Delta is poised to become the biggest US airline at Tokyo Haneda’s Airport, and they’ve just put all of their new flights on sale (and there’s even a ton of award space, so keep reading!).
In this post:
Why Delta Is Growing At Tokyo Haneda Airport
Tokyo Haneda is Tokyo’s more convenient airport, though historically it has had very limited slots available for US carriers. Recently the DOT granted an additional 12 slots to US airlines at Haneda.
The DOT sure acted in favor of Delta with these allocations, as Delta got five of the available slots.
Delta was granted flights to Tokyo Haneda from Atlanta, Detroit, Honolulu, Portland, and Seattle. On top of that, the airline already flies from Los Angeles and Minneapolis to Haneda, meaning they’ll have service to Haneda from seven markets.
Interestingly with this development Delta also announced that they’d discontinue flights to Tokyo Narita altogether, meaning they’d completely shift operations to Tokyo Haneda. With this, Delta is the largest US airline at Haneda Airport.
Delta’s New Tokyo Haneda Flights
While we’ve known all along which routes Delta would be operating, the airline has now put all of their Tokyo Haneda flights on sale. As mentioned above, they already flew to Haneda from Los Angeles and Minneapolis, though Delta has still adjusted their schedules on those flights a bit.
So let’s first take a look at the five new routes, and then the two routes that already existed, but on which we’re seeing slight schedule changes:
Delta’s Atlanta To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Boeing 777-200LR flights between Atlanta and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL295 Atlanta to Tokyo departing 11:15AM arriving 2:30PM (+1 day)
DL296 Tokyo to Atlanta departing 4:45PM arriving 4:15PM
Delta’s Detroit To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Airbus A350-900 flights between Detroit and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL275 Detroit to Tokyo departing 12:15PM arriving 2:15PM (+1 day)
DL276 Tokyo to Detroit departing 3:25PM arriving 2:20PM
Delta’s Honolulu To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Boeing 767-300 flights between Honolulu and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL181 Honolulu to Tokyo departing 4:00PM arriving 8:00PM (+1 day)
DL180 Tokyo to Honolulu departing 10:00PM arriving 10:45AM
Delta’s Portland To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Airbus A330-200 flights between Portland and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL69 Portland to Tokyo departing 1:50PM arriving 4:35PM (+1 day)
DL68 Tokyo to Portland departing 6:30PM arriving 11:45AM
Delta’s Seattle To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Airbus A350-900 flights between Seattle and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL167 Seattle to Tokyo departing 11:55AM arriving 2:20PM (+1 day)
DL166 Tokyo to Seattle departing 4:30PM arriving 9:45AM
Delta’s Los Angeles To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Boeing 777-200LR flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL7 Los Angeles to Tokyo departing 10:10AM arriving 1:45PM (+1 day)
DL8 Tokyo to Los Angeles departing 3:45PM arriving 9:45AM
Delta’s Minneapolis To Tokyo Haneda Flight
Delta will be launching daily Airbus A350-900 flights between Minneapolis and Tokyo Haneda as of March 28, 2020, with the following schedule:
DL121 Minneapolis to Tokyo departing 11:20AM arriving 1:35PM (+1 day)
DL120 Tokyo to Minneapolis departing 4:20PM arriving 1:20PM
Delta Award Seats Are Wide Open
Delta isn’t actually adding much capacity to & from Japan, but rather they’re mostly shifting capacity from Narita to Haneda. As a result I’m surprised to see that Delta has tons of saver level business class award availability on these new flights. I can’t imagine it will last.
There’s award availability via Delta SkyMiles, though Delta charges 100,000+ miles for a saver one-way business class ticket. The much better value is to book through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, where a one-way ticket costs just 60,000 miles with no surcharges.
You can read all about redeeming Virgin Atlantic miles on Delta in this post.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Marriott Bonvoy. On top of that, we see transfer bonuses from Amex and Citi to Virgin Atlantic every once in a while, which makes these miles even easier to come by.
- 4x points at restaurants, on up to $50,000 in purchases annually
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases annually
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
- $325
- Access to Amex Offers
- Redeem Amex Points Towards Airfare
- $375
- Earn 5x points on flights purchased directly from airlines or through Amex Travel (up to $500k/year)
- $200 Annual Uber Credit
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- Earn 1.5x on purchases of $5,000 or more in a single transaction on up to $2MM per calendar year
- Redeem Points For Over 1.5 Cents Each Towards Airfare
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 3x points on Travel after the $300 Annual Travel Credit
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Travel Credit
- $550
- Earn 6x points at Marriott
- Free Night Award Annually
- 15 Elite Nights Towards Status Annually
- $125
Delta Tokyo Haneda Summary
Delta’s new flights to Tokyo Haneda are now on sale, so if you’ve been waiting to book one of these flights, now is your chance. Best of all, there’s even a good amount of award availability on these flights as of now.
No one in their right mind would travel to Asia with a US carrier. The american cannot compete with real quality and service. It's a discount carrier or being forced by one's US employer/overlord to travel with them.
@John
Your secondary route is all out of, well non international hubs, not JFK or LAX that you are trying to make a point. Nevertheless, didn't DL also serves CDG AMS from largers hubs, like lol, JFK and LAX!!!!!!!!!
DL does fly JFK-EZE and will fly JFK-BOM. So, no I don't think those are second tiers at all. You didn't take into account that DL already have service from their coastal hubs before flying your...
@John
Your secondary route is all out of, well non international hubs, not JFK or LAX that you are trying to make a point. Nevertheless, didn't DL also serves CDG AMS from largers hubs, like lol, JFK and LAX!!!!!!!!!
DL does fly JFK-EZE and will fly JFK-BOM. So, no I don't think those are second tiers at all. You didn't take into account that DL already have service from their coastal hubs before flying your so called third tier routes.
And by the way, NYkers see EWR as 2nd tier too hahahaha.
AA, DL, UA all have pros and cons in their route, but to call any of them flying their-tier is rubbish.
@Person
IAH or LAS lost to PDX over reasons that could also be used against PDX. This is much better for better but not for the overall public. AA also should have requested PHX or PHL or CLT too.
@ Lucky
By the information I have put together by a bunch of websites, delta used to fly sea-tokyo with the a350 started this march, but then switched to the a330neo for flights later, is it now switching back to the A350? I may need a little clarification on this.
@Adam -- "I can fly ANA sjc-hnd in business class for 80k miles ..."
Just to clarify -- that will be SJC-NRT instead of SJC-HND ...
@John -- "Examples of “primary” routes for UA:"
Just to reinforce your points ... SFO serves additional Tier-1 non-stop routes in Asia (beyond SIN), including between -- NRT, ICN, TPE, HKG, PEK, PVG, SYD, etc.
@ddrabk, are you sure they are using the same plane to go back to Detroit? Sometimes a carrier with a service to a destination from multiple hubs will rotate planes through hubs this way.
DL275 Detroit to Tokyo arriving at 2:15PM and departing at 3:25 PM. that seems very short to deplane, clean, cater, refuel and board an A350.
@Eskimo
Can you elaborate why PDX-HND is a joke?
I'm not seeing 60,000 miles anytime in April from any of the above cities. Currently pricing at 82,500 miles. Am I missing something?
For those of you complaining Delta serves nothing in Asia from New York, is Mumbai not in Asia? (Their service is still scheduled to start December.)
I totally agree with @john Deltas route map out of JFK sucks they do not fly one planet direct to Asia you have to either connect in Detroit or Atlanta or fly China’s Eastern or Korean (no thanks). This is the one place where United blows both Delta and AA out of the water. They have the best route map out of NYC of any of them and it just keeps getting better. It’s like...
I totally agree with @john Deltas route map out of JFK sucks they do not fly one planet direct to Asia you have to either connect in Detroit or Atlanta or fly China’s Eastern or Korean (no thanks). This is the one place where United blows both Delta and AA out of the water. They have the best route map out of NYC of any of them and it just keeps getting better. It’s like They treat JFK like it was a secondary city and Detroit and Atlanta like they were JFK and LAX. I find it extremely frustrating and think maybe for my purposes it’s tome to rethink my dedication to them and maybe (shudder) try United again?
They also loaded up their new ICN-MNL flights:
Begins March 30, 2020
ICN-MNL 7:40pm-10:50pm, DL 197, A330-900neo
MNL-ICN 10:30am-3:25pm, DL 196, A330-900neo
I can fly ANA sjc-hnd in business class for 80k miles "roundtrip*! And 200k roundtrip on Delta is a sale?!?
@Eskimo
Examples of “primary” routes for UA:
EWR-HKG
EWR-EZE
EWR-DEL
SFO-SIN
SFO-TLV
IAH-SYD
Examples of “secondary” routes for DL:
SLC-AMS
IND-CDG
PDX-HND
Just speaking from United’s perspective, from NYC they serve 5 continents, from IAH they serve 5 continents, from SFO they serve 4 continents and I believe from ORD they serve 4 continents. They are in every since a global carrier and have hubs in...
@Eskimo
Examples of “primary” routes for UA:
EWR-HKG
EWR-EZE
EWR-DEL
SFO-SIN
SFO-TLV
IAH-SYD
Examples of “secondary” routes for DL:
SLC-AMS
IND-CDG
PDX-HND
Just speaking from United’s perspective, from NYC they serve 5 continents, from IAH they serve 5 continents, from SFO they serve 4 continents and I believe from ORD they serve 4 continents. They are in every since a global carrier and have hubs in the most important US markets.
Delta isn’t really a global carrier. They have a great network to Europe and a decent network to South America. They are laughably uncompetitive in Asia Pacific, as evidenced by their abandonment of HKG.
@John
Your third-tier route argument is nonsense. Maybe give some examples of your first and second tier routes?
I don't see AA or UA having much difference either, both have west coast serving Asia and east coast serving Europe. In terms of hubs in secondary cities, it's up to definitions. But I would take those hubs coming in over JFK LAX ORD any day. I would say all have their fair share of sizes, except...
@John
Your third-tier route argument is nonsense. Maybe give some examples of your first and second tier routes?
I don't see AA or UA having much difference either, both have west coast serving Asia and east coast serving Europe. In terms of hubs in secondary cities, it's up to definitions. But I would take those hubs coming in over JFK LAX ORD any day. I would say all have their fair share of sizes, except maybe ATL might be a bit too small for O&D.
I do think Delta somehow got special favors from DOT over these routes, as discussed many times earlier.
PDX-HND is definitely a joke, even folks at DL are probably laughing.
@Matt - good observation! Flights from MSP, SEA, LAX & ATL land at HND within 45 minutes of one another - between 1:35pm - 2:20pm. So, DL will have their planes simultaneously occupying 4 gates at HND - I wonder what kind of challenges, if any, that brings for DL at a busy foreign airport.
Unless forced by your employer, why on Earth would you fly Delta when there are so many other Premium Asian carriers: JAL, Cathay, ANA offering far better service ??
DL gets so much praise for their operational reliability and employee friendliness, but they really have a third-tier route network in my opinion. It’s crazy to me that Delta has no flights to Asia from JFK (and barely any flights to Europe from LAX). I don’t understand their strategy of having almost all their hubs in secondary cities, but I guess it’s working for them.
So many of the flights arriving and leaving around the same time.
In what order, best to worst, would you rank the routes based on seat types?