Star Alliance member airline ANA (All Nippon Airways) will be upgrading some amenities for first and business class passengers beginning in September.
New menus will appear in both first and business class featuring meals from the airline’s “THE CONNOISSEURS” in-flight catering project, comprised of 10 renowned chefs, five beverage specialists and nine of ANA’s own chefs. The new dishes will appear on most flights from Japan to Europe and North America (except Honolulu), as well as regional flights within Asia.
Also new will be enhanced bedding in both cabins from Japanese manufacturer Nishikawa Sangyo. In first class you’ll see an AiR® mattress, Angel Float® pillows, cotton- and cashmere-rich blankets and comforters, and double-sided knitted pajamas (that you can take with you).
New first class bedding on ANA
New first class pajamas on ANA
Business class bedding will be upgraded to include a new Air Cyclone® bed pad, in addition to existing pillows and comforters.
New business class bedding on ANA
Does ANA not currently offer business class passengers an amenity kit on international flights? The press release states, “ANA will also start offering an amenity kit containing amenities from L’OCCITANE.” I wonder because of the “start offering” statement. [Edited to add: The answer is “no they currently don’t” per Mark and Lack in the comments below.] Anyway, the kit looks pretty basic and includes lotion (serum), lip balm, a toothbrush and toothpaste, eye mask, earplugs, tissues and cotton pads.
New L’Occitane business class amenity kit
I’ll be keen to get my hands on the new kit to critique in my Amenity Kit Reviews series.
I have yet to fly ANA, but I’ll be in mileage burning mode after locking in United million-miler status later this year. The Washington Dulles to Narita flight typically has the best award availability from what I recall. Does anyone have recent experience booking an award on ANA?
(Hat tip: @JALPak via @canadiankms)
– Follow Darren Booth on Twitter, @FrequentlyFlyin, for more airline, hotel and travel industry news, reviews and opinions.
Related:
Lounge Review: ANA Suite Lounge, Tokyo Narita Airport Satellite 4
I did Tokyo to JFK in March in 1st. Very easy booking via usairways miles. The experience was AMAZING to say the least! The good experience, “the square suite”, checkin,and i even got an escort at JFK for a connecting flight.
@arthur: Glad to hear JFK was easy, and I bet it was an amazing experience. I need to get my ANA on!
Great service in Business on ANA, but I’ve never received an amenity kit (the 4-5 times I’ve flown them from NYC/ChicagoNarita).
ANA doesn’t usually offer amenity kits, they go through the cabin with a basket of all the usual items so everyone can pick and choose what they need.
@Mark & @Lack: Thanks for the amenity kit (or lack thereof) info!
A friend booked a NRT-ORD award in NH F this week. Travel is in JAN 2014.
It’s extremely hard to find ANA F for 2 people any time of the year, but if your looking for one person it’s possible.
@Darin: Thanks!
@Usairelite: Yep, 2 seats in F is pretty hard… I travel solo the vast majority of the time, fortunately (for award space).
Hope the meal service change isn’t an “enhancement” that involves lower costs like we’ve known with the US carriers.
As it is the ANA first class meal and wines (some $70+ bottles) are the best in the sky in my book.
The “new” NH business class kit remind me of old PMUA C class kit (the one generation before using Murad).
Most long haul international routes, as well as intra-asia routes NH offer an amenity basket, HND-LAX-HND do offer a very basic amenity kit in C in a dark blue drawstring bag, NRT-BOM-NRT (all C class layout or half C half premium economy on 737BBJ) also offer a fully stocked zipper bag amenity kit. Even in F, it used to be amenity basket too, after that they changed to a Thann or Samsonite kit, now is Rimowa (to Japan) or Samsonite (from Japan)
Regarding to which route is easier for awards, both ORD and JFK will be easier, as now both of them have 2 flights per day (ORD start twice daily from September 1st). However, be warned that the second flight for each city are using 77W with old config with F and angle flat seat 2-3-2 in C, ORD (NH1011/1012), JFK (NH1009/1010)
@ORDnHKG: The new NH mesh-looking zipper bag does look like the PMUA C-kit! Thanks for the additional amenity details, as well as the award/route info.
Its nice of ANA to step up and start following. It was kind of shame to be paying the amount of money I did pay (not corporate dollars) to get into business and they give you a basket to choose from. Meanwhile, my GF is a chief purser and I think she counted out of 30 segments she flew in July, 26 were with minimum crew. and they have to pay out of pocket for missing amenity kits when people take more than whats given to them. strange but true! so corporate ANA could care less. as always, the workers hurt the most.
@Sambo: Whoa! ANA FAs have to pay for missing amenity kits???!!!
Did LAX-HND-LAX last year & LAX-NRT-LAX this May. No amenity kit for LAX-NRT-LAX but a blue ANA amenity bag was given for LAX-HND-LAX. No amenity kit for NRT-TPE-NRT either. All the trips were in business class. I’m looking forward to this new kit…
@ Sambo – What do you mean by FA have to pay out of pocket for missing kit ? You mean the F kit ? As C is still amenity basket except HND-LAX and NRT-BOM.
@ Harold – NRT-TPE-NRT had and will never get a kit, it is intra-asia, it will only be an amenity basket, even as generous as TG, TG don’t have a kit for TPE-BKK, you have to fly longer intra-asia route like NRT-BKK to get a kit.