Why JAL Sucks

Japan Airlines has a less than stellar reputation and I can add an example of perhaps why. Two examples really.

On my flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. Seated in Business Class. Off to my left in the 3 center seats are husband, wife, and 4 year old.

Naturally, all the flight attendants think this little girl is so cute and so cuddly and blah blah blah. Always people seem to act as if yet another example of spawning is somehow life's most precious miracle. There are over 6 billion miracles on this planet but ok, this one is the most precious.

We take off and immediately these 3 get refreshments, snacks etc. And refills, from both sides of the center section they are sitting in. As for the rest of us, we get NOTHING until a full 45 minutes into the flight. Not that I can blame the crew really because, if they were going to devote 2 cabin attendants to full time standby with these 3 people, naturally there was no time to take care of the rest of us. Later they even gave little precious a very nice metal JAL airplane replica, which lasted about 15 minutes before it was assorted broken pieces on the floor.

Oh. And I forgot to mention that these same 3 were allowed to "pre-board" before everyone else and that allowed them to stow their 8 carry-ons and use up all the space that otherwise might have been available for the rest of us, who are limited to 1 carry-on plus a small personal item.

On the next leg, JAL from Tokyo to Seoul, the boarding was smooth and everyone was on board it seemed by about 5 minutes to departure. Yet we didnt push back. 20 minutes past departure time they announce they we are all set to go but we are waiting for "1 passenger". 10 minutes later this one passenger, a young woman dragging several bags of Japan Duty Free boards and makes her way back to coach. The doors close and we should push back but we do not. Why? Because now we have lost our departure slot. And I can guarantee you that the reason we had to wait for this woman was because she was in the duty free store since there is no other reason she would have Japan Duty Free except that she just bought it. If she had been delayed "connecting" she might have been dragging Hong Kong Duty Free or something. Net net, the airline allowed this one passenger to delay over 200 people for a full hour. As if, everyone else's time is worth absolutely nothing.

This is why JAL sucks. They do not understand the value of their best customers and they lavish attention where it is not due, or grant extraordinary consideration where it is not due, at great inconvenience to the majority of their passengers.

Dont get me wrong. I dont need to be pampered or treated like a king. I would just like to be treated equitably, even though I have not spawned, and even though I managed to drag my butt onto the plane on-time.

One more complaint about JAL. On a 120 minute flight from Tokyo to Seoul, announcements consumed a full 20 minutes. Now some of that was important, like the safety briefing because we all know many people really dont know how to fasten a seat belt. But do they really need to announce in 4 languages that we have "landed in Seoul"? I mean, duh. I swear this makes as much sense as announcing in flight that we have not yet landed, or that we have now taken off, or when we land in Seoul, to announce we have not landed in Beijing. As a result, and we have not met, if you are on a plane and during an announcement some frustrated fellow is sitting near you repeating "shut up shut up shut up shut up". That's me. Come introduce yourself.