Originally Posted by
Unimatrix One
Sorry for my misunderstanding about the NGO flight! I think things have changed in recent years, because I remember many JL flights into NRT where the flight attendants made an announcement to the effect, "Passengers connecting to flight XX to Nagoya will undergo arrival procedures [customs & immigration] in Nagoya." But that is clearly not the case now.
As for JAL's obligations in this case, I would really like to know what the contract of carriage says. JAL sold the ticket with a two and a half hour connection, so why aren't they obligated to get the OP to his destination? Does NRT have an official "minimum connection time" like US airports? In the US, my understanding is that if an airline sells you a ticket and it meets the MCT, then the airline will protect/rebook you if airport snafus beyond your control prevent you from making your connection.
To be clear: I agree that a two and a half hour international to domestic connection at NRT is impossible in most cases. But JL happily sold the ticket and took the OP's money for a product that they knew they were unlikely to be able to deliver. How do they not have any responsibility in this case?
Originally Posted by
JALPak
That has not been the case for over a decade! IIRC, the switch happened in Winter 2010.
Originally Posted by
Unimatrix One
Oh, wow. Time flies...
Indeed it does fly, LOL. I never flew JL back in those days so wasn't aware that JL's flight was also an international tag, It was certainly the case wtih NW when I flew them extensively in the mid to late 2000's, they had their own NRT-NGO flight to match up with US arrivals and departures that was definitely an international flight. I'm guessing 2010 must have been around the time that DL had fully absorbed NW and started unraveling the old NRT hub, so that flight went away and JL no longer felt the need to compete. Though logistically I'm not sure why it would have benefited JL, seems better to run it domestic and allow O/D passengers as well as connections. NW would have had to do it that way because of cabotage rules.
I don't recall if UA ever had the NRT-NGO flight as well, I switched to them due to the CO / UA merger in 2010, but don't recall the same announcement that NW always had about NGO connections. I remember with NW there were signs plastered all over the place as well just in case you didn't know and missed the announcment.