Door5L

Japan will open up from October 11th to triple vaccinated passengers plus those with a certified negative Covid test but can anyone remind me of when BA plans to resume its Haneda and Osaka schedules? There are extended flight times to and from Japan due to rerouting away from Russia (with Japan Airlines flights to London now taking nearly 14 hours or more) but is BA resuming its direct service in December at the earliest?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63003802.amp

fluffymitten

I wonder if this might end up with more QR code-sharing to route via the Middle East rather than fly a longer route direct? I think that's what Finnair have done recently as the Russian airspace restrictions are quite impactful to their operation.

JezzaG

On home page of trade site …

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/traveltrade




BA flights from 14 Nov (but much more spenny than JAL) and 13h40m.

visit14

I've found the opposite, at least in J... booked BA for nearly half the price of the cheapest JAL..it'll be old CW on 787-9 vs. JAL's Apex suite, and much worse timings, but IMO worth the £££ saving...

Door5L

thanks. Tokyo to London now showing as just under 15hrs flight time day time flight. Surely that would qualify for 3 meal services?

McG

BA had originally planned to restart Tokyo flights at the change to the winter schedule, and then at the last big schedule update the start date was pushed back to the 14th of November.

This ended up benefitting me as my Avios economy booking at start of November got switched from BA 787 to JAL 777.

allset2travel

Good to know that Japan is in play soon.

Caerbannog

Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to whether Osaka will be reinstated within the next year? It's more convenient for Kyoto and while the connection HND-ITM on JAL would be OK (and seems to add minimal cost), we have a 241 to deploy so it has to be BA metal; pre-covid there was good redemption availability to KIX.

shefgab

I'm not sure the 789 can accommodate 3 meals for everyone. On the 350 it was touch and go whether they could fit in a second!
In the past some flights have had a mid flight snack, but it wasn't very substantial. I'd suggest some take away sushi from 7-11.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Booked time off at the end of October and wanted to go to Japan but OW flights ( ie JAL and even finnair are expensive) but got a acceptable price from NH ( flights op by Lufthansa ) so going BUD-FRA-HND ( got upper deck seats on the 748 FRA-HND)and will be interesting to compare LH with BA etc.
Will do EDI-BUD on BA with a day break in between to explore BUD

Regards

TBS

nomadabroad

haha 3 meals for everyone? Dream on, with the current cost cutting it’s not a matter of whether the galley fits but more if they are willing to spend the £ on proper decent catering on Long haul Y or not. Most you’ll get is one hot meal and maybe if you are lucky a second lousy hot snack.

With the current poor service levels and enhanced cost cutting no way on earth I’m taking any 12+ hour flights with el cheapo BA

JL41

Even JL is like this at the moment on the HND-LHR route in Y. Some 15 hours across two oceans and all you get is one meal (JL41) or one meal and a hot snack (JL43). At least the food ex HND is the fairly tasty RED menu.

As someone who commutes between Kyoto and London, it would be nice to have more OW options again. At the moment CX has a nice proposition out of KIX with a 3.5 hr layover in each direction. But otherwise the only reasonable option is to go ITM-HND to catch the JL41. Most anything else requires a painfully early flight from ITM or a HND-NRT transfer. That said, I really wonder whether BA and AY will come back to KIX anytime soon with the war on.

If you need to fly BA metal, I'd just jump on the Keikyu line after arriving at HND and connect to the Shinkansen. Even with a large suitcase it's fairly pain-free. The ticket machine allows you to specify that you have large luggage and will reserve appropriate seats. On the way back, you'll just have to plan to spend your last night in Tokyo, or at least at ITM or KIX. Little chance of catching the BA flight from Kyoto.

nomadabroad

Are you sure? Is this a recent flight? I can see from a trip report last month JL43 is a hot meal, mid flight snack plus 2nd hot meal before landing.

KARFA

I see one hot meal and one snack here?

nomadabroad

- 1st hot meal - 19:00
- snack - 22:00
- 2nd hot “meal” - 23:00 though the pasta looks smaller in quantity,