Japan Airlines has introduced a very nice premium passenger feature for late-night arrivals at Tokyo-Haneda Airport, distributing Taxi vouchers to Business Class passengers to be able to get home.
Haneda Airport is infamous for being cut off from all public transport at midnight sharp and passengers have no other choice than using expensive taxi services, their own parked car or to stay at an airport hotel until transportation resumes the next morning.
Having to rely of a taxi can be a rather expensive adventure at Haneda depending on where you live in the greater Tokyo area and that’s one of the reasons why both the train as well as the Limousine Bus service is so popular.
There are quite a few flights that arrive close to midnight or even past midnight, not accounting for any delays one might encounter at immigration which is usually sparsely staffed late at night.
My friend shared her experience with me as they arrived on the Doha-Haneda flight last night and to their surprise JAL presented them taxi vouchers worth up to 20,000 Yen to get home.
The voucher presented to passengers on flight JL50 DOH-HND is valid for the NIHON KOTSU taxi company so passengers have to be careful to select the right cab. There is also the option of calling the taxi company in both Japanese and English. An information leaflet is provided to passengers.
Here is the arrival of JL50 last night (usually the flight is scheduled to land at 1:00 am but flight history shows it’s usually 20-30 min early):
There is no way to get away from the airport except via the options I mentioned above. Or you would wait until 5:xx am when transportation services restart. I don’t think that’s a serious option for any premium-class passenger.
The immigration counter was also quite busy last night as per my friend. They were traveling with three pax and unfortunately only two of them were able to use the counter/machine for residents but their companion is a tourist so only the regular arrivals counter is available.
It wasn’t as bad as my horrendous experience from two years ago but still took a long time:
I remember that when this happened to me there were a huge amount of passengers and almost no taxis available but I was eventually able to get an UBER instead.
Nevertheless, even if there is no line at Immigration, the flight gets in past midnight, and that means you’re sol as far as transportation is concerned.
Last year I wrote about Emirates having introduced its own bus service for this very same reason:
Late Arrival Solution: Emirates Now Offers Complimentary Bus Services From Tokyo-Haneda Airport
Tokyo-Haneda is a major transportation hub in one of the most popular cities in the world. Japan’s government keeps talking about wanting to push tourism numbers, but they can’t even take care of airport transportation, which is rather pathetic. Even a skeleton schedule for late arrivals would be “something”. Something has to be done about this.
Conclusion
I think that this initiative by Japan Airlines is excellent for taking care of Business Class passengers, buying a lot of goodwill for the simple cost of a taxi voucher. Even though the voucher is good for up to 20,000 Yen the average fare for a ride to central Tokyo is ~ 10.000 Yen fixed price.
At the same time, I’m not sure how marketable this flight is given the late arrival. This is really an untenable situation at Haneda that has to be solved at some point. Do the passengers who book this flight know about this problem in advance?
Keep in mind that this taxi voucher solution is only for Business Class passengers. I wonder if JAL extends this to all flights arriving late or if there is something special about this flight ex Doha
