What is it like to ‘turn left’ and fly in the All Nippon Airways – ANA 787 Dreamliner Business Class, and should you spend the money on an upgrade to sit up front on ANA?
I just completed an almost 7-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo on ANA’s Dreamliner and share everything about the flight, including meals, seating comfort and whether ANA is a good Business Class purchase.
ANA Check-in and Immigration at KLIA Airport
Check-in at KLIA International Airport for my ANA Dreamliner flight to Tokyo was really easy shortly after arriving on the KLIA Express train from central Kuala Lumpur.
The KLIA Express train takes 28 minutes from KL Sentral Station and was incredibly easy. Departure Immigration with my Canadian passport was automated and traversing Malaysian customs took seconds with their passport scanning process. No human intervention needed!
ANA Business Class lounge at KLIA
A business class seat on ANA or having Star Alliance Gold status will provide you with access to the Satellite Golden Lounge in the KLIA Terminal 1 Satellite terminal. The lounge was really large and was pretty comfortable. Showers and Nap rooms were available at the rear of the lounge. Breakfast and drinks were all there, as was a cool little sports bar at the entrance. However, that area was closed at 6 am when I visited.
Boarding and Champagne Service on ANA’s 787-8 Dreamliner
Boarding was smooth after I cleared security and screening at the gate (at KLIA airport, they do passenger screening right at the gate, where you enter a secured area before boarding). Zones 1 and 2 were already boarding, so I walked straight onto the plane. A gracious ANA gate attendant was holding a placard so it was easy to see which zone was boarding. The ANA staff were very friendly!
Champagne and orange juice were offered upon boarding. ANA’s Champagne choice is Champagne Adam-Jaeger Reserve Brut from Mont de Berry, Reims, France. I noticed the champagne bottle came by many times to refill passengers’ glasses once in the air, which is always nice to see!
The modern Dreamliner cabin feels spacious on the ANA Dreamliner, but it has an old 2-2-2 seating design. Luckily, I had no seatmate at my window seat 3K. Personal storage in this business class seat was pretty limited, too, as there was only a small side pocket in the seat for personal items.
ANA Business Class Meal Service
Less than an hour after takeoff, meals were quickly served. I ordered the ‘international cuisine’ consisting of an appetizer of seared cajun tuna & pineapple mango salsa with chicken rillets; mains of beef fillet steak with mustard sauce, rolls, and for dessert a mango passion fruit mousse.
The steak was tasty as it was served with a tasty mustard gravy, and the meat still had a touch of pink but was pretty much well done. As is typical for airline food.
Prior to landing, another service was provided with a light meal and beverages.
Business Class Wine and Beverage Service on my ANA 787 Flight to Tokyo
ANA serves a nice complement of wines, sake, shochu (a Japanese distilled spirit from rice and barley), as well as bar drinks, cocktails, Japanese beers, and a nice Talisker 18-year-old scotch on this flight.
The white wines served in business class on this flight included Perdeberg The Vineyard Collection 2024 Chardonnay from South Africa and Henri Bourgeois Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from France. The reds, both French, include Chateau Puygueraud 2019 Merlot / Cabernet Franc and Pierre-Jean Villa Selection Côtes du Rhône 2024.
The Wine and drinks menu for ANA Business Class 2026.
The cabin crew were incredibly friendly — just like every time I fly ANA business class. They are very polite and eager to help.
Free Internet was offered for Business Class passengers on this ANA flight, however, you had to request a voucher from the cabin crew. Speed was kind of slow, but it worked!
ANA 787-8 Dreamliner Business Class Seat Comfort
The seats on ANA’s 787-8 variant of the Dreamliner are an older generation of seat. When positioned upright, it was comfy yet firm, but severely lacked controls for range of motion. The ANA 787-8 seat was not a full lay-flat seat either, rather, it stayed pitched down and largely uncomfortable for a passenger of my size when in sleep mode. With only two buttons, you were at the seat’s mercy of somewhere between upright and lying sort of flat. See the full seat map for this plane here.
There was no leg rest control either when seated upright. Unfortunately, this is just an outdated, uncomfortable seat design on a beautiful, modern 787 Dreamliner.
As with all 787 Dreamliners, electronically adjustable window shades were there to enhance the cabin ambiance. The shades go from a subtle shade to completely black. This was a daytime flight, so it was nice to have a small amount of darkening but still see out the full window.
Entertainment System on the ANA 787-8
The Entertainment system on this flight was what I would call adequate. I found the navigation pretty cumbersome, and it seemed like a system from an old Boeing 767 aircraft. There was an average selection of movies, short films and some TV shows. I kept that map on for most of the flight, however.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
I had a very pleasant experience flying the ANA Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Tokyo. This was mostly due to the cabin crew’s friendly service. The seating is not at all my favourite configuration and was even slightly uncomfortable at times due to the lack of control and maneuverability.
Legroom was more than spacious, however. This ANA flight was decent, but I had hoped they had updated their seats since I had flown them last. I know that the configuration on the ANA 787-9 Dreamliner is way more modern, so I will look to see if my next flight with them operates on that newer variant.
Compared to the 16-hour-long flight on Air Canada’s 787 Dreamliner Business Class on my journey to KL, the comfort was not even comparable, but the service made it a pleasant long-haul flight in Business Class.