It was back in 1952 when All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (a.k.a. ANA or Zennikku, which is short for the Japanese company name, Zen Nippon Kuyu Kabushiki Gaisha), currently the largest airline in Japan, was founded.
With over 20,000 employees and awarded a “5-Star Airline” by Skytrax in 2013-2017, there are those who travel to and from Japan preferring to ride only with ANA.
In 2017 alone, the company won “World Best Airport Services”, “Best Airline Staff in Asia” and came in third place for “World’s Best Airlines”.
In my most recent flight from Japan, I rode on an ANA 106, which is a Boeing 777-300ER (twin-jet). The plane goes 558 mph, altitude of 31,000 and flies 5,687 miles.
I found my ANA flight to be very convenient. Customer service was great, checking in my bags and how quickly everything went was great.
For one, unlike my flight with Japan Airlines, the TV monitors were working and no need for a reset. I was surprised by the variety as with JAL, I like the fact there are are many Japanese programming, but I did like the fact that there were other films catering to their demographics, from Chinese to even Filipino. I was surprised to find a Tagalog film included, so that was cool.
The seat was comfortable and you get a blanket and headphones and pillow during your flight.
Breakfast and dinner (which I didn’t get a photo of, which I will get into) was good, but I thought the offerings from what I had at JAL were much better. The stewardess were great in providing me with a beverage. Although, I found the interactions with JAL stewardess to have a slight edge.
So, my flight with ANA and all things pertaining to ANA was great and I would fly with them again.
Unfortunately, my flight was not as pleasant not because of ANA, but sometimes the people you sit with can either make it or break it for you.
I sat with an older woman and each time I tried to adjust my legs or move, she would give me the “death stare”. Whenever I wanted to use the bathroom, she would get annoyed. Rarely have I had this experience on a flight and it was the first time where I wanted to ask the stewardess if there was another seat I could move to. It was bad enough getting to my seat (a window seat) to get seated for the first time. She didn’t want to move from her seat to let me in. When the stewardess came to give me my custom papers, she tried to speak for me as if I didn’t need it.
I suppose with each vacation, I have sat with cool individuals who made my flight much more enjoyable but this flight was like sitting with someone you don’t get along with.
So, I’ll definitely need to do another blog post about ANA and hopefully the next time will be more pleasant. But I think next time, I’ll just get an aisle seat instead of a window seat (which I tend to prefer).
