I was embarking on the next leg of my journey to reach Singapore, and I had AN(A) amazing economy flight with ANA! The eight-hour-long route was operated by a 787 Dreamliner, scheduled to depart at 5pm. ANA's quality and service made this a flight which I would gladly take again.

The airport

I was connecting from another flight from Chicago, so I did not have to recheck my bags or go through the security process at Narita, missing out on the self bag drop which ANA has implemented. As I wandered through the sprawling airport, I was able to try quite a few food places, making this a great place to have an extended layover.

The downside of Narita is how long it takes to make it from gate to gate. However, I was able to find many cool sights on my mile-long walk to gate 28D.

After appreciating the diversity of aircraft, I made my way down to gate 28D where I remained until departure.

There was a decent amount of waiting space and nice bathrooms in the boarding lobby, making for a pleasant half-hour until boarding was initiated.

Boarding

After a short while, we were called to board around a half-hour before departure. The boarding process was chaotic. They essentially called up all business class passengers and then economy class passengers, resulting in a mad rush and incredibly long line. Once I finally made it through, I hopped on a bus and was shuttled to the awaiting Dreamliner.

After a brief bus ride, I found myself eye to eye with a beautiful Rolls Royce engine. The 787-9 made for an awesome photo with its sleek wingtips and rounded nose. However, the beauty of the plane was not only on the exterior but inside as well. We made our way on to the plane to find a helpful crew and ample overhead space.

The plane

At seat 28D, I was towards the front of the economy section. My seat was great; there was a great quality pillow and blanket, plenty of legroom, and the perfect amount of padding. Being six feet tall makes airplane legroom a necessity, and ANA did a great job of accommodating this. There was also enough width to the seat to shift around and get comfortable.

The only downside about this lovely plane was the in-flight entertainment system (IFE). It lacked many mainstream western options and, in turn, had a wide variety of Japenese cartoons and movies, without English translations. If you speak Japenese, this is awesome, if English is your primary language, there will be more limited options.

Another feature I love about the 787 is the virtual window shade, allowing for the window to be tinted at different levels with the click of a button.

The only thing that rivals this plane's features is that of the 787-10 aircraft parked next to us on the tarmac!

The flight

After a slightly delayed push back, I loved how the ground crew remained at the side of the aircraft and bowed and waved as we taxied away. This was a nice touch on our departure.

We got underway quickly and were soon cruising over the East China Sea. I decided to play around with the window settings and settled on a nice, dark blue tint.

An hour or so in, the crew came around and served dinner, which was certainly not typical but tasted great. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the snow crab dish, but the full meal appeared very healthy and was filling.

Our flight continued on across Asia, and I dozed off, only to wake up to hundreds of boat lights shining in the darkness. Shortly after, we began our descent into Singapore.

Landing

We caught up some time during the flight and made a smooth landing in Singapore right on schedule. Overall, I was massively impressed with ANA. I think their devotion to detail and customer service is exceptional, and their modern planes support this decision, although there is room for improvement with the IFE. This is surely one airline I will be flying with again.