Asiana Business Class lounge
Flying on an Etihad issued award ticket clearly bestowed zero lounge access, so I was thankful that I had Priority Pass lounge access. Of course the directions and location in the PP app were completely wrong, but that’s not exactly a first… The PP App says to take the escalator to the 4th floor. I’m not sure if there is a 4th floor, but if there is, I’m not sure where floors 1 and 2 are, because the lounge is definitely only 1 floor above the terminal. Oh well
Once in I availed myself of the hot buffet knowing the food on the plane would probably be lacking. The lounge food was pretty good, they had a chicken and peppers dish as well as a full salad bar and a dude in a chef’s hat preparing pasta at a side station. It’s a nice lounge with good views. I’m honestly surprised they open it up to PP as opposed to relegating PP holders to the non-business class lounge.
The meal on the flight back was no better or worse than the flight up, except for the seatmates. We experienced some turbulence coming into NRT and to me, on a scale of 1-10, I’d grade it about a 3-4. It was rough air but nobody was getting lifted off their seats. This woman completely freaked out, grabbed both armrests for dear life, and started scream-muttering something. It was in Korean or Japanese, so I have no idea what she was saying but it definitely sounded unsettled.
Thankfully there was no queue at immigration and my bag came off pretty quickly, so it was time to grab the shuttle to the Hilton Narita.
Hilton Narita
The Hilton is only ~15 mins from the airport. I think I may have been upgraded to a better view, not that I really would have noticed. There isn’t much to see around Narita besides trees. I was given a free drink chit at checkin for a beer/wine so I took that after dropping my bag at the room. I’ll take a Y1000 beer for free… One thing I’d never seen before was a hotel using cards like this for room keys. It had the feel of a NYC Metrocard rather than that of a normal hotel key/credit card.
Next morning I had breakfast in the lobby restaurant (full hot buffet with no upcharge or BS). I just had eggs, some fruit and juice and coffee, knowing I’d be eating the whole way home to Houston.
ANA Business Class lounge
After check in and picking up some snacks at duty free (ok mostly candy) it was up to the lounge, conveniently located right above my gate. It’s a very nice space with nibbles reminiscent of the arrivals lounge, but they also had hot food on the buffet, but I made room only for the noodle bar, and some single malt of course.
Our flight to Houston
After some noodles and some Hakashu (both really tasty) it was time to board…
NH 174
NRT-IAH
Time to go home… For today’s flight I booked an A seat to be on the other side of the cabin. Omitting the boilerplate pictures (same amenities as the flight out here)
After a fairly long wait to take off, we’re off!
Amuse, a foie gras mousse, along side olives and cheese
Appetizer, scallops with carrot mousse, and roast beef
Main meal, I went with the Japanese short rib
OMG, so delicious and tender, it tore apart with only the slightest touch.
Chocolate mousse for dessert with some Hibiki
Beautiful day for some flying
After a couple hours of TV, probably around 4-5 pm local time, I requested a set of pajamas which were quickly delivered to my seat. Once I changed the FA offered to take my jeans and shirt away and hang them up until landing. I asked that I not be woken up for breakfast as I had a 4 pm job interview once I got back to Houston, so I wanted to maximize sleep on the plane.
I woke up after a great 6 hrs of sleep to the clanking sounds of breakfast and ordered a croque monsieur and a salad since I wasn’t feeling the breakfast of eggs and pork sausage. Feeling peckish and with a bit over an hour to go I ordered the ramen again
Ridiculously beautiful views flying over Texas on this Wednesday morning. We landed on time and with GE I was to the belt before my bag and quickly in an Uber on my way home.
And now I’m grounded as I don’t have any international travel plans on the books for the balance of 2017, though I do have a trip back to Japan scheduled in January 2018 on ANA, this time in First. One of the primary purposes is to go skiing or snowboarding, but I can’t do either of those, so I see a trip or two to Colorado this fall to prepare!
Thanks all for following along!