Enjoy a blast from the past aboard JAL 787-8 on TSA-HND

There are dozens of flights between Taipei, Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan on any given day, operated by airlines ranging from the most minimal no-frills affairs to top-tier premium international carriers. Only a select few, however, operate between each city’s downtown airports rather than the far flung airports of Taoyuan and Narita. And so, for a recent flight linking Taipei Songshan Airport with Tokyo-Haneda, I selected Japan Airlines (JAL) business class for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the savvy shopper in me liked the miles redemption rate via JAL’s partner Alaska Airlines. Secondly, the airport geek in me wanted to try something brand new and somewhat unique. Lastly, and most importantly, the #AvGeek in me screamed for the chance to fly in one of the original Boeing 787 cabins.

Songshan Airport is about as close to the center of a major city as it gets. Connected to the Brown Line of the city’s fantastic Metro system — ironically, using a type of train car only ever used as an airport people mover elsewhere — it took just minutes to arrive at the sleepy departures hall and just a few minutes more to clear security.

JAL’s business class ticket includes entry to Songshan’s only airside lounge, a well sized space with decent cooked-to-order and buffet-style food options.

Regrettably, though, the lounge is without any windows for natural light.

As the characteristically Japanese last-minute boarding time inched closer, JAL once again repeated a practice that bothered me. That is that it shared a variety of different boarding times for my flight across its digital and printed touchpoints. The boarding pass listed one time, the app’s push notification came in with a different time, and the gate monitor displayed yet another time.

All the posted times would come and go, however, and the flight boarded a few minutes late. Maybe this is a ploy to get passengers to the gate in order to board as quickly as possible, but I do not appreciate the inconsistency and unnecessary time spent standing at the gate.

JAL had assigned the mid-range Boeing 787-8 to this flight, featuring its JAL Shell Flat Neo seat that was first introduced nearly two decades ago in 2008.

Because of delivery delays that plagued early 787s, this particular aircraft wasn’t delivered until August 2013, despite being just the 21st 787 ever produced and currently the 12th oldest 787 in commercial service.

Onboard, aside from the older generation premium product, JAL has done a magnificent job of keeping the interior in tip-top shape. It has preserved the original 2-4-2 seating arrangement in economy, and the seats look positively plush.

Up front, the dated angled lie-flat business class seat is sufficient for the two- to five-hour mission this aircraft typically operates.

While I don’t believe JAL has any current plans to phase out this seat, it was actually nice to experience such a dated product for a few hours. The seat was comfortable for this daytime flight, though I wouldn’t want to try to get a night’s sleep in it.

The equally old “MAGIC-V” inflight entertainment system did its best to fight the daylight streaming through the then-undimmed electrochromic windows (which I later tested side-by-side).

Interestingly, the IFE system was packed with far more content than the system I would experience on a brand new Airbus A350-1000 just days later.

Wi-Fi provided by Panasonic was available but proved problematic. The captive portal refused to load for much of the flight, and only appeared by manually navigating to the onboard router’s IP address (a handy trick for when the portal fails to load). Captive portals not loading is an annoyingly widespread barrier to using Wi-Fi on flights.

Although JAL claims that business and first class passengers receive free connectivity on international flights, I saw no prompt for this in the portal or vouchers at my seat so instead I used the ‘free 1 hour plan’ on offer. Once I finally connected the speed and reliability was fine for browsing and social media posting.

The cabin crew sprang into action to prepare meals for the short flight. Our menu in business class consisted of a western or a Japanese option. I ordered one of each with my travel companion to get a taste of both choices. The Japanese meal was tasty and came with a great presentation.

The western option, a grilled beef tenderloin with veggies, appeared fine on the outside but once I cut into it, I was worried it was a bit too undercooked for my taste.

The crew were more than happy to swap out my main dish for the Japanese dish. The entire service was rushed to suit the needs of the short flight, but the cabin crew members were always welcoming and helpful.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend this product for a longhaul or overnight flight, but as a short daytime flight it was a nice blast from the past — plus a reminder of how far onboard #PaxEx has come in just a few short years.