I’m planning a trip to Japan next Spring (first time, been on my bucket list).
Have any of you flown on Zipair to Japan or know someone who has? An acquaintance goes to Japan fairly frequently. She mentioned this airline in a FB post. It sounds like it’s her go-to airline. Flights are SFO > NRT nonstop. Prices are much cheaper than the usual airlines, like less than 1/2. Lay flat seats are about $3K round trip, same as Premium Economy on the other airlines.
Just flew to Narita from SFO last week on Zipair and it was fine. Only $350 for an economy seat!
In terms of leg space, is the Economy seat like regular or Premium Economy? I’m 6’3" tall so I can’t fit in regular Economy.
the economy is like economy. Imagine a regular plane for all intents and purposes, but just with zero amenities.
The business class is like your standard international lie flat biz class. You just need to find bookings, they sell out really quick.
I’m 5’4" and it felt cramped. You’ll have to spring for the upgrade, most definitely.
ZipAir is JAL’s budget carrier. Great if you have minimal luggage. No inflight entertainment, but inflight WiFi is free. You pay extra for meals, carry ons, and checked luggage. I’m only 5’5’" so leg room is not an issue for me. An alternative is United, ANA is their partner. Go to United’s website and find out which flights are run by ANA and you’ll pay United’s fares. If you have status with United, checked luggage is free. Can get roundtrip on ANA for maybe $1200 for premium economy. Can pay a bit extra for extra leg room.
My family and I have flown Lay Flat from NRT to San Jose
flying East is so much better when you are laying down
awesome
order food and drink on wifi during flight, easy!
Love it
Not in April! It’s more like around $2500. Zipair sells a package which takes into account luggage, meals and other amenties. Comes to around $250-300 for a round trip. I’d end up paying around $500-700 more for Zipair biz class over other airlines’ premium economy. Biz class on other airlines would be $3K+ more.
For me, it’s a no brainer.
Zipair is non-refundable and non-changeable
Outside of the seat (and even there since there’s no seat-back IFE), Zipair is nothing like standard international business. If all you want is a lie-flat seat, it’s a good reasonable-cost alternative to standard J products, but I’d recommend reading one of the points bloggers review of the product.
One Mile at a Time (OMAAT) has a fairly detailed review of his (short-haul) flight in J on Zipair and he’s a consistent and reliable reviewer.
love that
Well, unless the photo isn’t accurate, there definitely is a seat back! Just check their website. I just read the OMAAT review and comments. He and others are pretty favorable on it. A friend has flown it once, another for the 3rd time on lie-flat. They’re quite satisified.
Fortunately, that’s not the case now. They offer something called Flex Biz which addresses that. Of course, there’s a fee to purchase it.
*I wrote seatback IFE, which you can see from the picture below (from their website), it’s just a holder and not a screen, but there’s limited streaming available anyways.
Given how transpacific prices these days, I think it’s still a pretty good deal. The catering in J is rarely to be excited about (exceptions for the Taiwanese airlines and Qatar).
I didn’t know what that acronym stood for, I had to look it up.
Ah, my bad, I should have just said screen. Bottom line from me is that I think it’s a good deal most of the time, but wanted you know what you were signing up for.
