Flying Japan Airlines Economy Class | 24-Hour Journey from Japan to USA

Flying Japan Airlines Economy Class | 24-Hour Journey from Japan to USA

[Music] Hello travel friends. After an unforgettable trip through Japan, it’s finally time to head home. In this video, we check out of the W Osaka and make our way to Kzai International Airport where we stop by the Kongu Lounge before boarding our Japan Airlines flight in regular economy. With a long layover at LAX, including a recharge in the Centurion Lounge, we finally make it back home to Arizona. It was a full 24 hours of travel, and we’re bringing you along for every step of the journey. I think this is going to do it from Osaka. Now begins the taunting daunting task of putting everything back together so that we can catch the train to the airport. It’s a sad day. This is what we’re dealing with. I don’t have your bottles. So, we got to take all that, pack it into our carryons, suitcases, and uh yeah, make the journey back home. We have a 10-hour flight, and it’s an overnight flight. By the time we land, it leaves at 6:00 p.m. And when we get to the US, it’ll be 10:00 a.m., which means we would have gained a lot of time back. So, it’s going to be a really long day. So, I think we’re ready to go. Now we got our bags in place. This just This was a mess a few minutes ago. We’re ready. Are you ready to fly back? Are you ready to go back? No. No. I think everybody’s a little sad to leave Japan, but you know, it’s always nice to get back home. We have our dogs and family we’re looking forward to seeing, but I definitely think uh this won’t be our last trip to Japan. Yes. Especially not this hotel. This was This was I would love to stay multiple nights here. I think I want to come back to the Wii Osaka. probably one of the nicest hotels that we’ve stayed. So, it’s a it’s a good way to finish off the trip. But yeah, just making me want to do more. So, all right, let’s do this. [Music] We made it through security. We made it through immigration. We’re finding our gate, gate 29. But first, there’s supposed to be a priority pass lounge. So, let’s get there. So, you’re looking for the congo lounge. It is right next to the access point for gate 38 or right next to the actual gate 29. You can see a lot of clubs or carts are accepted, including priority pass. [Music] Now, for this next section of the journey, we’re flying regular economy. So, we’re going to contrast the difference. This time, we’re flying out of Kansai airport, KIX airport code. And one of the key differences when you’re flying when you’re flying just regular economy versus premium is sadly no lounge access. But we do have priority pass. So it get gets us access to this lounge behind us. The I think the Pongu lounge which uh you know just has snacks and drinks but not a bad place to relax. Otherwise, uh now we’re going to head to the gate and then see we’ll start spotting differences and you know see if uh how much we’re missing out by not flying bringing a kind of seen that at an airport, but here in Japan they give you boiling water. I would assume that’s for if you’re bringing noodles, you can make your own noodles. That’s kind of cool. I think that’s a good sign. We were delayed 20 minutes and it looks like it’s closing. So hopefully the inspectors are good and we have a good rest of the flight. That’s one key difference when flying premium economy. You get priority boarding. So you get group three regular economy just four five. So for this plane is a 787-9 booing and it looks like on the premium economy side it’s a slightly different configuration. This one’s a 232. On the way to Japan it was actually a 242. So this is even roomier than others. So, if you can get even the first row in economy, as you can see, it’s quite spacious. Can almost stretch my legs. I’m about 5’7. So, it’s really good. Even on uh regular economy, the pitch is pretty good. Uh not as good as premium, but it’s still like relatively comfortable. So far, no show on my teammate, so I hope it keeps up cuz then I get the whole road to myself. So far, one difference scene that I’ve noticed is that there’s no amenity kits. On the way to Tokyo, we got like slippers and like a little kit with like some dental stuff, um, an eye mask. So far, nothing. I was under the impression that on regular economy, everybody got a kit. So, maybe it’s coming later. So far, one difference compared to premium economy is that on regular there’s no um there’s no feet recliner. So if you wanted to stretch your legs, you could do that. Here it’s blocked out by this box. Appears to be the emergency box. So yeah, you can’t really uh you know stretch your feet like this. So it’s one thing to note if that’s how you like to nap. This is the uh amenity kit for the fly back home regular economy for kids. A little A350 Airbox Airbus toy. Though we’re not flying an A350, but that’s cool. So far, the entertainment interface appears to be different. This one’s called Magic 6. I believe the other one was like Sky 8, something like that. And the biggest the movie selection appears the same, but like the maps are different. I remember in the the flight uh to Japan on the other airline, it was a different uh there was more map options. So, I don’t know if that’s all across the the entire aircraft or just the uh economy entertainment. There is a significant quality in the headphones. So, in premium economy, you get these nice thick more padded noise cancelling headphones. Here you just get the simple cheap ones. [Music] So the drink selection is similar to what we were offered in premium economy. The only difference I’m seeing is there’s no sushu and there’s no um like champagne or sparkling wine, but otherwise uh the selection is identical. I remember the on the premium economy flight there was also like um a special mocktail and I didn’t see that one available in this menu and you also get some rice crackers to get started similar to premium economy. Meanwhile, Jan got some uh white wine double O. So, same wine available in Premium Economy. So, while the food served in uh Premium Economy and Economy is the same, it does appear that on this route they’re serving different food. Like, I’m seeing a different salad here with broccoli, some more veggies here. I see some shrimp in there. Not sure what this is. This is like another salad. Got some water. And then for the entre entree, looks like we got some rice, some more veggies, and this appears to be a fish. So, basically, your options were a Japanese course or a western course. Looks like the western corn was just pasta. All right, so Killian and I got the pasta and chicken dish. So, it looks really good. It looks like a almost like a pesto cream with some spinach, some carrots, some noodles, and then it comes with a side salad. I’m not sure what that is. Uh, some pasta salad and some shrimp and vegetables. And then they also offered some miso soup and another drink. So, looks delicious. The cuddler is similar as premium economy. You get uh brio knife, fork, and a spoon. And then, of course, you also get chopsticks. And of course, no Japanese meal is complete without some proper Japanese beer and some sake. So, yes, that’s right. We’re making a sake bomb 10,000 ft in the air. And of course, we’re finishing off with some dessert from Hagen days. This is a caramel flavor. I believe on the way to Japan, it was a different flavor, a little bit bigger, but this is still very tasty. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So happy to be back in the US. Little sad to be done with vacation, but it’s always nice to be back home. I’m also exhausted. Overall thoughts on regular economy versus premium economy. The biggest thing I noticed were the seats themselves. I was much more comfortable in premium economy with the leg support and the foot rest. I just couldn’t get comfortable this time. And Killian was also sleeping uh like sideways across me. So, I really had no wiggle room. There was no like body support other than the back. The food and everything else was the same. And we also didn’t get slippers and didn’t get an amenity kit. So, in my opinion, if you can, I would splurge for the premium economy. But how much more is is it worth it? I think for especially like an overnight flight where you want to sleep, I think it’s worth it. Would you pay double the price? Maybe not d maybe 50% more. Okay. I think that’s about the going rate. So, all right. Our bags didn’t get lost. All right. So, here’s the scenario. Anelie Hardwell, please return to the TSA check. All right. So, here’s the situation. So, I booked a our Japan flight arrived at about noon local time. I booked a connecting flight at 7:00 p.m. because the next option was 3:00 p.m. and I thought 3 p.m. was too tight in case there were issues connecting, maybe flight delays. I didn’t want to risk missing them. Should have done 3 p.m. So, now we’re stuck in the airport for 7 hours. Brings up two issues. We have a lot of extra bags. We’re way too early. All right. So, at this point in the video, the battery of the GoPro actually died. So, what I really wanted to say is that the last thing that we wanted to do at that point in time, so tire, so jetlagged, is to carry a bunch of suitcases for 7 hours at the airport. And if you’ve tried to check in before, you know that you have to you can only check it in as early as three or four hours, depending on the airline, right? So, what we actually did uh it was a Southwest flight and we just went to the curve check-in and we actually we just tipped a few bucks per us a piece of luggage and they actually took it. So, basically they just hold on to it and then when it gets to the time where they can turn it in they did. So, they took care of it and then at that point we headed to the lounge which if you’ve been to a lounge before you know that most of the time it’s only 3 hours before the fight but because we’re connecting it technically doesn’t matter, right? So, we were able to get in early. We take a detour. About a 20 minute walk to go from Terminal One to Centurion Lounge. [Music] We’re having a fight about who got the window seat. Gen one five elastada. Well, the shark made it home. 5,000 mile journey. An hour flight across the Pacific and a 1-hour flight across the Southwest. [Music] Well, Japan’s supposed to be all about the future, but we have it here in Phoenix, too. Thanks so much for joining us on our 24-hour journey back home. We had an incredible time exploring Japan and we hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. If you missed any part of our trip, be sure to check out the full Japan playlist here and stay tuned for even more Japan content, including more detailed hotel reviews and a detailed comparison of Japan Airlines premium economy versus regular economy. See you soon. [Music]

After an amazing adventure in Japan, it was finally time to head home! In this video, we take you along on our full 24-hour travel day as we fly Japan Airlines (JAL) economy class from Osaka to Phoenix.

We start our day checking out of the W Osaka hotel and heading to Kansai International Airport (KIX), where we stop by the Kongou Lounge before boarding our JAL flight. After a long flight to Los Angeles, we power through a lengthy layover at LAX, recharge for a bit in the Centurion Lounge, and then catch our final flight home to Phoenix.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like flying regular economy on Japan Airlines—especially after trying premium economy—this video gives you the full experience!

🔥 Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:32 Checking out of the W Osaka
02:05 KIX Airport
02:22 Kongou Lounge
03:44 Boarding Japan Airlines
04:09 Economy seating review
06:53 Economy food & drink selection
10:03 Landing at LAX
10:13 Final thoughts on JAL economy class
11:12 Plan for our 7 hour layover
12:54 Centurion Lounge at LAX
13:08 Flight to Phoenix

✈️ Flight Route: Osaka (KIX) → Los Angeles (LAX) → Phoenix (PHX)
🏨 Hotel: W Osaka
💺 Airline: Japan Airlines (Economy Class)
📍 Lounges: Kongou Lounge (KIX), Centurion Lounge (LAX)

📺 Don’t forget to watch the rest of our Japan series here: https://bit.ly/4k5Nps1
💬 Let us know in the comments—have you flown JAL economy or do you plan to?

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🛒 Check out our Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/livingthevacationlife

#JAL #JapanAirlines #JALeconomy #KansaiAirport #LAXlayover #KonguLounge #CenturionLounge