Continuing the trend of upgraded premium cabins, ANA unveiled their new deigns for their Boeing 777-300 retrofits this week. While upgrading business class into more of a first class design is the latest trend, ANA also pumped some serious upgrades into their first class cabin as well. This is being done while other airlines are starting to strip back on first class, so kudos to ANA for that.
New ANA Cabins on Boeing 777-300ER with Awesome Upgrades
The Numbers and Details
Before we get to the beautiful new cabins, let’s break down some numbers. First of all, ANA is introducing these cabins on 12 redesigned Boeing 777-300ER planes. The first two that roll out will be on the Tokyo/Haneda <-> London route (flight numbers NH211 and NH 212) as early as August 2.
However, they won’t be operating everyday on that route until the end of August or early September. Until then, they will operate it on the even dates in August and odd dates in September.
The redesign will feature 8 first class seats (or, “THE Suite” as ANA is calling it) and 64 business class seats (or, “THE Room”). These cabins have been in design for 5 years and ANA has kept a pretty tight lid on what was rolling out as we are now just 3 weeks away from the first flight.
The New ANA First Class – “THE Suite”
ANA wants to make sure there is no mistaking the fact that they consider their new cabins to be at the front of the industry as they title them with all caps “THE” to make sure the message is clear! 🙂
The New ANA First Class Suite | Courtesy of ANA
But, in fairness, ANA already had a really good product in both first and business and with these upgrades, they are certainly providing what their customers value in these cabins.
The New ANA First Class Suite | Courtesy of ANA
The first class seat is truly a suite with a sliding door and a design that ANA says were inspired from luxury Japanese hotels. Looking at the photos, you definitely can tell that it won’t feel like a sterile aircraft seat when you are sitting in this cabin. The dark tones and thick-looking carpet make for a very relaxed environment for sure.
The lie-flat bed in the new ANA First class Suite | Courtesy of ANA
And, we cannot forget about the incredibly large 43 inch 4K monitor. Yeah, that’s right, you may just be sitting in an airplane seat with a television screen that is larger than one in your living room! This will certainly help to make those long journeys on this aircraft to not seem quite so long.
The massive 43″ 4K Display in the ANA First Class Suite | Courtesy of ANA
The New ANA Business Class – “THE Room”
The New ANA Business Class Room | Courtesy of ANA
Next, we get to the redesigned business class. ANA is including a door on these seats as well to give you that extra bit of privacy. However, they are also making the seats to have access to one another if you are traveling with a friend or family member and you want to feel like you are traveling together.
The New ANA Business Class Room | Courtesy of ANA
Looking at the photos, the seats themselves look like they may just be the most comfortable business class seats ever. Instead of the typical business class seat, it looks like ANA took part of a love seat and put it in a business class cabin. These look like they will be really great to travel in and wonderful for anyone would may normally feel a little crammed in a business class suite.
The New ANA Business Class Room | Courtesy of ANA
How big is this seat? ANA says that it is double the width of their previous seat and, yes, they are calling it a “sofa” which shows even more what they were striving for.
The New ANA Business Class Room | Courtesy of ANA
Also, business class customers will also get a 4K display but in a smaller size (24 inches).
Summary
It is really nice to see all this attention being paid to business class and to even see an airline that is still putting some incredible efforts into first class! It is also nice that these are rolling out before the Olympics. I seriously doubt there will be any first class award availability around the Olympics on these planes but hopefully business class awards will be available!
There might be such a thing as too big of a screen…my eyes might be a bit too close for this.
Great point. My wife and I flew ANA last year in first class, and had a really humdrum experience. One thing I couldn’t articulate until just now was that the IFE screen might have already been too big. It’s like sitting too close to your tv.
@Charlie – any idea what the pitch and width will be for these seats? SeatGuru is stumped and so am I.
Great question, Christian. I haven’t seen anything but will keep checking for it.
Actually, I think you may be right. According to television manufacturers themselves, an ideal viewing experience for a display that large would put you about 7 feet away from the screen. So, yes, I think it could be too big!
One drawback of the BC layout is some face backwards. That is a no go for me. Reason #42 to be in FC, as if I needed any reasons
I understand that it does bother some people. I actually don’t mind the backward facing seats – as long as it is not on a British Airways’ plane where I am looking right at my seat mate. 🙂 I haven’t minded it on like the older United 777 planes and definitely don’t mind it on Qatar (in fact, I prefer it).