ANA First Class The Suite (777-300ER) Review: Japan's Quiet Counter-Punch

The cabin, in geometry#

ANA's The Suite First cabin debuted in 2019 on the retrofitted 777-300ER fleet and sits at the front of the aircraft in a 1-2-1 layout — eight suites total across two rows. Each suite has a sliding door that closes to ceiling height (the door measures 1.95m at the centreline, the tallest in commercial aviation outside the Etihad Residence) and a single-leaf wall on the aisle side that gives complete privacy when seated. The seat itself is 38 inches wide and convertible to a separate-bed configuration: the chair stays upright as a working/dining position, and the ottoman-and-side panel converts into a 78-inch full-flat mattress on a different axis. The combined floor footprint is 41 square feet — meaningfully larger than Emirates First Game Changer (40 sq ft) and Singapore Suites' single configuration (50 sq ft, though SQ's includes the unused chair). It is the most spatially generous First product in commercial service after Singapore.

Route footprint and pricing#

The Suite operates on the retrofitted 777-300ERs out of Tokyo Haneda and Narita to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris CDG, New York JFK and Los Angeles. Paid cash fares run JPY 1.3M–1.6M (USD 8,700–10,700) round-trip on the London sector, with peak Golden Week and New Year pricing past JPY 2M. The award sweet spot is the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club partner award at 110,000 Virgin Points one-way Europe to Tokyo in First — among the strongest premium-cabin redemptions in the points game, with cash co-pays of roughly GBP 450 in fees. ANA Mileage Club itself prices the same flight at 165,000 miles round-trip, which is the right currency if your status sits on Star Alliance.

Ground experience — the ANA Suite Lounge#

The ANA Suite Lounge at Haneda Terminal 3 (and the equivalent in Narita Terminal 1 Satellite 5) is genuinely one of the strongest First lounges in Asia — a sit-down dining room with à la carte service from a kaiseki menu, a private noodle bar serving made-to-order ramen and udon, and a quiet zone with shoji screens and full daybeds. Showers are reservable on arrival; the toiletries are the same Le Labo Another 13 line used onboard. The Haneda Suite Lounge accepts boarding 90 minutes before departure, which is the right window to take a meal, shower and still be the first on board.

Soft product and dining — the headline feature#

The Suite's kaiseki programme is the single best food experience in commercial aviation in 2026. ANA partners with two rotating Tokyo three-Michelin restaurants — currently RyuGin and Kanda — to design and execute a seasonal seven-to-nine course kaiseki menu that runs through the long-haul service in proper temporal order: sakizuke, suimono, mukozuke, takiawase, yakimono, gohan with rice from the on-board pot. The ingredients are sourced through the restaurants' own supply chains (RyuGin's Hokkaido sea urchin, Kanda's Kagoshima beef), and the dishes are plated in proper Japanese ceramics — not airline porcelain pretending to be. Western menus, designed by Brasserie Toyo Tokyo for transatlantic flights, are credible but secondary; book the kaiseki and the day-flight where you can. Champagne is Salon Le Mesnil 1846 — poured only by ANA and Qatar Airways Business aloft, and the most expensive champagne in commercial service.

The Suite vs Singapore Suites#

Both products are routinely ranked among the world's three best First Class cabins. On seat width and dining, The Suite wins decisively — the 38-inch armchair is the widest in the sky, and the kaiseki programme has no equal at Singapore's Book the Cook level. On configurability and the headline double-bed experience, Singapore Suites wins — the row 1/2 paired-suite double bed is unique and ANA has nothing comparable. Service consistency runs at the same elite level on both carriers, though ANA's English-language depth in the front cabin is slightly weaker on the day flights. The pure-points-value question lands clearly in ANA's favour: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club's 110k-Virgin one-way award undercuts KrisFlyer Suites by some margin once you factor cash co-pays.

Honest negatives#

Three real drawbacks. The 1-2-1 centre suites (seats 1D/1G or 2D/2G) share a low retractable divider that closes only on request — the middle pair is the right choice for couples but a poor choice for solo flyers who end up with a stranger in arm's reach. Second, the overnight service compresses the kaiseki into a single 90-minute window to maximise sleep — the dining experience is better on the day flight in both directions. Third, the IFE library skews Japanese; the English-language film selection is much narrower than Emirates first-class review' or Singapore's, and the touchscreen response on the 2019 Panasonic system is noticeably slower than ANA's newer 787-9 retrofit.