This final flight on ANA, between Tokyo Haneda and Frankfurt, confirms the very high quality of the airline’s business class, and reconciles me with the Japanese company after the fiasco of the previous flight. A flight that also marks a first for me, as I take the polar route to Europe.
For the record, the air routing for this trip.
You’ll find a summary of the articles about this trip to Australia at the bottom of the page.
To set the context of this flight for those who haven’t read the previous articles, I was initially scheduled to arrive at Tokyo Haneda from Sydney, then change airports to fly to Brussels from Tokyo Narita. My flight from Sydney having been cancelled and then rescheduled for the following day due to weather conditions, I was then rebooked on a Haneda-Frankfurt flight, which was good for me as I didn’t have to change airports and neither Brussels nor Frankfurt was my final destination (I still had a flight to Gothenburg afterwards).
Ground experience
Leaving my flight from Sydney, and even though I’m departing from the same terminal, I have to go through security checks again. It’s 5am, the airport is empty and things could not be smoother.
I then head upstairs to the ANA lounge, which I’ve already introduced so I won’t go into too much detail.
17 showers are available, but by the time I make up my mind it will be too late.
I’ll have the chicken curry…and this time there’ll be a bit more chicken than sauce…
And I can’t resist showing you again this fantastic beer tapping machine.
Otherwise, I’ll make the same comments as the first time: a pretty but huge and cold lounge, a good food offer without more, and no international plugs, too bad for those who don’t have a Japanese adapter.
It’s finally time to reach my boarding gate.
On my way down the stairs, I notice an Amex lounge that I’d totally missed. No time to visit it, next time maybe.
I walk through the duty free to get down to the level of the boarding gates.
It’s the same gate as the one from which I disembarked, but it won’t be the same aircraft.
Boarding
As boarding time approaches, everyone remains seated around the gate and no one rushes to the queues before they open. Quite a change from France…
An announcement is finally made and boarding takes place with the utmost order and respect for priorities.
ANA uses two jetways for boarding, so business passengers are invited to follow their own path a few meters after entering the gangway.
And here I am on board.
The cabin
This is the fourth flight in a row with this cabin, so I’ll be quick.
ANA offers a 1-2-1 “staggered” layout, which means that some seats are well insulated from the aisle and others less so.
Here’s how it looks.
I’d managed to get a well-insulated seat, the 6K.
My main criticism of this seat is the lack of storage space apart from the luggage compartments.
The screen is a decent size, but many airlines are now offering something better.
Seat controls are easy to use.
In addition to the usual noise-canceling headphones and blanket, ANA offers rarer things in business class, such as a mattress cover and slippers.
The comfort kit with L’Occitane en Provence products is of good quality.
The flight and the service
As soon as I arrive in the cabin, I’m offered a welcome drink and I’ll have champagne.
A flight time of 13 hours to Frankfurt is announced. Flight restrictions due to the war in Ukraine and its consequences are not helping airlines.
We take off and the menu is quickly brought to us. As always, Ana offers a choice between a Japanese and a Western menu, with each person able to choose their own main course, but nothing else. There’s also a snack menu available anytime.
To my surprise, there is a version of the menu in French, which was not the case on the outbound flight from Munich to Tokyo.
The tables are set and service can begin.
Original ANA stick, chicken pastrami with olives and cheese. Pâté de Campagne, Marinated Vegetables, Smoked Tuna Miso Seafood Tartar
Stick? What stick? I can’t find it.
The tartare and tuna are very fresh and tasty, the vegetables a little sour.
The pâté will be a delight, surprisingly so for a dish that’s supposed to be industrial. I often find worst on the ground
Sautéed Fillet of Beef with Grand Veneur Sauce Garnished with a Celery-Rave Gratin Dauphinois
Crisp, tasty vegetables, melt-in-the-mouth meat with a great taste, melting gratin and really good sauce.
Cheese.
Beautiful display and quality cheeses…surprising for an Asian airline, but I’d already had this pleasant surprise with Thai.
White Chocolate Apricot Dessert
Good and light.
I’ll finish with some tea and a Suntory whisky.
Throughout the meal, the refills are constant and I’m offered whisky again afterwards.
I slept very well on the previous flight and now I have no desire to sleep. So I concentrate on following the route we’re taking.
For the outbound flight from Munich to Tokyo, we had taken the now classic route since the war in Ukraine, starting off far to the south via Turkey before heading north through China to Tokyo.
This time, after taking off from Tokyo, I see we’re heading north…I thought it was just a detour to head south again. But no…we persist.
The cabin is plunged into darkness, but as I watch a series on my iPad, I remain captivated by the map.
At a certain point I realize that we’ve taken a northerly route and that we’ll at some point be heading west again, north of Russia, as the map suggests. This would take us through Finland and Sweden before heading south to Germany.
We fly over the Bering Strait.
Well, no, we go straight on and North America appears to the east.
In terms of ETOPS flights, I think I’ve got my record there. I don’t know how many hours away the nearest airport is.
And finally, instead of coming from the east and Scandinavia, we’re coming from the west and Iceland.
We all know that a flat map gives us a totally skewed view of air routes, and this is an excellent example.
This is clearly shown on flightradar, with a route to the north of the American continent, i.e. east from Tokyo and not west.
Technically speaking, between the outward and return flights, I made my first round-the-world trip.
This was my first experience of the Polar Route, which old-timers know well from a time when overflying the USSR was forbidden, and when the autonomy of aircraft meant a stopover in Anchorage to refuel on both the outward and return journeys.
Yesterday I was in Australia and now I’m at the North Pole!
Well, in all this I’ve managed to doze off a bit and I’m a bit hungry. I press the call button and the flight attendant arrives promptly. I order some sparkling water and an ice cream.
The cabin is re-lit shortly afterwards for the second service, more than 3 hours before arrival, which is a little early.
Here’s the menu for the second service.
Glazed chicken leg mushroom risotto.
The chicken is really melting but could be a little spicier, and the risotto very good.
Through the window I see the sun rise once again…. I saw it rise in Tokyo, set during the flight, then rise again…
We’re getting close to Frankfurt …
Truly a road to remember.
I was chatting with Olivier via iMessage and he noticed that for my flight to Gothenburg, theoretically in economy (that’s how it was sold), upgrades were being sold for less than 100 euros. Since he had my reservation number, he made the purchase online to give it to me as a Christmas present. He couldn’t see me ending up in eco after such a long trip.
Arrival and connection
As I watch the sun go down again, we’re told we’ll be landing soon, an hour ahead of schedule.
After breaking through a fairly dense cloud layer, we fly over Frankfurt before reaching the airport.
As I know the debate is raging among some, a large part of the windows remained darkened during the landing, as we remind you that this is not a mandatory safety rule and each airline decides whether it requires the window blinds to be opened or not.
So off we go for a long connection walk, with passport control and security checks again (I thought I’d avoid them there) before reaching the Lufthansa lounge to await my flight to Gothenburg. But as was the case in Sydney, the new scanners mean I don’t have to take liquids and devices out of my bag, and I’ll be done in no time.
Off to the Lufthansa Senator lounge to wait for my next flight.
The service
Excellent, with very friendly, professional and attentive staff. Sometimes even friendly, which is rare with Asians.
Bottom line
A near-perfect flight in every respect, even if I would have liked to try out the business cabin of ANA’s 777s with their impressive seats, but this 787 was very comfortable. What’s more, with this polar route I ticked off a new item on the list of things I wanted to do once in my life.
A far cry from the dissatisfaction of the previous flight.
The articles about this trip to Australia
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