I believe SOFAs use the resident line, not the priority line that ABTC holders get to use. I've seen lengthy queues in the resident line more often than not recently, but have never had anyone in front of me when using the ABTC.

Did exactly mean the resident line. Which can be a good reason to use the e gates compared to the default alternative.

The existence of TTP (thank you for letting me know this exists! Will be applying and hopefully I�m approved in a few months) doesn�t negate the fact that JAL should be paying the airport authorities to implement fast track.

I�d repeat my point that fast track is an expectation at most hub airports around the world when flying F. The airlines pay for it. It�s priced into the ticket.

I�m based in the UK and, off the top of my head, don�t recall a single major European airport that doesn�t have fast track, whether it�s bundled into the price of an F ticket or just requires a small additional fee.

Heathrow terminal 3 seems to have removed their first class fast track. Though I could never use it, as it did not allow European passports. But I guess the big expansion of who can use the e gates made the fast track a lot less necessary.

Quite a few Emirates stations don't provide fast track for F passengers in Europe.

True, Lufthansa and Air France have quite nifty options to take their F passengers out of the general flow. But other airlines landing with F in these airports don't get to use those facilities.

Which I think is reasonable. I wouldn�t expect SQ to be able to fast track passengers through JP immigration, for example.

But, just as LH can fast track F pax through FRA, AF can for CDG, Swiss can for ZRH, and QR can for DOH, so also I don�t think it�s unreasonable to want JAL to do so at HND when an F ticket costs �10k+. A premium airline can reasonably be expected to do so for its home airport.

It�s jarring how big the disparity is between the on-air experience and that on the ground. F on JAL A351 is world class and ranks amongst the best, together with SQ, AF and Swiss. The F experience on the ground, though, is middling. It�s not bad by any means, it�s just middling.

The ground experience is indeed not the highlight of JAL. There are some nice aspects to their F ground experience, but overall it is more functional than luxurious.

My gripe about immigration is really that Haneda Airport is just a mess, and they really need to do something about that. Especially as Japan wants to grow their tourism even more. If they could make it as smooth as Singapore immigration, no one would complain. But that is more for GoJ to fix.

Haneda immigration was again a nightmare. Will have to brave the queues two more times this month, as a result of short hops to and from HK and Singapore a week apart.

Does anyone have recent experience of how long it takes for TTP to be approved? Unlike most visa applications around the world, there doesn�t seem to be any option to pay extra for it to be expedited, unless I�m missing something.

Hi. What time did you land? I have HND-KIX connection for 2.5hrs. Not sure if I should move my flight if immigration lines are bad again.

Am always on the A351 from either LHR or CDG, so late afternoon.

2.5h should be fine. But, if there�s even a short delay at departure (say 1 hour), you�ll likely misconnect. The immigration plus baggage wait can be 1.5h or more on a bad day.

JAL should rebook you though. I assume same day rebooking wouldn�t be an issue as HND-KIX no doubt has lots of flights each day. The problem comes when your connecting flight is to a smaller airport that has one or two flights a day. The inevitable misconnect means you stay the night at HND.

What JAL won�t do is have ground staff usher you past the lines. Maybe you can shove your way through yourself and cut the queue, but I�ve asked many times flying F, as OWE, where I knew I would definitely misconnect, and always been told that it was �difficult� (with the usual Japanese politeness).

3 daily 73H on HND-KIX is not lots of flights each day unless you count ITM ones as well.

It seems to be anywhere from 30-90 days recently for preliminary inspection. There's no option to expedite. If you search around reddit and here on FT there are threads about TTP with more data points.

Landed on JL52in Haneda yesterday, 16:39 touchdown. The immigration hall was almost empty. I have. Made a point of looking what the visitors' lines look like.

AF fast tracks F pax to the front of line at HND … so there is definitely a way. Maybe other airlines don’t want to pay, and for JL the volume and personnel requirement likely is too costly.

AF is a bit special, they manage it in places where many other can't/does not. Maybe just a matter of enough money. But then again their F footprint is quite small and somewhat more exclusive than most.

I am sure if you get the gold tags from JAL they will also make sure you don't wait.

Right, and right.

I am not much familiar with the JAL status thing, but I have seen a few times F (and non-F) pax being ushered from the jet bridge by a brigade of JAL staff and whisked through immigration. It is all a bit weird � AF does well with one representative for each guest. JAL sends 3-4 people to meet one passenger, literally. In a recent flight I squeezed past the brigade while each one were bowing continuously to the escorted passenger and they visibly didn�t like that did that. Sorry, I am not spending more time in the migration queue waiting for endless bowing for someone else