This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original article link.

Why This Happened

Because I had managed to snag a business-class flight from Japan back to the U.S., I decided to spend a little more time traveling in Japan before heading back. There are no nonstop flights from Urumqi to Japan, and the most suitable itinerary time-wise was China Eastern MU5688 connecting to MU729, with a transfer at PVG, getting me to Osaka the same day.

Normally, as someone who likes to play it safe, I would never book a connection this short. I had originally left myself a 4-hour layover. But about a month and a half before departure, I got a text saying the first segment, which was originally scheduled to leave at 9:00 AM, had been changed to 8:30 PM... Classic China Eastern...

I called China Eastern to rebook, and the only option for the first segment left me with just a 90-minute connection. The phone agent kept assuring me that it would be fine, and in a moment of poor judgment I agreed to the change. Later I discovered that MU5688 has an alarmingly bad on-time record. After rebooking, there was only a 7-day window to change my mind; after that, the ticket would be subject to a huge cancellation fee... I guess I’ve been spoiled by AS and DL’s change and cancellation policies. I guess I’ve been spoiled by AS and DL’s change and cancellation policies.

So I started feeling anxious every single day, worried that I’d get stranded in Shanghai, waste that night’s hotel in Osaka, and possibly even ruin my flight to Hokkaido the next day. China Eastern only has one Osaka flight per day, so would I have to wait until the third day just to enter Japan? In the end, I hastily came up with a backup plan: if my first flight was delayed, I’d switch to an early-morning Tokyo flight the next day and then fly nonstop from Tokyo to Hokkaido.

I also asked about upgrading. The longer first segment was sold out, and upgrading the second segment—less than two hours long—would have cost 3699/each. Too expensive, so I passed.

The night before departure, I got a text saying the first flight would be delayed by 15 minutes, which didn’t sound too bad.

Departure

The next day, I got to the airport on time. Both boarding passes were issued together, and my luggage was checked through to the final destination. Since I had earned Delta Gold this year, I was able to use the priority counter for check-in, the priority security lane, and also use pps to get into the lounge. In the lounge, I made sure to grab some of my beloved Xinjiang milk one last time, and boarding itself went smoothly.

DLDL

I thought that once boarding was done, I was at least halfway to success, so I relaxed a little. But of course the plane ended up delayed. I sat by the window anxiously refreshing my phone, watching the minutes tick by. Every time the plane taxied a little, I’d feel a flash of hope, only for it to disappear again when the plane stopped. Then the captain announced: “Our aircraft has not yet received takeoff clearance.” That felt like an indefinite prison sentence for everyone on board.

There was nothing I could do except wait in endless anxiety. In the end, the flight left an hour late, not taking off until 12:00.

After takeoff, I asked a flight attendant whether passengers like us with a tight connection would be allowed to deplane first if we were delayed, and whether there would be staff to assist with the connection. The answer from the flight attendant was not encouraging. First he blamed me for booking such a short connection. I explained that I had originally booked a 4-hour layover, but China Eastern had changed the schedule and this was the only alternative they could put me on. Then he said there wasn’t much they could do anyway, and that our seats were already relatively far forward, and so on. Finally, he again went back to blaming me for booking such a short connection.

So... that did absolutely nothing to reduce my anxiety.

Lunch was on the plane: the usual beef rice or chicken rice (meals on flights involving Xinjiang are halal), plus the familiar Xinjiang yogurt.

Thankfully, before landing, the flight attendant came back and told me that staff would be there to help us connect.

When we got off the plane, we tried our best to squeeze forward and apologized repeatedly to the people around us, explaining that we had a tight connection. The result? A whole group of people in the rows ahead said they also had tight connections.

Connecting at PVG

In the end, the cabin door didn’t open until about 50 minutes later than scheduled. Fortunately, the inbound flight for our second segment, MU729, was also delayed and landed at PVG around the same time we did. That meant there was a good chance we’d still make it. It had been years since I was last back in Shanghai, but unfortunately this trip was only a rushed stopover.

As soon as we exited the jet bridge, we saw staff waiting for us, and each of us was given an “urgent transfer” sticker. Another group from our flight was connecting to Macau. There were so many of them that we guessed their flight would wait for them even if they moved slowly—there were practically half a plane’s worth.

After waiting a bit for more people, the transfer agent said they wouldn’t wait any longer and would take one group first. So we hurried along right behind her.

I had previously heard that transfer staff would escort us through an expedited lane. In reality, that day probably wasn’t very crowded to begin with, so we didn’t really use much of a fast-track channel; everything was fairly standard. First we went through a counter checking the fingertip QR code, then customs. Customs wasn’t crowded, but it moved very slowly. When it was our turn, they asked me a whole bunch of questions, even bringing up a former name I had changed before preschool...

Then security was unbelievably slow for some reason as well. They opened a new lane for those of us with urgent connections, but a few regular passengers who didn’t know what was going on took spots in that lane anyway, and nobody managed the line.

After security, the transfer agent saw how anxious we were and said, “If you’re going to Osaka, why don’t you just head to the gate yourselves?” Which was exactly what I wanted to do. What I didn’t expect was just how far away the gate was. We went up and down what felt like n escalators/elevators. With T1 being China Eastern’s home base, couldn’t they make the transfer route a little shorter?...

After what felt like overcoming 81 trials and trekking the length of the Long March, we finally arrived at the gate, completely out of breath. Sure enough, that flight had also been delayed because of its inbound aircraft. We got there just as boarding was about to begin, and only then could I finally breathe a sigh of relief...

I am never again booking a connection this short!!!

Shanghai to Kansai (PVG-KIX)

After that, everything went smoothly. This was an Airbus 332, a widebody, and there was a group of middle school students from a summer camp on board. The two girls sitting in front of us seemed to be flying for the first time, and they kept making all kinds of amazed little comments. It was really adorable, and it reminded me of the first time I took my travel companion on a plane.

Dinner was also served on board. It was again called beef rice, but the flavor was completely different from the first segment. Even though both flights that day were in economy, objectively speaking the meals were pretty good. We were also starving after all that rushing around, so we devoured everything.

Three months later, we were back in Japan again! Osaka in summer is really hot and humid, a lot like southern China. KIX also didn’t have a dedicated fast-track immigration lane for families; everyone lined up together. Fortunately, we got off the plane reasonably quickly and at least arrived before the summer-camp kids, so immigration was fairly fast.

KIX is pretty far from the city center. A taxi would have cost several hundred dollars and still been slower than the airport express, so taking the train was an easy choice. We rode all the way to Namba, the last stop, then took a taxi from there to the hotel—easy and familiar~~

The only issue was withdrawing cash. Unlike last time, when I randomly found an ATM and withdrew yen without any trouble, this time I tried several bank ATMs on the way to the hotel and none of them supported foreign cards. It honestly scared me into thinking I might not be able to get any cash in Japan this trip. Thankfully, I later found one in a row of ATMs at ITM airport that did accept foreign cards. Looks like in the future, it’s best to withdraw cash at the airport whenever possible.

2023 Japan Trip Series

This series documents the author’s travels in Japan after returning to China and before heading back to the U.S.

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account “懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐” by a reader from our WeChat group. All articles are original, and if you’re interested, feel free to follow the account.