I a flying from NRT to the US on NW in mid-June. I have status on NW, so can use Business Class check-in. How long before the flight to I actually need to get to the airport?

in NRT they are sometimes really strict. normal int. checkin time is 1hour before.

dp

IMHO 1 hour is cutting it very, very close - and as noted above, they may cut off check-in at 60 minutes prior to departure and then you are SOL.

I would always allow no less than 2 hours to make a US-bound flight out of NRT.

I also agree with previous post: 2 hours. The walk to the gate area can be a little long. Also inside of 2 hours, lines tend to get long at check-in. You can always do some duty-free shopping. There are plenty of restaurants to eat at before you go through screening. Have a great trip!!

With business class check in 90 minutes should be enough. But don't leave it much later!

It took me 45 minutes to clear immigration/security checks at T2 this morning (Monday). Long lines, looked chaotic but was very ordered instead.

A counterpoint: it took me exactly 8 minutes to clear outbound immigration at 10am in the morning at T2 North entrance a couple days ago. This was on Aug 30, one day after school started in Japan.

Yep - The lines out of Tokyo can sometimes be short. But don't count on it. And don't count on being able to predict which days are going to be "long queue" days at Narita airport.

You can sometimes expect things to be relatively quiet at the airport - on a regular business & school day in the middle of the week - but discover that they don't have people at very many counters for the immigration check. This means that you can be in a long line of people who have to show their passports before being allowed to leave the country.

Rule of thumb for international flights out of Narita = Aim to be in line at the check in desks 2 hours before your departure time. If you can use the business class or first class check in counters, then 90 minutes is OK.

Any less than that is not advisable.

another vote for 2 hours

Immigration has taken me up to 2 hours, and as little as 15 minutes. As far as I can tell, there has'nt been any pattern, but this is on UA.