Ooops.....I really need to recall a great deal now to write something that happened a year ago! Here it goes...
On the night of 31 Jan 2012 (Tuesday), headed to Changi Airport Terminal 2 for the ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda. After check-in, went to the Krisflyer Lounge for some bites before getting to boarding gate. So far as good, all has been very smooth and uneventful.
The plane a Boeing 767-300ER series looks pretty new and nice on the inside. That's first impression.
It was followed with a nice little bag of water and some snacks. Another good impression of Japanese service.
Meal served thereafter was ok, not quite to my taste though....
Now that i had seat long enough on the economy seat, what's my take on it?
The width and space are ok, not luxurious but adequate for me an average size Asian Chinese (well I guess I better don't divulge too much personal detail like my height, weight, etc.....hahaha since i'm planning to share this blog publicly so that people can benefits from reading this DIY trip). The seat looks nice but trust me after seating on it for 7 hours through the night, i had a sore butt upon reaching Haneda! The seat cannot recline backward (its a common new seat design so that this does not disrupt the person seating behind), the seat instead will slide to the front, pulling your back along to create that recline but in doing this, your leg has to slide to the front under the seat in front of you, and this is really uncomfortable for even an average size asian like me, i can't imagine for the taller, bigger travelers! For a day flight where you can stand up and walk around to relieve the sore butt then i guess it will not be so bad, but for a night flight when you are generally trying to seat and get some sleep, the seat will be a torture to your butt after 7 hours! Simply put, i don't like the seat. But i guess for poor chap like me, this will still be an open option to me in my next trip to Tokyo, I will still consider flying on this flight if the price is right and the timing is good.
Arrival into Handea was at about 6am Tokyo time and this is 5am Singapore time.
Did not quite expected it, it was a long walk from the gate to the immigration checkpoint.
After immigration, collected our luggage and headed straight to the domestic check-in counter to check-in our luggage for the next connecting flight to Sapporo. Do note that for all incoming international flight, all passengers will need to collect their luggage and then check in for the domestic connection for obvious security reason. The outgoing return flight will be simpler if you are booked on the same airline like ANA or JAL, you can check-in from Sapporo all through to your final destination (Singapore for example) if you fly ANA from Sapporo-Narita-Singapore.
After check in of luggage (which was a simple no fuss quick process of verifying your detail and tagging the bags), went up 1 floor to look for a phone rental counter to collect my pre-booked rental phone. This was done via the ANA website as part of a benefit for ANA customer, in which the phone can be rented for FREE and you just need to pay for the usage at a higher rate which works fine for me since i am getting the phone as a just-in-case emergency situation when you need to make a urgent call or can be easily contactable for emergency. In the end I don't even need to pay anything at all upon returning of the phone as I didn't need to use the rented phone at all, as expected. This is just great!
Had to wait a while for the shop to open at 6:30am. Got hold of the phone in a small bag, signed a document and off we go in less than 10 minutes, super efficient! Next step is to take the free shuttle bus to transfer from this International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal. Bus is frequent so you need not wait long for one and the trip to the Domestic Terminal is pretty fast in 5-10 minutes i guess.
Interesting food display at this convenience store in the Domestic Terminal.
The boarding gate area for the flight to Sapporo
The plane for the flight to Sapporo
Seat wise it is fine in term of width and space but since it is just an hour flight, it didn't matter too much
Interesting first glimpse of Hokkaido
Snow snow everywhere! how nice!
Now that this is a domestic flight, arrival into Sapporo New Chitose Airport is a simple affair!. Just walk to collect your luggage and head straight out. Simple enough....
