Hello again! Thank you for taking care of us here at JakartaPotato! We’ve recently wrapped up our previous report, A Princely China Eastern Escapade. Now, we’ll be going on a sleepless West Coast adventure, roadwarriors-style! In celebration of our first cross-continent trip report, we’re excited to fly Economy Class on Japan Airlines to Seattle! We don’t currently have long-haul Economy Class reviews, so how’s this for a change?!

Background

Due to COVID-19, I haven’t had the chance to visit the US in over 3 years ever since my trip to South America in 2019. Longing to return, we finally decided to look into booking a flight to the West Coast for an end-of-year trip. However, I was completely shook by the absurdly high flight prices in any travel class.

The prices being charged over December were easily 3 to 4 times the fares that had been available pre-Covid. Since paying over USD 7000 for a single Business Class ticket seemed ludicrous at best, I decided to look into Premium Economy and Economy Class. In the end, I finally persuaded myself to fly in Economy Class given that it was on Japan Airlines and on their most comfortable planes, too.

Planning the Journey

Honestly, this was perhaps the simplest itinerary we’ve ever planned here at JakartaPotato; and we’re not exactly known for being simple, either 😉. But anyhoo, we booked all the on this trip in a single multi-city itinerary via Japan Airlines. I’ll admit that I didn’t foresee myself booking this trip, but given how extortionate trans-Pacific flights have been as of late, this felt like the best deal I could make out in a while. In particular, I’ll be flying JAL’s Boeing 787s, which happen to feature what’s said to be the world’s most comfortable Economy Class seats. I’ll go into more detail in the reviews themselves, but this was something to look forward to compared to your run-of-the-mill Economy Class product.

As part of that ticket, we were also able to include an American Eagle flight which is somehow booked into Basic Economy (gulp). Thankfully, the flight was to be operated by an Embraer 170, which offers one of the best regional Economy Class experiences out there.

However, flying on oneworld carriers thankfully meant that I could visit several lounges that have been on my bucket list for a while. This includes the Qantas First Lounge in Los Angeles, which is widely considered the best airport lounge in the Americas. Does it hold true to its reputation? Well, stay tuned to find out… 😉

Let’s fly.

Overall, our final itinerary looked like the following, which is definitely the simplest we’ve had here on JakartaPotato 😉

Over the next several weeks, I’ll write and share all the reviews from this trip. Please refer to the following list of reviews to check out the written and upcoming reviews from this trip! As always, the list will be updated with links to the reviews as soon as they are ready.

• Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Economy Class (CGK-NRT)
• JAL Sakura Lounge Tokyo (NRT)
• Cathay Pacific Lounge Tokyo (NRT)
• Japan Airlines Boeing 767 Economy Class (NRT-SEA)
• Grand Hyatt Seattle
• Alaska Lounge North Satellite (SEA)
• Alaska Lounge Concourse D (SEA)
• American Eagle E175 Main Cabin (SEA-LAX)
• The Westin Los Angeles Airport
• Qantas First Class Lounge (LAX)
• Oneworld Lounge (LAX)
• American Airlines Flagship Lounge (LAX)
• Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Economy Class (LAX-NRT)
• JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo (NRT)
• Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Economy Class (NRT-CGK)

Thank you so much and please stay tuned~ ♪