JAL SKY SUITE won SKYTRAX's Best Business Class Airline Seat award. Image by Japan Airlines.

SKYTRAX announced the list of 2013 World Airline Awards winners at the Paris Air Show 2013 today. And unsurprisingly Japan Airlines' (JAL) new Business Class seat dubbed JAL SKY SUITE was named the "Best Business Class Airline Seat". This is the first time a Japanese carrier has won this award.

JAL re-opens "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" for the 3rd time. Image by Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) will once again re-open the "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" for a limited time. Just like the previous cafes in Roppongi Hills and Aoyama, you will be able to try out the demo units of JAL's state-of-art long-haul products installed on the SKY SUITE 777 (SS7) and dishes from its enhanced catering service dubbed BEED SKY AUBERGE by JAL. This is a perfect opportunity for those who cannot afford or still don't have a chance to fly on the SS7 to try out the JAL New Sky experience!

JAL SKY SUITE 777 rollout schedule leaked? Image from Japan Airlines website

[Update: The leaked schedule is indeed the correct one. JAL has issued a press release to confirm this schedule]

Couple of days ago, I noticed that Japan Airlines (JAL) has updated its website to include a more specific rollout schedule of the SKY SUITE 777 (SS7), the brand new international long-haul products JAL currently uses on the Tokyo Narita - London Heathrow route. It listed the months which JAL SKY SUITE, the new business class seat, will be rolled out to the New York JFK, Paris CDG, Los Angeles, and Chicago routes on the Japanese version of the JAL SKY SUITE seat details page. But then the info has since then be removed from the page. So is this a leaked schedule or the schedule has changed?

JAL re-opens "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" for a limited time. Image from Japan Airlines

If you want to try out Japan Airlines' (JAL) brand new seats on SKY SUITE 777 which JAL will roll out on the Tokyo Narita - London Heathrow route from January 9 2013 but cannot afford to fly in their premium cabin and has missed the limited demo at JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe at Aoyama, here's your second chance! For a limited time, JAL has cooperated with Hills Cafe/Space and opened the "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" at Roppongi Hills. Just like last time, there are demo units of the new seats. However there's no mention of the sample business class menu this time.

JAL opens "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" for a limited time. Image from Japan Airlines

[Updated with menu info and its pricing]

If you want to try out Japan Airlines' (JAL) brand new seats on SKY SUITE 777 which JAL will roll out on the Tokyo Narita - London Heathrow route from January 9 2013 and cannot afford to fly in their premium cabin, here's your chance! For a limited time, JAL has cooperated with Royal Garden Cafe and opened the "JAL Welcome! New Sky Cafe" at Aoyama. Inside the cafe, there are demo units of the new seats and sample the new Business Class menu.

JAL SS7 W83 configuration with the new long-haul products which has more economy seats than advertised. Image from Japan Airlines

[Update 3: JAL has published an updated version of the seat map which you can find in this post]
[Update2: Added explanation from JAL regarding why there are more seats than advertised on the W83 seat map]
[Update: JAL has removed the W83 configuration from their website but the picture is still available. And the booking engine still shows a seat map that matches the one announced earlier today. Did they take it down because of a mistake in the Economy cabin?]

Finally, Japan Airlines (JAL) has set the launch date for the new long-haul Boeing 777-300ER cabins, SKY SUITE 777 (SS7). JAL will first roll out the new SS7 on Tokyo Narita (NRT) - London Heathrow (LHR) route from January 9 2013. But initially it will only be available on odd numbered days in January and even number days in February as JAL will only have one retrofitted SS7 in January. By late February, JAL will have retrofitted 2 SS7s and it will be available on the LHR route on a daily basis.

Staff from JAL cabin product design department tried out the new SKY WIDER seat. Image from Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) official Facebook page has posted some stories of the design process for the new business class and economy class seats which will first roll out to the Tokyo Narita - London Heathrow route in early January 2013. You can see how much attention to details that the design team paid even when they are designing for the Economy Class seats!

JAL introduces new cabins on SKY SUITE 777 (Source: JAL website)

[Update 3: JAL has announced the launch date and released the official seat map of the SS7. You can refer to this post for more details.]
[Update 2: Japanese version of the official press release is now up on JAL website and the special page on JAL website is now LIVE!]
[Update: JAL has removed the linked press release from their website as the press release is dated Sep 13 2012 (tomorrow). So expect an official reveal and website updates tomorrow]

Finally Japan Airlines (JAL) has released the details, including pictures of the brand new cabins and services to be rolled out in January 2013. The theme of the new cabins and services is "Welcome! New Sky". With this, JAL aims to provide its customers fresh new impressions and therefore started this JAL NEW SKY PROJECT to renew their international services which includes brand new cabins to provide highest quality products in all classes on the entire Boeing 777-300ER. Other than that, JAL will renew its inflight catering services under the concept of "Restaurant in the Sky" and provide new menus on flights to Europe, North America, Australia and South East Asia. They have selected a dream team of 4 chefs to create exclusive menus just for JAL passengers.