it’s
LAX-NRT (UA)
NRT-SIN (ANA)
on split itineraries

i had shown her the ANA eticket and the policies all printed out

i finally got through, and i had your same understanding. lady at the 1k counter would NOT have it. said i need MySOS, “how would United know if you aren’t staying in Japan if it’s a separate itinerary and you don’t do mySOS?”

i had printouts of the policies from the ANA website, didn’t matter. had to get a supervisor who immediately knew it wasn’t a problem. got me through in 15 min after that.

Wow, that kind of stuff happened in 2020, but this far in to 2022, that's just nuts. Glad you were able to get through, hopefully that agent learned something. I've only flown JAL when transiting since COVID started, and they've never given me grief, even on separate tickets.

It should not happen, but it does. The key one is really to have the ticket for the continuing flight printed and ready. United is probably a bit less used to dealing with it than ANA and JAL. But for these kinds of trips, it is also important to have plenty of time for check in. Even still flying via or to Japan on other carries than ANA and JAL, check in often takes 10-15 minutes as they are not that used to dealing with the Japan rules.

It should not happen, but it does. The key one is really to have the ticket for the continuing flight printed and ready. United is probably a bit less used to dealing with it than ANA and JAL. But for these kinds of trips, it is also important to have plenty of time for check in. Even still flying via or to Japan on other carries than ANA and JAL, check in often takes 10-15 minutes as they are not that used to dealing with the Japan rules.

thanks all on this thread for the help and advice!

Based on my understanding, this will be no problems, however I want to confirm before fully commiting. These are both in NRT.

Outbound: transiting from AC3, landing at 3:10 and then taking JL717 to BKK, leaving at 6PM. Separate tickets, of course - no bags.
Inbound: transiting from NH808 (arrives 8AM) and then NH6, leaving at 5PM. One ticket, no bags. Long layover.

Mind confirming? TIA!

I believe this is fine, I would cheerfully book this for myself. The difficulty if any could be an ignorant or stubborn check-in staff. I'd arrive for check-in with plenty of time to spare in case of an argument.

I'm going to be running a close/risky connection (separate itineraries) in a couple weeks and want to verify some assumptions.

I will land around 3:30pm on JL8009 in F from ORD (carry-on only) and then trying to make it to Korean in T1 for a 5:20pm flight before they close the doors. After a 10 min or so taxi, I'm banking on being let off the plane first, but that's been questionable based on other posts here. I'm going to attempt to check in for the flight at ORD as the ticket counter should be open, but I'm guessing that will be a no-go. Either that, or hoping I can check in online like JAL has been letting me do, and just have them verify passport/covid test at the gate.

That said, the flight seems to be consistent in arriving around 3:30pm, probably to the gate at 3:50, out of the plane at 4. Flight seems to consistently land at T2 gate 63. Given that I'm coming from the US, I should be dumped straight in the terminal, and would then have to walk to the shuttle bus, which looks like a bit of a haul, but not crazy. My memory's slipping, but I'm assuming I pass the transfer desks on the way to the T1 bus and would be able to check in if needed. Ultimately, I have 45 minutes to an hour to safely get from leaving JL8009 to entering KE704.

Assuming JL8009 is on time, is this a possible (albeit tight) itinerary? Only flight I could make work with OW points since there are no other flights from NRT to ICN after 4pm.

On my last couple of JAL flights, it has been passengers entering Japan that was let off the plane first. I am not sure if there is a logic to when it happens in what order. But my feeling is that it is not necessarily JAL that decides.

I would guess KE has online check-in, but I have never flown them. Somehow I would expect the transfer desks in T2 to only handle T2 based airlines, I have never used them though.

Last i heard, the inter terminal bus was still operating by request, but arrived pretty quickly.

Possible? Yes. Leeway? Close to none. Does KE like JAL and ANA operate with very short boarding? JAL typically lists boarding for a 77W 20 to 30 minutes before departure.

Yeah, I'm expecting zero leeway and a symphony of everything going right. given that past performance doesn't necessarily indicative of future results, JAL originating from ORD seems to be solidly on time (knocks on wood). KE's website shows boarding starts 40 minutes before the flight, and gates close 10 minutes before for international.

Interestingly after some googling, it seems like OLCI is still available 48 hours prior for flights that don't originate from the US and I was able to apply for Automatic check-in which will send me a boarding pass 24 hours prior to the flight, so I should be good to go and have my boarding pass before I arrive at ORD. I guess it will all come down to moving between gate 63 and T1, which an hour should be more than enough time.

Thanks! Would you mind confirming that I'd arrive in T1 and take off T2 (YVR-NRT-BKK)?

Figured this was interesting to share: Urgent! Transferring from narita to haneda airport : Flights (reddit.com)

Found this interesting. Here's a datapoint from a month ago of someone who wasn't allowed to enter Japan, through an oversight in Vietnam boarded a flight to NRT with a connection at HND. They were given an exception and allowed to enter Japan and hop a bus to HND. From his messages, he was told he had to quarantine 7 days and the entry might not have been explicitly restricted to going straight to HND, but they didn't want to chance it and hopped on a bus straight there.

You will. Today's AC3 flight arrives in T1S (South wing) Gate 38 and JL717 takes off in T2 gate 93.

Thanks - do you know if the airside bus from T1 to T2 directly not running according to this? https://www.narita-airport.jp/en/access/shuttlebus

In this case, would it require me stopping at T3 first, and then T2?

Yeah I saw that when I was looking in to my transfer as well, but it looks like you just stay on the same bus that goes between all 3 terminals, and it will just make a stop at T3 first then on to T2. So 10 minutes to T3, 3 minutes to T2. Keep an eye on AC3 though, it appears to have a terrible on time track record, usually arriving between 4 and 4:30, which means you will be zooming across terminals like I will if you happen to be on one of those late flights. But if you have your boarding pass and you are carryon only, you should be able to make it.