February 07, 2018   airline food , All Nippon Airways , ANA , Bangkok , flight review , Los Angeles , nexus , Tokyo , Travel , travel tips , USA

Flight Review: NH 6 NRT-LAX in Economy

United gave us the choice to take its flight or an All Nippon Airways-operated codeshare when flying back to the U.S. We’ve never flown ANA,...

United gave us the choice to take its flight or an All Nippon Airways-operated codeshare when flying back to the U.S. We’ve never flown ANA, so we jumped at the chance to try this Skytrax-rated 5-star airline.

We started by getting onto a bus from our flight from Bangkok to the terminal. It's always nice to see the airport's underbelly in action. The bus dropped us off in the transit hall where we had to wait in a lengthy line to clear security. We later learned we could have gone upstairs to a different security checkpoint to avoid the massive line. I highly recommend doing this if it's an option.

Musical toilets at Narita

The Priority Pass KLM lounge was at capacity, so we decided to wander through the shops for a few minutes. On the way we stopped at the bathroom, which happened to have unique musical toilets. It was certainly a memorable feature of Narita.

From there we went to the gate. Boarding was already underway for first class and elite passengers. It didn't take long for them to call our group and we were soon on board. Flight attendants greeted us warmly as they went through the cabin making final preparations. Then we waited. The flight ended up pushed back about 20 minutes late. The crew didn’t give a reason.

We were seated in 39H and K. It’s at the back of the plane, but is one of only a few rows on the Boeing 777 that has two seats in rows along the windows instead of the traditional three.

About an hour after takeoff, the crew came through with a beverage service. The flight attendant recommend I try the airline’s signature Aromatic Kabosu drink. It’s a citrus fruit drink sweetened with honey. It was delicious. I like that it doesn't have the acidity of orange juice. The honey gives the drink a good consistency by balancing out the otherwise sour fruit and helps the flavor linger.

Seafood dinner option on ANA

The beverage service was eventually followed by a large meal service. We had a choice of braised beef or seafood. I chose the seafood. Both came with a penne salad, sushi roll, green soybeans, pumpkin salad, roll and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The food was well seasoned and definitely would have held us over for the duration of the flight although we would have been hungry getting off. The beverage cart then came around again. This time I asked for a beer. The flight attendant wasn't very knowledgeable about the selection and I wasn't familiar with the Japanese selection so I picked one at random. It was just okay.

It took longer than I would have liked to complete the first service. The flight is an eight-hour red-eye.  Since the service took more than two hours and I knew breakfast was coming about a few hours before arrival, it only allowed about four hours of sleep.

Two hours prior to landing at LAX we were served breakfast.


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Passing the Golden Gate Bridge as we approach LAX

This consisted of a choice between salmon flakes and egg crepe over rice or an English muffin with omelet and chicken sausage. Both were served with fruit and yogurt. I also requested a cup of hot vegetable soup from the beverage cart on the second pass.  Again, the meal didn’t disappoint. I would have taken a picture, but I was distracted by the view as we traveled down the California coast.

The flight attendants then worked to ready the cabin for arrival. We landed only a few minutes late, but there was a lengthy taxi to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. We ended up getting in about 25 minutes late.

Thankfully, customs was a breeze with our NEXUS card/Global Entry and we were off to get our rental car.