JAL A350-1000 First Class Review: Tokyo to Los Angeles

When I flew Japan Airlines first class on the 777-300ER, my two biggest complaints were the dated seat and the old entertainment system. The A350-1000 fixes both of them completely. JAL kept everything that made the old product special, the incredible service and the phenomenal food, and put it inside a suite that is genuinely one of the most modern I've ever sat in. This is easily one of the best flights I've ever taken. Let's get into the review!

JAL A350-1000 First Class Pros

Gorgeous, huge suite
Enormous 4K screen
Phenomenal service
Outstanding food
Free pajamas and amenity kit
Free Wi-Fi
Closet with hanger
Only 6 suites in the cabin

JAL A350-1000 First Class Cons

Too many seat controls
Tech and seat controls aren't very intuitive
Wi-Fi not easy to connect to

Flight details


Airline	Japan Airlines (JL)
Aircraft	Airbus A350-1000
Route	Tokyo Haneda (HND) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Flight number	JL16
Duration	10h 20m
Seat	2K
Cabin	First Class (6 suites)
Date flown	June 2026
Paid	103,000 miles + $274.61 in taxes, via British Airways Executive Club

How I Booked My JAL A350-1000 First Class Ticket

I booked my Japan Airlines First Class ticket 1 year before departure for 103,000 British Airways Avios (before devaluation) plus $274.61 in taxes and fees. This specific flight was

JL16 Departing Tokyo Haneda HND 17:00 arriving at Los Angeles LAX 10:55

I went with British Airways Avios because I booked a year out, back when BA was the cheapest reliable way into JAL first class and Amex happened to be running a 30% transfer bonus. They've devalued since then, so it's no longer the route I'd take.

If I were booking it today, I'd go through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. It isn't the absolute cheapest way into JAL first class, but it's the cheapest of the options that actually work. A lower price doesn't do you much good if the program never shows you any space to begin with. You can feed your Privilege Club account with Citi ThankYou Points, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Bilt, and Marriott, so pulling the Avios together isn't hard.

Avios also picks up transfer bonuses far more often than most other currencies, which is worth planning around. If you aren't in a rush, check the Qatar transfer bonus history before you move anything. Timing your transfer to land during a promotion can knock a real chunk off what this ends up costing you.

JAL Mileage Bank, Cathay Asia Miles, and Qantas Frequent Flyer are all easier to search and book, but you'll pay noticeably more miles for the exact same seat. If you'd rather not fight with award space, that premium might be worth it to you.

I'd skip American AAdvantage entirely. Their calendar doesn't open early enough to catch JAL first class when the space is released, so by the time you're able to search for it, it's already gone.

You can see current pricing across every program on the Tokyo to Los Angeles route page.

A quick reality check on availability: this is a genuinely hard flight to get. JAL typically releases just one first class seat per flight to JAL Mileage Bank and its partner programs, so whichever program you book through, you're competing with everyone else for the exact same seat. That's why I booked mine a year out, and it's why the American calendar problem matters as much as it does. Miss the moment space opens and someone else will have taken it.

JAL A350-1000 First Class Seats

There are 6 first class suites onboard the aircraft in a 1-1-1 configuration. I was in seat 2K and absolutely loved it.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class suite interior with window seat, bedding and personal tablet. Tons of space, and the bedding is already waiting for you.

Japan Airlines Airbus A350-1000 First Class cabin with modern private suites. The cabin only holds six suites.

The first thing that struck me was how gorgeous and modern the cabin looks. Where the 777 first class felt like it was stuck a decade in the past, this one feels brand new. The finishes, the mood lighting, and the deep burgundy leather are genuinely beautiful.

Every suite has a full height sliding door that closes completely, which is a huge upgrade over the 777.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class suite sliding privacy door viewed from the aisle. The door closes all the way for total privacy.

The suite is enormous. The seat is so wide that it honestly feels like it could seat two people side by side, and that isn't just my impression. There's a placard inside the suite saying JAL allows up to three people in it during flight.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class suite with safety video playing on the large screen. Straight-on view of the suite.

There's a ton of storage, including a proper closet inside the suite.

The tech is where this seat really separates itself. The screen is enormous and the picture quality is stunning. It's a night and day difference from the glossy, non-HD screen on the 777.

There are also speakers built into the headrest, hidden behind the perforated leather panels on either side, so you can watch a movie without putting headphones on. I wasn't expecting much from them, but they actually sounded clear and surprisingly good.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class built-in headrest speakers behind perforated leather side panels. The perforated panels on each side of the headrest are speakers.

Everything runs off a removable tablet that sits in a cradle next to the seat, and there's a second bank of physical buttons underneath it.

The tablet handles entertainment, lighting, the window shades and the seat.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class seat controls on the armrest with quilted leather upholstery. There is a second set of seat controls on the armrest.

This is my one real gripe with the suite. There are simply too many controls, spread across too many places, and none of it is especially intuitive. Between the tablet, the panel underneath it and the buttons on the armrest, it took me a while to work out what did what.

The seat converts into a lie flat bed with a mattress pad, and it was excellent. It's comfy and spacious, and I slept pretty well. That's a big improvement on the 777, where the cabin ran so warm that I found it really hard to sleep.

Which Seat Should You Pick?

1A is the best seat in the cabin because it has three windows instead of two. If you're picking purely on the seat itself, take that one.

I went with 2K for a different reason. I was gambling that nobody would be assigned to the suite next to me, and it paid off. Because 2D stayed empty, the crew made up that suite as my bed and left 2K upright as my seat, so I had a dedicated seat and a dedicated bed for the entire flight. The exact same thing happened on my 777-300ER flight, and it is far and away the best way to fly this cabin.

Since JAL only releases one first class award seat to partners, the cabin is very rarely full, so this is a gamble worth taking.

JAL A350-1000 First Class Service

The service was every bit as good as I remembered from the 777. The crew were attentive and genuinely friendly the entire way across, and before landing all three flight attendants came by individually to thank me for flying with them. It's a small thing, but it's exactly the sort of small thing the Japanese carriers do better than anyone else.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class hot towel and Japanese snack served with whisky after dinner. A hot towel and a snack brought out with my whisky after dinner.

This is the part no amount of new hardware can buy, and it's still the single best reason to fly JAL.

JAL A350-1000 First Class Food

The food was outstanding and honestly might have been the highlight of the entire flight. JAL gives you a choice between a Japanese washoku menu and an international one, and both are built by seriously well known Tokyo chefs.

The washoku menu.

The international menu, if Japanese isn't your thing.

Before the meal proper, they brought out a small salmon appetizer with a glass of white wine.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class western appetizer plate with smoked salmon and white wine. Salmon appetizer.

It opens with seasonal five colourful delicacies, a set of five small plates: cutlass fish with truffle sauce, steamed sea urchin and sweet shrimp in a sudachi citrus gelee, simmered conger eel with pickled plum paste, grilled blackthroat seaperch, and steamed scallop with green chili and shiso miso.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class washoku appetizer course of five seasonal delicacies. Five small plates to open the meal.

Then a clear soup with crab dumpling and mozuku seaweed, followed by the steamed course: lotus root tofu and string beans in a dashi sauce, served alongside Osetra caviar.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class lotus root tofu with dashi sauce and Osetra caviar. Lotus root tofu with a jar of Osetra caviar on the side.

The main event is the simmered course of abalone, wax gourd, kamo eggplant and snap peas, with Koshihikari rice, a clear soup and pickles.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class washoku rice course with abalone, miso soup and pickles. The rice course with simmered abalone.

Dessert was coconut gelato and water shield in an azuki bean coulis, with green tea.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class dessert of coconut gelato in azuki bean coulis with green tea. Coconut gelato in azuki bean coulis.

Drinks

JAL pours Salon Blanc de Blancs in first class, which is about as serious as inflight champagne gets. A bottle retails for over $1,000, and drinking it on a ticket you paid for with points makes it taste even better. This alone justifies a good chunk of the fare.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class Salon Blanc de Blancs 2015 champagne. Salon Blanc de Blancs 2015. Not many airlines pour this.

The whisky list is just as strong. They were serving Hibiki Suntory Whisky Anniversary Blend, a 100th anniversary bottling.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class Hibiki Suntory Anniversary Blend Japanese whisky. Hibiki Anniversary Blend.

And the Royal Blue Tea is still on board, now as the Queen of Blue deluxe bottling. I raved about this on my 777 flight and it is still a must order.

Japan Airlines First Class Queen of Blue deluxe Royal Blue Tea bottle and glass. Queen of Blue. Order this.

The A La Carte Menu

There's also a full a la carte menu you can order from at any point in the flight, and it's extensive.

The a la carte menu.

A la carte continued.

I ordered the washoku plate, which came with grilled Japanese eel with sansho pepper, a Japanese omelette, rice and miso soup.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class a la carte plate with grilled eel and Japanese omelette. Grilled eel and tamagoyaki.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class a la carte washoku set with rice and miso soup. The full a la carte washoku set.

I finished with a peach dessert off the a la carte menu, which arrived shaped like an actual peach.

Japan Airlines A350-1000 First Class peach dessert. Peach dessert.

JAL A350-1000 First Class Amenities

The amenity kit is by HERALBONY, the Japanese brand that turns artwork by artists with disabilities into products. It's a big departure from the plain Zero Halliburton kits JAL handed out on the 777, and it's easily the best looking amenity kit I've been given.

Inside is all the usual stuff, a toothbrush, an eye mask and the rest, but it also comes with a charging cable, which is a genuinely useful thing to find in an amenity kit and something most airlines don't bother with.

You still get pajamas and slippers, and they're exactly the same ones as on the 777. That means comfy but bland and generic looking, with the pockets sewn onto the outside of the pants. It's a bit of a letdown next to the kit, which JAL clearly put real thought into.

JAL A350-1000 First Class Wifi

Wi-Fi is free in first class, which is great. Actually getting connected was the most frustrating part of the flight.

The sign-up website was slow and clunky, and I never managed to get through it on my own. In the end a flight attendant had to come over and walk me through it. She was lovely about it, and it says something about the service that she stuck with me until I was online.

How JAL A350-1000 First Class Compares

vs JAL's own 777-300ER first class - The food and the service are the same on both, so it comes down entirely to the hard prodcut, and there the A350 is in a different league. Worth going out of your way to book.
vs Cathay Pacific first class - JAL wins on both the hard and the soft product. The one thing Cathay still has is the seat itself, which is one of the widest I've ever sat in.
vs Singapore Airlines Suites - Singapore soft product still edges it out. The service feels more personable and there's no language barrier, which makes a real difference over a flight this long.

Is JAL A350-1000 First Class Worth the Miles?

Yes, and it isn't particularly close. Out of every premium cabin I've flown, this one lands behind only Emirates A380 first class and Singapore Airlines Suites. Those two are the products people usually name as the best in the world, so that is the company JAL is keeping now.

The service and the food were always the reason to fly Japan Airlines first class. What changed is that the seat and the tech finally live up to them. You get a gorgeous modern suite with a door that actually closes, an enormous screen, Salon in your glass, and a kaiseki menu built by some of Tokyo's best known restaurants. My only real complaints are the fiddly seat controls and a Wi-Fi portal that took a flight attendant to beat, and neither one comes close to a dealbreaker.

The hard part isn't deciding whether to fly it. It's getting the seat. JAL only releases one first class award seat to its partners, so you need to be searching the moment space opens, and Qatar Airways Privilege Club is how I'd book it once you find it.

If you want to see what it costs today, take a look at the Tokyo to Los Angeles route page.