Reply to Asia flight options

Forum Index » Travel Discussion

Reply to "Asia flight options"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The connection is not that bad. More important than connection is the airline. [/quote]

NP.  This!!!

I flew with my 2 terns using miles on United to LAX NS last summer.  Then preferred Econ EVA to Taiwan stop before Shanghai.  You'd think we'd be exhausted but we were great off the plane! The EVA flight was so much nicer than UA unless you flew Polaris.  Anything less wouldn't be worth flying direct. We were able to sleep on EVA.  No way we would have on United unless Polaris.

Personally I'd stop in Chicago.

You can also look at one ways via other cities and mix and match for best fares and routes v just RT one choice.  Sometimes you luck out on saving but typically it won't work if your areas set flying NS.

Seriously the airline is a big deal.  Sleeping in that kind of long flight is key- sleeping is key even if a longer flight. Most American based airlines suck unless you fly their top tier offering.  
[/quote]

While the flights to Asia are long and tiring, the late afternoon arrival works out well.  Get off plane, immigration/customs, cab/shuttle to hotel, dinner and sleep.  Next day your clock is set and you’re good to go.  Though the flights to Asia are much longer, I find the adjustment much easier than the typical morning Europe arrival.  Coming home from Asia , the couple times I’ve done it is the reverse.  Asia to U.S. is brutal- 12+ hour flight and AM arrival.  [/quote]

A lot of the flights to Tokyo land in the afternoon/early evening so actually I’m not sure getting good sleep on the plane is that helpful. [/quote]

Agreed about the clock reset and Asia travel is not bad bc of the evening arrival. That said, the UA back from Haneda gets back to DC around 3 pm, so not too terrible from a timing perspective.

OP, I work for a Japanese company and have done many options, depending on price. Note that my company is HQed in Osaka, so that's my final destination. (And yes, it sucks making it to Tokyo and then still having a few hours left to go!). I have no insights on the trip to downtown Tokyo from either airport. 
1) Air Canada via Montreal/Toronto. I was rather unimpressed with AC altogether, both the planes and the service, and I was in business class. The clearing customs in Canada only made the process more stressful, as they were understaffed and Global Entry was not open. 
2) AA via DFW. The flight over to Tokyo was on JAL, and one thing to note about the Asian-owned flights - they keep the planes HOT. The service and food were great though. 
2) AA to LAX to Kansai (Osaka). This one was appealing bc of the break in between stretches. Five hours and then another 10 hours or so. But for me, clearing customs in Osaka and then being at the final destination was worth it. 
4) UA direct to Tokyo. There are two flights out of Dulles a day to Tokyo, one on ANA and one one United.

As far as the airports go, Haneda is underwhelming when it comes to shopping and services. But it gets a lot of the non-Asian overseas flights (Delta, AA, United). And if you need to connect, you need to get on a bus to the domestic terminals. Narita is better for layovers and airport services.

Good luck![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics