To help squash this fantasy of an ANA ideal I’ll recount the only time I took ANA business flights (paid). Just before returning to London I had had kidney stones and was given some heat sensitive pain medication to help with getting back to the U.K. All I needed was assistance in keeping them cool (cabins can be very warm). Nope! ANA were not interested at all. Thankfully there was an Eastern European cabin crew on board, like a minnow darting around the big fish. He discretely got involved and rigged up a cup and ice solution for me. I’m still thankful to him personally, but I feel I have a much clearer view of what ANA actually is after that experience, which has been helpful (in its own way).

Managed to get to Shin-Osaka on Friday morning and reserve seats on on one of the trains leaving Friday afternoon (some were already fully reserved).

Looking at the edges of the storm system here now 500km West in Fukuoka (pitch black clouds and wind is picking up) I can only imagine how grim things are going to get on the East Coast. Stay safe.

I will not put such pretty picture about US airlines. It is true that when weather condition is developing, such as hurricanes and storms, airlines in the U.S. will issue weather advisory and regardless of a flight is cancelled or not if your flight is on a date mentioned on an advisory and travel through an airport which is mentioned on an advisory then airline will allow you to change your flights without penalty. However, those cases airlines will rebook you on their own flights only, airlines will not rebook you on another airlines with different routing.

I live at Boston and winter snow disruption is annual event and every time local news will have passengers stuck not able to leave Boston because all the flights for next few days are totally booked solid because of mass cancellation by a storm. When hurricane hit it is usual occurrence that tourists on Caribbean islands are stuck for few days not able to get back home because there simply no flight available with open seats.

If you read FlyerTalk post then you will see that today it is common practice by US airlines that airlines will not waive non-refundable or non-changeable restriction if a medical condition prevented from taking flights (even with a doctor's note) or there was a death of immediate family (even with a death certificate). When you bought a ticket, condition is there and there is a travel insurance to provide monetary compensation in case of irregular events.

I do understand situation is frustrating, I have been flying internationally for more than few decades (show my age :p ), and especially with internet today we will hear other people's story which sounds like they were treated better. But often the reality is other side always look greener, but...

I had a ZRH-ATL-SFO on 9/12/2017. Due to Hurricane Irma, the ZRH-ATL sector was severely delayed/cancelled. Delta rebooked me onto a direct ZRH-SFO Swiss flight, landing earlier than my original scheduled arrival. So it was different carrier, different alliance, different routing. Later I requested ORC and got credit on both UA and DL.

Point is, US airlines definitely can make things work during IRROPS.

Tomorrow (Saturday night) is gonna be the worst of it. Assuming you can get there, I think the Narita might be back up and running by noon Sunday, though with a healthy number of delays and cancellations. If he's still trying to get out there, keep in mind that JR East is gonna start suspending services at 9am in a rolling pattern based on where the lines are in relation to the storm -- ones that are further south and close to the coasts will be shuttered first. The Narita Line, which the Narita Express runs on, is scheduled to begin stopping service just after 10am tomorrow.

It looks like if your friend want to get to Narita on Saturday night then only option will be drive on own, all public transportation will not be running on Saturday night. Sunday morning will be also big question, as JR East has already said suspension of service will continue least till Sunday noon.

The forecast for Saturday looks grim in Tokyo, and particularly so for farmers in Chiba (still reeling from last month’s assault by Typhoon Faxai).

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.XaDF7S_TWhA
“ In a rather unusual step, major chain Ito Yokado said it will close 124 outlets in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Ibaraki, Gifu, Shizuoka and Aichi prefectures throughout Saturday. Department store Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings announced the same day that its Shinjuku, Ginza and Ebisu stores in Tokyo will close on Saturday as well.

Theme parks are no exception either. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea will close on Saturday for the first time since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, operator Oriental Land Co. said. Universal Studios Japan said its Osaka facility will do the same.”

I understand that the venerable Ameya Yokochou shopping area in Ueno will temporarily close as a precaution and that it’s the only time it has done so in response to a weather threat for at least 70 years.

—-
In contrast, a typhoon that was predicted to hit Tokyo hard back in October 2002 did not provoke these levels of cautionary measures. I missed the worst of it safely ensconced within the Makuhari Messe in Chiba (the now Emperor was there too). It turned out that that typhoon wasn’t as bad as predicted, but even so, nobody was particularly anxious before it arrived.
That particular typhoon is covered in the “making of” documentary that accompanies the Lost In Translation movie.

Quite hilarious to observe non Jaoanese people shopping this morning at Seijo Ishi, what are the changes that someone will eat 5 packs of psrma ham before the shops reopen tomorrow? Let's just buy everything we can carry that contains calories and don't require heating. I really had to restrain myself not to burst out laughing.

Maybe all of the 7--11 truck racing around the streets right now should hint that we are not facing food shortages....

Greetings from Narita, T1
 

Hi there, we are currently sitting in NRT T1. Since we have an award J ticket for tomorrows flight to SIN via BKK with TG 641 departing at 10:50.

We do not know, if we are on the waiting list and if so, we do not have high hopes to get to BKK anytime before Hagibis hits the area. Hotels in the area are fully booked. Train and bus transport to the airport will end with the last NEX leaving Tokyo Station at 11:03 am.

Since this is our first disruption and might be our first sleep-over at an airport: Any hints, tips, ideas?

If you hold a confirmed ticket for the flight on the 13th, then you are on the flight now worries. As long as it operates..

Current outlook is that the Kanto region should be clear of the Typhoon during the night, there is good reason to assume that the inbound flight from Bangkok will operate and land Sunday morning.

Might be tricky for a lot of customers to get to the airport though. Which should work to your advantage if you are indeed on the wairlist.

AA/JAL Saturday flight home from Tokyo to NYC was cancelled, AA wanted to rebook to Thursday with no compensation offered, still waiting on hold with JAL. Anyone have any tips or advice here?

Just found out, that we were not on the stand-by. Which doesn't matter now, since the flight is overbooked as the afternoon flight was cancelled. These people will have priority.
Ours for tomorrow morning is not cancelled yet, so let's hope for the best.

Had a short power outage already in T1, so the typhoon is getting nearer.

Is anyone here as well?

The people with confirmed bookings for tomorrow's flight have priority for that one. People from the cancelled flight will only get on to the extend that seats are available.

Sitting here on the 14th floor looking my Tokyo view, so far no weather that would have required a single train or flight cancellation. While I am sure it will come, the complete shut down of domestic flights today from Haneda has clearly been absurd.

Welcome to FlyerTalk! Look for alternate routings and supply those to the agent. An AA agent is probably going to be more flexible that JAL with alternate routings. Focus on getting to a US gateway, particularly with trying to standby on earlier flights. It's likely to be easier to get onward flights from there, although your total travel time could be higher.

Compensation is very unlikely for weather events.