Easter in Japan (via Singapore and back via Noumea)

[henrus]

Today I bring a new Easter trip report, whilst not quite as insane as last years Brisbane to Tahiti via LAX/SFO it still packs a fair amount of travel into a similar period of time.

Booking

In September last year I started looking at Japan, finally the flights were returning as the country reopened however being both peak times for AU travel and Japan cherry blossom season (although luckily before Golden week) flights were expensive.

I’ve been to Japan several times and done the typical Tokyo then bullet train to Kyoto/Osaka and trip to Hiroshima on a rail pass affair way too many times and the plan was to do something else. Last trip back in December 2019 included Okinawa so this time the obvious choice was to go North!

I began searching flights into Tokyo and the cheapest Qantas fares were about $2k return although some of the better options (read not via SYD) hovered around the $3k mark for direct out of Brisbane. Jetstar wasn’t much better either with some departures leaving Australia around Thursday/Good Friday about $1.5k one way.

Here the gears started spinning to find an award seat into Japan but also the prerequisite was daytime flights leaving Australia. Eventually I settled on an option for 33,000 UA miles + $118.71 taxes with a combination of SQ and NH Economy. UA still prices based on zones so the extra flight to Sapporo was included. There were a few other options including overnight SQ flights and BR flights via Taipei but these were instantly out.

Locked in on the United ticket I had:
6 April - SQ236 - BNE-SIN 2:45pm to 8:45pm
9hr 25min layover in Singapore
7 April - NH802 - SIN-NRT 6:10am to 2:25pm
4hr 35min layover in Tokyo
7 April - NH77 - HND-CTS 7pm - 8:30pm

The plan was then to ski for a couple of days at the tail end of the Japanese ski season before a couple of days in Tokyo and then back to Australia. To round out the travel I booked a separate United award ticket from CTS back to HND for 5,500 UA miles + $8 taxes. UA allows changes for free so this was later changed to CTS>ITM>SDJ for the same points plus about $4 more taxes.

Finally, I locked in a Jetstar flight home (NRT-OOL) for around $700 which included the Max bundle allowing for both Qantas points/status credits to be obtained but also a free exit row seat.

Fast forward to the week before Christmas and Jetstar cancels the NRT-OOL flight on the date I’d booked and they rebooked me on the flight the next day. The email they sent wasn’t amazingly detailed and had the following:

“We’re sorry to let you know that your flight/s on booking xx_xx_ have changed.
Your new flight details are below, please take note of your flight date”

It took me a while to figure out the changes but eventually I spotted that I was no longer on a Tuesday flight but now a Wednesday. In addition when I tried to select a seat all exit rows or even the upfront seats (not that many come with extra legroom) were taken.

One good thing about Jetstar that is really helpful is the chat support, when they do cancel flights (and there isn’t another option that gets you there within 3 hours) then you can typically move the date, change to a indirect flight or get a refund.

It was at this point that I decided a refund might be the best option here to avoid being stuck on in the back of a JQ 787. Here was when I spotted an Air Calin flight the following Saturday (effectively extending my time in Japan) from NRT-NOU-BNE which included 18hrs in Noumea.
The extra ~$200 for a day time flight plus something slightly more reliable was worth it so I tried to book it right away, first looking directly at Air Calin’s website as suggested by Google flights.

 

[henrus]

The extra ~$200 for a day time flight plus something slightly more reliable was worth it so I tried to book right away, first looking directly at Air Calin’s website as suggested by Google flights.



This didn’t seem to work as I was now just seeing options at ~AU$1700


It was at this point I realised I’d have to go against my number one rule and probably book with an online travel agent. In the last 10 years I’ve done this once on a cheap Qantas flight booked via web jet (BNE-SYD-PEK-SYD-CHC for ~$900 that even Qantas over the phone couldn’t see).

Problem was many of the OTAs were now showing this as ~$1100 which whilst still cheaper than $1800 Qantas was charging in Economy oneway it was starting to become unreasonable for one way economy.

It was at this point I thought I’d also check business class and found Go To Gate had Air Calin NRT-NOU in Business then NOU-BNE in Economy for $1662 and I instantly locked that in (noting the A320 from NOU-BNE Premium Economy which is more like EuroBusiness with the middle seat blocked was the highest cabin). There was the potential to ticket NOU-BNE in F fare for Premium Economy but that would have cost an extra $232 for the 2 hour flight which wasn’t worth it.

Weirdly on the Air Calin website I could never get it to put NRT-BNE on a single ticket with the mixture of business class and economy but it did offer all premium economy for about $1700 which was more than the J and Y flights combined and oddly the same price as a Y ticket they were offering.

What I couldn’t figure out is how ITA Matrix listed a higher price then what I ended up paying, I wonder if Go To Gate offers cheaper prices on the hope that you’ll purchase all their cough add ons.


In the end it worked out at 38500 UA miles + ~$1800 for:

6 April - SQ236 - BNE-SIN Economy 2:45pm to 8:45pm
7 April - NH802 - SIN-NRT Economy 6:10am to 2:25pm
7 April - NH77 - HND-CTS Economy 7pm to 8:30pm
11 April - NH774 - CTS-ITM Economy 11:05am to 1:00pm
11 April - NH739 - ITM-SDJ Economy 7:40pm to 8:55pm
15 April - SB801 - NRT-NOU Business 11:55am to 10:30pm
16 April - SB150 - NOU-BNE Economy 4:30pm to 6:05pm

Not bad for a total of 13,898 miles travelled.

 

[henrus]

Day 1
The trip starts in Brisbane on an Airtrain out to the international terminal. Online check in for this trip was not possible which I assumed was a vaccine check for Japan but this didn’t occur instead the kiosk printed both my BNE-SIN and SIN-NRT flights with no questions or staff interaction required. Check in was a bit chaotic and as a result I wasn’t able to get my Air NZ Star alliance gold number added (being a UA ticket the UA number was locked into the booking online) and because I only had carry on luggage it was straight off to security.



The 2:45pm SQ flight is normally the only departure at that time of day so there was no queue for departure security and as a result from walking off the train and into the SQ lounge was under 20 minutes. The friendly agent at the SQ lounge was able to add my NZ*G number to both boarding passes and I was in to the SQ lounge.

There was a non enforced express pass queue and interestingly my reprinted lounge boarding pass now had “EXPRESS PASS” printed on it.

The SQ Brisbane lounge hasn’t changed much since it opened which is good because it’s a solid lounge with mainly Chinese style food. Drinks was a little poorer than I remember with Mumm champagne, Tanqueray as the gin and black label whiskey not too bad however the beer department has gone downhill a bit with just three types Asahi, Burleigh Brewing mid tide and Great Northern all in cans/bottles (It was quite shocking to be in an SQ lounge with no Tiger beer).

Boarding was called at 2pm and unlike some SQ ports in Brisbane anyone with Gold (which means group 3) also gets to use the business class lane.

One of the first onboard the rather comfortable A350 – albeit the medium haul version:




The flight was a good flight up however very bumpy after leaving the Australian coast. I fly a bit and it was probably one of the worst I’ve had in a while (quite a few sudden drops and crew seated for a long time) but I think this is related to the cyclone that at the time was forming off the WA coast.



This particular A350 was fitted with SITA Onair wifi which is good at US$16 for a full flight pass however it dropped out several time and didn’t work at all for the last two hours. When it did work well just after leaving Brisbane speeds were about 5mbps down.

 

[henrus]

The flight arrived at Changi around 40 minutes early at the furthest gate from the T1 Aerotel and had to wait around 5 minutes for the gate to even become available. It was then quite a trek including 2 sky trains to finally reach Aerotel at about 8:55pm which was perfect given I’d booked a 9pm-5am slot.

The Aerotel check in couldn’t be easier, as I’d already paid they asked for a passport and both inbound and outbound boarding passes and asked guests checking in to take a seat. A couple of minutes later they brought over a room key.

First stop was the pool for a quick dip, it’s free for those staying at the hotel otherwise they charge SG$27 for an unlimited timed entry however it’s worth noting the pool is only open 12pm-10pm.



Depending on length of stay a meal is also included with Aerotel rates and I wasn’t that hungry but decided to order it to have a few bites. It's served in the lounge space:



Now about the Aerotel, I paid ~SG$180 for a single room for the night. Entering and exiting Singapore is not and issue with my frequent travel pass I can use any of the e-gates however my logic was that both the Yotel and Crown Plaza wanted a lot more for the night and a grab somewhere to would have taken time plus cost at least $40 return.

 

[henrus]

The single bed rooms are just that, a single bed plus a small desk. There was a tv with about 15 channels and obviously no window. The biggest annoyance is no bathroom instead there are 4 shared shower/toilet rooms down the end of the hallway. It wasn’t disgusting but the whole place both room and shower could do with a good clean and as a result I don’t think I’d stay again.

Day 2

The 4:30am alarm wasn’t too bad given that’s 6:30am Brisbane time and after a quick shower I was off to the SATS premier lounge (ANAs contract lounge in T1). Coming up the escalator I saw a “Full Capacity” sign but upon closer inspection they were just turning around people with priority pass/dragon pass etc and only letting in airline passengers accessing through status or cabin class. Amazingly my SQ printed boarding pass was no issue as it had my NZ*G on it and I was in for a quick 15 minute stop to grab some fruit and a coffee.

My boarding pass had 5:45am as the boarding time so at around 5:20am I went and found the furthest T1 gate C26. There was luckily no security line but ANA did have a premium queue setup for business class and star alliance gold which was nice. Unsurprisingly when heading through security they were paging my name and just wanted to see my vaccination certificate as at time of travel Japan was still requiring either 3 doses (doesn’t matter when - my last was in December 2021) or a recent Covid test. They also reprinted my boarding passes on NH paper (including stapling an exit row information sheet to my SIN-NRT boarding pass), checked me in for the domestic flight and added my NZ*G number to the domestic flight as well.

Boarding started right on 5:45am with special assistance followed by Group 1 (only 2 people with NH diamond status because of no first class) then group 2 which was business class and gold.

Onboard a flight attendant came over and welcomed me by name. On their iPads they had all the passenger names/info. now I have no idea if it was because I was in the exit row but it was very nice being welcomed by name, thanked for being gold, informed of the flight time (plus told where turbulence would be along the flight), confirm a special meal and then asked if I was ok to sit in the exit row. You don’t often get that level of service in Economy!

Leg room for days!


On both the SQ and NH flights I’d ordered a seafood meal simply because I didn’t like the look of the regular menu. In hindsight the beef dish on SQ didn’t look that bad.



We pushed back on time and had a long 15 minute taxi/hold before take off. Once off it was a smooth flight that started with breakfast, once again I ordered a seafood meal which was not bad and certainly looked better than the other meals.

ANA did use a trolley but the FA serving was so efficient she was many rows ahead of the trolley, also impressive was they had a laminated version of the two meal choices as seen below which they showed each person to make a choice. A bit later in the flight I asked about the whiskey and if it was Japanese, they apologised and said no it was makers mark in economy so I had a Suntory beer instead.

 

[henrus]

Before landing an Apple Danish was served as the second service however as I’d ordered the seafood meal I got a much better smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket panini.



I purchased wifi and for US$21 had a solid but not fast connection the entire flight. Speeds only got up to about 1mbps but through my VPN that was sufficient to even stream YouTube live content in 480p.

The flight landed at 1:52pm, with a long taxi time I ended up finally stepping off the plane at 2:10pm and by 2:25pm had cleared all immigration/customs taking the escalator down the the train station.

Overall, a very enjoyable flight and one of the best Japanese crews I’ve had (better then NH business last year)!

There are numerous reports online about the entry process taking hours and now that I had time I figure I’d get moving and have some food in Tokyo. Down in the train station there was a huge queue to collect JR Rail passes however as I’d only ordered a JR East pass for later in the trip I was able to print out my 5 day rail pass via a ticket machine (just scan the QR code and passport).

It was now about 5 minutes until the next Kisei sky access train (these are the one train Narita to Haneda services - plus cheap) so I set off and it was only until I’d got on the train that I had no yen!



Suica is now on iPhone so I was able to top up a card and touch on using my phone just like I would at home (albeit touching on with a Mastercard not Suica), mind you the Suica top up is done via the same Mastercard although reports are it only works with Mastercard/Amex this solution means you really could get around Japan with no cash (although I still wouldn’t advise as there are still a few cash only places).



On the train I formulated a plan to get sushi at Shinagawa and then it’d be a quick 20 mins down to Haneda. With plenty of time I stopped in at Kura Sushi Shinagawa (a cheap sushi train chain) and also had time for a beer at Hitachino inside the JR gate line at Shinagawa station.

The last of the Cherry Blossoms visible outside Shinagawa station:




After suitably fed and watered, I trekked out to Haneda airport via train for the flight up to Sapporo.

ANA operates premium entry for *G and J class passengers which feature their own check in desks and security screening points although these are close to the lounge they still spit you out into the normal terminal however it was just around the corner and up an escalator to the ANA lounge.

Entry was done via a single boarding pass scan and I was in to the ANA pub. Honestly it makes a regional Qantas club look good with food limited to very small packet items and just drinks, more makers mark whiskey, a soft drink machine, kelp juice, water (hot/cold/sparkling) and then 4 types of beer. A lot of my domestic star alliance travel is done on Air NZ and these ANA lounges (I ended up visiting Tokyo Haneda, Sapporo and Osaka Itami) make the Air NZ lounges look first class by comparison.

 

[henrus]

Boarding isn’t announced either so I went down about 10 minutes before boarding to get onboard a 777-200 up to Sapporo, it was a little delayed due to the weather which had really come in:



The flight up to Sapporo went by quickly, the domestic 777-200 widebodies are in a 3-4-3 config and don’t really have any features (no power, IFE etc) but they do have wifi which is free and worked well:


The flight ended up arriving on time and after a ~40 minute train ride into Sapporo I was at the hotel close to 10pm. For the one night I booked the “JR inn sapporo-eki minami-guchi”, it was a newish clean hotel and most importantly close to the station. The hotel had a good amount of amenities like a onsen and vending machines downstairs plus it was ~$71 for the night for a room.

Day 3

Now booking far ahead came with the risk of no snow (especially since hotels in Niseko had stricter cancellation policies) so to minimise the risk of potentially being up in a ski field that had closed I decided on just one night in Niseko.

The single night in Niseko but aiming for two days of skiing meant an early start from Sapporo. Outside of the regular ski season (Dec-Feb) trains are less frequent and the single through train services don’t operate, this meant first a regular 6 car electric train (every ~15 minutes) to Otaru followed by a train change to a small single car diesel train that operates the final ~1.5 hour trip from Otaru to Kutchan.







Now whilst there is a train station at Hirafu this has even less service than Kutchan plus it’s located ~2km from Niseko Hirafu village, as a result everyone gets shuttle services from Kutchan to the village.

I booked the single night via booking.com for Chalet Ivy Hirafu and at ~$270 for the single night it was incredible value for a large room, half board (breakfast and dinner) plus shuttles both to/from Kutchan and also the Gondola (however it’s only 500m away).

The train arrived Kutchan at 9:20am and the hotel shuttle was waiting, this meant I got to the hotel before 10am was able to get changed and get to the Gondola station by 10am, ski hire and lift passes were also very simple so by 10:30am I was up skiing for the day.

 

[henrus]

The snow was slushy spring snow but it was still great fun to be skiing in April at a very quiet field.



Most of the on mountain places are shut this time of year so lunch at King Bell Hut was basically it but with beer on tap and warm ramen I wasn’t complaining.



In the afternoon the weather took a turn for the worst and it started snowing!

 

[henrus]

That afternoon I went for a roam around the sleepy Niseko Hirafu (it was clear the main ski season had ended!)

In addition to a nice hotel room the hotel also had an onsen with both an inside and outside bath.




Maybe someone know's more about Australia House?

 

[henrus]

I quick trip into the convince store and a bit shocked to see them selling gin for ~$15 a bottle



I didn’t get any Gin but did sample some local beers




As a part of the half board package dinner was served in the hotel restaurant, in hindsight the extra $ for the dinner probably wasn’t worth it as they had a normal menu but regardless is was still very tasty.

 

[henrus]

Some photos of what dinner entailed and suffice to say I was stuffed by the end of it.

 

[henrus]

After dinner a night cap at Toshiro's Bar across the road

This included some local whiskey which lets just say wasn't very good (especially when compared to later in the trip).



In April Sapporo is rather sleepy at night as I could easily stand in the middle of the road and take a photo!



Day 4
Overnight there was about 20cm of snow outside and it was still snowing, this meant it was an epic powdery day of skiing for the 2nd and last day in Niseko.
I checked out of the hotel and left my bags at the hotel before a quick shuttle back up to the Gondola.



Lunch was again at King Bell Hut and I’d booked at hotel shuttle at 2:45pm back to Kutchan. I ended up stopping Skiing around 2pm which meant I had some time to sit in the Onsen when back at the hotel.

The train left at ~3:15pm and I was back in Sapporo by around 5:30pm. Both Kutchan and Otaru have ticket machines but if getting on/off at other stations you actually pay the driver by taking a ticket when you enter and paying when you get off (unless getting off at Kutchan or Otaru where you pay at the station) – this is a very similar setup to most Japanese buses.

 

[henrus]

I had two nights in Sapporo and booked Hotel Androoms Sapporo Susukino for 2 nights at ~$112 ($56 per night).


The hotel was clean and comfortable although it lacked an onsen just having a sauna instead.

Hokkaido is famous for crab so after 20 seconds of google searches I found a nearby crab restaurant and ended up ordering the Suisen set

 

[henrus]

Day 5

I had the full day in Sapporo so ticked off some touristy sights, I was planning on heading up the Mount Moiwa ropeway in the morning, but it was closed for maintenance so ended up exploring Sapporo for most of the morning.

For lunch I went to the Sapporo beer hall (sadly the beer museum is shut on a Monday).



I neglected to take a lot of photos in here but it was a massive hall that had cook it yourself meat with Korean style BBQs on the table. Both the food and beer was cheap plus at lunch you could order ~80 minutes of all you could eat for about $35.



After lunch a trip up the Sapporo TV Tower



In the evening a trip to a couple of breweries
Susukino Brewing was the first and probably some of the best beer on the trip, they only had three beers on tap so it was easy to try them all


and Moon Sun Brewing

I didn’t take them up on the offer but for ¥3800 ~$42 there was the option of 2 hours unlimited drinking.

 

[henrus]

Day 6

Luckily it wasn’t an early start as I now had an 11am flight from Sapporo to Osaka, the train out to the airport was quick and easy plus ANA had a similar premium entry setup in Sapporo.

Today’s flight was on an A321 which meant in addition to free wifi there was also IFE (including external cameras), power and USB at all seats. Service was limited as before with just tea, water and juice served in Economy. What did really shock me was the BYO on domestic flights, everyone around me cracked out cans of beer after take off and a few people actually boarded the flight with open cans of Asahi in hand.

I don’t think I could name another country where BYO alcohol is allowed on flights at boarding but I guess that’s just how it works in Japan. In addition to selling beer post security they also don’t have liquid restrictions on domestic flights just like Australia/New Zealand.

Once in Osaka I left my luggage at a locker as I had a flight to Sendai in a few hours and headed into town. I had some time to kill so stopped in at “Craft Beer House Molto Umeda”, it’s on the 31st floor and had good beers and food.



Now you’re probably wondering why stop in Osaka, there are direct flights from Sapporo to Sendai (and even ANA award space on them) but a benefit of UA award on domestic Japanese flights is that transits via other cities are allowed and typically at no extra cost. This meant that CTS-SDJ was the same cost as CTS-ITM-SDJ despite an extra 707 miles travelled.

The stop in Osaka gave me the opportunity to get a ticket to Suntory Yamazaki distillery. Now I’d planned this well in advance as the tickets (both free and paid) go like hot cakes, I logged in exactly at the released time had to wait 1 hour in a virtual queue to secure mine. About 30 minutes after I’d secured mine the entire month was sold out.

The distillery is about a 30 minute train from Osaka station and then a 10 minute walk from the train station. Due to timing I just did the free self guided option. I had a slot from 4-5pm however I showed up at 3:30pm and was let in without any issues.



The self guided museum part is interesting but nothing exciting, you’d probably learn more by watching a youtube video however the highlight is the tasting.



Downstairs each visitor can order 3x15ml tastings of anything on the menu.

I stupidly only took a photo of part of the menu:


The tasting menu also had some really dumb options like a glass of makers mark, CC or Jim beam for ¥100 per glass (however it’s worth noting these count towards your 3 samples).

I opted for the 21yr Hibiki, 18yr Hakushu and 18yr Yamazaki, 3x 15ml pours at a total of ~AU$27.

 

[henrus]

Water is on offer but no ice or anything else.



Needless to say it was great whisky… I don’t think I’ll be buying a bottle of any of the three anytime soon:





I'm kicking myself for not ordering the Yamazaki 25 year old option at ~$40 per glass this is a whiskey that is ~AU$10k per bottle (if you can even find it).

Suntory Yamazaki closes at the end of the month for renovations but should be back open by August. I’ve got a Japan trip planned in Oct/Nov so I’ll see if I can secure another full tour next time.

After the tasting it was back out to Itami airport for some dinner (they’ve got some good places at the airport) plus another trip to the ANA pub (well at least that’s what it seems like) before the 7:40pm flight up to Sendai. This was another A321 and very lightly loaded flight.

The trains to Sendai are still frequent late a night and soon enough I was downtown in Sendai, for the single night I booked the nine hours capsule hotel (I still love staying in a capsule hotel) plus a last minute booking was just ¥2520 ~AU$28 for the night.
Day 7

Now back when I first arrived in Japan I picked up a JR East Tohoku pass, I’d pre ordered this online before leaving Australia for ¥20,000 including 5 days of Unlimited travel. I didn’t initially have plans to purchase any rail passes or travel on any bullet trains however it quickly become obvious that warm weather meant a very early Cherry Blossom season that would be well over by the time I arrived in Tokyo.

Keeping an eye on the forecast it looked like Kitakami would be in full bloom around the 12th of April so I booked the rail pass with the plan of making a day trip from Tokyo to Kitakami (~2.5 hours on the bullet train). United award tickets allow unlimited free changes to I ended up changing my flight from CTS-ITM-HND to CTS-ITM-SDJ flying into Sendai instead of Tokyo.

The change meant a shorter 1hr trip North of Sendai to Kitakami and then the 2.5 hours back to Tokyo. I thought about staying up north but needed to be in Tokyo on Wed-Fri to catch up with people so this worked out.

 

[henrus]

Some Boiled Oysters

 

[henrus]

Back in Tokyo I had a snack at Sushi Zanmai



In the afternoon I went to Team Lab Planets… let’s just say nowhere near as good as Team Lab Borderless and totally weird as everyone has to take off their shoes and wade through water:







Days 8 & 9
I was in Tokyo and don’t have much to share except a couple of photos. I stayed at the Mercure ginza and whilst fine I don't think it was worth the high price.

 

[henrus]

Day 10
I set off (way too late - too used to Haneda) out to Narita for the Air Calin flight down to Noumea. This excellently timed service leaves Tokyo at 11:55am on Saturday and arrives Noumea at 10:30pm.

I really like the day before departure that Air Calin sends an email reminding about online check in but also the check in times (which on Air Calin vary depending on airport and aircraft type)



I arrived at the counter around 55 minutes before departure and both outbound security and passport control (visitors can use an egate on departure) were quick.

I didn’t have long to visit the lounge but was able to have a quick shower, this lounge also had a lack of food (mainly just snacks). I know Japanese airport lounges can be better, I’ve been in both the Haneda ANA First and Business class lounges and they’ve both got good food options so I don’t know why but their domestic and this contract one were just disappointing.

Boarding was on time with business class and flying blue elites called after families with infants. A welcome drink of water, champagne or juice was offered and then after take off another drink plus small prawn snack.



Now I didn’t take any photos of the seat/cabin as it was almost full but you can easily find photos Air Calin’s A330neo business class online (including one below I’ve included from Air Calin’s website) it’s actually the same seat that SQ has on their medium haul regional aircraft, Instead I’ll focus on the soft product which isn’t heavily reviewed online.


I had a window seat in row 5, which is one closer to the window.

Just before take off menus were handed out with the same menu in French, English and Japanese.

 

[henrus]

More menu - trying to post the full thing online because an Air Calin business class NRT-NOU menu is hard to find.





Duck starter - I'd already had a couple of pieces of duck


Beef main



It was a little more on the well done side:


The seat was comfortable with a blanket and large pillow at each seat, in addition to that an amenity kit was also at each seat upon boarding along with a bottle of evian. Throughout the flight the cabin crew frequently walked through offering snacks or drinks. I didn't get a photo but I did have the mixed cold cut platter half way through.


A 250mb wifi session (normally US$23.8) is also complimentary for business class by entering the ticket number found on your boarding pass. Speeds were good I guess because of the low number of users. The IFE selection wasn’t great but I had pre downloaded vidoes to my phone and used the wifi throughout the flight.



Before landing the FA serving my side came and thanked me for flying Air Calin, she also asked for feedback about the service or the menu. I'd say about 70% of those in J were in transit in NRT (had come off Air France from Paris) as a result french was the main language spoken. I don't know if they crew spoke Japanese but there were a couple of Japanese people in the cabin who were clearly off on holidays.

Luckily our flight landed about 10 minutes before the Sydney arrival so I was one of the first off and through passport control. This mean I was landside in under 10 minutes due to not having any checked luggage.

First stop was the ATM, the one out to the left as you come out the exit worked fine with an Australian card and no fee.

I‘d prebooked “Les Mouettes” transfer via email agreeing for a private transfer XPF12,000 from the airport to the Hilton and then the next day the shared service for XPF3,000 back to the airport. After a few emails it was agreed that it was all booked and that I was to pay XPF15,000 for the transfers in cash to the first driver.

Something to note about Noumea is that the airport is a good 55 minutes from Noumea, there are plenty of shuttle services however they all combine people from the same flight together and wait until everyone is there, this means that if you book a shared shuttle from the airport especially with Arc En Ciel Service (who use large coaches) you could end up waiting almost an hour for people to collect their luggage, duty free etc before actually departing and then the Hilton is frequently one of the last drop off locations so it makes for a long journey.

Being 10pm at night I thought the extra for a private transfer was well worth it and I was checking into the Hilton at 11pm. There was limited mention of my Hilton gold status with no upgrade but a “gold information sheet” which outlined breakfast time etc. Annoyingly I asked about late check out and was told to come back tomorrow but in the end I didn’t bother, tomorrow was technically an hours time so I think it was clear I wouldn't have got one.

In addition to the gold information sheet, there was also a regular information sheet plus a wifi information sheet (Gold's get 30GB free per day and speeds were good up to 20mbps - fastest I saw in Noumea)