JAL to provide English version of SKY MANGA

JAL announces that it will finally roll out the English contents to its popular SKY MANGA, the world's first electronic manga service onboard. A total of 6 sets and 30 volumes of English manga will be available through MAGIC-V inflight entertainment system installed on the 787s. This is on top of the 38 sets and 100 volume of Japanese contents already available right now. JAL plans to update the content every 3 months.

The refreshed Cathay Pacific First Class cabin. Image by Cathay Pacific Airways

[Update: Added picture of the new CX sleep suite by PYE]

Today, Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) finally reveals more details and more importantly pictures of the upcoming First Class cabin. As I reported last month, this is just an incremental update to keep the products fresh to its First Class passengers as CX sees no pressing need to completely overhaul its First Class product as this point.

JAL SKY MUSEUM. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has been conducting free hangar tour since the mid-50s to promote and educate the public about aviation. Based on customer feedbacks, it has renewed the tour to modernize the tour facility and add more exhibits to the tour. As a result, JAL has decided to open its SKY MUSEUM to the public for the first time.

Flight status of JL007 shown on JAL website

[Update: Added flight load]
[Update 2: Added flight cancelation notice]
[Update 3: Added description from JAL daily 787 operation update]

A Japan Airlines (JAL) 787-8 performing flight JL007 from Boston (BOS) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) has returned to Boston after takeoff due to aircraft maintenance on July 18 2013. The plane landed safely at 18:16 EDT.

Time for my 2nd meal

So after taking enough pictures of the familiar Business Class self-service bar and Sky Gallery, I went back to the First Class cabin to watch more movies.

Now it's around 19:50 EDT, around 4 hours after the first meal service. I was finally not as full and had some room to spare for more food. So I started flipping through the menu. Within minutes one of the cabin attendants visited my seat and asked if want something to eat. Yes, even though the lights were off and curtains were closed, the attentive cabin attendants would still keep an eye on the passengers. You could see them periodically peeking through the curtain to see if any passengers needed anything to provide an attentive yet non-intruding service in First Class.

Japan Airlines (JAL) is running a campaigns for Premium Economy trial and lounge service trail on select routes to Europe and America. If you purchase a eligible ticket for travel between August 1 2013 and March 31 2014, you will be able to take advantage of these campaigns.

JAL inflight entertainment video contents for June 2012. Image by Japan Airlines.

Given this was a day time flight, at this point I was not tired at all. So I just kept watching some movies from Japan Airlines' (JAL) MAGIC-III inflight entertainment system (IFE). Although MAGIC-III is JAL's previous generation inflight entertainment system on long-haul flights, it still has the same amount of video contents as the latest MAGIC-V (MAGIC-IV is on regional 737-800 only). It just lack touch-screen capability, some cool 3-D video games and maybe some extra features like SKY MANGA and meal ordering from your controller, but it still comes with full audio video on demand (AVOD) capability in all 4 classes. With that said, the movie and TV selections were rather limited, especially if you don't watch Japanese programs or in some cases don't understand Japanese at all as some of the Japanese channels don't have English subtitles.

JL002 on July 9 2013 was delayed for 8 hours due to hydraulic leak. Image by Japan Airlines.

A Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 777-200ER performing flight JL002 from Tokyo Haneda (HND) to San Francisco (SFO) had a hydraulic leakage in the system that controls the flaps and had to turn away to return to Haneda on July 9 2013.

Double miles on select US routes operated by American Airlines. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) is running a campaign to give double miles on select flights between the US and Japan operated by American Airlines (JAL). The campaign will run from July 15 2013 till August 31 2013. In order to qualify for the double miles, you will need to a JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) member in either Japan Region or American Region. Also, pre-registration before flights is required.

Free Class J Upgrade on Select Okinawa Remote Island Routes. Image by Japan Airlines

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!

AB-ROAD, a travel website in Japan, released the results of its "Airlines Satisfaction Survey 2013". This is a survey targeting the overseas travelers in Japan. 5,958 people over 18 who had traveled overseas in 2012 were invited to participate in this survey and it has received 4,187 valid responses. The overall ranking of the 40 airlines was based on individual results from the following categories:

1. Aircraft equipments
2. Hospitality of the cabin crew
3. Hospitality of the airport ground staff 
4. Inflight catering
5. Inflight entertainment

In each category, participants were asked to rank the airlines from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most satisfy. Below is the full survey results.

Desserts at oneworld Business Class Lounge at Los Angeles TBIT

As promised before, this post will mainly consists of pictures of the food offerings at the oneworld Business Class Lounge at Los Angeles (LAX) Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT). I will start from the buffet area closest to the entrance which now is the dessert area. This used to be the place they put the champagne and wines. For desserts, there are 2 kinds of cookies, marshmallow, and some kind of brownie. There used to be one more item when I visited the lounge back in December 2012. I guess that got cut. You can also find plates, silverwares, and napkins here.

New ANA long-haul configured 787-8 seat map with Premium Economy and 9-abreats Economy Class seat. Image by All Nippon Airways

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has just published a new 787 long-haul configuration with includes a Premium Economy cabin and a new 9-abreast 3-3-3 configuration in Economy Class. The new configuration will have a total of 169 seats, up from the previous 158-seat long-haul configuration.

JAL SKY SUITE 777 will be rolled out to the Tokyo Narita - Paris CDG route on July 8 2013. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has just updated the rollout schedule of its latest generation of long-haul products dubbed JAL SKY SUITE 777 (SS7) and its inflight wi-fi service, JAL SKY Wi-Fi, to its European network.

Currently Japan Airlines (JAL) and British Airways (BA) have a joint business agreement on flights between Europe and Japan. After rounds of negotiation, Finnair (AY), JAL and BA have reached an agreement to deepen their ties and to include Finnair in the joint business agreement.