Chasing Cherry Blossoms, Old Friends & Uncle Jack

[Jacques Vert]

Thanks to all the wonderful advice and tips on this site, and credit card bonus offers, +1 (GEM56) and I have commenced another 280K award trip; this time starting in Japan.

As we like to get the full value from our points, we have split the ticket into three parts:

CFS-SYD-NRT Stop one. A month in Japan then we fly home on a separate paid return ticket.

NRT-BJS Stop two. A taste of China on the way to France.

BJS-LHR-MRS Stop three. Provence, two weeks on the Canal du Midi in Sept/Oct, then southern France and a bit of Spain.

MAD-FCO-DOH-JNB Stop four. A long transit in Rome as last time the Trevi was under scaffolding and the Colosseum was closed. Then a few days in Kruger before flying home again on another paid return ticket.

JNB-(surface sector)-WDH. A few weeks in southern Africa in Feb/March next year.

WDH-JNB-LVI. Stop five. Off to see the falls.

LVI-JNB-SYD-CFS. Home at last.

 

[LadyC]

Sounds like a great few trips you have there!

 

[love_the_life]

Even with coming home after Japan, this is some long trip. Sounds fantastic. Looking forward to more.

 

[OATEK]

Plenty to look forward to in this one!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Sounds like a great few trips you have there!

Even with coming home after Japan, this is some long trip. Sounds fantastic. Looking forward to more.

Plenty to look forward to in this one!

Yes; a few trips spread over the next eleven months using the one award ticket. But this thread will concentrate on the Japan leg. We will probably put the second and third parts into separate threads - lets see how we go.

When I say "we", that's GEM56 & I. My +1 took all the photos for my last trip report but now that she has joined AFF we have decided to do this report together. not sure whether that has been done before so it will be an interesting experience for us.

+1 will supply the photos and make her comments; I will give my tips, etc.

 

[Jacques Vert]

As our flight to Japan was an 0815 departure the following day, day one consisted of QF2107 CFS-SYD on a Q400. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport as it was cheaper than Rydges and I had a $50 dining rewards voucher expiring at the end of the month.

Through a bit of hard work I managed to get my money's worth out of the IHG Dining Rewards membership but would think long and hard before signing up for a similar program in future.

 

[Jacques Vert]

The number 400 bus

From the airport to the HI we took the 400 bus for $1.05 each on the Gold Opal, compared with ~$15 for one stop on the train.

After checking in, we caught the bus back to the airport as we had friends passing through that afternoon. So by the time we went airport-hotel, hotel-airport, back to the hotel, then back to the airport the following day, a total of 4 trips, we had spent $4.20 instead of ~$60, each:shock:

A word of warning: on each occasion the bus left around 5 minutes early so make sure you are at the stop with ample spare time if considering this option.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Of course with an 0815 departure we had the OMG wake-up at 0430 to allow time for showers, make-up (not mine), check out, bus, check-in, security, etc., and of course breakfast in the lounge.

JL772 was a B777 (2-3-2 in J) and we were told on check-in that there was only one window seat left but they could get us together sitting either side of an isle. On board it turned out that there were only a total of about 10 in J including us; in fact the whole plane was very lightly loaded with one whole section of Y with not one pax. Go figure - could have sat just about anywhere!

 

[Gem56]

Great flight, great food, wonderful service - just love the Japanese!

 

[Jacques Vert]

JL772 arrived a few minutes early and priority baggage worked fairly well. Immigration was a bit slow but nowhere near as bad as SYD.

First time in Japan and the first time I’ve had my fingerprints taken.

Customs was a breeze with a very polite young lady checking us through in less than two minutes.

As the time was now getting on to 1735 I was glad I had booked the Hilton at Narita: about 15 minutes from the airport with a free shuttle service.

The timetable has changed so we had to wait a little longer than expected; why is it that websites are often forgotten when changes are made?

 

[Jacques Vert]

The Hilton was nice, no executive lounge but a coupon for two free drinks and complimentary breakfast (as a diamond through a status match). The bar also had a happy hour including a small selection of food: potato gems and corn chips. Just enough for us after all the food on the flight.

We were a bit tired after the long flight so forgot to take photos.

 

[Jacques Vert]

There are of course a number of threads on cherry blossoms on this site and they have inspired us to time our visit to Japan for blossom viewing. However, due to grandparent duties and flight availability we are very late in the season.

So we are heading north to Hokkaido first which may give a somewhat different perspective than other cherry blossom threads.

 

[drron]

Possibly might be a little early for some parts of Hokkaido.
We were in Akita 21/4-24/4 then Hirosake 24/4-27/4 and were there for peak viewing.They are in northern Honshu.
We possibly passed if you took the Hokkaido shinkansen.

 

[Jacques Vert]

We possibly passed if you took the Hokkaido shinkansen.

To get to Hokkaido and to travel to other areas in Japan we booked JAL SAKITOKU advance purchase fares.



The SAKITOKU fares are interesting: they seem to be released for sale twice a year. For example, they went on sale in late January for March to October; there are four different types (depending on how far you book ahead), and they do have the JPY1,000 Class J upgrade option which can be locked in on purchase (but not on all flights and the cheapest tickets sell out fairly quickly).

You can also upgrade them to first class at the airport if space is available for JPY 8,000, on flights that have first of course, similar to the TOKUBIN fares.

We managed to get the ULTRA SAKITOKU fares for all of our flights including in Golden Week so not a bad deal for us.

And being in and around Golden Week while we are here, I wanted to lock in some of our travel options.

 

[Jacques Vert]

The JL flight to Hokkaido was from HND to CTS and of course our flight from SYD had arrived into NRT. So after checking train options which would require two changes, we decided to take the Limo:



So it was back to NRT on the shuttle and to the Limo counter. The one way fare is JPY 3,100 but international visitors can purchase a non-refundable return ticket for JPY4,500 (need to show passport), which suited us as we are flying out from NRT at the end of the trip.

Apparently the return voucher is only available from NRT:?:

Our LIMO went direct from NRT to HND with no stops and took just over an hour; quite a good service and would happily use them again.

 

[Jacques Vert]

So when checking in at HND I asked the check-in girl whether there was space available to upgrade to first. She had no idea what I was talking about and eventually told me that first was not available on our flight. Not sure whether the problem was her poor English or my non-existent Japanese or whether there were no seats left.

When we were closer to our gate I spotted a JAL transfer desk so I asked again there. This young chap spoke good English and was able to confirm that there were two seats together left in first and that the cost of an upgrade was JPY 7,000.

I am aware that standby upgrades to Class J no longer earn at the full SC rate but what is the deal with upgrading an upgrade?

Should we or shouldn't we? Decisions.....

 

[Major]

Wow, there is quite a variety here

 

[Jacques Vert]

Should we or shouldn't we? Decisions.....

We decided to take the upgrade and see what JL domestic first is like; metal was a B777. It will be interesting to see what points and SCs we receive although I'm not expecting much.

I'll hand over to GEM56 for her comments and photos on the Diamond Premier Lounge in HND and the service on the flight to CTS

 

[Gem56]

The Lounge was pleasant enough however nothing to rave about. Tea, coffee, juice and beer (no wine); rice crackers, sushi rice and croissants. 1[SUP]st[/SUP] class on the flight was equivalent to Premium Class. However the service from the staff is absolutely number 1.

 

[drron]

We did the HND-CTS on a JAL777 just before the bankruptcy in Y.We were on a round Asis J ticket but couldn't get them to book us into J and no J seats on the day.Then J was decidedly not worth it on the domestic 777.We had the first row of Y and had the most legroom of anyone.It looked like a galley had been left out.Ended up glad we missed J.
Certainly seems that the bankruptcy improved the J domestic product.