Rollingthunder and muppet:
both wrong, I'm afraid....that's a flight I've operated many times, and as stated elsewhere at this time of the year the belly holds will have been chockers - probably 30-40,000 lbs of cargo. The route has never been great since last spring, so 165 is not at all bad.
The 777 IGW will fly that route non-stop surprisingly easily even against winter winds; we would easily arrive with fuel for KIX as an alternate, for example. The aircraft nearly always beats the plan on burn, which for me is a first in ULH flying. The -400 was always a battle by comparison - if you couldn't make your planned climbs, you were in probs. Not so the 777. We have 207 min ETOPS, btw, on that route only.
I'm not trying to blow an AA trumpet, just Boeing's and Roll's. Great jet. So a donk blew at max grunt - so what? The crew did their job, so did the jet's designers.
