I've been deep in the points and miles game for about 2 years now – and when I say deep, I mean close to 2 million points a year between all programs.  One of my bucket list flights to take was first class on ANA's "Flying Honu" A380.  If you're unfamiliar with this plane, ANA owns three of the world's largest commercial airplane, only flying them bewteen Tokyo and Honlulu, each painted with a unique livery sporting different color sea turtles as an homage to Hawaii's famous fauna.

I had the opportunity to take this flight in September of last year (and turned it into a mini Asia trip, more here!) and it was spectacular.

I won't be doing a full flight review here, as I think those are pedantic and quite honestly, stupid (after all it's a means of transit, I'd teleport places if I could), but I thought I'd share some pictures and thoughts on my best flight yet.

Looking out the window of the Flying Honu to a Hawaiin Airlines A330

I had to position to Honlulu the night before as no flights from the Bay Area would have confidently gotten me to Honolulu in time to catch the 11AM flight to Tokyo.  Risky business positioning day-of anyway, plus I got to check out the ANA first class lounge at HNL before the flight.

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Really wanted to fly on the orange one – saw it passing by preparing for takeoff.
My seat, 1K

The seat is obviously spacious, as most serious first class seats are (later on this trip I did Cathay Pacific's first class on the 777), and the entertainment screen is essentially tv-sized.  All the bells and whistles you could imagine with the adjustment of the seat, which was very, very comfortable.

The first class cabin, 8 seats total on the massive A380.
Looking down the stairs on the A380 into economy class.
The first class specific amenity kit by Ettinger. I admittedly love collecting amenity kits.

I've flown on the A380 a few times now (ANA, Etihad, Lufthansa), but this is the only time in first class, so I could easily see the stairs down (they're roped off and there for safety), but really made the A380 feel massive when you got a chance to look down them on the way to the lavatory – which was huge by the way.  About 6 times the size of a normal lavatory.  You could actually come in here and change clothes comfortably.

The first appetizer.

I opted for the Japanese meal, which while was expertly prepared, wasn't hugely my cup of tea.  It was fine, just wasn't a huge fan of the fish on a plane.  It was my first time trying sablefish though, which is apparently pretty expensive.  I think I'd have liked it more in a restaurant setting.  I still just wish I could inhale sushi on a flight.

The second course.
This ahi sashimi was in fact, very good.
The main course and sablefish in question. It was good, just not my cup of tea as a whole.

I did get to try some expensive whisky, Hibiki 17.  Don't think I'll ever be someone who's into liquor like that, though.  Even after trying that, having some of the best mezcal in Oaxaca, etc, at the end of the day it's distilled alcohol and just does not taste good by itself in my opinion.  But I did kill a couple mini bottles and then switched to cans of Sapporo for the rest of the flight, which in first class, the flight attendents are more than happy to keep them coming for you.  I was fairly turnt by the time we landed in Tokyo.  The 2+ hour train rides to Yokohama killed me.

Pre-landing matcha.

The first class experience on ANA's A380 was incredible.  The service was top notch, the seat and plane itself were fantastic, and even though I didn't love the meal, I still appreciated the craft and quality.  Really hoping to be able to do this one again.

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