Pure Japanese Excellence: a review of ANA’s The Room Business Class

As the other major carrier of Japan, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and their The Room Business Class should be one for your bucket list. Launched in 2019 alongside a new First Class called The Suite, The Room Business Class was instantly touted as a Q Suite competitor – but is it as good as many suggest?  Here’s my review of ANA’s The Room Business Class on the Boeing 777-300ER from Tokyo-Haneda to London Heathrow.

An exceptional boarding experience

While my preceding flight from Singapore to Tokyo on Japan Airlines (JAL) (see my review here) had well organised boarding, this flight was on another level with military like organisation. The boarding process for this aircraft with 212 seats was complete within fifteen minutes – exceptional.

I was welcomed proactively by the crew to the aircraft who seemed much more enthusiastic than the crew I had on JAL which set a positive tone for this long flight to London. Owing to Russian airspace closure because of the war in Ukraine, flights from Tokyo to London extended from twelve to fourteen hours. Flights from Europe to Japan now go one of three routes:

• Polar route: Most commonly used by Finnair going from Europe heading directly over the North Pole to Tokyo.
• Southerly route: Used by airlines including ANA, JAL and British Airways when travelling from Europe crossing below Russia across Middle Eastern, Chinese and Mongolian airspace.
• North American routing: Mostly used when flying from Japan to Europe and crosses the North Pacific, Alaska and Canada.

Our flight took the final routing making for a lot of time to get acquainted with this seat. Longer flight times also now mean that nonstop flights between Europe and East Asia on western carriers are not quite as attractive as they used to be.

A seat that leaves a big impression (and footprint)

On this flight, I was sat in Seat 5K. This aircraft has a whopping 64 Business Class seats split across two mini cabins of two rows and a larger cabin of 10 rows. The first things you’ll notice is how much space this seat has – partially because it has a large footprint but also because of the mix of contrasting light and dark colours used.  The use of wood effect makes it feel more homely and takes inspiration from Japanese interior design. Side note: the blue lighting is not quite as harsh as the pictures suggest.

The seats are laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration with alternating directions. If you wish to sit closer to the window, you’ll be facing backwards which feels normal except for take-off and landing.

At its widest point, the seat is 38 inches wide but does taper somewhat towards the cubby hole. It’s so wide that you could comfortably fit two people side by side here. The cubby hole is quite shallow and, unlike other airlines, is far less restrictive on your feet making it much more comfortable to lay down in.

The airline provides an array of amenities and sleep essentials at the seat including:

• Amenity kit (design has changed since taking this flight)
• Large pillow
• Blanket
• Bed pad (or what other airlines call a ‘mattress’)
• Slippers
• Cardigans are available on loan at request

Unlike my JAL flight and despite the chillier climes of Tokyo, the cabin wasn’t excessively warm making it a far more comfortable boarding experience.  

A few extra amenities such as mouthwash and toothbrush, as well as the obligatory electronic washlet bidet, can be found in the large bathrooms onboard. These were kept spotlessly clean every time I went to use them – a far cry from other airlines globally.

While seated, directly ahead is the dominating 24 inch 4K entertainment screen (more on that later) and to the right a storage area with handy pockets to store loose items such as wallets. An international power outlet, USB-A and HDMI (!) port can be found here.

Due to the 9am departure from Tokyo and 3pm arrival in London, I didn’t sleep on this flight but did sample it in bed mode.  The seat is quite firm and may not be to everybody’s liking. The taper of the seat from being ultra-wide at one end to the narrower cubby was not problematic, however the seat does have one issue – length. At my height, 188cm/6ft2, my head and feet almost reached both ends of The Room which could make sleeping more uncomfortable for those taller passengers. Had ANA added an inch or two more in length, this would’ve made it an even greater seat.

The airline offered a bottle of water at your seat upon arrival and fruit juice in a plastic disposal cup prior to departure. Thankfully, the airline does graduate to real glass for the inflight service.

About that door

Much noise has been made about ‘Suites’ with doors since Q Suite launched in 2017 which was an undeniably distinctive move from Qatar Airways. While I personally find that product claustrophobic, many love it and airlines across the globe have followed the trend – ANA included.

First and foremost, The Room did not leave me feeling claustrophobic in the same way as I did in Q Suite. This is for a combination of factors including the lighter colour scheme compared to the dark purples and greys used by Qatar but also the shorter door height. This does mean that when in the seated position that passengers can see over the door.

The design of The Room means that a privacy divider pops out from above your shoulder and then a door slides out from near the storage area. While this generally means that you are shielded from the rest of the cabin, particularly when laying flat, there is a gap between the privacy divider and door. I don’t really know why ANA designed the seat this way and it is just a bit annoying. While the suite door concept helped create a lot of buzz for ANA when it launched and undeniably does make it slightly more private, I don’t think the door really makes a whole world of difference.

Huge IFE, lacking content

As mentioned previously, there is a huge 24 inch 4K inflight entertainment display – making it easily one of the best I’ve seen on an aircraft. The user interface is well designed and intuitive to use, with a great inflight map and ultra high resolution inflight cameras. I particularly liked on the cameras the ability to view the speedo and compass alongside the moving map.

The screen can be controlled either using the touchscreen, which isn’t particularly comfortable, or an intuitive touch-based remote control. Similarly to other airlines, you can watch one thing on the main screen at the same time as something on the remote control.

Content is where this system starts to go downhill. While the selection is not bad, it’s nowhere near the likes of Singapore Airlines or Emirates – and the content that is available doesn’t make full use of 4K resolution on offer. Only a few programmes were in 4K, mostly quaint documentaries on the Japanese countryside which looked stunning but weren’t the most engaging. Live television was available in the form of Sport 24, CNN, BBC News and NHK World.

I did my research prior to this flight and brought along my HDMI cable to test whether the port did work – and it did! If you’re a power user who can’t work without multiple displays, you’ll appreciate this extra-large monitor directly ahead if you really must do your Excel spreadsheets at 37,000 feet. ANA WiFi service is available and was quite speedy – although it comes at a price:

• USD 6.95 for 30 minutes (ouch!)
• USD 16.95 for 3h
• USD 21.95 for the whole flight

If you feel you need WiFi, just go for the whole flight option which seems OK value for a flight of this length. The lower tier prices are excessive.

The airline provides a very good set of Sony over-ear active noise cancelling headphones which do an excellent job of filtering out any cabin noise. These plug into a headphone jack to your right at the seat.

Food, glorious Japanese food (and drinks)

As the sun beat down on us over the Pacific, and the Japanese-paper like blinds reduced the harshness, it was time for a lunch service. All Nippon Airways provide a hefty, detailed menu for these flights with a large selection to choose from.

Here’s the drinks menu, which included Castelnau champagne but at the forefront promoted Japanese beverages like sake and shochu from various prefectures as well as Suntory World Whisky.

I struggled to choose a drink, however the excellent cabin crew member asked me what flavours I liked before proceeding to recommend that I tried the Gorin sake from Ishikawa (and helpfully, let me take a good photo of the bottle!). The small interactions like this showed the great service from the crew on this flight – and she wasn’t wrong, I enjoyed this drop of sake.

On ANA’s flights, you have either the option of a Japanese (Woshoku) meal or International cuisine – but you cannot mix and match starters and mains from each. Flying on a Japanese airline it would be foolish not to sample its home cuisine. Here’s how those menus looked:

Colourful, flavourful and delicate – the four component dishes of the Japanese meal were excellent and really allows passengers to sample a taste of the country while in the air. The food presentation itself was beautiful bar the presentation on a plastic tray – which could easily be eliminated from table service without much hassle to crew procedures.

Desserts were the same for both menus with either a Noisette cake, Cheese or Fruit on offer. Coffee was decent, but not exceptional, although it came with the odd description as ‘Coffee Journal in the Sky’ – whatever that means.

Light dishes were available on demand at any time during the flight. Thanks to the flight length, I sampled a bowl of the real tasty IPPUDO Pla-ton plant-based Ramen about halfway through the flight. It tasted delightful and I could’ve easily slurped down another bowl – it was also presented quite well compared to JAL who just provide it in the original ‘pot noodle’ style carton. Other light meal options include Shrimp and Tuna Sandwich as well as Rice Bowl with Cutlet, ice cream, fruit and snacks.

ANA also didn’t skimp on a pre-landing meal – again with a Japanese and international option, even if the international option was a Japanese dish… While less memorable than the first meal, it was tasty, hearty and, once again, flavourful. It also shows that the airline isn’t aggressively cost-cutting – compared to the fourteen hour flight I had on Etihad earlier this year where only one meal service was offered.

Excellent service but some questions

With a Business Class cabin as large as this was, you might expect that service would suffer. However, ANA have done a great job at ensuring that this flight was staffed comprehensively, and I was never left waiting long to be served. Those staff who served you were very genuine in their interactions and were extremely professional from start to finish.

Looking around through the flight, beyond the initial impressiveness of the seat, and you start to see wear and tear of the product. Now, this is going to happen on any airline seat that has been in use for any period of time. Parts of the seat had chipped paint while part of the footrest material was partially damaged at one edge. Additionally, I noticed a coffee spill on the opposite door which hadn’t been cleaned up. While this is a minuscule issue, for a detail-oriented airline like ANA from a country like Japan you would expect this to be resolved.

Conclusion and How I booked this flight

I didn’t intend for this review to be this long – but this was an exceptional flight from All Nippon Airways and is an outstanding Business Class product that could almost cosplay as First Class. While not a direct competitor, the overall offering, service and product beat Qatar Airways and their Q Suite – even if The Room’s doors don’t close fully.

Food, drinks, service and most of the seat was faultless. Yes – it could do with a tiny bit more room lengthwise, but this is already one of the largest Business Class seats in commercial service.  The primary room for improvements would otherwise be a greater quantity of better 4K content on the entertainment system and improving some elements of the ground cabin cleaning or maintenance. That being said, these are minor improvements for what could easily be in contention for the world’s best Business Class.

I booked this flight using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club approximately 10 months prior to departure and cost 60,000 Virgin Points one-way plus copay surcharges. ANA is the best use of Virgin Points even if finding award space is exceptionally difficult. Services such as point.me can alert you to award space via other ANA partners (such as Air Canada) before calling up or live chatting with Virgin Flying Club to book the flight – a full guide to which can be seen here.  Booking ANA with Virgin Flying Club is easily worth every single Virgin Point.