ANA The Room business class review: Worth the hype?

ANA’s The Room business class was first introduced on the airline’s 777-300ER aircraft in August 2019. But, with Japan shuttering to international tourists for much of 2020, 2021 and 2022, I didn’t have a chance to try it until this year.

TPG’s Eric Rosen wrote a detailed review of his 2022 flight in ANA’s The Room business class from Los Angeles to Tokyo, and I tried out ANA’s The Suite first class from Tokyo to New York around the same time. But when two The Room award seats became available for the Tokyo-to-London route about nine days before departure this February, my husband and I had to give it a try. After all, we were already in Japan for a Niseko ski trip and needed to get to Europe.

I had high expectations for both the hard and soft product before our flight. Here’s my take on what impressed me and what I thought fell short on this flight.

Booking ANA The Room business class

ANA The Room business-class availability is rare. But, if you happen to see it (or have an award alert ping), you’ll usually want to transfer points and book through ANA’s own Mileage Club, Air Canada Aeroplan or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

For the Tokyo to London route one way, here are the costs through each program:

• Air Canada Aeroplan: 80,000 points plus around $54 of taxes and fees
• ANA Mileage Club: 55,000 miles plus around $237 of taxes and fees
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 60,000 points, usually with hundreds of dollars in taxes and fees

In our case, we decided to buy Aeroplan points during a 100% bonus sale. This sale allowed us to buy 80,000 points for $1,107. Even with the $54 in taxes and fees per person, we paid just $1,161 each for our long-haul ANA The Room flight from Tokyo to London, versus paid fares that tend to range from $4,900-$6,700.

Related: When does it make sense to buy points and miles?

Underwhelming ground experience

Especially compared to my previous experiences with ANA’s primary competitor, Japan Airlines, I found the ANA business-class ground experience at Tokyo Haneda underwhelming.

The experience started on a strange note: An ANA agent in the check-in area insisted we couldn’t use the staffed business-class queue. Instead, she said we must use a self-service kiosk to scan our passports, print boarding passes and collect luggage tags.

Then, she directed us to use a different self-service machine to drop off our bags. This machine didn’t work on the first try for two of our three checked bags.

One of the perks of an ANA business-class ticket departing Tokyo Haneda is a special security line for business and first-class passengers. However, this line took 14 minutes to clear security because only a single baggage scanner was available.

Star Alliance Gold status doesn’t give first-class lounge access, but it, along with our business-class tickets, did get us into the massive ANA Lounge, which has around 900 seats for business-class and premium economy passengers, and select Star Alliance elite members (here’s the full access list). Due to its sheer size and the number of passengers using it, it felt mass-market rather than premium.

The ANA Lounge offers a buffet with hot food, as well as a window where you can order select noodle dishes. It took about five minutes for my noodle order to be ready, and it was relatively bland compared to what I’d find at most noodle shops in Tokyo.

We didn’t spend much time in the lounge, though, as we got an email saying boarding had started ahead of schedule. Given that I wanted to get some photos of my seat for this story, we hurried to the gate only to find that boarding hadn’t yet begun (boarding would actually start about 10 minutes late).

Spacious suites with closing doors

Even more than six years after its debut, ANA’s The Room business-class seats still look sharp. The business-class cabin spans rows 5-20 across three distinct cabins on the 777-300ER aircraft, as shown in this Aerolopa diagram.

The 35-inch-wide seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, with each row facing in an alternating direction (even rows face forward). Rear-facing seats A and K offer the most privacy, as the seats are closer to the side of the plane.

Meanwhile, rear-facing seats E and F are ideal for couples, as they’re the middle-section seats closest to each other and furthest from the aisle. If you don’t know the person in the middle section seat adjacent to you, you can keep the center divider raised.

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KATIE GENTER/THE POINTS GUY

You’ll find an amenity kit at your seat when you board from the British luxury leather goods brand Ettinger. The kit includes a toothbrush with toothpaste, an eye mask, Aveda lip gloss and body lotion, earplugs and a reusable shopping bag.

The Kengo Kuma and Acumen-designed Safran Fusio seats can fully recline into a 72-inch flat bed. But the recline is on a set track. So while you can stop at any point along the track between dining mode, takeoff mode and bed mode, you can’t otherwise customize the seats’ recline or position.

Passengers get a soft seat liner, blanket, soft pillow and firm pillow.

However, even with the seat liner — which moved quite a bit during the night despite having seat belt holes — the bed felt a bit hard. Nonetheless, I slept well until I woke up to a passenger and a flight attendant having a conversation in the cabin (which lasted about 20 minutes in the middle of the flight) that was loud enough to seep through my earplugs.

The doors in the suites are interesting because they consist of two parts. One part rises from near the armrest, while the other part extends from the wall near your table or television screen.

Speaking of the inflight entertainment screen, it’s a large 24-inch touchscreen loaded with live exterior camera feeds, maps, videos, movies and more. I love it when airlines let passengers watch the live camera feeds.

ANA-branded over-the-head headphones are at each seat when you board. These headphones provided adequate sound, but couldn’t compete with my Bose noise-canceling headphones for comfort or sound quality.

The seat’s tray table is massive and can lock at any point along its track. However, if you want to move the tray table closer to you, you must release the latch.

One major downside of The Room is its relatively limited storage. Sure, you can put your stuff in the overhead locker. But you’ll find relatively few places to put your items at the seat itself, especially during taxi, take off and landing.

There’s a small area for shoes under the footrest and a small compartment next to the table. But otherwise, you’ll have to put items on the seat next to you, on the counter or on the footrest (none of which are technically allowed during taxi, takeoff or landing).

Inflight Panasonic Avionics eXConnect satellite Wi-Fi was free for first- and business-class passengers via a voucher code, which I had to ask a flight attendant for (on the plus side, she scratched off the code for me). And it tested at 38.9 Mbps download and 3.42 Mbps upload. As for power, each The Room business-class seat offers two USB outlets and one universal power outlet.

I found the seat comfortable, but I wish the seat recline and legrest were customizable. I also wish the airline would provide seat cushions with non-slip material, as my seat cushion didn’t stay in place while I was trying to sleep.

Meal service left something to be desired

Overall, the meal service on my flight was disappointing. Passengers were offered a sparkling wine predeparture drink, but it was served in plastic cups and had barely any fizz.

Shortly after takeoff, a flight attendant offered me a printed menu. They quickly returned to get my premeal drink order, which they brought back soon after, along with an amuse of marinated shrimp and a packaged cinnamon stick. At this point, they asked whether I’d like the Japanese or international meal and I selected the former.

The cold Zensai and Kobachi part of my Japanese meal arrived 35 minutes later, featuring a variety of small bites like simmered black soybeans, bamboo shoots with bonito, vinegared sea bream and pickled vegetables. The mix of briny, lightly sweet and umami-rich flavors made it an interesting introduction to the meal.

It was another 33 minutes before the warm main dish arrived, featuring simmered wagyu beef alongside grilled sablefish. The rich, savory beef contrasted nicely with the slightly sweet, delicate fish, while the steamed rice, miso soup and Japanese pickles rounded out the set.

Dessert finally arrived 49 minutes after the main dish. I had a choice of a mandarin orange and black tea cheesecake, a cheese plate or fruit. I went with the cheesecake, which wasn’t a slice as I expected but rather a light, subtly flavored bowl of citrusy mousse with a gentle hint of tea.

Thankfully, my flight departed around 10 a.m. But if this had been a nighttime departure or I’d been hoping to get to sleep quickly, this extremely slow meal service would have been problematic.

About two and a half hours before landing, flight attendants came through the cabin to take final food orders. I once again opted for the Japanese meal, which came on a single tray about 10 minutes later. I was surprised the foil top was still on the main dish, as flight attendants usually remove it for business-class passengers before serving. But the grilled halibut was tender and well-seasoned, complemented nicely by deep-fried tofu and steamed rice.

Bottom line

Redeeming 80,000 Aeroplan points plus $54 in taxes and fees for a one-way business-class flight from Tokyo to London in ANA’s The Room was an excellent snag. And I surely got enough value from the flight to justify this cost.

But I was honestly a bit let down by the soft product on this flight. Perhaps I built up my expectations of ANA’s The Room too much. But from an impersonal check-in, to a meal service that took over two hours, to a mattress pad that easily shifted, the soft product didn’t quite meet my expectations on this flight. That said, if I can find another award ticket at this price, I’d be happy to fly ANA The Room again.