Your plan is a good one. The amount of time depends primarily on immigration lines and whether you have priority tags. I think 35 to 40 minutes from plane to T2 would be pretty typical.

Thanks for the input! I'll make sure to save my eyes for Tokyo proper...

My recent experiences, perhaps a dozen times this year arriving into Narita has been similar to the OP. First off the plane, arriving on NH generally, and finding the terminal completely empty as well as zero people at immigration and near or zero at customs.

Love arriving on ANA since most pax are going into the Japan passport lanes. Further, being in F makes a big difference.

I never check bags. Came in a few days ago seat to exiting Narita in < 10 minutes by my approximation.

I've been coming out so fast recently that I've had to tell the car service to ensure the driver is there immediately at the time of the plane's arrival. No sense in waiting around after having everything so expedited!

Incidentally, zero lines at outgoing immigration at Narita earlier this morning. Seems late morning is a good time to be here since many of the TPAC flights go out in the mid to late afternoon.

I think the Swiss flight is lined up for record exit. At gate 35 today. Last time that I arrived I was in F and had an escort, but she was holding me up. :-)

I think that I was out in 10 min or less but wasn't paying attention.

Know what you mean. I ditched my LH escort on my last flight. Would never have made the train if I had waited for her.

Where in Tokyo are you traveling to? For views, I'd take either train over Limo Bus. The bus travels primarily on expressways that have limited views in many areas due to fences or being down in the ditch. Views are mainly unobstructed from trains. You may not find the scenery all that exciting on NEX or Skyliner, although you're up close to houses and forests and streets and people from your train window and so you get a glimpse of everyday Japan.

On either train, much of the first portion of the trip as you depart from NRT will be in farmland, wooded areas, etc. Skyliner speeds along over a vast farmland along a lake at one point. If you're on NEX, as you get closer to Tokyo, being on the right side of the train gives you a great look at the Tokyo Sky Tree. NEX goes underground just before the Tokyo station and stays in the tunnel until ~Shinagawa. Then depending on where your final destination is, you'll get different views beyond that. View-wise, it's pretty much a toss-up between NEX and Skyliner, although a slight edge goes to NEX because a).Sky Tree; b).tends to slow down more often which affords better look at buildings, streets and people outside.

This is YMMV of course and I would think depends on arrival times. Arriving in NRT at 8am last month saw me behind a long line > 30 minute wait with only 2 counters open.

Arriving at 3pm last week saw near zero lines.

The last time I arrived at NRT was at around 2PM at end of May and I ended up waiting some 20-odd minutes, though they had the sense to start opening more counters around when more people started lining up behind me.

Another datapoint at HND yesterday arriving from SHA at about 5:20pm (early arrival), I went from plane door to curbside in about 5 min flat. Gate was adjacent to empty immigration and I had no checked bags. They had plenty of immigration officers twiddling their thumbs waiting for pax.

Always YMMV, but pleasant experiences mostly for the last year or two for me into NRT and HND with a few notable (and rather annoying) exceptions.

I guess that I'll get one next week because I am going ANA F. :p
I would gladly trade this for the car service but ANA only offers it for J,C,F fare codes from what I understand.

I fly NH F TPAC 2-4 legs a month and have never received an escort of any kind with the exception of one late flight causing an extremely tight connection (noticed many C pax were also escorted presumably due to the connection vs cabin or elite status).

I guess Swiss and LH trump ANA on this point if you actually value the escort.

Have you seen any exception to the J,C,F for the limo? I was wondering about RTW tickets. They are CRTWSTAR (or something like that) but book into D. I called to book a car for my significant other but only when I knew it was a full fare C.

On my last flight I arrived at NRT at around 3PM at end of May and I ended up waiting more then 35 min.
To see how quick it can be on other times/dates makes me a bit jealous.

TG also.

If your flight arrives late after buses and trains aren't running, J or F will get you a hired car into Tokyo. Y gets you a taxi.

Door open 8:12am.

From Gate 42 to curb..... 8 min 17 sec

Gate to Immigration 6:53
Immigration 36 sec
Immigration to customs 15 sec
Customs 11 sec
Customs to curb 21 sec

In theory, sub 3 minutes should be possible from gate 31/32.

Talk about OCD :rolleyes: