Originally Posted by
nancypants
[left]
yes. I know it sounds awful but he will most likely have a lot of questions for the flight crew and I imagine BA pilots would be better equipped to handle this. My thoughts are perhaps BA outbound and JAL inbound
Yes. BA pilots by and large seem excellent with children. JL ones are likely to struggle to communicate to a large extent (especially with children's English) - I haven't met or overheard many JL pilots with what I'd classify as 'good' English. That is, if a flight deck visit is granted at all, which might be unlikely on JL, whereas BA seem to be quite accommodating.
Originally Posted by
gingerlucy
I have little to add on redemption practicalities but as you mentioned school holidays do you mean summer 2020? Be warned that the Olympics are in Japan next year from 24 July - 9 August and the Paralympics from 25 August - 6 September. Expect travel to Japan to be much more in demand and expensive, redemptions very hard to find, and the same for hotels. Apologies if you already knew this.
People seem to be finding redemption flights but decent hotels seem to be horribly expensive. Annual events that are not Olympics-related are rescheduled at other times so as not to inconvenience the visitors and end up with horrifically low visitor numbers.
Besides, summer is THE worst time of the year to visit Tokyo. Too hot and humid, and prone to absolutely throwing it down with rain, and getting hit by a typhoon from time to time...
I'd take Feb or May half term if it must be during a school holiday. Feb would be colder but cheaper (and crisp winter there is very nice, nothing like the English winter), and May would be much warmer but not hot yet (usually). It avoids all the more crowded, expensive times (e.g. sakura, the Olympics etc).
I see you mentioned October - that should also be pretty nice. Not hot any more, but not cold yet, and no crowd, hopefully - post-Olympics there might even be a lull in travel to Japan which might cause the price (fares + room rates) to drop. Easter would be sakura season next year so probably advisable to avoid it (the price does go up because of both Easter and sakura).
Originally Posted by
nancypants
The other option for flight deck visits of course is either to route via Manchester (is this even slightly sensible from Nottingham?!) or even from EMA or BHX on some European carrier. But then I have no idea if things are possible
Don't complicate things for the sake of a flight deck visit that might not be granted...
I'd suggest taking him to the Emirates Aviation Experience at the Emirates AirLine in London. It's a pretty decent set-up at a very low-cost.
https://www.emiratesairline.co.uk/lo...on-experience/