The Japanese (non) LCCs: Japan Air Lines

Japan Air Lines (JAL) is not an LCC, of course, but even I occasionally break the rules I create for my travel adventures. In this case I was in the north and needed to be back in Haneda early afternoon to catch my onward Delta flight back to the United States. Booking an Avios award was a cheap and easy way to make sure I was covered. Also, JAL flies the CTS-HND route hourly on a twin-aisle aircraft, meaning lots of options in case something went awry.

After arriving on my Air Asia Japan flight I was outside security so I wandered through the mall attached to the airport for a bit, grabbing a delicious cheese custard tart. There was a line at the shop; that seemed as good an indicator as any that it would be tasty. It was.

There is a huge mall landside at CTS and I just had one of these cheese tarts there and wow so good need more. 🐽🐽 pic.twitter.com/SeDQMv1Lbh

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) November 2, 2017

From there it was off to the JAL check-in counter nearly 2 hours prior to scheduled departure. No problem checking in that early nor with requesting a window seat without a fee. Both were in start contrast to prior the LCC flights on this trip. Once through security I went in to the lounge to charge my batteries and realized that I was still ridiculously early for my flight.

Reasonable legroom on this JAL Domestic 767

I asked at the counter about switching to the hour earlier departure and was able to do so without issue. Even managed to still get a window seat. Given the need to switch from domestic to international terminals at Haneda the extra buffer time was useful, though not entirely necessary.

The earlier flight time meant a 767-300 rather than the 777-200 I originally booked. That’s good news from a coach passenger comfort perspective, though a slight downgrade on the AvGeek ridiculousness of wide-body short-haul flying. I was also amused that the 11a departure had a 10:45a posted boarding time. In the US market that would be when boarding ends, not begins. In Japan, however, it works just fine. Mostly due to fewer bags in the overheads and people just working together to get where they need to be.

In the USA a flight closes 15 minutes before scheduled departure. In Japan it starts boarding then. And it works. #paxex #wandrjplcc #avgeek pic.twitter.com/KszTmhPZeT

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) November 2, 2017

The entire JAL domestic fleet has Gogo‘s Ku-band inflight connectivity solution on board and the service is free for passengers. Yeah, it was a short flight and I didn’t really need the wifi. But it was free so why not. Overall performace was pretty good, though I only used my mobile device, not my laptop, during the trip.

Free #showmethemegabits from @Gogo and @jal_official_jp. And reasonably good “real life” performance, too. #paxex #wandrjplcc #avgeek pic.twitter.com/cVtWzstA52

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) November 2, 2017

Crappy photo, but parallel approach into HND makes me happy. ✈️🤓 #AvGeek #wandrjplcc #paxex pic.twitter.com/d9maV2ZBq5

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) November 2, 2017

After landing I chose the monorail option between terminals (200 yen versus the free bus, but I liked the ride).