My learnings from Typhoon 17 from a somewhat impacted Kitakyushu.

• Local and limited express transit may have knock on delays and status may only be reported on the JP train site. Online still might not be the actual status. In my case Google maps and JR JP website said cancelled while actual status was some departures cancelled, some delayed.
• Confirm, reconfirm, triple confirm that you are waiting for delayed transit in the correct place. There will be crowds, they will be queued, and it might not be the queue you want.
• Also confirm you're getting off at the right stop. Seems silly but when you can usually set time by the train schedule, it becomes a habit.
• Get yourself to a major station if you have a connection to running shinkansen or limited express and local line has delay. Unknown train delay at a smaller local station with 2x/hour frequency vs 15/20 min taxi. Take the taxi.

What’s the usual practice with long haul flights into Tokyo? I’m on SYD-NRT scheduled to land at 5pm Saturday.

Is it more likely they’ll cancel the flight, hold us in Sydney, or something else?

This is my first trip to Japan, so I appreciate all the advice and experience so far.

It is all airline dependent, there is no one answer applies to all airlines in every typhoon situation. JL (Japan Airlines) has crew and aircraft based at Tokyo, where QF (Qantas) has crew and aircraft based at Sydney, that situation itself will make JL and QF to make different decisions regarding how they handle their SYD-NRT flights during typhoon. Decision such as cancelling flight vs. delaying departure by half a day, etc. You just have to simply ask directly with your airline. Options which you will have in event of cancellation or delay is also dependent on an airlines you fly.

Call your airline and ask if they have made any decision regarding your Saturday flight to NRT. If an airline has not made a decision yet then only option you have at this moment is wait and see.

Looking at the current track of the Typhoon, my best guess is that JL would fly back to Japan, and land in Kansai Int or Nagoya if NRT is not an option. Either cancel there and send people by trains, or just wait it out in on of those airports. But a bit early to guess, so many things could happen to the trajectory. The Japanese airlines tend to decide quite last minute for typhoons, and not put in mass cancellations in advance.

Thank you both. Seems JL (who we’re flying) and QF (we booked on points) haven’t made decisions yet. We’ll wait it out, I guess!

Many years ago, a colleague of mine was on a Qantas flight that tried to land at NRT during a storm - after one aborted landing, it diverted to Sapporo. My colleague spent the next day on planes and trains back to Tokyo via Komatsu. Never did work out quite how he wound up with such a convoluted journey - I suspect he just felt like missing a few meetings.

Had a similar experience on a BA 747 from London. Tried to land as they eye of the typhoon was passing directly over the airport. Two flights managed to land in the eye just before us, but the eyewall hit the airport just as we were about to land. Knocked the plane two runway widths sideways in the blink of eye. Pilot pulled up and diverted to NGO. We weren't allowed off the plane and flew back up to NRT about 5 hours later.

ANA has officially canceled all domestic departures and arrivals into Haneda and Narita on the 12, while JAL is waiting until tomorrow to make their call.

I’ve shifted my international outbound out of Haneda from Sunday to Monday morning, since I don’t expect the trains or the airport to be back up and running for a while on Sunday.

Scheduled on an award flignt - ANA 173 IAH - NRT landing at 3:20 pm on Saturday. No way to know, but seems like ANA isn't afraid to land in a Typhoon assuming it's safe enough. Does this mean there is a significant possibility that we land in Narita and get stuck in the airport with trains/limo buses down? Considering flying to TPE instead on EVA and waiting it out for a couple of days but we really don't want to give up our ANA first class award. If we were flying economy, I'd re-route in a heartbeat. Any suggestions from the pros out there? We're totally conflicted. Thanks.

JR East:
Likelihood of suspension of train service at Tokyo and surrounding on 12th and 13th (Saturday and Sunday). This includes Tohoku Shinkansen and Jyoetsu Shinkansen.

JR West:
Likelihood of suspension of Shinkansen operation between Shin Osaka - Okayama starting morning of 12th (Saturday).

JR Tokai:
Likelihood of disruption/suspension of Shinkansen operation between Tokyo - Shin Osaka on 12th and 13th (Saturday and Sunday)

JAL:
Has not suspended entire operation at an airport like ANA. However, check with JAL.

11th, Friday
Some flights out of ITM and NGO have already been cancelled.

12th, Saturday
Some flights out of NRT, HND, NGO, ITM, and KIX have already been cancelled.

13th, Sunday
Some flights out of NRT have been already cancelled.

Rugby World Cup:
Following Saturday games are cancelled
New Zealand vs. Italy (at Toyota Stadium at Aichi near Nagoya)
England vs. France (at Yokohama International Stadium at Yokohama)

F1 Japan at Suzuka Circuit:
Regarding races on Saturday, 12th. Decision will be made on 2 p.m. Friday, 11th Japan time.

Update
 

ANA:
30 international flights out of HND and NRT on 12th and 13th are cancelled.

JAL:
Friday, 11th
2 domestic flights at NRT and 3 international flights at NRT and NGO are cancelled.

Saturday, 12th
377 domestic flights and 35 international flights are cancelled.

Sunday, 13th
2 domestic flights at NRT cancelled.

Express Way:
Portion of Tomei Express Way at Shizuoka pref. is closed due to high tide.

Baseball:
Saturday, 12th
Giants vs. Tigers at Tokyo Dome cancelled.
Seibu vs. Softbank at MetLife Stadium, likely to be cancelled.

Any sense of when the cancellations might start? Currently planning to travel Shin-Osaka to Hakata around 9am on Saturday 12th but it sounds like going late Friday might be advisable!

It is mother nature typhoon dealing with, will not able to predict that precise time as to when typhoon will make a land and what strength will have.

JR West said unless there is some big change in the situation next update will be Friday 10:30 a.m. Japan time.

If I were you, I will change Shin Osaka -Hakata to Friday or cancel the trip to Hakata.

Looking at the 6am projection today (11th) Tokyo would be in the zone with winds speeds above 25 m/s in 24 hours or so. And another 6 to 8 hours to be in the center of the storm.

Sustained wind speeds are down to 50m/s with gusts at 70 m/s

Flying on points
 

Hey everyone,

Longtime stalker, first time poster. Wish my first post was under better circumstances. I run a points booking and credit card consulting agency and will look foward providing lots of value here on flyertalk.

Unfortunately I am flying rom MEX --> NRT on tomrrow flight ANA 179 (Oct 12 leaving 2am, arriving at 6:45am). I have called ANA all week trying to get rebooked and they have refused to rebook me in reasonable terms because they said my flight is an award booking (transferred 100k amex points $280 copay to fly to Bangkok RT in layflat J with only one layover in Tokyo, hell of a deal right, my bad luck though!!), so they said they can only put me on award space, there is no award space for the next 6 months. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: They could easily route me through LAX and then Taipei with EVA air or maybe even United but just absolutely refused to.

Do you guys think tomorrow's flight will be cancelled, it seems like it supposed to land just 3-4 hours after the eye of the storm passes, it seems highly unlikely the flight is going to take off, perhaps only if its delayed a few hours. On the other hand MEX is super congested and if tonights flight takes off, which appears it will, they will have TWO 787's just sitting here.

They said they could fly me via EVA air on a star alliance award from Chicago but it would need 15k more points, so I transferred those in from amex but they are SLOWWW to transfer its been nearly 48 hours now still haven't posted. (Not to mention I'd need to fly Chicago on my own money) I transferred them anyways as a form of insurance but not so sure how much of a help it will be.

My friend has said once I check in and esp if the flight is cancelled than the flight becomes "IROPS" and they can reroute me through Los Angeles or SF or whatever either on ANA metal or through another star alliance carrier. Are they allowed to tell me to take a hike during irregular operations and not reroute me because its an award? My friend who is more into the points game says once I check-in it "transforms" into a regular ticket.

All phone systems are down as in it doesn't even work when you call the Japaneese or US 1-800 number.

I really think its lame for ANA to treat award passengers so poorly. If ANA refunds me the 100k points i'll have 115k in the account I can use for another star alliance flight but will have to book a last minute economy ticket and fly RT MEX to SE asia in economy, its a LOOONNNGGG way to go in Y.

Any thoughts on what to do here?