TBD

I am planning a trip to Japan for October 2023 and hoping to use United miles to go back/forth on ANA business class. My plan is to fly to Tokyo and back from Osaka.

I found a MP award seat on ANA for NRT-ORD - hooray - but things get complicated when I try to start in KIX. United gives me the option to fly KIX-NRT-ORD with an 8h connection in Tokyo. Surely there are a lot of flights between KIX and TYO.

I am thinking that the root issue here is ANA doesn't publish domestic flights very far in advance, except for a few options for international itineraries. Therefore, the issue really isn't the connection but rather ANA schedules. Does ANA still only publish domestic flights 60 days out?

Only ANA

The issue is that no, ANA doesn’t actually fly NRT KIX at all. Those airports are not commonly used for domestic travel by full service carriers, and are left to LCCs.

CPH-Flyer

Narita is not great for domestic flights. Might be better to take the Shinkansen to Shinagawa and jump on the Narita express from a time perspective. That is of course not redeemable, so from a cost perspective it does add quite a bit.

Another option is to redeem ITM HND and take the bus to Narita. But you'd about 4 hours for that exercise. And you'd need to carry your luggage with you (if you have any)

dvs7310

Search OSA-ORD instead of KIX-ORD, you'll get options that have ITM-HND which does have dozens of flights per day. NH and JL both operate relatively few domestic flights from KIX. As CPH-Flyer mentions you'll have to make your own way from HND-NRT, there's a bus and a train. The bus is easiest by far if you time it well. The train is a bit cheaper but 30 minutes longer.

Alternatively if you find a date with the HND-ORD flight available you'd be better off, there are plenty of early morning departures from ITM that could get you there in time to transfer to that morning flight.

alany611

ANA flies HND-ITM and not NRT-KIX

what does your itinerary look like? how many days in each city?

KI-NRT

Note that NH does fly between ITM and NRT. Currently 1 or 2 flights per day (each way), depending on the date. We just touched down in ITM from NRT, FYI.

dvs7310

It is interesting, neither carrier operates NRT // KIX these days, both operate multiple KIX // HND and 1 or 2 ITM // NRT. (by neither, I mean NH and JL, I personally don't take LCCs into consideration at all unless it's the only airline in the market)

The OP hasn't responded, maybe they're coming from Wakayama, we don't know. So KIX may really be the best answer in that case. They say back from Osaka, let's assume for now that's Osaka Airport (to a non-local that may be assumed to be KIX, not knowing ITM exists at all), but they didn't say Osaka City. If from Osaka City, those ITM-NRT flights on both NH and JL are aligned perfectly to meet the US international departures in the evening, but personally I would probably still grab an early morning ITM-HND and get the morning HND-ORD flight instead.

Having said that, I'm actually surprised KIX hasn't gained more favor with (domestic) visitors to Osaka, the train access is far more convenient, you get to Namba direct in 45 mins. From ITM you have to take a bus (think LCC legroom) or the monorail to some small fairly rural suburb and transfer to a regular train into Umeda, by this point depending on where in Osaka you need to go, you're not saving much time. The Osaka monorail must have been built during the bubble era when they had to spend money on something or lose funding, it's one of the most useless lines I've seen in the country. Would have been much better for everyone to run a Hankyu spur line to the airport like Keikyu does to Haneda. As it is now, you have to pay twice essentially, once to the monorail company for 1 single stop then pay again to Hankyu to Umeda. Then probably once again if going anywhere south of Umeda... kind of a sore point with none of these private lines and metro really integrating fares. I get it JR will probably never integrate fares, but certainly the private lines and Metro could do a better job.

TBD

Thanks for this suggestion to look at ITM, I didn't even realize there is another airport in Osaka. My intent in flying out of Osaka is to see the artificial island made for Kansai. Maybe I'll try Peach or Jetstar to get back to my ORD flight. Or KIX-HND with the bus transfer. United has their KIX-SFO flight, but then I'd need a domestic transcon to get home.
I haven't got that far. I've only looked at some 'suggested' itineraries from Japanese tour operators. Many seem to suggest Tokyo - Hakone - Osaka. Maybe weighted toward Osaka so I can add a day trip on to Hiroshima. I'd welcome any suggestions for an itinerary or a tour operator (for self-guided trip).

CPH-Flyer

One of the good ways to see the island made for KIX is from a domestic flight from Tokyo to Shikoku or Kyushu. The challenge is of course that you never know what flight path that will get assigned, so a bit of luck is needed. But on a lucky day, you can get great aerial views of Chubu, KIX, and Kobe airports on one flight. On an unlucky day, you'd see nothing though.

As for suggestions, what is your main interest? I often sugggets that people should get a bit out in nature. Japan has some really nice country side areas. Hakone is one, though sometimes it can feel like rush hour in Shinjuku. If you go to Hakone, make sure to include the open air museum.