The Unique Flight Where Everybody Gets Lounge Access

Airport lounge access is normally a benefit reserved for Business Class passengers and frequent flyers with elite status. As an exception, there are a few airlines that also provide complimentary lounge access to Premium Economy passengers. But, aside from Bangkok Airways which has a basic lounge offering for all passengers, this is not usually an inclusion of an Economy Class ticket.

That’s why it’s so unusual that Japan Airlines invites everyone who’s booked on one specific daily flight – even in Economy – into its Sakura Lounge before departure.

This may seem random – and perhaps even overly generous. Yet, in true Japanese style, there’s actually a well-thought-out reason for this…

Which Japan Airlines flight comes with free lounge access in Economy?

The flight in question is JL41, which departs Tokyo Haneda Airport at 1am and arrives in London over 14 hours later at 6.25am.

This is the only flight from Tokyo to London on any airline that operates overnight. All other JAL, ANA and British Airways flights on this route are daytime flights.

As Japan Airlines is a Oneworld alliance member and a partner of Qantas, you could even book a seat on JL41 using Qantas points.

Japan Airlines invites Economy Class passengers on JL41 to its Sakura Lounge Skyview from 10.30pm on the previous day. This is the upper level of the international JAL Sakura Lounge at Haneda Airport.

While in the lounge, Economy passengers can take full advantage of the meals and drinks on offer in the lounge. However, the showers are reserved for customers who are normally entitled to lounge access.

Why does Japan Airlines do this?

Japan Airlines markets JL41 as a “Premium Night Flight” which comes with “special services to help passengers get a good night’s rest”.

Given the late night departure and early morning arrival, this flight is designed for passengers who want to maximise their sleep on board. With this in mind, Japan Airlines has put some thought into the service flow and realised that many of its passengers don’t want a full meal right after a 1am departure.

This is how Japan Airlines describes the meal service on this flight:

To ensure you to take a good rest immediately following departure, the inflight meal will be served around 8 hours after take-off for all classes. Before the inflight meal is served, the a la carte menu “ANYTIME YOU WISH” is available for Business Class. For Premium Economy and Economy Class, snacks are available.

In other words, the airline does not serve a meal in the first half of the flight. Instead, to ensure nobody goes hungry, the airline invites all passengers to eat in the lounge before departure.

There aren’t many other Japan Airlines flights leaving Haneda around the same time as JL41, so the lounge would otherwise be very quiet at that time. It makes sense to make the space available to Economy passengers – in lieu of serving them a meal after takeoff – because that near-empty lounge would need to stay open anyway for the premium passengers.

Frankly, most of the food you’d be served in an airport lounge is also going to be fresher, better quality, and cheaper for the airline to provide, than food on board the flight.

I recently took a long-haul Turkish Airlines flight that departed around 1am. Although the food served after take-off was excellent, I really just wanted to sleep by the time the meal service finished almost three hours after departure. So, I can certainly appreciate the logic behind this and wouldn’t mind if more airlines followed suit!

I love Japanese airport lounges

Not only do Economy Class passengers on JL41 get to use a lounge for free, but they’re in for a treat with the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge! It’s a lovely airport lounge at Haneda Airport.

I’m a big fan of Japanese airport lounges in general as they tend to offer some nice yet quirky features. For example, some Japanese airline lounges offer self-pouring draught beer machines that perfectly pour your beer.

Many airline lounges in Japan also offer soundproof phone call booths, so you don’t have to listen to annoying people making loud phone calls while you wait for your flight.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.