Christmas Trip 2007: Nagoya Chubu, Nagoya (NGO)

Central Japan International Airport Centrair, Nagoya Japan (NGO)

After the complimentary breakfast at the hotel (soup, bread and croissant), I went outside before dawn (6:20a) and started to walk to the airport. I noticed that the shuttle van was ready, so I jumped in. I arrived at the terminal at 6:30a after waiting for some other passengers.

I went upstairs and found the Japan Airlines counter to check in for JL54. This flight arrives in the international terminal although it does a domestic routing. The aircraft is used on an international route. You can only take it if you have an international connection out of Narita.

I produced my onward ticket as I checked in and after a few phone calls, I was given a boarding pass and some documentation in triplicate to give to the authorities as I progress. I also had to enter the country in Japan, so basically go through immigration. I was excited as i was in 81A in the Upper deck in Economy Class.

I thanked the agent and left the counter and headed for the waving gallery. Before going out there, I tried to connect to a WiFi and there were no free ones now; I guess the one I found is only available near the train station. I then headed out to the gallery.

I took out my camera and realized that the battery was dead :-(. I had forgotten to re-charge it last night. Crap! I took out the video camera and it had to make do.

I left the area and headed for the security lines which were quite long unfortunately. I heard my name being paged and wondered what now. I went back to the counter as requested and the agent said I had to pay the passenger facility charge for the airport. I said that I had only arrived last night and produced my boarding card. It was funny as she spoke to me in Japanese at first and I gave her a blank stare and she paused, thought about it for a second and then spoke to me in broken.

She got on the phone and called someone and then we waited. It was getting progressively later now and the security line was getting longer; there would be no way to get the flight ontime if I stayed in the regular line. The agent also realized this as she kept looking at her watch. Checking had already closed for my flight and they were now handling Thai Airways.

After what seemed like forever and really uncomfortable silence between the two of us, the phone rang, then she said that I have to pay the tax since I did not arrive today. The total is 2,500 YEN. She then took me over to the ticketing counter where she took me to the front of the line and told me when I was finished to head over and see her and she would get me through security.

I offered to pay in USD, but she said no, but she would accept a credit card, so I gave her one. Once done, I headed back towards the other agent who got someone else to take me to the front of the line through the crew/connecting passengers line. It is funny as I had asked before if I could use that line and the guy told me no; now we had carte blanche.

I then went through security and immigration and made it to the other side by 7:55a. Boarding was commencing at 8:05a. I saw a note on the Sakura Lounge sign that my card was accepted. I checked it out, but I needed a same day boarding pass on Continental to do it and since I was flying in JAL and had arrived on Continental yesterday, I was out of luck.

I made my way down to gate 16 where boarding on the Boeing 747-400 started promptly at 8:05a.