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ANA reveals new First and Business Class seats

ANA is introducing brand new First Class and Business Class seats to the Tokyo - London route next month, and they look pretty sweet

First Class

Star Alliance carrier All Nippon Airways has today announced brand new luxury cabin designs, in its ‘East Meets West’ collaboration between Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and British design firm Acumen Design Associates, whose previous work includes United Polaris Business Class and Etihad’s ‘The Residence’.

New cabin designs include the world’s largest 4K resolution in-flight entertainment screen in First Class, and an innovative new Business Class seat with a private door and multi-functional lounging and dining capabilities.

Welcome Space
Welcome area on ANA’s refitted Boeing 777-300ER. (Image: ANA)

The new First Class product, “THE Suite”, and the new Business Class design, “THE Room”, will debut on the Tokyo to London route on the airline’s redesigned Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from 2nd August 2019.

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First Class – THE Suite

The new First Class product is reminiscent of the latest version ANA has installed on its Airbus A380 aircraft – now flying the Tokyo – Honolulu route.

It’s an all-new design inspired by luxury Japanese hotels with fully enclosed seating, the most spacious the airline has ever installed on its aircraft. The First Class cabin is finished in a luxury dark wood.

First Class 2
First Class seat. (Image: ANA)

New features include the addition of privacy-enhancing doors as well as a crystal-clear 43-inch in-flight entertainment screen. The airline claims this is the world’s first 4K personal monitor on a commercial airliner.

THE Suite also features a movable partition, which can be adjusted upon request to ‘pair’ two middle seats together when travelling as a couple or with a friend.

First Class
First Class cabin. (Image: ANA)

A total of eight First Class ‘Suites’ will be installed on the airline’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, in a two-row cabin with a 1-2-1 configuration.

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Business Class – THE Room

Another brand new seat design for ANA is found in the Business Class cabin, with 64 seats across three separate sections in a 1-2-1 configuration, featuring direct aisle access for all passengers.

Unusually, these seats will alternate between forward-facing and rear-facing at each row.

Business Class 2
Business Class cabin. (Image: ANA)

The design is inspired by modern, multifunctional Japanese living spaces, and includes “flexible doors for personal privacy”.

Though it’s not clear from the press images, doors at the seat side and the access area fully close to create an enclosed suite.

J Bed Overhead (ANA).jpg
Business Class seat in bed mode with doors closed. (Image: ANA)

The width of the Boeing 777-300ER cabin allows this to be a huge Suite, around twice as wide as existing ANA Business Class seats, including a wide sofa.

As with most new Business Class seats today, ANA has promised a ‘place for everything’, with several discreet storage areas for your personal belongings.

Business Class
Business Class seat. (Image: ANA)

The finish is in three different styles of wood, Rosewood, Light Japanese Ash and Dark Japanese Ash, complemented by ANA’s signature deep blue accent hues inside each compartment.

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Other cabins

Down the back of the plane, there are 24 Premium Economy Class seats in a 2-4-2 configuration, followed by 116 Economy Class seats in a predominantly 3-4-3 configuration.

Premium Economy Class.jpg
Premium Economy Class. (Image: ANA)

Right at the back in Economy Class there are seven ‘couple pairs’ by the window as the fuselage narrows; the last four rows on the left and the last three on the right.

Economy Class.jpg
Economy Class. (Image: ANA)

Other upgrades

Elsewhere in the cabin ANA has also enhanced the Premium Economy and Economy Class seats, and has also completely revamped the entrance area of the aircraft to create a hotel-like reception complete with welcome monitors.

Cabin lighting in First and Business Class is custom-designed by Panasonic to improve comfort, while bespoke mattresses and bedding will be provided by Nishikawa.

A redesigned self-service bar counter with a TV monitor and a fridge will also be installed.

Bar
Self-service bar counter. (Image: ANA)

The dining service has also been reimagined, including new premium international cuisine tableware from later this year.

Video

Here is ANA’s video presentation of the new cabin products.

The schedule

Service with the new cabin products starts on 2nd August 2019, initially on even-numbered days of August then odd-numbered days of September on the Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow route. Operation increases to daily to and from London from late September or early October 2019, when the second refitted aircraft enters service.

From 2nd August 2019
Flight From / To Aircraft Days
NH211 HND1135 – LHR1610 77W Even dates (Aug)
Odd dates (Sep)
NH212 LHR1900 – HND1435* 77W Even dates (Aug)
Odd dates (Sep)

* Next day

From late September / early October 2019
Flight From / To Aircraft Days
NH211 HND1135 – LHR1610 77W Daily
NH212 LHR1900 – HND1435* 77W Daily

* Next day

NH 777 (Masahiro Takagi)
ANA is refitting 12 of its 777-300ERs with the new seats. (Photo Masahiro Takagi)

KrisFlyer miles

If you want to redeem your KrisFlyer miles on this route to try out the new aircraft, here are the rates applicable.

KFtrans

Star Alliance 3.png

KrisFlyer Star Alliance Redemption Tokyo – London
Saver
Economy 50,000
Business 111,000
First / Suites 153,000

Saver awards on this route for Star Alliance partners like KrisFlyer aren’t always easy to come by, but they do exist and availability may improve closer to the departure date.

F Saver.jpg

J Saver.jpg

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Other FFPs

KrisFlyer rates between Japan and Europe are rather steep to say the least, but if you have miles or points in other frequent flyer schemes you may find those give you a much better deal for these redemptions.

Other FFP redemption rates Tokyo – London
Economy Business First
TKtrans.png 30,000 45,000 67,500
MBtrans.png 40,000 55,000 75,000
MMtrans.png 40,000 71,000 111,000
LMtrans.png 45,000 75,000 115,000
UAtrans.png 45,000 75,000 115,000
EVtrans.png 52,500 92,500 127,500

Summary

A truly impressive looking First and Business Class seat design from All Nippon Airways, we’re looking forward to seeing this roll out to other routes in future as more aircraft are refitted, and hopefully getting on board ourselves for a full review.

(Cover Image: ANA)

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4 comments

  1. Hi Andrew.. Thanks for this.. What am I doing wrong? When I attempted this search, all the options came out HND>SIN>LHR.. all were SQ flights… When I clicked on Star Alliance tab, same options appeared and “other partner” tab, no options..

    Thanks!

    1. The Star Alliance tab should work, but only if you’ve searched a date where availability exists.

      Best to search the month view via United.com to narrow it down first. But if you check 14/12 in First and 25/5 in J (as in my examples) it should work for you.

  2. Great write up these look as wide as the old SQ A380 seats in business. Do you know if they will add these on the Singapore flights later?

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