Flight: JW 913 Origin: Tokyo (Narita) Destination: Sapporo (New Chitose) Aircraft type: Airbus A320-216 Registration: JA03VA Delivered: 14 January 2014 Class of travel: Economy
So once we arrived at Narita Airport, we had to collect our baggage from the carousel first since United and my next flight, Vanilla Air, wasn’t in any sort of alliance or codeshare. Immigration clearance was really fast, as fast as at Changi, if not even better. The immigration staff were REALLY polite, as what you’d expect from most Japanese, and for a second I thought I was Obama or some random VIP haha. Anyway, after collecting our baggage, we managed to get out of the terminal without passing through any sort of security screening. Well, the security staff only selected certain people to undergo screening and I never really understood why they had such a practice. Even in Singapore, only random people are selected for carry-on baggage screening. Would it kill them to screen everyone’s carry-on items? I thought the world was gonna be more stringent in light of the Paris attacks but I guess not? I know that Changi Airport will definitely screen ALL customers who are arriving from certain destinations like Indonesia, Thailand and I think the Philippines and Malaysia. (Ahaha what happened to southeast Asian trust?!) But other than those origins listed, they just select people at random for checks. Can someone enlighten me on this??? :confused:
Taking a shuttle bus to Terminal 3 with our baggage. I would’ve preferred trains that connected the 3 terminals instead of shuttle buses tho.
Ah, FINALLY the bus came
So we arrived at Narita Airport’s Terminal 3 and it looked so budget-y and cheap. No offence. What stood out to me the most was definitely the running tracks on the ground used to direct passengers. It was really unique!
Jetstar Japan’s check-in counters
Vanilla Air’s check in counters
It was way too early to check in for our Vanilla Air flight so we went to grab a bite at what seemed like the only common eating area that had a few food joints throughout the entire terminal. I guess that’s what a budget terminal is like… :/
Yum
Checking in. The lady at the desk was SO FRIENDLY I can’t even… I guess the behaviour of a country’s people are SO important because they create that first impression to the foreigners and perhaps that’s why the Japanese have built such a positive reputation for themselves unlike people of a certain neighbouring country in Asia… Ahem
Plain and boring boarding pass. This was my mum’s one. I was seated in 8A.
A shop selling souvenirs and tidbits
Wasabi-flavoured kitkats and run and raisin kitkats. Say what???
Left or right? :P
Our plane for the domestic hop to Sapporo. Looking good
Cabin shot
29.5 inch seat pitch. SO TIGHT I could barely move my legs. I was 174cm tall and I felt squashed. 1 second in and I wished that I could step out of the plane right away. It was THAT bad.
Awaiting pushback while a ‘jingle bells’ melody was being played throughout the cabin
Pushback!
Air Hong Kong B747-400
Spot the ANA B787 Star Wars R2-D2 jet And we left the ground after a 20 minute wait in line
Safety card
Inflight menu. Items had to be paid for.
Prices were pretty reasonable. $6 to $7 thereabouts
:o Seat pocket contents. Missing the safety card and menu.I love how spongebob is like the face of Vanilla Air. They had spongebob and patrick starfish on their magazines, check-in desks, etc.
Approaching Sapporo. Short flight time of about 2 hours.
And we were here! Waiting for the aerobridge to be connected to the door of the plane.
We waited for 25 mins or so for our baggage to appear on the carousel. WAY too long. Guess I’m used to Changi’s efficiency
Catching a train to the city
Ticket
This airport rapid service train was SO quiet. It had CRAZY sound insulation. I could barely hear anything when it was moving. I could even hear people whispering a few seats away!!! They even had announcements for passengers to switch their phones to silent mode and refrain from talking in the cabins! ;)
P.S. I'll be rating the 'meal and catering' part based on the variety of food items offered on the menu as well as the prices of the items, if they were reasonable or not.
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Verdict
Vanilla Air
6.1/10
Cabin5.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering7.5
Tokyo - NRT
7.8/10
Efficiency9.0
Access7.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness8.0
Chitose - CTS
7.0/10
Efficiency7.0
Access7.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0
Conclusion
Alright, so that brings me to the end of my second flight report ever written. It was a pretty average flight with Vanilla Air. The seat was bad, the food I can’t say for sure and the crew approachable. For a budget airline, I guess it was okay, no complains. One gripe I had was the temperature in the cabin. It was EXTREMELY stuffy and everyone was complaining about how hot it was in the cabin. I didn’t ask the crew about that but perhaps the air conditioning unit had spoilt or sth. Thanks for reading my flight report guys! I did a video report on this flight as well. You can check it out on my youtube channel: [url]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKmP-kTY5Js1FOuzlJfgP-g[/url]! And if you would like to read all the past trip reports I’ve done, check out my blog that I just created: [url]http://flight-reports.blogspot.sg/[/url] Stay tuned to my next flight report, Vanilla Air from Sapporo to Tokyo Narita. It would be a day flight this time so there will be scenery shots as well :) I'm never gonna take a night flight ever again :o Have a great day ahead! :D
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Vanilla Air was running a promotion that time and I paid around $125 Singapore dollars for a round trip, which included baggage of 20kg and seat selection. JL and NH charged about $200. I chose Vanilla Air in the end since it was cheaper and it was a more exotic airline compared to JL and NH, which I probably would take again in the next few years.
I've never been tempted by JW or the other LCCs in Japan. The pitch is way too tight for me (182cm) and the complete lack of service hurts. I'd rather pay the extra money to fly NH/JL or JH. Flights are not cheap in Japan regardless of carrier choice. The BOB prices look very reasonable, drinks are only 50% more than a combini.
Asian carriers always run cabins hot, so maybe not that surprising especially in the winter.
You're welcome! I can see why. I was already finding it hard to move around in my seat when i'm only 174cm. I kinda regretted it a little since I could've spent a little more to fly on NH's 787 in the domestic configuration. Oh well, maybe next time. Well the air conditioning on the return flight was much better so I guess it was just a one-off thing and not like an asian thing? Idk :/
Hi Darius, Thanks for this excellent report. I was wondering how the terminal 3 looked like as I had never the guts to use low cost airlines again in Japan as I can afford myself to use the legacies or Skymark which are much more convenient for me, although I tried most of them 3 years ago including Jet Airways, Air Asia Japan (now defunct) or Peach. Seems that Vanilla is doing a decent job, by taking you from A to B on time apparently, not like Air Asia which was always late... with a good service, good priced BOB. Pitch is horrible I agree, even for a 1.5 hour flight... but it appears to be a rule for the Japanese low costs and clearly the main reason for not flying them!!! 25 min for luggage pick up in CTS is too long also and not up to standard of this airport. Nice to see that you apreciate the train service to Sapporo.
Thank you very much Flytak! Well Vanilla has crazy cheap fares called the 'campaign' fares that go for about 4000 JPY for return tickets from Tokyo to Sapporo so I felt it was really worth the money. Vanilla sure did a decent job, nothing to shout about. Apparently Air Asia Japan is restarting flights again in 2016 so it'll add to the competition and hopefully lower fares!
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6 Comments
What was the fare like compared to NH or JL?
I've never been tempted by JW or the other LCCs in Japan. The pitch is way too tight for me (182cm) and the complete lack of service hurts. I'd rather pay the extra money to fly NH/JL or JH. Flights are not cheap in Japan regardless of carrier choice. The BOB prices look very reasonable, drinks are only 50% more than a combini.
Asian carriers always run cabins hot, so maybe not that surprising especially in the winter.
Seems that Vanilla is doing a decent job, by taking you from A to B on time apparently, not like Air Asia which was always late... with a good service, good priced BOB. Pitch is horrible I agree, even for a 1.5 hour flight... but it appears to be a rule for the Japanese low costs and clearly the main reason for not flying them!!! 25 min for luggage pick up in CTS is too long also and not up to standard of this airport. Nice to see that you apreciate the train service to Sapporo.
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