Sydney (SYD) - Tokyo Haneda (HND)
NH880
All Nippon Airways (ANA) but technically operated by Air Japan
Business class seat, seat 7A
B787-9
21/06/25
Intro, HND v NRT and what is Air Japan?
I've already explained how this flight came to be but here is some other info for any one looking at flights to Tokyo:
ANA has a limited Australian network of two daily departures from Sydney and a once daily flight to Perth. ANA's Sydney flights both land at Tokyo
Haneda Airport (HND) while Perth passengers are destined to land at Tokyo
Narita (NRT). While Haneda is located within Tokyo city limits and is a roughly 30 minute train ride to the famous scramble crossing in Shibuya, Narita is further away outside of the city limits.
Haneda used to mainly be a domestic airport but expansion and new terminals thanks to the 2020 Olympics mean the airport has grown its international capability, but its slot bound which means many airlines service both airports including Japanese nationals ANA and JAL but also Qantas just to be confusing.
Qantas flies twice daily from Sydney to Haneda and connects Brisbane and Melbourne to Narita, Jetstar flies to Narita from Brisbane and Cairns and JAL flies to Sydney from Haneda and Melbourne from Narita. Of course Jetstar also flies to Osaka's Kansai Airport from Brisbane, Cairns and Sydney but this airport is, as the name suggest, in Osaka about three hours bullet-train ride south of Tokyo.
ANA's two daily departures NH890 & NH880 mirror Qantas' timing of a 11:30am and 8:55pm departures, meaning you have the choice of day and night flight in each direction for both carriers. ANA operates both flights on a 787-9 while Qantas deploys its older A330's with the occasional 787-9 thrown in for fun.
You will also spot if you book a ticket with ANA that the flights are actually operated by AirJapan, ANA's low cost subsidiary. You may think, hang on a minute I don't want to fly a budget carrier?! As it turns out many ANA flights are now "operated by" Air Japan but with ANA's flight code NH. One can assume this is a cost savings measure of some sort, as the flights with a NH flight code will be operated by ANA aircraft and crew not with the low cost carriers own fleet which consists of just two aircraft. So don't worry about the "operated by" bit as long as the flight number starts with NH, you are getting the ANA product and treatment.
Check in & security/immigration
ANA's check in desks as you'd expect were very orderly and calm, I arrived about 2 and a half hours prior to departure and found no line at all. I did have to cut through a very long line of people lined up for a flight to a Chinese city that I've never even heard of and now can't remember.
No self bag tagging here, the ground handling staff manage all this the old fashioned way even in economy, which I like. I was advised of the gate and lounge location via a handy map at the check in counter and told that our flights gate was only a 1-2 minute walk from the lounge. I was also invited to use the express security line for business passengers.
The calm was all left behind sadly once I got to security and immigration which was pumping tonight and what seemed to me a tiny space for such a large number of people. All in all it probably took 15-20 minutes to get through which would be fine but the space is not air-conditioned very well, so it was all round unpleasant. Leave Brisbane International is way more enjoyable might I say (not that we are comparing). Anyway, once through all the automated machines you are greeted by a giant duty free section, how many perfumes could there possibly be?
Lounge
ANA sends their eligible passengers to the Air New Zealand lounge near Gate 54, passengers on the morning flight can also make use of the Singapore Airlines lounge right next door but this lounge closes at 6pm so evening departures miss out on that choice.
The lounge is fairly impressive, it features roughly 300 seats, a decent buffet stocked with an array of hot and cold foods, a manned bar and several unmanned drinks stations. The lounge also has a barista in the mornings where you can order coffee of a screen.
You also have really great views of the aircraft below thanks to the lounges large windows and location in a corner of the terminal. I got to watch an Emirates A380 pull in next to a dinky in comparison Jetstar A320.
I put together a decent pre-departure amouse bouche featuring a lamb kofta, gnocchi with olives and tomato sauce, a little salad and a roast beef slider. I also later partook in a chai panna cotta which was delightful. The bartender whipped up a slightly weak margarita which I sipped as I waited for our boarding time to roll around.
At this time of night the lounge is a little less than half full with 4 widebody departures including Qatar Airways to Doha, Air India to Delhi, Air China to Beijing and of course our flight to Tokyo.
Overall a very decent lounge in my opinion, one I'd like to come back to in the future.
Boarding, Cabin layout and the seat
Again as you'd expect the boarding process was calm and orderly, ANA has three queues and boards in five groups with those needing special assistance asked to board first. Your group number is written on your ticket, Business passengers are in group 2 and I got to be the first to board our jet.
ANA was the launch carrier for the Dreamliner and currently has 86 of the family in its fleet with 27 more to go. ANA operates all Dreamliner variants but the medium 787-9 makes up more than half the fleet. This type has 4 different cabin layouts with a fifth announced for next year ranging from premium heavy international layouts to those with fewer premium seats used mainly for domestic routes. Sydney is served by the 40 seat business class cabin with business laid out in a 1-2-1 layout over two cabins.
Like Qantas and many others, ANA's seats are staggered meaning one seat will be closer to the window/centre and the next will be closer to the aisle. I was seated in seat 7A, closer to the window and just ahead of the crew rest seat in 8C in the main front cabin. Seats lack a distinct privacy divider meaning you can see more from your seat than you could say on a Qantas or Singapore airlines seat. This did have the added bonus though of feeling less cramped and claustrophobic.
While the cabin feels fairly utilitarian and lacks wow factor I have to say everything was clean and well maintained. I found the seat to be comfortable and spacious enough, I'm 6 foot 2 so take it from me, this wasn't a cramped experience.
Theres a power outlet and a usb-A plug at your seat, I made use of the usb plug to plug in my mini fan which was desperately needed as the cabin is kept warm and there are no over head vents. Other than that the storage options are limited, the section under your foot rest barely fit a pair of shoes or a small handbag all other items had to be put into the locker above.
Service
Service started on the ground with a flight attendant introducing her self and confirming my pre-chosen meal. While ANA doesn't have a cook the cook menu like SQ, they do let you reserve a meal ahead of time to ensure the crew don't run out of your preference.
A pre departure drink of either champaign or orange juice was offered albeit in plastic cups and bottles of water were handed out.
As this was a later departure and the flight really is a redeye, the meal service thankfully wasn't dragged out and instead the whole meal was served on one tray along with drinks, in my case a glass of Sake. You can see the menu above, ANA has a unique "set menu" with a Japanese or Western option. You cannot pick and choose menu items and are stuck with what ever set menu item you pick, the menu updates every three months and can be found here on the ana website:
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/guide/flight_service_info/int-service/c/meal/
I chose to give the Japanese menu a try seeing as Steak on planes is usually less than impressive. The meal consisted of Zensai which is a selection of small bite sized items or morsels, some salmon sashimi, the main dish of grilled white fish with rice and some miso soup and pickles on the side. After my meal in the lounge I wasn't very hungry but enjoyed the Zensai items and sashimi which was fresh and light. I picked around the main but have to say as I was too full at this point and just had a few sips of the miso and ate the amazing pickles.
Presentation here was mixed, the smaller dishes were presented beautifully, the ceramic dishes were so cute I was tempted to steal one but the main dish came with the foil still on the dish. I assume they did this to reduce the smell in the cabin as the fish was a bit pungent.
The sake I had was delightful, there were two options and I had the one described as "lighter". For those loving whiskey there was also a Japanese whiskey option and of many of the stock standard wine options.
All in all the meal was a 6/10, I wished there was a bit more flexibility/customisability with the meal, if you don't like seafood for example you would have been a bit stuffed. But it has to be said the meal service was done within 90 minutes after takeoff and didn't feel rushed.
As this was a redeye, I was asked if I wanted the crew to wake me up for the express breakfast. I told them no but knew I probably wasn't going to sleep the whole flight anyway. When I woke up with around 3 hours to go the cabin manager noticed me and asked if she could get me a cup of green tea which I accepted, following this I ordered the ramen from the snack menu for breakfast which was delicious.
Bed and Amenities
Once boarded you had all your amenities at your seat in a neat pile. This included a small pillow, mattress topper type thing (felt more like a mat), blanket, slippers and amenity kit. ANA lets you borrow PJ's for the flight but I had my own so didn't bother asking for those.
The amenities are somewhat sparse, the kit includes a cream and lip balm as well as a compact bag thingy, for all your shopping needs in Japan I guess? I did actually end up using this so i cant even make fun of it. Tooth brush sets were available in the lav and later on I also saw that there was a small basket of other amenities in the galley which I guess you just had to know about.
The mattress mat thingy seemed to be mainly to cover the parts of the seat which may annoy you while sleeping such as the ridges between seat parts. It didn't do much to cushion your bed. Over all I can't call this great bedding but it did do the job, I prefer a harder mattress but if you enjoy a soft bed then this may not be for you.
I slept for 5 hours and really enjoyed the fact that the seat isn't designed to be a cocoon which allowed a side sleeper like me to move around a bit.
Arrival in Haneda, Mount Fuji and the crew
Before I go into the process of arriving, I did just want to briefly mention one thing: Mount Fuji.
An iconic landmark in Japan which I didn't really make time to see while in the country but I knew from other reviews that some landing and take off pathways lead right past the mountain. I asked a flight attended if she could advise if we may see mount fuji on arrival, to which she said she had to ask someone. Once she came back she advised me that most likely about 30 minutes prior to landing the mountain could be seen on the left hand side of the aircraft (I picked a seat on the left as I had anticipated this).
Now we were early so the captain had to make a few longer turns which meant the mountain couldn't be seen, the lead purser came over to me to apologies and explain this in what I can only describe as genuinely disappointment and as if she let me down somehow. However as we descended and approached Haneda the mountain came clear into view, without a snow cap due to it being summer of course.
As the dreamliner has dimmable windows and all windows must have been automatically set on the darkest setting. While I changed mine most in the cabin didn't, meaning no one else got to see the mountain. So pro tip, sit on the left and un-dimm your window. On deplaning I thanked the crew and let them know I saw the mountain which they were again really genuinely thrilled about.
Once you head up the jet bridge its a short walk to immigration where you got to present your arrival QR code if you used the "visit japan" website to register your arrival and passport. I was given the letter C and told to follow the signs to passport control and later after I collected my suitcase to customs. The whole process is very efficient and took maybe 15 minutes. I do recommend you connect to the airport wifi as I didnt have reception and the visit japan website where the QR code is wouldn't load without wifi.
Overall thoughts
I have to say I don't really know where to place ANA, it wasn't giving super premium airline but there was also really nothing wrong with my experience and in fact almost everything was pleasant. I do wish someone spoke to their marketing team as it felt like there were so many branding opportunities not taken. Like why is the amenity kit made by an english company when Japan is famous for its skin care brands? I would have loved a sheet mask or something.
The two areas where ANA lost points for me was the Menu and amenities. While the food was good quality I cant help but think the menu is really limited and doesn't cater to a large portion of people. The amenities were just a bit half baked, say all you like about Qantas but they nail this portion, ANA's kit is lacklustre and doesn't promote Japanese products and no PJ's on top of fairly weak bedding.
The crew were very lovely but reserved, I was lucky to have the inflight cabin manager serve my aisle and she engaged in conversation and was clearly speaking english with ease and managed to be fairly proactive however another attendant struggled to communicate and generally you got the feeling you had to request service rather than expect it which is consistent with the Japanese culture.
I'd fly ANA again and look forward to their new Business seat which was announced just last week to be introduced in 2026.
