Warning for all Medallion members traveling to Tokyo HND
Jan 7, 2019, 11:16 am
#61
Join Date: May 2015
Location: DCA
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Posts: 6,712
Delta doesn't care about Tokyo or Japan, beyond the legacy business and customer base it inherited from Northwest. If Delta did care it would fly to Tokyo from New York.
Delta cares more about its partnership and joint-venture with communist, state-owned China Eastern.
Delta cares more about its partnership and joint-venture with communist, state-owned China Eastern.
PVG has been a disaster and DL recognizes that. The only reason they aren't bigger at TYO is that they have no partners there.
Jan 7, 2019, 11:25 am
#62
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: Delta Diamond, Marriott Ambassador & Lifetime Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, United Silver
Posts: 6,334
Plan B. I wouldn't want to be counting on China over the next 5 or 10 years. It's very unstable. All those rich kids who came over here to American universities, studied, used Facebook and Google for the first time, and then went back to communist China will eventually want more than they have now. The crackdown on religious exercise, particularly Christianity, and Beijing's anti-Taiwan rhetoric of late are signs that things are unstable over there.
Jan 7, 2019, 3:34 pm
#63
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Tokyo
Programs: DL Diamond, ANA Platinum
Posts: 1,532
Jan 11, 2019, 11:51 am
#64
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Location: Shanghai
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Plan B. I wouldn't want to be counting on China over the next 5 or 10 years. It's very unstable. All those rich kids who came over here to American universities, studied, used Facebook and Google for the first time, and then went back to communist China will eventually want more than they have now. The crackdown on religious exercise, particularly Christianity, and Beijing's anti-Taiwan rhetoric of late are signs that things are unstable over there.
Jan 11, 2019, 6:25 pm
#65
Join Date: May 2015
Location: NYC/Paris
Programs: DL Diamond
Posts: 111
There's also a premium economy cabin, which one would like to associate with some sort of premium service on the ground. To me, this would imply expedited lines, somewhat early boarding, and at least some minimal lounge arrangement for major business oriented routes.
Jan 20, 2019, 10:37 pm
#66
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There's actually a pay lounge that would work for DL flights. It's in the same area as the TIAT lounge DL sends people to, so that it's quite close to the gate DL uses. It's called the Sky lounge (no relation to SkyTeam) and seems oriented toward Japan credit card holders and Diners Club members. In addition, the sign says that others can pay about a thousand yen to enter, less for children. I didn't try it but noticed it on the way to the DL contract lounge. For this set of lounges, you go left after security and passport control, but there might be a similar lounge on the other end of HND with their other set of lounges. Depending on what they offer, the price seems extremely reasonable.
Jan 21, 2019, 2:08 am
#67
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Tokyo
Programs: DL Diamond, ANA Platinum
Posts: 1,532
The paid Sky Lounge at HND is extremely mediocre in that the only freebies offered are some basic soft drinks (no alcohol). If you need a quiet place to sit, it's quite reasonable. But IMO the Ą1,000 is better spent on a meal at the terminal.
Jan 21, 2019, 10:26 am
#69
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Still, it's an option and even $9 for a quiet place to wait and consume soft drinks isn't bad. I've never heard of a lounge admission fee that's so low.
OTOH the TIAT lounge that DL uses isn't much either, although I did see alcohol and some not very attractive looking Asian food. It's tired and worn looking, rather depressing IMO, although there are seats with good tarmac views.
OTOH the TIAT lounge that DL uses isn't much either, although I did see alcohol and some not very attractive looking Asian food. It's tired and worn looking, rather depressing IMO, although there are seats with good tarmac views.
Jan 21, 2019, 10:32 am
#70
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Mid Atlantic
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Posts: 1,237
FWIW, when I flew HND-ICN-IAD on Korean -- DL ticket stock -- in J, they gave us a pass to the lovely JAL Sakura Lounge Skyview. Lovely lounge!
Jan 21, 2019, 10:37 am
#71
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That's nice, especially since I suspect this would now be the preferred routing for travel between Washington and Tokyo on SkyTeam, assuming that the schedules are reasonable.
Jan 21, 2019, 10:49 am
#72
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
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Jan 21, 2019, 11:03 am
#73
Join Date: May 2010
Location: TPA
Programs: All The Programs
Posts: 2,204
All this means is that there would be fewer connections from Delta in Tokyo. That doesn't change the fact that Tokyo is a very important market. If anything, Delta should be trying harder than UA/AA to win business there without a partner.
Jan 21, 2019, 12:03 pm
#74
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The preferred routing might actually be HND-MSP-DCA since that routing is ~800 miles shorter than HND-ICN-IAD and gets one to DCA instead of IAD.
Jan 21, 2019, 12:08 pm
#75
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I don't really understand this comment.
All this means is that there would be fewer connections from Delta in Tokyo. That doesn't change the fact that Tokyo is a very important market. If anything, Delta should be trying harder than UA/AA to win business there without a partner.
All this means is that there would be fewer connections from Delta in Tokyo. That doesn't change the fact that Tokyo is a very important market. If anything, Delta should be trying harder than UA/AA to win business there without a partner.
Plus it's much easier to run a sizable operation when you have partners in place, which should be obvious.