Big, Bad Changes You Should Know About If You’re Flying Into Tokyo
Be warned! Haneda airport is no longer the breezy convenience it once was.
In fact, in many cases, Haneda’s now become a huge headache due to super-long physical distances necessary to catch connecting flights, liberal use of dreaded “bus gates” (with not nearly enough buses) and sub-par immigration and customs processing.
Tokyo’s Haneda airport has long been the choice for smart travelers given its proximity to downtown Tokyo vs. the Japanese capital’s other, more distant Narita airport.
This may no longer be the case in many situations.
Yes, if all you are doing is flying in and out of Tokyo, Haneda is still probably your top choice.
However, if you are connecting to a flight in Tokyo, or continuing on to another destination in Asia at any point, things have happened suddenly and rapidly that should make you think twice.
My advice: use Narita instead for all connections taking you beyond Tokyo. Don’t even think twice.
Here’s why: Japan’s second flagship carrier, ANA, recently moved most of its international flights into what used to be exclusively its domestic terminal at Haneda. Also known as Terminal 2.
However, if you are flying into Tokyo on an ANA codeshare or parter airline (for instance, United), that will be going into Haneda’s international terminal. Also known as Terminal 3.
Terminals 2 and 3 are really really far from each other. So even if your incoming flight is just a tiny, itty-bitty late, forget about it.
Also, if you— as many people do — take a couple day layover in Tokyo before continuing on, you will have to manuever — with your bags — on a very long and slow bus ride between terminals if you want to leave your bags at the terminal you’ll be leaving from. (Theoretically, you can also ride a train for free between terminals but you have to go to the ticket window and request a free inter-terminal ticket and then they will argue with you about why you don’t deserve one.) And once you’ve reached the international terminal, you’ll find while there are plenty of tiny coin lockers, there are very few that hold large bags and they are almost completely always full.
Meantime, I’ve encountered huge issues getting on and off planes.
75% of the flights I’ve taken into and out of Haneda recently have been assigned to “bus gates.” (I’ve had “bus gates” at Narita too, but only on discount carriers.) This is always an annoyance, but sometimes happens. The problem at Haneda seems to be compounded by the fact that there never seem to be enough buses.
On my last trip, my flight was delayed 1 hour; the reason we were given by the airline was that while the plane was ready to fly, we had to wait for buses, which were unavailable. Once on the plane, we were told there was a mechanical difficulty they’d just discovered and were fixing, but we would not be able to disembark because (understandably) they didn’t want to go through all the rigmarole again with buses. So my 14 hour flight became 17 hours, even prior to takeoff.
Entering the country was no better. Instead of having separate lines for Japanese and foreign passports, in ANA’s Terminal 2, everyone who had pre-registered their immigration information (which BTW you should do) were directed to the same line, except Japanese citizens were allowed to cut the line. (I don’t have any problem with this in principle, heaven knows US immigration makes non-US citizens wait a heck of a long time). Still, it’s frustrating after a many multi-hour flight and a 30–40 minute wait to disembark because you’re waiting for a bus to see that you’re only 5th or 6th in the immigration line and then have 40 or 50 people allowed to go in front of you in the same line as you just stand there.
Upshot: from plane landing to departing the airport, it took 3 hours. Even with the added distance, I could’ve landed at Narita, stored my bags, and made it into town in 1/2 the time.
One final note: for now, this only applies to ANA and its partner airlines. JAL still seems to operate its international flights out of the international terminal. Perhaps that’ll change at some point. Or perhaps they’re taking the time to make sure if/when they do it, they’re ready to do it, so it’ll go smoothly, unlike ANA, which comes out looking woefully unprepared.