On our trip back from Japan, Sruthi and Nitin parted ways. Sruthi went back to US and Nitin went to India. We both flew business class and the flight time was also similar. However, our experiences were quite different. ANA flies the Boeing 787 to Delhi, India and they fly their bigger Boeing 777-300ER to Chicago.
Seats and Food
ANA is in the process of fitting its 777s with their new business class seat called “The Room”. The name is very apt as its literally a room! Its huge and there is a giant TV screen. The seat can recline and also move into a lay-flat position. There is also a privacy door which is a game-changer. With the door closed, it feels like you are in your own room, and the seat is the biggest I’ve ever sat on! In the recline position, I could have well been sleeping on my own bed given how much space there was to turn around and sleep on my back or my side!
The 787 has a slightly dated product. The seat is still pretty comfortable and there is plenty of storage space. The seat also reclines into a lay-flat bed but there is no privacy door.
In terms of service, they provided amenity kits on the flight to Chicago. Whereas on the flight to Delhi, Nitin had to ask for everything. Really ANA ? Why is the soft product so drastically different?
The food served was the same on both flights as we had both chosen the Vegetarian oriental meal option. We flew United Polaris on our way to Japan and on a relative scale compared to United, ANA’s food was absolutely amazing, and even on an absolute scale, it was really good. For the regular service, they had a menu comprising of Japanese and continental options. And a hige variety of drinks to choose from!
Overall Cleanliness and feel
The flight to Delhi had a dated product. There were scratches on the seat. The carpet was worn out. It definitely had the all the signs of a very old aircraft. However, on looking up the tail number of the aircraft we were surprised that it was only 7 years old. There is a clear lack of maintenance inside the aircraft on flights to India.
Wifi
We were both able to purchase wifi on our aircrafts and the speed was decent. However, it was expensive. It costs us $21 for the flight duration to purchase wifi.
Final thoughts
Overall, ANA The Room was definitely a very premium experience and the older product was a mixture of good, and bad. In both cases though, the comfort of a lay-flat bed for a 11-12 hours flight is unmatched. We paid 49,500 points + 50 USD for HND-DEL-MAA and 47500+300 USD for HND-ORD. Would we pay a total of 8000 USD for both these flights? Absolutely no! This is where credit card points and miles make a big difference! We’ve written all about the research we did to book our flights to Japan and back in business class.
BabuSoge 
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