Matthew_DC

Hi - I haven't ever connected from an international flight to a domestic flight in Japan. I will be traveling on JAL in F ORD-NRT with a connection to HND-NGO in C. Grateful for anyone's help answering these questions.

At NRT, I seem to recall that it's like the US, you collect your bags and go through the immigration and customs check in your arrival airport. True?

Regarding the transfer of bags from NRT-HND, I've never done this before and reading online leads me to believe that I must pick up my bags at NRT and take them myself to HND and drop them off for the next flight. True?

Thanks!

JALPak

Yes, it’s your responsibility to transport your luggages between NRT and HND

Matthew_DC

Thanks

Comet21

BTW, I would think that if NGO was your final destination then I would suggest you take the bullet train to Nagoya

dvs7310

Don't know about NGO, but I've flown to Osaka many times on JL cheaper than JR. Usually it's KIX instead of ITM but I've had some ITM tickets really close to 10,000 JPY at times. (Usually Class J as well). Even if the price were the same including getting to/from the airports I still prefer flying and suspect I'm not the only one since that's one of the busiest routes in the world.

I certainly get your point about NGO and the convenience of the train, but still I'm one who would fly it and get the segment count toward my AA status, especially now that we require 30 segments to earn upgrade certificates.

CPH-Flyer

If I had a Haneda to Haneda connection, I'd definitely just keep flying. Narita to Haneda, I would probably be tempted to jump on the Shinkansen. Especially with Chubu as the airport is not super central. But it would depend on the final destination what convenient. Same for Osaka, easiest really depends on the starting and ending points.

If you want to go at the peak time of day, the benefit is that the Shinkansen prices are fixed, but try getting a 10,000 yen flight at peak times to Osaka within a week of departure....

dvs7310

Yeah, that's very true. I think the cheapest I've ever gotten it to / from Osaka within a week or a few days of departure is 15 or 16,000, but obviously that's not every flight in the day, just a few, most are higher.

AlwaysAisle

Looks like OP's itinerary is following:

JL 8009:
ORD 12:40 noon
NRT 3:35 p.m. (+1)

JL 209:
HND 7:05 p.m.
NGO 8:05 p.m.

I think it is doable connection, with ease of entrance formality of late. But again, number of international arrival passengers are slowly increasing at both HND and NRT.. Pre-pandemic this kind of NRT-HND transfer was no problem, I done NRT-HND transfer with less time than this pre-pandemic. Factors to consider:

Limousine Bus:
NRT-HND is still under revised schedule. Running every 40 min., less frequent than used to be.
NRT Terminal 2: 4:40 p.m.
HND Terminal 1: 6:00 p.m.
This is the last Limousine bus OP can take to make it to HND on time. The bus after the above arrives at HND Terminal 1 at 6:40 p.m.

Can OP get through the arrival formality at NRT in one hour? I know arrival formality got simplified, if you are fully vaccinated. But international passengers are slowly coming back and increasing.

If OP miss JL 209 at HND, then there is no flight to NGO that day. JL currently only operating one HND-NGO flight. Obviously, it is far better to take Shinkansen if OP miss JL 209. than wait till 7 p.m. next day to catch the flight to NGO. ANA has one daily HND-NGO with 6:05 p.m. departure.

If OP miss NGO flight then the last Shinkansen of the day is:

Hikari no. 669
Shinagawa: 10:10 p.m.
Nagoya: 11:49 p.m.

If OP decide to take a train from Narita Airport to Nagoya then:

Narita Express no. 40
Narita Airport: 5:17 p.m.
Shinagawa: 6:27 p.m.

Nozomi no. 101
Shinagawa: 6:37 p.m.
Nagoya: 8:09 p.m.

Not much of the difference between the flight. Most visitors from outside of Japan do stay Marriott or Hilton type hotels near Nagoya station and under such situation taking Shinkansen will be more convenient.

CPH-Flyer

International arrival from a blue country is almost back to pre-pandemic speed. Main hurdle now could be lines at the immigration counters.

dvs7310

I haven't done it yet since the new rule went into place. How is it handled now when you get off the plane (from a blue country)? Automatically directed toward immigration or still have to to the quarantine area first and get cleared manually?

CPH-Flyer

At one point you are asked to show your pre-approved app screen, then you continue to walk to immigration, your bar code is scanned at a counter before immigration, and then you have immigration.

Haneda is more tedious, as they still make you walk all the way to gate 140 and back. So if you land at gate 109, you have a lot of walking to do....