ANA All Nippon Airways

JFK-NRT Boeing 777-300ER. I love ANA seat configuration in Economy - 3x4x2 which I think is clever accommodating a sort of lovers’ lane with 2 on the side and the others which remain standard. Seats are pretty comfy with decent legroom (34ins seat pitch) and footrests. Inflight entertainment is good with large LCD touch-panel PTV and a variety of on-demand entertainment options - though not the best I've seen - and Universal PC power port and USB connections. The food was delicious and portions satisfying. There are a couple choices - western or Japanese. One criticism there's no mid-journey snack and ANA has a for purchase menu where you can purchase light meals. I find this a tad odd for a 14hr nonstop flight. Standard pre-arrival light meal service offered.

LHR-NRT-LHR. Staff were helpful on outward journey always around to to help. At the inbound it wasn't the case. They looked tired lacking of sleep and seem to disappear for prolonged periods! Food excellent for special meal. The rest no different than other airlines and short of JAL. Online booking facility a bit outdated. Seat selection facility in flash always crashing. The worst with ANA there is no area to leave feedback online no proper call centre with extended hours. Basically if you miss 17:30 you are stuffed. I find it very absurd especially that they operate in other countries with different time zones to be able to offer 24h telephone support! If you encounter problems paying online then there is no other way to pay via phone. If you are impatient please look for other airlines.

LHR-NRT-LHR. Business class fitted with the new seating which reclines 180 degrees able to sleep comfortably without sliding down. IFE decent with a mixture of western and Japanese movies and programmes. The standard of meals including snacks and drinks was higher than some airlines although service was slower than it used to be. The downside of my outbound journey was that my luggage was stuck in LHR for 2 days and I had no access to my belongings for a few days. However I was paid £150 as a compensation which allowed me to buy a few necessities.

LAX-NRT Business. Totally disappointed. When boarding in LAX I requested a glass of water that was delivered to me 1 hour into flight. when complained was told that USA security regulations forbid serving liquids on ground. This was confirmed by the business class purser! Food very good flight attendants smiling but did not have any English skills. Ordered Champagne and white wine comes. Order white wine red comes. Seats very old and worn out and uncomfortable. When talking to the chief purser she answers "this is ANA!". No amenity kit for a 12 hour flight ! A typical lack of consistence of the star alliance!

Tokyo Haneda to Hong Kong inflight service excellent polite crew great food for economy. I fell asleep before landing crew collected my headset and retracted my footrest without waking me! There are free rental mobile phone for (pay-as-you-go) in Japan and they let me know my cell number before hand. Reason for not having perfect score was I arrived at the airport early and they refused to check-in my bags while ANA counter was open (for another flight).

SIN-NRT-LAX vv everything went well. I was personally escorted from gate to gate without having to run in Narita. The ground staff were efficient and very polite. The service onboard was excellent - meal portions huge and seat space comfortable. The Japanses Bento box meals were delicious. While their PTV was limited its better to have something to watch than nothing at all. Toilets on board were kept very clean.

Return trip from Tokyo to London and first experience of ANA's new in-flight service offering. In-flight service was extremely poor with unappetizing food and audio-video entertainment selection very limited when compared to that of competing carriers. In flight cuisine was limited with offerings such as hot-dogs and plates of ham. Despite the poor service and product now offered ANA charge an unjustified premium over other airlines. In future I will certainly be looking at other carriers.

LHR-NRT-LHR. We were travelling with a baby and ground and cabin staff were accomodating and caring. Great thing about ANA is that your buggy is put in a large plastic bag and taken to the hold at the door. It is brought up at the door at the other end so no lugging a heavy baby plus handluggage through the airport. Sitting at bulkhead with bassinet plenty of leg room. Entertainment on demand and a wide selection of international movies. Cabin crew warm and friendly. Baby meal and child's meal served first. Child's meal nutritous and excellent. Our food was delicious from NRT okay from LHR but odd breakfast of piece of ham and cheese (I pinched some of my daughter's more substantial child's meal). Service method is strange to say the least and rather slow - 3 hours to complete and no one wants to sit with a dirty tray in front of them for an hour waiting for tea. Also switch lights on about 4 hours before landing which is excessive for those that want to rest more. Eyemasks and earplugs are provided on demand as are toothbrushes and paste but this is not really advertised. Interior of the aircraft spotless and toilets remained so throughout entire flight.

Honolulu - Tokyo - Singapore: On the first leg to Tokyo the service food inflight entertainment etc was excellent - a little less impressive on the way to Singapore. The legroom is sufficient only for average sized Japanese; head rests are way too low for tall people remain partly behind the back and make things rather uncomfortable. Average sized Westerners should not use Economy class on ANA.

SFO-NRT-SFO heard good reviews of ANA but was disappointed. The first meal (lunch) we got from SFO to NRT was typical Japanese meal which was good. They did not offer any snacks in between meals. Just water and tea. Second meal was chimichangas (the kind you get from Costco). I could not believe they would serve Mexican fast food in a Japanese airline! On the trip back NRT to SFO the first meal was good typical Japanese meal. The second meal (breakfast) was a hamburger which was awful. Again no snacks offered in between meals just tea and water. Service good and staff were friendly enough. I would not use this airline again.