ANA will roll out its new Business and First Class seats to New York and Frankfurt

Star Alliance airline All Nippon Airways announced today that it will continue to expand deployment of its latest impressive cabin products on the redesigned Boeing 777-300ER, currently flying daily from Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow.

This winter the plane will also serve the Tokyo – New York route, from both Haneda and Narita, with the Tokyo Haneda – Frankfurt route set to follow in early 2020.

Closer to home, deployment of 777-300ERs with the older configuration to Singapore will also see some passengers being able to sit in First Class seats on that city pair, though a Business Class service will be offered.

New cabin products

In First Class, which ANA calls “The Suite”, an all-new design is 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.

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.

First Class suites also feature a movable partition, which can be adjusted upon request to ‘pair’ two middle seats together when travelling as a couple or with a friend.

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

In the Business Class cabin there are 64 seats across three separate sections in a 1-2-1 configuration, featuring direct aisle access for all passengers.

These seats alternate between forward-facing and rear-facing at each row.

The design is inspired by modern, multifunctional Japanese living spaces, and includes doors at the seat side which can be used to create an enclosed suite.

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

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.

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

Review

God Save The Points jumped on board one of the first Heathrow to Tokyo flights fitted with the new seats to try out “The Room” Business Class.

It’s safe to say the reality of the experience seems to have lived up to the hype, with Gilbert claiming it to be the “new world’s best”.

Check out the review here

Current routes

The new seats are already flying daily on the NH211/212 Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow route. Initially this was on alternate days, but regular daily deployment has happened on these flights in August 2019 – over a month ahead of schedule.

Here are the London flights you’ll need to choose to experience the new cabin products (northern winter schedule timings shown).

Currently operating

* Next day

New York (from November 2019)

The next destination for these new seats is New York, a 12+ hour flight from Tokyo and a 14 hour journey on the way back.

The first flight to get the new seats will be the daily NH110 flight operating from Tokyo Haneda to JFK, from 8th November 2019. It will return as NH9 from JFK into Tokyo Narita on the same calendar day.

From 8th / 9th November 2019

* Next day

ANA has now uploaded the new seat maps for these flights, which are operating on specific dates in the winter 2019/20 season. See our full article for details.

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

KrisFlyer rates between Japan and North America are very steep and don’t represent great value. If you have miles or points in other frequent flyer schemes you may find those give you a much better deal for these redemptions.

ANA does not permit one-way award redemptions outside Japan, so you must redeem a round-trip ticket using these miles.

The airline also prices award flights on its own aircraft by season, with low season dates being the cheapest followed by regular season and high season.

Remember these are return award prices, not one-way like the ones quoted for other programmes, so the value is actually quite good. If you can find a return Business Class award available on your preferred dates in low season, it’s the equivalent of paying just 37,500 miles each way.

Other FFP redemption rates Tokyo ⇄ New York
	Economy	Business	First
	35,000	75,000	90,000
	35,000	80,000	110,000
	45,000	67,500	100,000
	40,000	71,000	111,000
	50,000	75,000	100,000
	52,500	87,500	105,000

Lifemiles and United MileagePlus are both offering great rates for these long flights, though it’s Turkish Miles&Smiles members who get the best Business Class pricing.

Whichever example you pick, all the options are cheaper than using KrisFlyer miles.

Frankfurt (from early 2020)

Later this winter another European route gets the new seats, with at least one of the two daily flights between Tokyo Haneda and Frankfurt upgrading to the latest aircraft from early 2020.

The schedule and effective dates for this service have yet to be announced, but we’ll be sure to update you as soon as we know when this additional Europe option is released.

Once we know about the correct Frankfurt flights to choose, here are the KrisFlyer redemption rates applicable.

These KrisFlyer rates match the Heathrow route we wrote about in July, and like the North America pricing it’s a poor deal.

As with the New York route, you must redeem a round-trip ticket using ANA miles, with pricing based on season.

Other frequent flyer programmes will also give you a much better deal for these redemptions than using KrisFlyer miles.

Other FFP redemption rates Tokyo ⇄ Frankfurt
	Economy	Business	First
	30,000	45,000	67,500
	40,000	55,000	75,000
	40,000	71,000	111,000
	45,000	75,000	115,000
	45,000	75,000	115,000
	52,500	92,500	127,500

A number of good options here if you hold (or can transfer) miles in the right ‘currency’, not least Turkish Miles&Smiles at 45,000 one-way in Business Class.

How to tell your flight has the new seats

ANA operates four different variants of the 777-300ER:

• 264 seats (8F / 52J / 24W / 180Y)
• 250 seats (8F / 52J / 24W / 166Y)
• 212 seats (8F / 68J / 24W / 112Y)
• New 212 seats (8F / 64J / 24W / 116Y)

It’s the “New 212 seats” configuration which has the latest cabin products.

The easiest way to check whether your flight will have the new seats is the seat map in Business Class. On the aircraft with the older seats the Business Class seat map goes up to row 17 or row 21. On the new aircraft it ends at row 20.

If you’re using a third-party function to view the seat map, rather than the ANA website, you’ll be able to spot the back of the cabin as row 20 quite easily.

Here’s how it looks on ExpertFlyer, comparing a 212 New configuration (left) with a standard 212 configuration (right).

Where’s next?

ANA is fitting out 12 of its Boeing 777-300ERs with these new cabin products. Six of those are brand new planes, the first two of which are now in service, while the remaining six will be retrofitted.

This sub-fleet will be used on flights to Europe and the USA. That means it’s likely that the following routes will follow suit and join London, New York and Frankfurt by switching to these new seats in due course:

• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Washington D.C.

Unfortunately we don’t know at this stage when those routes will change across, as it depends on the retrofit schedule.

Boeing 777s to Singapore

ANA also announced as part of its winter schedule announcement in August this year that its daily NH801/802 flight between Narita and Singapore will switch from the 787-10 to the 777-300ER. This change already happened on Sunday last week (27th October 2019).

The schedule is valid until 28th March 2020.

This is not one of the refitted aircraft, and as with the type’s deployment on the route last year the First Class cabin will be sold as Business Class, available for selection by:

• ‘Full Flex Plus’ ticket holders, and
• ANA Mileage Club Platinum / Diamond status, or Star Alliance Gold tier members.

First Class seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. There is no service differentiation on these flights from the regular Business Class offering, but of course the seat is much nicer.

The NH803/804 service, flying overnight from Singapore to Narita and returning in the afternoon, will continue to be operated by ANA’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft. There is also no change for the airline’s two daily Singapore to Haneda flights, which will also continue to use the 787-9 through the northern winter season.

Summary

While ANA has a great looking First Class product, it’s the new Business Class cabin “The Room” which is the standout design here – a true Qsuite contender. It looks incredible, and we’re keeping a close eye on when and where they are sending them as 12 aircraft are progressively fitted.

That’s mainly because we want to try the new seats ourselves soon, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a good opportunity to do so!

Unfortunately using KrisFlyer miles for a Star Alliance redemption on ANA is poor value, but there are some good value opportunities using miles from other programmes including ANA Mileage Plan (for return itineraries), Lifemiles and United MileagePlus.

Finally if you’re on an expensive Business Class ticket on NH801/802 sometime over the next six months, or a top-tier ANA Mileage Club or Star Alliance Gold member, you should be able to secure yourself a very comfortable First Class seat for the journey, even though a Business Class service will be provided.

(Cover Image: ANA)