Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports | 
It was day three of scheduled commercial service for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operated by ANA, and I was on board. No, it was not the actual inaugural flight, but I still managed to get there within the first week of operations and I could not be more excited about the experience. It was awesome. That’s not to say that everything about the aircraft is perfect, but the experience certainly was.
My flight on the Dreamliner was from Hiroshima to Tokyo‘s Haneda airport. The trip is only about 400 miles and the total time in the air was just over one hour so it wasn’t really sufficient to try out everything on board, especially the effects of the higher pressurization (though I don’t recall my ears popping like usual, but I’m also not great at noticing that because it happens so often) and the more moist cabin air, but I still managed to put it through the paces as best I could.
Boarding was quick and efficient, as expected from the Japanese. Still, they allotted an extra 5 minutes to the process as they knew this was a special experience. There was something of a crush of gate lice to the self-boarding gates as they announced that boarding was available. Fortunately my Star Alliance Gold status (and being the big, ugly American) got me towards the front of the crush and on reasonably early in the process.
Business Class Cabin
Nothing really to say here; looks pretty comfy but this also is not their premium long-haul configuration so I’m not too worried about it.
Economy Cabin
There has been a bit of concern since Seat Guru published their guide to the seat map of the aircraft about the seat width in coach. The 2-4-2 layout (which really is more like 2-2-2-2 without an aisle in the middle) lends itself to a very generous seat width yet the reports on the site show the width as a hip-crushing 16.5". Good news, folks. That data is just plain wrong. The bulkhead rows, where the tray tables are in the arm rest, have the narrower width but the rest of the aircraft has a quite generous 18.5" or more width. The seats are quite roomy.
Seat recline is an interesting change from a typical airplane configuration. The seat back doesn’t actually move. Instead the seat-bottom slides forward about three inches and the back slides down a bit, creating the same effect as reclining. But it does so without imposing the seat on the passenger behind you. This sucks if you have long legs and also want to recline as you’re basically stuck but it is great for folks (like me) who hate having someone reclined into you.
The AVOD system is pretty nice, with 9" screens in coach. That’s about as big as you can get being so close to the screen and still be able to watch comfortably. There is a seat-to-seat messaging system and the screens can be used either as touch screens or with the controller. I was rather unimpressed with the music and video selections; no movies (though maybe because the flight was too short) and only a couple dozen short video programs plus maybe a dozen CDs for music. I hope that’s just because they don’t have the content fully loaded and not because it is going to be such a paltry offering going forward.
I’m also a big fan of the built-in cup holder in the tray table. They have two, one if it is open and one if it is closed, meaning that you can use the tray table for a laptop or other purposes and still have somewhere to stow a drink. Definitely a nice touch.
And then there is the mood lighting. Lots of fun there. The flight attendants were playing with this feature a bit, particularly during boarding and de-planing. It is fun, but I’m not sure it adds much value to the in-flight experience. It does demonstrate the ability to control the lighting levels to a very granular level, which I suppose is a very useful thing.
The windows are HUGE. It was a night flight so I’m not sure how much this really matters, but they were noticeably larger than on older aircraft. We’ll have to see what the net effects of this are in the long term but it certainly was nice. The electronic dimmers on the windows were a bit sluggish to react but they behaved exactly as advertised in the end. Again, a night flight made it hard to really evaluate the impact of this but it was certainly neat.
In the lav
The Japanese and their toilets. Touchless flushing (it puts down the seat, too!) and bidet functions (designed by Toto) are built in to the toilets. There’s also a window in the lav by 3L (though not at 3R). I do like a lav window.
It isn’t perfect
OK, maybe my expectations are just too high. Still, like one of the notes in a review offered up by Kerwin I noticed a few quirks in the flight. It was VERY quiet at cruise, and I was sitting just aft of the wing so I should’ve had engine noise to some extent if there was much. During the flight there wasn’t. That said, the mechanical noises surrounding the operation of the flaps and other wing control surfaces were pretty loud. Again, maybe just because I was sitting basically on top of them, but Kerwin noticed it, too.
There was also a strange "whine" going on throughout the flight. It was very high pitched – like an old tube TV going bad – and I have no idea if others noticed it or not. It kept going even after the engines were shut down upon arrival so I’m guessing it has to do with the electrical power plant on board. No matter what, it was pretty annoying. Not enough to ruin the experience, but if it really is like that going forward I can see it being a problem for me flying on this aircraft.
Finally, the new overhead bins, while well designed for baggage, are not particularly well configured for an adult to climb in. I’m thoroughly disappointed in that development.
It was a great day and a great trip. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back on board soon.
Oh, and if you want to check out the pre-flight safety video it is here:
Read more from this Trip Report under the Dream2011 tag here.
Tags: 787, ANA, Boeing, Dream2011, Dreamliner, Hiroshima, Japan, Photos, review, Star Alliance, Tokyo, video
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
I landed at Tokyo‘s Haneda airport about two hours ago having just flown in on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Hiroshima. The experience was quite spectacular, though not everything about the aircraft was perfect.
That said, it is very late and I’ve been up for near 20 hours now today and the adrenaline is finally wearing off so putting together a full post with coherent thoughts simply isn’t going to happen. Instead I’ve decided to post this teaser with just a few of the many, many photos I shot throughout the day.
A full post will be coming after I’ve slept a few hours, so either late tonight back in the USA or tomorrow; either way it’ll be tomorrow here in Japan. Enjoy the pictures.
Read more from this Trip Report under the Dream2011 tag here.
Posted by Seth on October 21, 2011 under Flying, media coverage, News |
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today about inaugural flights and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner discussing next week’s initial flights for the aircraft and the efforts some folks went through to secure a seat on the flight. After reading the details of what some of the others were willing to go through I can quite easily say that I’m both a bit jealous and also quite certain that I stood no chance of getting anywhere close to being on that first flight.
There is a Mr. Lee who lives in California and who was on the first scheduled flight of the 747 and the Airbus A380. He managed to convince ANA to give him a seat on their inaugural as well, though he does have to pay the same amount as the other lottery winners (~$1,000). Or Mr. Bertuccio who fat-fingered his bid in the auction to win a seat and ended up paying about $7,500 more than he intended to bid, but he got the seat for about $33,500.
And then there’s my line, all the way at the end of the article. Yes, I am indeed ecstatic to have the opportunity to fly on the Dreamliner in its first week of commercial service. I also had a lot more to say in the interview though I’m also not surprised at the line that got quoted. It was definitely the best sound bite I tossed out there.
It does gloss over that I’m stringing together a roughly 20,000 mile journey across 10 flights, three airlines (more if you count regional operators) and sleeping in five different cities in the span of 8 days in order to make this happen and the fact that I did it all for only about $1,200 in airfare. Then again, column inches are tough to come by these days, I suppose.
Only 13 days until I’m on the Dreamliner…I’m definitely getting excited.
Posted by Seth on October 4, 2011 under Flying, News |
JAL has updated the seat maps for their inaugural 787 Dreamliner route – Boston to Tokyo – and is showing off one of the more interesting cabin configurations I’ve seen in a long time. The Business Class cabin is reasonably normal with 7 rows of 2-2-2 seats. And the economy cabin will be similar to the ANA cabin with a 2-4-2 configuration and 144 seats, roughly 40 fewer than North American launch customer United Airlines will be putting in the same cabin. But that’s not the interesting part; it is the row layout that is unique.
There is a row of seats all the way at the back of the plane, just in front of the rear-most galley. Extra exit row seats – albeit the last folks to get off the plane – means potentially more seats with extra leg room. Always nice to see that sort of option showing up.
A hat tip to JALPak for noticing the new seat maps coming online.
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Posted by Seth on October 1, 2011 under News |
After abruptly canceling the delivery of the first Boeing 747-8F aircraft a couple weeks ago launch customer Cargolux is now ready to move forward with the aircraft. The delivery delay was attributed to issues regarding compensation over delays in the 787 Dreamliner for Cargolux minority share-holder Qatar Airways but that claim is being disputed by Qatar’s CEO. He suggests that the delay in the delivery was over a compensation issue between the carrier and engine manufacturer GE and a 2.7% shortfall in engine efficiency. Delivery of the aircraft is now expected mid-month.
More commentary on the delivery updates here and here.
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Posted by Seth on September 25, 2011 under News |
ANA took delivery of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner today, marking a major milestone in the project’s lifecycle. Boeing has been working on the Dreamliner for more than 7 years and the initial delivery today with the signing of paperwork is the first step in a three day long celebration for Boeing, ANA and the global aviation community.
After today’s contract signing there will be a ceremonial delivery of the aircraft "keys" on Monday. The airline will fly the plane back to Japan on Tuesday.
Today’s events come a few years after the original predictions. While this delivery is a huge event and most folks are excited there are still a number of folks not so ecstatic about the delivery. According to some sources the project horribly over budget and unlikely to ever be a profitable aircraft for the manufacturer. Plus there are concerns that the plane actually is not ready for service but it was delivered anyways. The article published in today’s Seattle Times is pretty brutal on the overall project, detailing cost overruns, project delays and other issues that have plagued the development and construction of the new airframe.
Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the 787 team is "on track" to make the delivery.
But an experienced mechanic working on No. 8 believes that jet simply isn’t ready for service. The engineer who flew test flights fears it won’t immediately meet the standard of reliability required by ANA.
The senior engineer, however, dismissed such "bugs" as normal in any new program. "They won’t be nearly as bad as they were for the original 747."
The good news for me is that ANA has the aircraft now. I just hope the reliability issues are not such that I miss my opportunity to fly on it in a few weeks during the first week of scheduled operations.
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Photo from the Boeing Company flickr stream
Posted by Seth on September 22, 2011 under News |
Most discussions of airline compensation have to do with what any particular passenger is due for a delayed or canceled flight, bump, broken equipment, lost luggage or other, similar, event. But those aren’t the only compensation discussions going on out there. What happens, for example, when your airplane is late?
And I’m talking about years late, not hours.
Boeing and Cargolux, are engaged in this discussion right now, with a rather interesting genesis to the situation. Cargolux is the launch customer for the new 747-8F freighter aircraft. The first was supposed to be delivered from Boeing to the carrier last week. Boeing was all set to host a party as part of the delivery of the first aircraft of the new line when things quickly fell apart. Cargolux has refused to accept the aircraft.
The spat is apparently linked to the presence of a new member of the Cargolux Board of Directors, a representative from Qatar Airways which now owns a third of the cargo company. Qatar is frustrated with the delay in delivery of their 787 Dreamliner airplanes. With those planes now years behind schedule on delivery many carriers are trying to figure out an appropriate deal with Boeing to account for the delays. Qatar, however, is the first to make such a public statement about the issues.
Doesn’t’ really have much effect on me as a guy out traveling but it certainly is an entertaining twist to the compensation discussion that seems to happen all too often.
Posted by Seth on September 8, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points |
With the Boeing 787 Dreamliner entering service in the next few weeks I’ve been quite excited about the opportunity to fly on it. Seats on the inaugural flight – from Tokyo to Hong Kong – are being auctioned off for charity and I’m quite certain I don’t have the scratch to make that work. Plus the dates for that flight wouldn’t work in my schedule. But thanks to a great sale fare from Seattle to China I’ve found a way to make it happen at a reasonable price.
The plan moved from the day dreaming phase to potentially real a couple weeks ago when a sale fare popped up between Seattle and Beijing. The timing on that deal was a bit tough – it only worked on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and had a 3-night minimum stay – but I had a few days at the end of October/beginning of November where it could fit in my schedule and the $400ish price tag was hard to complain about. At that point I was pretty much ready to go to China for a few days and wasn’t thinking much about the 787 options.
Then someone mentioned that the fare also permitted a stopover in Tokyo in either direction for only $100 more, Now it was getting interesting. I could get in a trip to China and a stop in Tokyo during the first week the 787 is supposed to be flying. Now the planning started to get interesting. I ticketed the Seattle – Beijing – Tokyo – Seattle flights and then started researching the 787 options.
Yikes!
I really, really, REALLY didn’t expect the fare to be so high. That was definitely putting a wrinkle in this master plan of mine. I found that I could get a one-way award ticket for only 6,000 points on the outbound flight to Hiroshima, saving $400, but the return flight was still full price. That was going to sting.
Fortunately, however, both ANA and JAL offer up Japan Air Pass tickets in conjunction with their alliance partners. These passes allow you to assemble domestic Japan flight segments in conjunction with an international itinerary at a much more reasonable rate. The Star Alliance version prices at ¥10,000 per segment, plus ¥50,000 in taxes per segment. Even better, the ¥50,000 ¥5,000 tax is not paid on any segment which is within 24 hours of the international arrival or departure. Since my total time in Tokyo is barely 40 hours it turns out that both of my domestic segments are within that threshold. All of a sudden I had hope for a quite reasonably priced adventure.
The challenge was not over yet, however. The Japan Air Pass on ANA requires inventory in the M fare bucket. This is a mid-level bucket on ANA so not impossible to find. In fact five of the seven outbound flights had the M bucket as an option for the day I was in town. Of course the one I wanted (the most reasonably timed flight in the morning) did not. Neither did the 787 flight from Haneda to Hiroshima. And for the return segment the Hiroshima to Haneda flight was also missing the appropriate inventory. Back to the drawing board. Sortof.
While considering whether paying the $400 was back to a viable approach for me I also figured that maybe I’d get lucky and that maybe the M inventory would open up. I set up an alert to watch that fare bucket and hoped that the email would come soon. Somewhat to my surprise, it did! A quick call to the folks at United Airlines (the Japan Pass is booked through the airline operating the intercontinental flight) and I had my seats reserved. It was going to take a few days for the rate desk to price it out but the seats were mine.
I called back a few days later as instructed and got the good news. That $800 plane ticket was mine for only $264.40. That’s 66% off. Woo hoo!
Sure, there is always the chance of an aircraft swap. And the day starts WAY too early so that I can also spend a few hours touristing about in Hiroshima. But overall I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity and about the price point at which I got everything put together. I’m also impressed that I finally found one of the regional passes where the fare makes sense. I guess there is a first time for everything.
A special thanks to the friends who suggested looking in to the Japan Air Pass option. Most excellent advice indeed.
Tags: 787, ANA, award, Beijing, Boeing, China, Dream2011, Dreamliner, frequent flyer, Hiroshima, Hong Kong, JAL, Japan, points
Posted by Seth on August 17, 2011 under News |
Today marked the beginning of the last phase in the delivery of the first Continental 787 Dreamliner aircraft: it began the roll down the final assembly line in Washington. And, given that the delivery is now not too far away it seemed like a good idea to revisit the seating configuration question.
I spent a decent amount of time a few months back putting together a bunch of numbers and trying to figure out if they could add a section of the economy cabin with extra leg room seats to make the long flights it is destined for more bearable. At the time, based on the announced seating capacity of the plane, the answer was decidedly no. With today’s press release, however, the seating configuration has officially changed.
The first United 787 will be configured with 36 flat-bed seats in BusinessFirst, 63 extra-legroom seats in Economy Plus and 120 seats in Economy
That economy cabin configuration has 9 fewer seats than the previously announced 192 economy seats. Given the previous statement that the plane will have 9-abreast seating in coach, along with the move to Economy Plus, it is pretty clear that a row of seats (9) is being removed to make that work out. Combine that data with the map from ANA, the first carrier to take delivery of the 787 and some other quick and dirty hack jobs with an image editor and you get the image here. It is my best guess as to what the cabin will look like.
Based on the previously announced numbers I expect that the BusinessFirst cabin will be remarkably similar to the existing 777-200 cabin in terms of seat layout, though there will be fewer total seats in that cabin. Behind the BF cabin will be 9 7 rows of Economy Plus with a seat pitch of approximately 35-36 inches. Behind that will be another set of doors and then finally the economy cabin. Based on the number of seats announced it is almost certainly going to be 13 rows fully across and one extra set of 3 seats in the middle. I’ve shown that at the back in the mock-up to account for the narrowing of the fuselage in the back of the plane. That section will likely have 32" of pitch based on the previously announced numbers.
The only bit that I’m not completely certain on is the location of the lavatories in the front of the cabin. Right now there is the empty space marked by door 1L that, on the 772 that I use as the basis for this map, is the pilot rest bunks. There has to be a lav up there for the flight crew to use so maybe they’ve managed to squeeze in both that and the rest bunks or maybe it is a bit different.
Like I said before, I’ve basically completely made this up, but I did so using the numbers from Boeing and Continental/United and I’m pretty confident in them at this point.
UPDATE (21 Aug 2011):
I received a bit of feedback on the numbers and layout of the seats and have made some adjustments from the above estimate to the image below. Based on my sources I’m quite confident in this latest iteration.
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Posted by Seth on August 6, 2011 under News |
Boeing and ANA held a party in Washington today to celebrate the first 787 Dreamliner that is being delivered. The event was mostly to show off the new livery rather than to actually deliver the aircraft, so not an enormously important event. Still, it was good to see the plane painted and ready to go.
Photo from @BoeingAirplanes Twitter Feed
That it looks more like SkyTeam at the back than ANA, but sure, why not.
And then there’s the coverage that Reuters offered:
Nothing quite like having the local competitor featured in the headline photo. That’s quality stock image work there, folks.
Anyways, the plane is now expected to be delivered at some point next month and to operate on short and medium-haul routes.
