Originally Posted by
PositivelyNotSure
I have a JL17 YVR-NRT flight arriving in NRT Jan 23rd and a JL773 NRT-MEL departing Jan 24th. The overnight transit currently still means that it's not doable. I had been agonising over whether or not to cancel or wait for restrictions to lift. It hasn't been possible to change flights for those days online, for a while now.
Today I received an email about the JL773 flight being cancelled and says that JAL will contact me or have the option to get a refund. Haven't received a cancellation email for JL17, so I assume it's still going ahead.
I'm not an experienced flyer - my last international flight was 10 years ago - so not sure what cancellations might mean. What might I expect to happen? Will I be put on a different NRT-MEL flight or have to cancel JL17 as well, or possibly something else? Any insight is appreciated.
It is interesting that they have announced the cancellation of JL773, as that part of the schedule is still 'to be announced'. However, if we assume that they stick to the same level of flying as now, then the flights will operate Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Which is of course a big IF. 24th of Jan is a Tuesday, so could make sense though. If you reach out to JAL, you could probably be re-accommodated for one day earlier, assuming that JL17 also operates a day earlier. But as the schedule has not been officially announced yet, the regular call centre people might not be able to see the options yet, so I would probable wait until JAL contacts you. Unless there are specific contact details in the cancellation announcement that are not just the regular call centre.
But basically, you can reschedule your flights to a day where it is possible or get a full refund. If both flights are not on the same ticket, you will need JAL's good graces to change JL17 due to the cancellation of JL773 though.
By January I would expect that it is possible to enter Japan for a night in a hotel.