAL Card but unfortunately this is the USA version. So I handed over my JMB card as well.

Turndown service with Tempur mattress and down comforter

JAL's exclusive Tempur mattress for JAL Suite

At 16:38, about 30 minutes after the first meal service, the senior cabin attendant came by to offer the turndown service. Since seat 1D was empty, she invited me to wait there while she set up the bed.

In the menu, JAL advertised it would provide "supreme sleep beyond clouds" by providing relaxing wear, Tempur pillow, Tempur mattress, and turndown service, which you could find more pictures of them from my earlier post on amenities. A down feather pillow was also provided for extra comfort. Below are the detail descriptions of these individual items (now that I think about it, I probably should have put them in the earlier post :P)

Supreme sleep beyond clouds

Relaxing Wear
Our exclusive First Class Relaxing Wear is designed for easy use. Please accept it with our compliments for a relaxing flight.

Tempur Pillow
Symphony Pillow, made of super soft TEMPUR material like marshmallow, provides extra comfort. It is able to be used not only as pillow, but also as cushion. (Down feather pillow is also available.)

Tempur Mattress
The mattresses have been made exclusively for JAL Suite by the company Tempur-Pedic International Inc. The Tempur mattress, made of a visco-elastic temperature sensitive material, provides extra comfort by gently supporting your body in whichever position you sleep. Please enjoy the ultimate sleeping experience.

Turndown service
Cabin attendants place a mattress on each seat-bed on the passenger's request, together with a down comforter. Please watch your foot rest when returning to the upright position from the bed position.

Sadly given this is a day-time flight, I didn't really get a chance to experience the "supreme sleep beyond clouds". But I really love the Tempur mattress because you won't feel any of the bumps at all. However, the cabin could be on the warmer side though (and it's summer), so you probably don't need the down comforter unless you want to sweat a bit (or a lot LOL).

So how did I spend the rest of my flight? There were some movies on the inflight entertainment system, which you will find out in the next installment of this trip report, and having an extensive a la carte menu also helped :)

To read other parts of this "Sampling oneworld Premium Services Trip Report", you can find the complete index from the Introduction post. There's also a Trip Report Index page which contains indices to all of my trip reports.