Non-Stop International Flights from RDU

[wizard-xyzzy]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

Incidentally I am taking a trip to Japan next month; booking the flights became a whole ordeal in trying to figure out timing/realistic layovers/breaking up the long distance etc...

Over a period of five years before retiring, I flew RDU-NRT about every six weeks. Usually I took AA to DFW, ORD, or JFK and either AA or JL from there. (JL 787s have a superb business class.) From the time I left my front door to the time I got to the hotel in Tokyo was 20 hours. A nonstop from RDU would have saved me around 2½ hours and reduced the risk of a misconnect, but in the big picture there's not much difference between 17 hours and 20.

I did make ConciergeKey on AA, but that's another story.

[TarHeelNick]

Originally Posted by wizard-xyzzy

Over a period of five years before retiring, I flew RDU-NRT about every six weeks. Usually I took AA to DFW, ORD, or JFK and either AA or JL from there. (JL 787s have a superb business class.) From the time I left my front door to the time I got to the hotel in Tokyo was 20 hours. A nonstop from RDU would have saved me around 2½ hours and reduced the risk of a misconnect, but in the big picture there's not much difference between 17 hours and 20.

I did make ConciergeKey on AA, but that's another story.

We didn't see any AA options (not a huge fan of AA regardless; so wasn't too disappointed by that); at least none that were on the "first page" price-wise.

The overwhelming majority of flights from RDU-NRT were through United with a few Air Canada and Delta options as well. (the Air Canada flights with layovers in either Toronto or Montreal were the cheapest by far but also had 6+ hour layovers making for an almost 30 hour total travel time; no thanks). Most United options either connected in Newark, DC, Chicago or Houston in that order. In hindsight the shorter flight times to those airports from RDU vs Denver would have been more advantageous overall but you know what they say about hindsight (I also didn't book the flights myself or I would have probably paid more attention to actual flight times)

Are you sure about the bolded? Flight time from HND to IAD is 12 hours 45 minutes; can't imagine it would be much different to RDU. Meanwhile RDU-DEN-NRT is almost 19 hours with a 2 hour layover (the minimum I would do for flights this long and with checked baggage)

Regardless it is still a great thing overall that RDU is expanding its runway, terminals (eventually) and destinations. Excited to see where else they add in the coming years.

[wizard-xyzzy]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

Are you sure about the bolded?

My reference point is from the time I leave my house until the time I arrive at the hotel in Tokyo. This includes the drive from my house to RDU, waiting time at RDU, immigration and customs clearance at Narita (I used to have an APEC card so that was usually fast), and the "orange bus" ride from Narita into Tokyo that is 90-120 minutes depending on traffic. All those elements of the door-to-door travel time are the same, regardless of whether you could fly a nonstop RDU-NRT or have to make a connection.

Although I was always seated in the front, one of the nice selling points about the JL 787s is that they retained the 8-abreast in economy that Boeing intended. Most airlines crammed 9-abreast into their 787s.

[pierretong1991]

For those who like to do Europe in the winter, there's a few dates between October and March where RDU -> Paris is as low as $534 round trip.