Flight Log of All Nippon Airways Flight 22 from Osaka Itami to Tokyo Haneda on May 3rd, 2017
May 3rd, after spending three days in Osaka and its surrounding cities, we were heading for Tokyo.
So we arrived at Namba Station at 0855 in the morning to the airport bus to Itami Airport.
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The airport bus from Namba to Itami basically ran at 15 minute interval, which cost 640JPY. After talking to the only staff at the station that didn't speak English, we finally knew that their 6400JPY "11-ride combo" could be used for different buses. So we took two separate buses to Itami Airport.
It's the first day of Japan's Golden Week, we experienced some traffic jam on the expressway out of Osaka. But since domestic routes in Japan were operated on a "25 minutes bag drop, 15 minutes security check" basis, there's plenty of time for our flight NH22 that departed at 1110.
First day of Japan's Golden Week, quite some travelers.
For those of us that's booked on ANA the entire trip, it didn't matter which specific flight we chose from Osaka to Tokyo, so I avoided ANA's 10-abrest domestic B772 and picked NH22 which departed at 1110. But for those that booked return flights with Air China, when booking this Osaka-Tokyo segment we found that flights that morning were staggeringly expensive (guess it's the first morning of the golden week and everyone's getting out). So we took the balance between our budget and our will to travel together, and booked them on NH24 which departed 50 minutes later.
Since we were university students, getting up this early means there's got to be no time for breakfast. So after I checked myself in I finished my bento made of cold noodles that I bought along the way from convenience store without hurry.
Then there's security check, two aspects to talk about: First is that security baskets were placed on a string so that the position of the top basket stayed identical no matter how many baskets were stacked. Second, the security officers would place another basket on top of your basket as a cover before they entered X-Ray machine, so that whatever's inside won't be splashed by the X-Ray belts. Never seen this dedication to detail anywhere else in the world.
Then since Itami's South Wing was mostly occupied by ANA, so there were displays of ANA aircraft models and history and so on.
At bathroom exit of Itami Airport South Wing
At bathroom exit of Itami Airport South Wing
Passing through Chinese Airport securities one would get a stamp whose sole function was to fool people (the paint from that stamp was easily blurred), here in Japan you would get a ticket stating you have gone through security check, which was much more reliable (although nobody bothered to check it in the end).
Then you would get another piece of paper stating seat assignment at the boarding gate, guess this is for those business travelers who purchased multiple (or flexible) travel tickets and with no prior seat assignments.
Probably because it's the first day of Japanese Golden Week, flight NH22 that morning was heavily oversold, and four of my friends cannot be confirmed onto that flight. But they got onto the plane as backups nonetheless. (Maybe because too many business travellers used flexible tickets to cliam their seats?)
When booking this trip I found that amazingly All Nippon Airways allowed us to register emergency seats on its domestic routes for free, so I claimed these seats without any hesitation. (Although they weren't the best in terms of viewing Mount Fuji.)
It seemed that for two emergency exit doors on B763, All Nippon Airways only assigned one row of seat, so I got this huge seat pitch. If this is for long-haul flights, I would just bunker down on the floor.
Next flight to Tokyo, NH24.
When booking this trip I searched on Flightradar24 and found that eastbound Osaka-Tokyo flight path was actually quite distant from Mount Fuji, but nonetheless we got a clear view of it on the plane.
And since the flight was short, we never reached 6000 meters in elevation during that flight, so the cabin pressure was kept at sea level, which was great.
The flight only lasted for an hour, but the cabin crew still managed to serve everybody with drinks.
Due to wind direction, we landed on runway 22 of Haneda Airport that day. And given the proximity of Chiba Disney Land, it's a short final approach of 4km.
Asiana Airlines A333 Taking Off.
After arriving at Haneda Airport I planned to purchase Tokyo Subway Pass, only to find that the pass was only on sale in their international terminal. Since I was with lots of my friends, I just killed that thought.
After that, we took Keikyu Airport Line to our apartment near Shinjuku.
END