ANA Maintenance Hangar Tour – Haneda
If you’re an aviation geek, one of the things you absolutely cannot miss if you’re spending some time in Tokyo is the ANA Maintenance Hangar Tour at Haneda Airport. It’s a one and a half hour tour that consists of two parts: a 30-min classroom-style presentation, followed by the actual ANA hangar visit. Best of all, the tour is absolutely free!
Review – ANA Business Cradle – Tokyo Haneda to Vancouver – 787-8
Normally, ANA flies a 787-9 with the Staggered business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration between Vancouver and Tokyo (similar to the one we reviewed here). However, for a couple months between August 2017 and March 2018, the plane was downgraded to a 787-8 that had the Cradle business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration.
Review – Alaska Airlines Economy Class – Vancouver to Seattle to Honolulu – 737-800/900
In November, I flew down to Hawaii for a couple of days with my Dad. While the main purpose of the trip was to obtain our scuba diving certifications (which I now have!), this also gave me the chance to review Alaska Airline’s economy class product on a relatively longer flight. Previously I had only flown Alaska on short flights like YVR-SEA and SEA-SFO.
Review – Rydges Sydney Airport Hotel & SYD Plane Spotting
As huge aviation geeks who love to spend all their time at airports, we decided to stay a night at the Rydges Sydney Airport Hotel, the night before we were to depart Sydney. This airport is known for being a plane spotter-friendly hotel, and has a great location right across from the International Terminal. Some of the rooms have a direct view of the airport gates and the runway.
Review – ANA Business Class – Tokyo Haneda to Sydney – 787-9
The third and final leg of our outbound flights was from Tokyo Haneda to Sydney. At just over 8 hours, it’s not that long of a flight when it comes to long haul flights, but having been travelling for 24 hours already since we left Vancouver, we were already struggling to keep our eyes open at this point!
Review – ANA Business Class Lounge – Haneda
Between two long haul flights as we flew from Vancouver to Sydney, we had a longer layover at Haneda International Airport, which gave us the perfect opportunity to check out the ANA Lounge.
There are two separate ANA Lounges in the International Terminal at Haneda. One is near gate 110, while the other is near gate 114. An important thing to note is that they have staggered operating hours.
Review – Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Transborder Terminal – Vancouver
Before boarding our United First Class flight down to SFO, we decided to check out the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in the Transborder Terminal.
The entrance to this lounge is located between gate 84 and 86. We got through security pretty quickly as Nexus card holders, so we waited for about ten minutes for the lounge to open at 5 am.