JAL and ANA among carriers to start requiring earlier baggage check-in very soon.

The convenience of using Haneda Airport isn’t just its close proximity to downtown Tokyo, it’s also how easy the station is to access by train. There’s a station right in the basement of the building, with elevators that will take you right from the platform up into the departure lobbies, and when you add in how punctual and reliable Japan’s rail networks are, it can be easy to assume you don’t need to build much buffer space into your schedule when you’re heading to Haneda to catch a flight.

However, several airlines that fly out of Haneda, including JAL and ANA, have put out a reminder that there’s a limit to how close you can cut things, as they’ve announced that they’ll be instituting stricter deadlines for checking in bags for domestic flights, and they’ll be going into effect very soon.

Under the new policy, JAL, ANA, Air Do, StarFlyer, Solaseed Air, and Japan Transocean Air will be moving back their baggage check-in deadline by an additional 10 minutes, with the new deadline being 30 minutes before the flight’s departure time. Note that this is not a suggested time, but a hard cutoff, implying that passengers with bags to check who show up at the counter with less than 30 minutes to spare before departure will be faced with a choice between missing their flight or leaving their bags behind.

In addition to the six airlines mentioned above, Skymark says that while it is currently sticking with its baggage check-in cutoff of 20 minutes before departure, it will be monitoring the situation and moving up the deadline if it becomes necessary to do so. All seven airlines have also issued statements reminding passengers that their flight’s scheduled departure time indicates the time at which the plane is slated pull away from the gate, and so passengers are expected to be boarded at least 10 minutes prior to departure.

At the moment, the policy change applies only to domestic routes, but with the change coming as part of a renewed effort to maintain punctual takeoff times, there’s a chance that JAL and ANA will be keeping an eye on whether or not similar changes are necessary to keep its international flights on time. So again, while it can be tempting to time you arrival at Haneda so that you roll up at the last possible moment before you need to be there, the wise thing to do is to actually arrive a little earlier, especially since there’s usually something cool to see at the airport.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, JAL, ANA
Top image: Pakutaso
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