Without a doubt, using miles for business class seats from Chiang Mai to Chicago (and then economy to Washington National) was an absolutely fantastic decision.
The best leg was definitely ANA Business Class, from Tokyo Narita to Chicago O’Hare on their 777-300ER. I’ve never been on lay-flat business seats, and they were heavenly. Like seriously. I would have stayed in that seat for another 8 hours without a whole lot of complaining. As DH said…they sort of ruined any sort of future travel across the Pacific. I think we’ll be stockpiling our miles for future flights…
DH Enjoying Our Separation…and ANA Business Class 
The ANA Business Class seats lay completely horizontally with the push of a button. They are incredibly private–DH was sitting right next to me, but it took some serious effort to reach around and get his attention from my lounging position…and there was also a divider, I believe, if you really wanted additional privacy. They are on a 1-2-1 configuration, so all seats of direct aisle access.
ANA offers a pouch of L’Occitane products, of which I am generally a fan–the pouch, a small and useful zippered mesh, definitely came with me off the plane. The throw was warm and soft, the pillow was large and soft, and the mattress pad was a nice touch for added comfort. Additionally, the noise cancelling headphones (that I think were Sony but I could be wrong) were actually pretty good at cancelling the noise.
In terms of service, ANA is a step above both on and off the plane. We did not have boarding passes upon our arrival in Tokyo, as Thai had been unable to print them in either Chiang Mai or Bangkok. We were a bit concerned as there was not a transfer desk prior to security where we deplaned at Narita. Fortunately, I always carry a print out of my itinerary and receipt (NEVER leave home without this!), and were able to use this printed copy to go through security and on to the ANA desk. The ANA desk referred us directly to the ANA lounge, where there is a concierge that can print your tickets. She promptly located our record, and was able to print the tickets from NRT-ORD, as well as our tickets from ORD onto DCA. That was much appreciated.
There were a flurry of flight attendants, helping us all store our bags, figure out our configuration, and coming by to confirm our names and introduce themselves. This was the fifth business class flight we’d been on by this time in our trip, and ANA’s flight attendants were truly more attentive and helpful, without being intrusive, than any of the other services.
ANA seats have a “do not disturb” button you can press so no one bothers you…I fell asleep promptly on take-off, and didn’t push the button, and the flight attendants didn’t disturb me at all even though they served the first meal service while I was napping. But they immediately noticed when I woke up, and started my meal service as soon as I requested. They have one, three course meal service and then you can order small items (plenty of options) the rest of the time.
I had sea bass for dinner, which was quite good. They were all out of the Japanese option when I woke up, which was my own fault. Not that I’m complaining, the sea bass was in a very mild but flavorful tomato-based sauce, with zucchini with melted mozzarella on the side (yummy!). Apparently the tiramisu was quite delicious, but I didn’t have any as I was already too full. Also–I am totally in love with the delicious drink that is served on ANA flights–Kabuso. It is sort of like a lemonade, but it’s not overpoweringly sweet. It’s light and delicious! I’ll also rave about the ramen I had before landing…it was fantastic and hit the spot. ANA collaborated with Hakata IPPUDO on the ramen, and apparently he’s a big deal in the ramen world. I rarely eat ramen ‘out’, but I might start if the plane version was that delicious.
My one complaint about ANA? Their video options are definitely sub-par in comparison to either United or Thai. While there were a few things I watched (and wanted to watch), there were not very many new U.S. releases and I definitely was about one movie short of running out of things that I actually wanted to watch. Honestly this is a minor gripe (and yes, I realize that not everyone needs to have 25 new U.S. movies), and if I was not so lazy about putting things on my ipad, I wouldn’t be griping about it at all.
All in all, after ANA’s service on our economy flight from NRT-BKK as well as their service in business class from NRT-ORD, I would choose ANA again in a second. And I’m going to look for that Kabuso…someone has to sell it around here!
