KIX or UKB to Osaka?
 

Any suggestions on whether there's any advantage to flying into UKB instead of KIX when travelling to Osaka?

We're looking to travel to Japan for a vacation and the best flight options we're pulling up are on ANA to UKB or KIX (both via HND). The transpacific flights are the same but there are two options for the second segment at the same price. The first is to head to UKB with a 1h45m stopover in HND while the second option is to head to KIX with a 2h30m stopover in HND; both arriving in the late evening (9-10pm'ish).

My current preference is the UKB option only because it will get us "near" Osaka 45mins earlier. On the surface, the travel time to Osaka from UKB and KIX seem similar.

Looking for guidance if there's any other things to consider like better/cheaper transportation options at one airport vs the other (we're likely going to train it into Osaka), less mayhem at one airport vs the other, etc.

TIA

From Kobe airport, your route to Osaka will be require a change of railway line (and railway company) at Sannomiya. From KIX you can take a non-stop train to several major stations in Osaka. Advantage KIX.

Journey times to the Umeda area (central, upscale) would be roughly the same from either airport. But if you're planning to spend the first night in the Namba area ("downtown" and gaudy) then KIX is the better choice. Advantage KIX?

OTOH, if you chose to spend the first night in downtown Kobe you could be there in about 20 minutes from UKB. That's what I'd do but YMMV.

Since Kobe airport doesn't really have direct rail access to Osaka, I'd recommend flying to KIX or ITM. If you do use UKB, you will have to make at least one change or more to get to Osaka.

ITM has bus or rail access to Osaka and KIX has the excellent Japan Rail "Haruka" that stops at multiple points in and around Osaka as well as local trains direct to the major downtown stations.

EDIT. Once again, we were typing at the same time. Great minds and all that.

Appreciate the helpful info.
Yes, we are also tossing around the idea of staying in Kobe for a night or two since we haven't been there yet. So, that might be an option too.

Unfortunately, flying into ITM is not showing up as an option. However, (surprisingly?) flying out of ITM is the only option on the return (for the price points we're pulling up).

EDIT: I'm seeing options to fly into ITM now. Choices, choices...

We travel between Vancouver and Kobe regularly.

Options are limited, Air Canada Rouge has a route started May 1, 2015 between YVR and KIX but we don't like Rouge very much so we doubt we will take route.

We usually end up going ITM NRT YVR and we have also done ITM HND YVR return.

We are Star Alliance so our loyalty lies with AC and ANA. We generally prefer ANA over AC.

For us, our home is Nishinomiya which is a quick taxi ride to/from ITM.

When we use KIX, we use the airport limo to KIX.

Last year, we did YVR SEA NRT ITM, on UA. We wanted to try out the Boeing Dreamliner.

If my destination is OSAKA, we would prefer to arrive at KIX only because their are many options to get to OSAKA directly as others have already mentioned.

Thx for the additional info.

I'm curious if AC Rouge restarting AC's direct route from YVR to Osaka is part of the reason for these ANA fares. There were initially even cheaper but we missed that window (but there are some decent deals again in the fall). And the weird thing is that even though these flights to Osaka area airports connect through HND each way, the prices to Tokyo are way more expensive (at least for our dates).

I've flown AC Rouge to Vegas and have no complaints. But the wife is concerned about flying a long haul flight with them.

Your wife and I are of one thought. I believe they offer IPAD rentals for a fee.

My friend uses UKB HND route fairly often. Remember, UKB is not in Kobe proper but on Port Island. Very close and linked by a rail and roadway however really lonely part of town.

Spend an evening in Kobe still would mean getting to Kobe central via the rail or taxi.

Now that I live here for the past year, I think Kobe is quiet town at night. Even their night district is very small.

Thanks for all the help.
We ended up booking the connection to KIX based on a couple of reasons. Even though the connection to UKB was "legal" we felt it wouldn't hurt to have a few more minutes to connect in case our flight was delayed, we got held up in immigration, etc. And we think we'll just end up homebasing in Osaka (at least part of the trip) to potentially save us a hotel move.