Flights from Washington to Singapore

After checking in at Dulles Airport, we boarded on time with no problems. The flight began smoothly, but after about three hours, we experienced turbulence. The captain tried to evade the turbulence by changing altitude first, and then air speed. He changed altitude from 39,000 feet down until finally flying at 26,000 feet, and he reduced air speed from about 600 miles per hour to about 400 mph. He never found a way to avoid the turbulence. When we finally arrived at Tokyo, we were unable to land because of high winds. At first, he was going to go to another airport, but then was permitted to land at Tokyo Narita International. The landing was very nerve wracking, but he made it. We all relieved to be safely on the ground.

The time in Tokyo was uneventful, and the flight on to Singapore was also uneventful. Finally, after the 14 hour flight to Tokyo and an additional 7 hour flight, we arrived in Singapore.

ANA is a very good airline. I would make several observations about the flights (both on ANA). First, the airline flight attendants were great. They constantly moved through the aisles looking for ways to be helpful, and about every half hour, they offered orange juice, apple juice, or green tea. They were very friendly, courteous, and helpful. They were also very thin and pretty and smiled constantly. Second, on any airline serving Americans, there is always a long line waiting to use the restrooms, and there is quite a lot of noise and movement by the passengers, particularly on long flights. However, on these flights (both long flights on ANA), almost all of the passengers were Asian, and the flights were extremely quiet. There was very little sound, and almost no movement by the passengers. In addition, almost none of the passengers used the restrooms. There was one restroom serving the economy section on the plane, and it was almost never in use. It seemed very odd. I really liked ANA, and I would fly it again. Oh yes, the food was distinctly Japanese, even for breakfast, with rice, noodles, fish, and soy sauce.