Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky! Thank-you for your travel and award tips. I booked a flight using Aeroplan points on ANA for my husband and myself. The trouble is we have a 14hr. layover (over night) in Tokyo before heading to our destination in Hong Kong. I’m not sure that this is the best but I can’t find any better flights on the Aeroplan site. This is our first Asia trip and having a flat bed for sleeping in the plane is nice but what do we do in Tokyo over night? We also booked a 5 night stay at the Conrad in Hong Kong before leaving on our cruise. Any advice or tips?

Are you connecting in Haneda or Narita? I’d book an airport hotel for the overnight (especially at NRT). If your connection is in Haneda, you might also have time to see Tokyo at night fairly quickly or get dinner somewhere in the city since the airport is much closer.

Thank-you for your reply! We are connecting in Haneda. I have since then also found a possible flight with Swiss Air, connecting in Zurich. Is Business Class better in ANA or Swiss Air?

I’ve flown ANA business a number of times and experiencing Swiss on their 777 next week, however the question is will LX fly either the 330 or 340 with their old vantage business class seats or the 777 with the new product? I think the Hong Kong flight will have the new 777 but I’ve read mixed reviews on the business class experience with Swiss. And the Vantage business class seats are not the best for sleeping. Narrow and footwell is small. ANA Zodiac skylounger seats are much preferable as I believe the food will be. I love to go to Asia the wrong way but I also really like ANA (am flying them Sat in first). I’ll update my post on the 1st when I get back for LX. Here is a review of ANA [URL]http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2016/3/30/ana-777-300-business-class[/URL]

If you can get Austrian instead of LX go with that. Vantage seats but outstanding catering.

As far as Haneda, there is a hotel in the airport (Lucky has written about this) but for a 14 hour layover you have a great opportunity to visit Tokyo. (Maybe even try and extend to maximum 24 hour layover?) The monorail is inside the airport and inexpensive. You could take this to a hotel in Tokyo and view the city. If you’ve never been it’s an awesome sight.

Thank-you Mark! I’m excited to see Tokyo now, even if it will be short.

Hi [USER=2216]@barbara[/USER], and welcome! What kind of planes are Swiss and ANA operating? That would make a significant difference for me.

Hi Tiffany, and thank-you! ANA is on a 787-9 for the first leg to Tokyo and then on a 777 to Hong Kong. Swiss Air is on a A330-300 to Zurich and then on a 777-300 to Hong Kong.

I think you’ve got the ANA planes backwards. No ANA 787-9 flights to HND that I’m aware (they only fly 787 from Seattle later this year and San Jose with those going to Narita) and they don’t fly 777 to HKG, they do fly 787-9 from HND to HKG, and it’s staggered business class. So you’d be 777 staggered BC to HND and 787 staggered BC to HKG. Hands down beats LX in my opinion even if the 777 product is outstanding because of the A330. Get the mini cabin on the 777 if you can. Super private.

Hi Mark,
On the ticket it says NH115 Vancouver to Tokyo(HND), aircraft 789 leaving Jan. 10, 2017 and then NH859 Tokyo to Hong Kong, aircraft 777. Thanks for your help!

Ah Vancouver, my mistake, sorry, forgot about up north. So yes you are on a 787-9 to HND and you are also on a 787-9 to HKG! Fabulous plane. Not sure why the ticket says 777 but NH859 is a 787-9 for sure. Get the either odd row seats on the left side or even row seats on the right side to be against the window, very private. I know you are traveling as 2, but the center seats don’t really allow for much interaction with your neighbor, window seats are the best imo.

Thank-you Mark! I appreciate the help and advice!

Hate to do this to you [USER=2216]@barbara[/USER], but it’s available so I thought I point it out.
1/10 VYR-YYZ on AC #142 (777-300) @8AM connects with
1/10 YYZ-VIE on Austrian #72 (767-300) @6:10PM arrives 8:45AM connects with
1/11 VIE-HKG on Austrian #57 (777-300) @ 1PM arrives 7:25AM in Hong Kong

My opinion of Austrian is they have the best catering, period. I love the airline.

Wow! Thank-you for looking this up for me. I will definitely check it out.

Barbara, I flew in Swiss 777 business the other day from BKK to ZRH and I was not impressed. Yes it was nice as I’ve certainly flown worse (Asiana). The seats are ok, there is nothing special about them other than there’s a lot of little storage areas. But it’s the Vantage seat that Austrian flies as well as American and some others. The food was fair. First meal service took 2 hours to complete as the process was not organized. The 2nd meal was a joke. I’ll have a review on my site in a few weeks but overall I wasn’t impressed with the food. The cabin looks better in the photos, it is cramped. They’ve stuffed way to many seats into it. IFE was not as good as on Austrian and SAS. 95 movies of which 26 were James Bond. I would take Austrian hands down. I had a GREAT SAS flight if that is an option for you. So if you don’t go ANA, which is a good choice, then I would definitely take Austrian over Swiss.

Keep in mind Aeroplan levies fuel surcharges on Austrian, but not on Swiss. The difference in experience may not be worth the cost for some people.

Yes, thank-you to you both. I checked the Austrian flight and would have to pay over $1,200 for the two of us in fuel surcharges etc. whereas with ANA it is $154 for two. I think that I will stick with ANA at that price. I will look in to getting a hotel at the Haneda airport and maybe take the monorail for a short trip in to Tokyo. I can’t extend the layover so not sure if I really have enough time.

Even though united is higher points the no surcharge often makes them less expensive. I forget about other *A that charge it. You can’t go wrong with ANA so have fun! My ANA flight into the typhoon 2 weeks ago was great as well.