Another HND lounge access question
 

Hello FT'ers. Currently sitting in the CX lounge at SFO waiting for our JL1 departure in F. Had a question about lounges/ transiting HND. We are currently ticketed SEA > SFO > HND > CAN. We are F on the transpacific and J on the flight to China. We have about a 13 hour overnight layover in HND. Thought it was strange when we checked in at SEA that they could not check out bags through to CAN, but agent said we would need to retrieve them at HND and re-check them. Got me wondering about clearing security, tickets, lounges and the layover. My thought is when we land we will head to the transfer counters get our tickets and then be able to clear security and proceed to level 4 and the Sakura Lounge??? The more I read the more I feel this will not be possible?

Are we going to have to spend the night landside, or will we be able to clear security with our departure being 12 hours, next day, even though all on 1 ticket?

Can we check our bags 12 hours prior for next day departure?

Can we access Sakura lounge with a 12 hour layover?

JAL F and Sakura Lounges are not a 24 hour lounge at HND. Whether they let you in after landing, you still have to leave the lounge when it closes after the last departure of the night. I would book a hotel nearby instead.

Yeah, unfortunately we won't be getting a hotel for the night, but I got a good rest on the flight from SFO and will be able to get some work done while in the lounge. Interestingly though....

When we departed SEA the agent said our bags would not be checked through to CAN. We would need to pick them up at HND. When in SFO we checked, at the last minute, with the agent in the JAL lounge about getting our bags checked through to CAN. She also said unfortunately it was too late and we would need to pick them up in HND. When we got to HND we went directly to the JAL lounge and got checked in. We asked about our luggage and the agent said that they had already flagged our luggage to be delivered to CAN and that we would NOT need to collect it in HND. I asked her several times, thinking there may be a language barrier, although she seemed fairly fluent/ knowledgeable, but she reassured me our bags would be in CAN. I have a bad feeling about this, but again she reassured me not to worry.

Also as a point of reference. I did not think we would be allowed access to the first class lounge on arrival since our connection was overnight and past 6:00AM the following day in J. While checking in I politely asked if we would be able to access the first class lounge since we arrived in F. After several minutes of her trying to find out, looking in a hand written notebook, checking with other agents she finally signaled for us to go enjoy the first class lounge. GREAT! Then about 10-15 minutes later she came in to find us to inform us that today we could access the F lounge, but the following day when we depart we would need to use the J lounges. She seemed very sorry and I almost wonder if we were not supposed to be admitted on arrival and they had felt too bad to tell us to leave. Either way, I'm excited to try a game of chess in the Red Suite and have a glass of Laurent-Perrier.