Review: New Japan Airlines Premium Economy on the A350-1000, New York to Tokyo

Hello from a late night at JFK Airport in New York City! I recently flew Premium Economy on the new Japan Airlines Airbus A350-1000, which debuted last year. I had a great time onboard, as I enjoyed the new seats and even got an incredible view of the Northern Lights midway through the flight.

Note that I’ve reviewed the older Japan Airlines Premium Economy class seat on a Boeing 787-9 before these new ones came out last year. Read about my experience on that here, as they’re still around on all of their Boeing 787 aircraft.

I flew on Japan Airlines flight JL3 with a scheduled departure of 1:40am. This would rather prove interesting regarding sleep and jet lag later in the trip.

Let’s get to the review.

Getting to JFK Airport

My trip began at Grand Central Terminal, where I missed my Long Island Railroad train to go to Jamaica, Queens. I was aiming to grab a 9:43pm train, but I for some reason thought it was a 9:46pm train instead. Just like that, I missed it.

Given the late night departure, I decided to get a nap in before I left the apartment. Perhaps I was too drowsy thanks to that nap.

I waited for about 20 minutes and boarded this 10:07pm train instead.

Once at Jamaica, I changed to the AirTrain JFK and headed to Terminal 8.

Taking the Long Island Railroad and AirTrain to travel between Manhattan and JFK Airport is incredibly convenient (much better than a taxi or Uber/Lyft). Read more about how to ride them in this article.

At the Airport

The airport wasn’t busy at this time, but TSA was packed. It didn’t help that TSA PreCheck wasn’t open at this hour, and everyone was smudged into one line. Luckily, TSA agents opened up a couple more sections while I was lined up. It took about 20 minutes in total.

Once I was through, I headed up the elevators to the Greenwich Lounge.

Greenwich Lounge

The lounge wasn’t that busy. I got here at around 11:30pm, so there were only a few international flights left for the day out of this terminal. Aside from my Japan Airlines flight, I think there was a Cathay flight to Hong Kong and a British Airways flight to London.

It was late, so I didn’t go overboard with food. Just a small salad along with a couple cookies and bread.

I’ve written a separate, detailed review of the Greenwich Lounge. Read more about the lounge here.

I think this is a good lounge overall; very spacious with many things to do. I enjoyed the relative quietness this time being here at midnight.

Boarding

I left the lounge and made my way to gate 4.

The aircraft of the day was JA01WJ, a 1 year old Airbus A350-1000 delivered to Japan Airlines in October 2023. This was JAL’s first A350-1000, and was the inaugural aircraft for the aircraft type when it flew flight JL6 for the first time in January 2024 last year.

Boarding got pushed back by 15 minutes. It was already well past 1am at this point; I just wanted to get on the plane and sleep.

I boarded in group 3.

This was pretty much a full flight.

This is the new Japan Airlines business class on this Airbus A350-1000. I’m hoping to do a review on this in the near future.

I had seat 19C, the aisle. I typically grab the window seat, but I couldn’t this time as I had booked this flight pretty last minute. I did everything I could, rechecking the seat map every day, but no luck.

I was greeted by the large, 16 inch IFE screen as I sat down. I’ll go into the details of the seat after takeoff.

Waiting for me at my seat was a… pillow? Let me explain.

I guess this was supposed to be the pillow? This “pillow” was incredibly thin and pretty much useless (it basically just took up space). I was rather disappointed in whatever this was supposed to be; thank god I’m young and don’t have back issues.

Also waiting for me at the seat were a pair of headphones and an amenity kit, which had an eye mask, ear plugs, and a toothbrush.

I continued to be amazed by the new, large IFE screens for this premium economy seat.

Departure

The lights dimmed as we began taxi. We ended up leaving the gate at around 2am, 20 minutes behind schedule.

One of my favorite features of the Airbus A350 are the cameras equipped on the tail and bottom of the plane. Delta unfortunately didn’t opt for the cameras on their A350s, but I’m glad to see JAL to have put them on theirs.

See you later, New York City.

The seatbelt sign turned off soon after takeoff. This stayed off for much of the flight; it was a very smooth ride to Tokyo.

A Closer Look at the Seat

Like the previous Japan Airlines Premium Economy seat, this new one also has a shell recline. These seats are designed so that even if the person in front reclines, their seat doesn’t come down into your space. They also have an electronic recline, which I believe is a first for any premium economy seat in the world.

I found the recline on this seat to be incredibly comfortable. The headrest, however, I thought was hard and a bit uncomfortable at the start (one of those where your head feels like is sticking forward). I struggled to find a good resting position for my head and neck during the first couple of hours, but I got used to it as the flight went on.

Meanwhile, the leg rest goes up a full 90 degrees. This is also a first for any premium economy seat in the world. I never had it up this high, but just the fact that it’s designed to go up a full 90 was cool to see. I imagine some passengers can get creative with this when sitting in one of the bulkhead seats.

Legroom was good, although a support beam for the seat in front of me blocked about a quarter of the foot area. This seemed to be a thing for all of the seats, whether you were on the window or aisle.

Either way, I was able to stretch my legs easily. When sleeping, I had the leg rest up about 45 to 60 degrees, seat fully reclined, and legs stretched all the way. It was very comfortable.

I went back and forth with this footrest as well. They came in 3 levels. I didn’t use it when I was sleeping, but it was comfortable to have when I wanted to sit back and watch something on the IFE or on my phone.

A large table came down from the seat in front.

A smaller device holder also came down from the front. This one had a cup holder on the side.

A smaller tray also comes out from the side with a push of a button. This is good for drinks and other small things during meals.

First Meal Service

A meal was served right after departure. Looking at the menu, JAL described this as a “late night snack.” I wasn’t really hungry considering I ate at the lounge and it was almost 3am back in New York.

It was a great meal though! The pasta in particular, was delicious.

Other Amenities

The restrooms were pretty nice for airplane standards. The flight attendants kept them clean throughout the flight.

A known feature of Japan Airlines is the Japanese style washlet in their restrooms. As expected, the new A350s are equipped with them.

I had a bit of trouble connecting to the inflight wifi at the start, but I had a consistent connection for the rest of the flight once I got it to go. It never timed out or disconnected at any point in the flight.

The speed was alright; not enough to stream videos but enough to browse the internet and send text messages.

Snacks were displayed like this in the galley throughout the flight.

Midflight

I took a look out of the back exit to see some Northern Lights already beginning to form. We were only 2 hours into the flight and were still flying over Ontario and Hudson Bay. The Aurora would stick around for the majority of the flight.

It’s a long one to Japan. The total flight time was 13 hours 20 minutes. I went to bed soon after the first meal service.

I got about 3 hours of sleep. Not great, but can’t complain considering I always have trouble sleeping on airplanes.

I looked out of the window at the back of the plane to see this incredible show of the Northern Lights. We were flying somewhere over Northern Alaska.

Unreal.

Read more about these Northern Lights in this post.

Second Meal Service

The lights turned on around 5 hours before arrival. It was 11:30pm Japan time, or 10:30am back in New York. “Weird time for the full service meal,” I thought, but there isn’t much JAL can do with this odd schedule.

The service began with this wet tissue that was labeled as “JAL Business Class.” Oddly enough, I’ve received these in premium economy and economy on JAL many times previously.

There were 2 options: chicken teriyaki or honey beef. I went with the chicken. Soba noodles, a salad, and a cup of ice cream came with the main.

The meal was good, especially the chicken and rice. The flight schedule was just difficult on this flight, as there wasn’t really a time I got hungry. Still good meals nonetheless!

We still had about 4 hours to go. Usually I’d be ready for landing after the second meal service, but not on this overnight flight.

Inflight Entertainment

This Airbus A350-1000 boasts a new, industry-leading 16 inch IFE screen. Its touchscreen responds very well and operates very smoothly with great UI. I loved everything about this and it was a great improvement from the previous models on the Boeing 777 and the 787.

Note that the entertainment selection on JAL can be a bit lackluster, no matter if you’re searching in Japanese or another language.

A remote was to the side of the seat. Although the IFE is touchscreen, this is an option as well.

Arrival at Tokyo Haneda

I switched to the tail camera on my IFE screen to see the approach into Tokyo Haneda Airport. I love having this view available, especially since I wasn’t able to get a window seat this time!

We arrived about a half hour early. It was still dark out; we still had about an hour until sunrise.

Concluding Thoughts

This was one of the more comfortable 13 hour flights I’ve had. I don’t have much to say aside from that this new Premium Economy seat by Japan Airlines is fantastic. The recline, the legroom, the large IFE screen, and the list goes on. The Northern Lights while flying over Alaska was a nice additional touch to this flight.

All photos taken by the author.