Review of ANA flight from Tokyo to Nagoya in Economy

Background:
This series will cover a quickie to Chicago aboard All Nippon Airways (NH) or ??? as it is colloquially called here.
Part 1 – NGO-NRT [NH 338, Boeing B737-700, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-12166.html
Part 2 – NRT-ORD [NH 12, Boeing B777-300ER, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-12188.html
Part 3 – ORD-NRT [NH 11, Boeing B777-300ER, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-12313.html
Part 4 – NRT-NGO [NH 337, Boeing B737-500, Economy] – You are here
This report will cover the ANA Arrival Lounge and the short hop from Narita to Nagoya on a Super Dolphin (B735).
Pre-flight:
After clearing customs, I’m dumped back into Narita’s main concourse.

I head over to the domestic check-in area in order to recheck my bag onto NGO. The line moves very quickly for transfers. The agent just scans the barcode on your baggage tag, confirms your name and destination then rolls it away. Nothing else was required since my boarding pass was issued in ORD.

Walking by the FIDS. My flight (3rd from the top) is still on time. There is also a 17:55 flight to NGO near the bottom of the FIDS.

The ANA Arrival Lounge is right next to the domestic check-in counter. It is before security.

Entering, I’m greeted by two NH agents and my EY card is typed into the system. She tells me that my plane will be leaving from Gate G and writes it on my boarding pass before waving me in.
The drink offerings. There was a beer dispenser and two bottles of whiskey near the end.

The food offerings. Basic finger foods, there are no hot dishes.

A view of the seating area in the lounge. Since it is on the ground floor near the check-in counters it is blind. The smoking room is directly to the right of where I took this picture.

My first offering.

Press.

Business center.

After my snack, I go back to the front desk and request a shower. She takes my boarding pass and hands me a key. There are five shower rooms.

The amenities and vanity. Nice Shiseido products.

The toilet.

The shower and hangars on the wall.

The shower facilities aren’t fancy, but everything was meticulously clean and functional (just like everything else in Japan). After washing off that 12-hours of Y-cabin funk, it was back to the lounge for a final offering before heading to the gate while a watch J-League highlights on TV.

Documents. You can see the handwritten gate by the NH agent at the lounge entrance.

About 15-minutes before boarding, I head over to the domestic gates. Security is always very quick. There is a line for premium passengers, but I don’t think it is any faster, there are never hordes of people like in the US.

The domestic waiting room. All NH domestic flights leave by paxbus (at least NGO, never flown anywhere else from NRT).

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All Nippon Airways, NH 337
Equipment: Boeing B737-500 [JA8419, delivered July 1995]
Departure: 17:00 (ATD: 17:33)
Arrival: 18:10 (ATA: 18:20)
Flight time: 0:47
Right on time, the agents come on the loud speaker and announce that pre-boarding, NH Diamonds, and other priority passengers can board.

Here is our bus. All of the priority passengers got our own bus. As soon as we got on, we left.

Heading out onto the rainy tarmac. Surprise, surprise. The first plane I see is JA777A, this was the B77W that I took NRT-ORD (Part 2 of this series).

And right behind that B77W is our little B735 (JA8419), who is a 20-year old veteran in the NH fleet. We do a complete 360 around the plane (don’t ask me why…). These Super Dolphins are getting phased out since ANA Wings is acquiring a bunch of new B738s to replace them starting this year. Sadly, the dolphin decals are not being retained on the engines.

After completing our 360 degree circle of the plane we pull up to the stairs. An NH ground crew member holds up an umbrella so that we don’t have to get wet going from the bus to the stairs, that’s the NH service you expect. I pause to grab a quick tarmac shot before heading up into the stiars.

These stairs are probably as old as our plane.

I’m the last passenger off the bus so I exchange pleasantries with the FA in the front galley.

Entering the plane, there are blankets and NH candies available.

My seat for this flight. I’m in the exit row.

Being in the exit row, the tight seat pitch of the Super Dolphin is avoided. Plenty of legroom here.

The blanket and NH candy that I took while boarding.

Seatback pocket has headphones preplaced.

The tray table, seat controls, and audio controls are in the armrest.

View of the vintage cabin as we wait for the third bus to show up, which took forever to arrive.

The stragglers file on and we immediately fire up the engines, start the safety demonstration in Japanese only (no video since we are on an old plane), and roll out on our taxi to the runway. I apologize in advance for the crappy spotting shots on the taxi, the windows were already covered in rain.
NH B763.

NH B77W (JA777A from Part 2 of this series).

NH B788.

TG A388.

A pair of AC B788s.

I love the NZ livery on this B789.

NH B772.

A pair of UA B774s.

There was no wait by the time we finally got to the runway and we were off into the grey sky.

On to the seatback contents.

Exit Row information card, safety card for the B735, and NH magazine.

BOB menu for October.

Our wingletless wing in the grey clouds.

Drink service started and I took a boring glass of water.

I napped until the final descent. Here is an appalling night shot as we pass the Port of Nagoya.

We touched down about 10 minutes late due to the long wait for paxbus boarding to finish. As we taxi to the gate we pass a NH B738, JL B738, and NU B734.

The final tail line-up at the domestic terminal.

The FAs wish everyone a good night and up the jetbridge we go.

It was a 15-minute wait for bags, very slow for NGO standards. I finally got my bag and then took the train home where I promptly passed out. That’s all for this series. A very tiring trip for just 2-days in Chicago.