Not allowed to do turnaround transit in NRT?
 

For background, my wife is immigrating to the US from the Philippines. Originally I had planned to fly to Manila to accompany her back to the US. The Philippines has banned foreigners from the US so that plan is out. Since I miss flying we decided that I will meet her in NRT and accompany her to the US. I booked 2 one way tickets as it was much cheaper than a roundtrip fare and used PointsPlus to upgrade both ways. Transit is allowed in NRT and I would be spending less than 4 hours in the airport as the flight is an immediate return to EWR. I got a call from United saying that I will not be permitted to board because I do not qualify to enter Japan. I tried to explain that I am simply transiting on an immediate turnaround flight. They put me on hold and said I still would not be allowed to board since the transit has to be to a third country and departing and arriving the US means there are only 2 countries involved. This really does not make any sense to me. Has anybody heard something like this before? I am thinking of booking a refundable ticket to a third country but am hesitant since I am not sure what I would do if they deny my boarding in NRT. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

UA is correct. You are not transiting (a return to origin on a separate ticket is not a transit), you have a single ticket whose destination is Japan, and since you are not permitted to enter Japan, you would be denied boarding.

There was a long discussion about a similar situation on the BA board recently.

It is not UA that is responsible for this, but the decisions of the government of Japan.

Turnarounds (including two one-ways) are not considered as transit.

Here's specific language I found. Doesn't necessarily make sense about not being able to just turn around, but Japanese gov't officials can be sticklers about the written word -

"Travelers who are not entering Japan and transferring directly to a third country by transit, are not required to submit any documents and undergo PCR tests."

You're basically using Japan as a meet up point, not a transit. You might be able to get away with one ticket EWR-NRT-EWR. I don't see point of even trying to show up at EWR if UA has already contacted you directly. You think they're going to forget or ignore Japan's rules?

Don't buy a refundable ticket to a third country to fulfil the "requirements" suggested by a UA phone agent. First, that's against most airline's contracts of carriages to buy a ticket you have no intention of using, plus it doesn't facilitate what you want to do (travel to Japan on separate tickets). Phone agents are sometimes not the purveyors of the most accurate info. To be in transit, you need to have two segments on either side of the transit point on one ticket.

Please don't hold me to this: On its surface, it does sound correct. You are indeed not transiting NRT, it is your destination (granted, with a short stay).

As far as others experience, they may have it in a normal environment... but with all the international COVID restrictions (and some of those seem to change daily), I think you will be hard pressed to find much experience.

Why don't you two meet in HNL? or GUM?

UA is right. This is not transit. UA once let me do this to Moscow...and almost got in big trouble.

Her flight is already booked to EWR and I got a great deal on a one way ticket and was able to use PointsPlus to upgrade. The idea was really to help her at immigration and with all her bags. Meeting in HNL or GUM would be like EWR, except I do not get to fly, which I am itching to do. I will likely go to EWR and see what happens, but expecting that I will be denied boarding.

This won't work since your EWR to NRT segment, on its own, would be grounds for denied boarding at the point of origin (EWR).

I agree that I would likely be denied boarding because I have an immediate return flight booked on UA back to EWR. However, if I truly was transiting, for example my original plan to Manila, then I assume UA would not have denied boarding since I would be transiting to a third county,

You could fake it with a ticket to a third country, but I don't recommend it (and this may not be possible if you have the return on a single ticket).

Is there a third country you could fly to, a sort of triangle route? Maybe fly to ICN first, then NRT to catch the flight back?

Agents at airport don't have the information of your immediate turnaround, so as far as they are concerned, your final destination is bound for Tokyo.

While adding an additional onward destination would qualify you for transit, Manilla is closed to foreigners (as you had alluded to in your original post), so you would have a similar fate with a EWR-NRT-MNL ticket when boarding at EWR.

That is actually a good idea and would be legal and work. Thanks for the heads up, I will check on that.

You were lucky UA called you. Same thing happened to me HKG-SGN-HKG, except UA didn't notify me ahead of time, and I didn't get the bad news until attempting to check-in at HKG. Count your blessings: you were forewarned.

This has nothing to do with UA and really belongs in the Japan thread. OP should thank UA for having called. Most carriers would not have caught this until the document check at departure or, if they did, not have called.

As others note, transit has always involved three separate jurisdictions: origin, transit & destination. Here, even if UA researched and saw the return ticket, this would not be a transit.

As others note, OP will need to find a third nation which will permit him to enter and then fly back from there. Even a round-trip to NRT won't work because there is no transit.

I agree it is actually not a UA issue. Would flying EWR to MEX, MEX to NRT, NRT to EWR work? Mexico has no testing requirements so this seems the easiest and quite doable.

Sure, but logistic is going to be difficult, as you would need to put at least MEX-NRT-EWR on one ticket to minimize any issue. You will also needing to fly 2-3 days considering EWR to MEX to NRT to EWR do not line up timing wise (I think ANA has an after midnight flight from MEX, and arriving the following morning (+1 day) - leaving on a Tuesday from EWR, you would not get to NRT until Thursday morning.

A regular coach ticket is not going to be cheap for EWR-MEX-NRT-EWR.

Testing requirement will be in effect soon on flights back to the US.

You would need to purchase an EWR-MEX ticket and a separate MEX-NRT-EWR ticket (presumably on NH). You would have to hope that NH sees that second ticket as a NRT transit and you are at its mercy. If it goes wrong, you are stuck in MEX. Same problem for you if your xEWR flight goes sideways and you no show for your second ticket.

In these times with limited options, I see traveling on separate tickets and on complex routings as risky. If it goes wrong, your wife is left standing at NRT. Moreover, she presumably needs to be ticketed on NH as well if you are to accompany her.

If your return to the US is on or after the 26th, both of you will require negative tests.

Do you think you can buy a MEX-EWR ticket with a connection in NRT? That seems like it would be really hard to get ticketed.

As this query is about Japan/NRT travel controls, will move this to Japan forum

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Buying a separate ticket to a third country won’t work because UA will consider that your ticket with them ends in NRT. Since you are not permitted to enter Japan, you would be denied boarding.

Yes, at the low low price of a full Y, a sample economy class search in early Feb came back with a price $6,763.92 for MEX-NRT-EWR.

One other thing to note, and this would be useful even without any kind of border closure: airlines have no obligations to protect passengers on any kind of separate tickets (e.g. two one-ways). In OP's case, even in a post-Covid world without current restrictions, any kind of long delay on the outbound EWR to NRT leg may result in missing the return flight, as UA has been using different planes for inbound and outbound flights to/from NRT.

If you are already married, you may be able to obtain dispensation from the Philippines government to travel via their consulate. In normal times, if you were to travel with your Philippines citizen spouse and bring proof of marriage, you could obtain a different, long-stay visa than the standard tourist visa. May be worth looking into if you have time.

Seems to me that Guam would be the ideal place to meet. I believe there are still flights from MNL-GUM going. Once in Guam, you are likely going to be forced to stay in a government supervised hotel for a day, but you can then fly together from Guam to the Mainland.

I have booked 3 separate tickets. EWR-MEX on UA, then MEX-NRT using miles on NH, and then NRT-EWR. Since it is all within Star Alliance, I would think ANA could see the UA ticket and qualify me for transit in NRT. Does this seem like it would not work?

pre-pandemic, likely would work

now, who knows?

past reports say probably okay: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32859692-post4.html

really wouldn't recommend doing this - NRT-EWR is usually empty, let your wife enjoy J and meet her at EWR, why expose yourself to more risks (health, and misconnect risks) when you dont need to?
if you misconnect, who's picking your wife from airport?

i don't know if unitd's concierge still works at newark - https://united.globalairportconcierge.com/services.php

Perhaps they like to be together. ;)

Don't forget that OP also wants to fly... somewhere, anywhere. I know the feeling.

That is right really want to fly. Also she has many bags so would want to be there to help her at baggage claim. I am going to take my chance on the flights I booked with separate tickets through MEX and hope for the best. Worst case I will have to fly back from MEX to EWR, but it is worth the risk to me.

Just because NH and UA are in the same alliance does not mean they can cross reference passenger ticket information. NH (ANA) at MEX is NOT able to see your separate UA ticket from NRT to EWR.

While I applaud your effort to help your wife move, be prepared to have backup plans in the likely event of denied boarding at MEX - e.g. return flight back to EWR from MEX.

I don't know which flights you booked, but note that overnight connections at NRT currently aren't permitted.

Can you book a different flight which arrives to EWR at approximately the same time and meet her at baggage claims?

MEX-NRT arrives 6am, NRT-EWR departs 5pm, it's fine (barring misconnect risks). enjoy the NH Suites lounge (only one open right now)

UA78 seems to be arriving at Terminal B, but that's no guarantee (3:45pm, though it can be 30-40 min early)

OP will need to arrive from a int'l flight as well in the same terminal (due to customs/bags requirement)


nearest flight would be UA MEX-EWR arriving 1:15pm, but that's been arriving 50min early, and loitering at customs would give you strange looks (really really dont recommend doing that)
or B6 SDQ-EWR arriving 3:28pm, but that's often late



too bad UA doesn't operate NRT-IAD now - wife would arrive midfield concourse (bags not as complicated there), OP can meet airside and fly to EWR

for me, i would definitely recommend looking at arrivals concierge service over flying EWR-MEX-NRT-EWR. oh well

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The MEX-NRT bound flight gets in first thing in the morning around 630AM. Assuming the OP is allowed to board the flight (big if), that would be almost 11 hours of layover until the UA flight bound for EWR.

Interesting proposal for the baggage area meet. Note, however, international inbounds would be in the secured area of the airport and given the reduced international traffic and all of the ever changing rules, this is also a great risk. Hanging around by the baggage area for too long, and you are likely to get a talking to.

It is unlikely that NH will treat the transfer between two tickets at NRT as a transit. This leaves OP "stranded" at MEX and purchasing a new ticket back to the US.

I'm not so sure NH would veto this.

But what may make this easier if OP books MEX-NRT-ICN/ULN/IST (somewhere you could go with just a negative test) on one ticket and then NRT-EWR on the other. That is still a valid transit in NRT (unlike USA - Japan - USA) and so what if "plans change"?

Or you could just sue them, isn't that typically how you solve problems that don't go your way?

I think that MEX-NRT-EWR is a very odd routing. I think that there is a risk that the airline will think that NRT is the intended destination and that the passenger is trying to abuse the system by showing up at NRT passport control and no-showing from the NRT-EWR leg. The airline might therefore deny boarding at MEX.

It is a very odd routing. But, the problem is that separate tickets MEX-NRT and NRT-EWR with a claim of "transit" is even odder.

Bottom line is that "odd" isn't the standard, it is whether OP's ground time in Japan qualifies as a "transit." If it does not, he will be denied boarding at MEX however he is ticketed.

The rules are it has to be 24 hours or less for transit in Narita. I did call NH and I know a representative is not definitive, but he checked and said as long as I have a valid ticket it would be fine. He even noted in my reservation that I am connecting to UA78. I realize there is a chance I will have to book a ticket back to EWR if this does not work out, but it is a risk I am willing to take as I could use a little adventure right now. Also, someone above said NH cannot see my UA reservation. That is not my experience as I flew before from MNL-NRT-EWR on separate tickets (one was UA award travel and the other a paid NH ticket) and they were able to look up my UA reservation and even print out my boarding pass for the EWR flight.

As far as NH (ANA) is concerned, it is only aware of the passenger's destination ending in NRT. Whether or not the ground staff at MEX would allow the separate ticket as validity for transit at the airline's own risk is the key.

If OP was intending to fly this month, I don't think they would grant him a dispensation. There's currently an entry restriction for foreign nationals from a group of 30~ countries, which includes the US. Right now, its in effect until the end of Jan and does not allow any exemptions.

That is correct . I even got a Visa and was planning to go to Manila, but due to the entry ban that is what resulted in the idea to try and meet in Narita.