22 March 2013

Coming to Tokyo (Narita) from/via Manila on Philippine Airlines?

Image from Wikipedia.

Don't. Here's the problem: they only have one flight per day and it arrives in Narita at around 8pm. Because of that schedule, I always miss the last (8:30pm) bus going straight home. So I take another bus instead and just take an extra train ride. No biggie. But here's the real problem: if the flight gets delayed. I have an aunt whose PAL flight just got delayed 2 hours and so she missed all buses going anywhere. If she were able to fast-track her way through immigration, baggage pick-up, and customs, and got on the last bus (10:30pm), she still wouldn't have made it to my apartment because there would be no more trains. So, her only option was to stay at a hotel near Narita airport for a night and just take the first bus the morning after.

Here's the other problem: going back home. The PAL flight leaves Narita at around 9:30am. This means, if you have to be there 2 hours earlier, you have to leave Tokyo by 6am. From our city, you have to take the 5am bus. From my apartment, you have to take a taxi at 4:30am to make sure you get the 5am bus, and make sure you're at the airport at least 2 hours before your departure time. If I miss that 5am bus, there's a big chance I might miss my flight altogether. What I do then is I just commute to Narita and stay at a hotel around the area the night before. Because I don't want to risk missing my flight going home (without having to pay extra extra). Of course, you can always hope that it's this flight that gets delayed...

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