drvannostren

Don't wanna turn this into a full on review, but flew TPAC for the first time ever last week YVR-HND-GMP and back. What a great experience.

HND was modern and super fast to clear customs and get my bags.

GMP on the other hand was a bit run down and slower but still wasn't anything like arriving at IAH behind a few flights or at YYZ behind a few widebodies.

Honestly my biggest complaint about ANA was the 767 YVR-HND, it's clearly way too old to be flying this route, the AVOD is kinda terrible and when I saw the J class seats didn't lay flat I was shocked (I was in Y though haha). The aircraft to/from YVR had lots of open seats so maybe they don't see the demand to put a higher priced product, but it would've made sense for me to see at least a 2 class aircraft with lay flats since it's a 10:40 flight and overnight on the return.

If given the opportunity to fly ANA again, I'll jump at it and even more so if I can connect/disembark at HND. Got into Tokyo at my friends place in no time with an easy metro system.

kazt

You will be pleased to learn that ANA will be replacing the 767 with 787-8 Dreamliners from July 1, 2015 on the HND-YVR route. Unfortunately, instead of the longhaul configuration with lie flat Business Staggered seats, it is the regional configuration with the angled Business Cradle.

aircmdr

Agree on how nice and convenient HND is. We will almost always choose a flight to HND over NRT. So much more convenient to Tokyo with a choice of several different public transit routes.

We had one flight recently where we had no choice but NRT, and were reminded of how long it takes to get in to town. Left Tokyo out of HND and felt much more relaxed.

drvannostren

Hey man at least those are flat-ish! Those are like the UA business seats right? They look about the same.

I wasn't even sitting in J, I just thought for the price they ask (which admittedly isn't as high as it could be) that the product was pretty lacking. Yet my flight GMP-HND had 3 class 777. Not saying YVR needs that service, but are you telling me that you couldn't use the 767 for that? It's only a 2 hour flight!

Beyond that the service was phenomenal so my complaints were very minor.

armagebedar

HND-GMP (among other destinations like PEK, TSA, etc.) is a short flight that the 77Ws operate when they have a few hours of downtime between long haul flights so that they're not kept idle.

drvannostren

I figured it was something like that, I just thought it was a real bummer to see YVR-HND was served with such old equipment. The service really makes up for it and the price was much better than Air Canada so they can get away with it for sure. Plus the aircraft was far from full so there's no incentive for them (at least not now) to upgrade it.

FireEmblemPride

HND is actually a 5-star rated airport, joining the likes of HKG, ICN and SIN. It's much more modern and pleasant than NRT, and so much closer. International and domestic flights from it are a breeze. I recommend it over NRT any day of the week.

Kacee

There's no question HND is much newer and more convenient to most parts of Tokyo than NRT, and in many ways easier to navigate, but I don't find it nearly as interesting. I think NRT is one of the best shopping airports in the world and they've basically killed that at HND. It's just so much more generic.

drvannostren

I honestly thought (prior to researching it) that HND was like the "low cost" older airport of Tokyo, like Orly to Paris or Luton to London or something like that. This is what GMP ended up being. I got a good price on ANA to go YVR-HND-GMP and while I loved HND and the transportation on the Keikyu line and onwards was super easy, even speaking no Japanese. GMP was equally lame. It's clearly older and wasn't really designed to be much of anything. It's great for transportation, because it sits atop a Seoul metro station (though from INTL it's a bit of a walk), and it's closer to Seoul than ICN is by probably 15 minutes on the train. But customs were a bit slow, the airport is VERY drab, it's old, I didn't get a chance to check out the lounge because I didn't show up early enough, but I'd be curious to see what Asiana has done to make the lounge nicer than the rest of the terminal.

I actually really wanna fly to NRT one day, cuz I'm an airport nerd lol, ICN to a lesser extent too.

HND was kinda generic, to me it just didn't "feel like" Tokyo. I kind of expected it to be bustling and busy and crowded, I was looking forward to it. To my disappointment? it was a breeze. It's like flying to Burbank or SNA instead of LAX. You're in the same city, but the airport doesn't feel like LA. That can be a good thing and it can just be a little lame because like NRT sounds, I was hoping HND would be kind of a shopping mecca, more representative of Tokyo.

In any case, I would gladly fly to HND again and if I was any kind of Japan regular, it would be HND hands down unless NRT was significantly cheaper.

FireEmblemPride

That's interesting. I'll take the newer, more pleasant facilities over the shopping any day. HND to me is a feel-good airport whose environment I enjoy. In NRT, I'm usually there after a long train ride and the outdated feel of the place doesn't help.

BRITINJAPAN3

Dont get excited about the OZ lounge at Gimpo. Its airside, normally very busy, some finger food and a limited dring selection. Nothing bad but nothing special, not even airport view.

For me HND is 10 times better than NRT but then I use airports to fly somewhere, not to shop, not sure of anything thats a bargin or special at HND, but I suppose if just transiting and you want some Japanese stuff its better.

I cant believe they will regional seats on the 787, what a shame. No, thats not true, I can believe it. On Japan Korea flights you better like fish, no choice of main in either Y or C and 99% of the time its fish

BuildingMyBento

GMP is one of my favorites. Convenient - to both Seoul and ICN, good pre-security food court and has a nostalgic feel to it.

grumbler

HND is an excellent airport, and not just because of proximity to Central Tokyo. Contrary to what a previous poster has suggested, the retail there is actually of a higher quality than NRT (if you are able to rip yourself away from Hermes scarves) and food offerings are superior. I also like the fact that the security and immigration formalities (at least on outbound - inbound immigration can be a bit of a pain) are reasonably efficient. The only downside is that onward connections ex-Japan are not as varied as through NRT, though domestic connections are much better. Plus, who doesn't love monorails ?

GMP is still a bit of a work in progress, unfortunately, but overall trip time to cities on HND-GMP routing is at least 2 hours time saved as opposed to NRT-ICN.

BRITINJAPAN3

The food court on the depature level i8n international has now gone not sure if renovation or just gone, Same for the fashion outlet in arrivals. I agree convienient and would not go out to Incheon un less I had to.

drvannostren

I didn't get there early enough to stop at a food court, security was really backed up (though it moved pretty quickly), I don't know that I even really saw it. But I went from the lower level check-in immediately to the security line on the upper level.

I will say GMP looked better departing than arriving, the customs hall was really what stuck out to me as old/out dated. I did love the location though, easy to get to and easy to find your way into the city, though ICN looks about the same, just farther.

Wait wait...NRT has a monorail!? Gotta make sure I visit NRT at some point. I have to say both inbound and outbound immigration were incredibly fast at HND. Maybe my times were conducive to this, but I hardly waited at all in either direction. The only thing that slowed me down outbound was a group of tourists from East-Timor (or Timor-Leste, not sure which is official) were going through security and clearly hadn't done this many times, they all got stopped for metal or prohibited foods and such.