I wanted to update on our trip. Everything worked well. The japan airpass was great and when we got to NRT on the outbound, they directed us to the ANA *A lounge where we had plenty of time to have a bite to eat and shower etc. Clearing customs in Japan took almost no time at all. They were very efficient. The ANA connection lounge was great and they told us when we had to go to get our flight to Sapporo.
On the return we had a long layover at NRT. We arrived at around 930 AM with a 430pm departure. The only problem here was that the UA ticket counter does not open until 1230 and there is no lounge outside security. We had not checked in for UA so we were stuck at NRT for three hours. But there is a lot to do we discovered the 5th floor where there is an outdoor observation deck and the weather was nice so we sat out there for a while. Then we went through the shops and finally hung out at a restaurant and had lunch for about 1:30. Finally we got to check in and were able to go to the RCC and hang out there for the rest of the day. Had a shower got some work done and then boarded for LAX. That was the longest tues I've every had - 41 hours for one day due to the time change and crossing international date line - woke up in Sapporo, spent a number of hours in NRT and eventually found myself at LAX and finally home in pacific time.
Other than having that long day at NRT I found the Japan Air Pass to be a very good option for booking domestic travel within japan in conjunction with a *A flight from the US. Especially since our UA flight was in C but we did not need C for short hops in japan and just needed a reasonably priced Y ticket.
Also I should add we got the NRT<-> CTS tix for approx $300 USD RT. Another interesting observation not listed in seat guru. the seat guru website said the ANA domestic seats were all 16.5" across which I though was rather tight. Turns out upon inspection the middle seat is wider than the aisle or window. I'd put it easily at 18" across. I've never seen that in the USA and I thought this was an interesting idea because suddenly the middle seat becomes more popular due to its increased width. Our flights were not very full so we had choices and I ended up taking a middle because it was more comfortable. I wrote to seatguru about this but as of today they have not added it to the website for ANA.
Last edited by businesstraveller2; Jan 10, 2011 at 8:08 am