Japan Airlines Will Fly To Melbourne From September 1st

This post was supposed to be released yesterday but due to a scheduling error, it’s being posted today. The flag carrier of Japan, Japan Airlines will be increasing their presence in the Australian market at the end of this year. The carrier will be flying to Melbourne and will be using their 787-8 as the equipment.

Japan Airlines is the second largest carrier in Japan after All Nippon Airways. Both airlines have services to Sydney already and ironically both are 787’s. Japan Airlines have been planning to expand in Australia for a number of years and had destinations like Perth and Brisbane on the radar but this time they’ve gone with Melbourne. Thier Oneworld partner, Qantas also have multiple services to Tokyo from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Japan Airlines 787 Business Class

Here is the schedule for the new Tokyo Narita – Melbourne service from September 1st 2017.

JL773 will depart from Tokyo’s Narita airport at 10:30 am and arrive into Melbourne at 8:30 pm

JL774 will depart from Melbourne at 12:05 am and arrive into Tokyo’s Narita airport at 9:05 am.

As I mentioned earlier, the airline will be using their 787-8 on the new route, as a comparison, Sydney receives a larger -9 aircraft. The 787-8 aircraft is in a 3 class configuration and is fitted with 38 Business Class seats (Sky Suites) in a 2-2-2 configuration. Each seat has a pitch of 74” and a width of 25.5”. The aircraft also has 35 Premium Economy seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. Each seat has a pitch of 42” and a width of 19.2”. And lastly, there are 88 Economy seats, yes that’s right – 88 seats. They’re in a 2-4-2 configuration with a pitch of 33” and a width of 18.9.”

Passengers in Business Class and Oneworld Sapphire members will be able to use the Qantas Business Class lounge in Melbourne and in Tokyo, you can use the Japan Airlines Sakura lounges. Oneworld Emerald members will be able to enjoy the Qantas First Class lounge in Melbourne and in Tokyo, you can use the Japan Airlines First Class lounges. Here’s a review of the newer JAL First Class lounge in Narita.

If you’re interested to see what the Business Class product is like on Japan Airlines’ 787 click here.

6 comments on “Japan Airlines Will Fly To Melbourne From September 1st”

Jim May 30, 2017

MMmmm very unique. Nice.
Hopefully I can go to Japan just economy . That would be nice.
Jim
zo May 31, 2017

“ironically both are 787’ = it’s not ironic. it’s coincidental. #TMYK
Dan May 31, 2017

Try booking a JAL flight from JFK or BOS to anywhere in Australia, one way, return, or multi-city. It doesn’t matter what you choose, you are not able to select any Australian destination. When I called JAL reservations to ask what is going on they confirmed that you could not select an Australian destination from BOS or JFK. The JAL reservation folks just shrugged and basically told me to get lost. I guess that Cathay Pacific will keep getting my business.

As an aside, the flights to/from HKG to HND/NRT are very expensive for the 4 hours of flying time.

Ciao
- Zac George May 31, 2017
  
  Dan – That’s really odd, JAL has been flying to SYD for years now so I’m not sure why they can’t book it.
Doc May 31, 2017

That is because JAL’s different geographical entities do not “talk” to each other and they cannot sell tickets that span multiple regions. They did acknowledge as such when I spome to them. But, a travel agent such as expedia can. Search using google flights and book using expedia, not JAL.com. I booked BOS-NRT-SYD direct one way last year, return on AA via LAX and BOS-NRT-SYD return with stopover this year.
Rock July 18, 2018

Zac, do you know if one earns Qantas status credits/points on this Japan airlines flight