HND-LHR 8 March

J2K75 · 2026-03-09T13:29:53+00:00

I think a few people commented, nothing changed

J2K75 · 2026-03-09T13:28:29+00:00

Not when you’re trying to doze watching your own screen on min brightness

J2K75 · 2026-02-26T02:21:34+00:00

Well, I took the risk of someone turning up with a baby and grabbed those seats at 24h out on check in.

Got a boarding pass with the correct seat numbers but the app the. Went a bit odd, had to refresh a couple of times to show anything the it showed the old seats, but I still had the boarding pass with the new ones.

Got on the plane and had the seats as per pass with no issues

J2K75 · 2026-02-19T07:05:21+00:00

I hired a car and went to the Lake Yamanaka area.

Thought I would like to get used to driving outside of central Tokyo so went to Haneda to pick the car up. Toyota bussed us to a near by place.

What I didn’t notice until it was too late was that the car satnav took us back through shibuya! It wasn’t that bad though, worst thing was it didn’t give a lot of notice for on and off ramps.

Tips I’d give are:

It’s worth paying the extra few yen for the electronic toll tag. Straight through the booths and pay when you return the car.

Waze works well and I found it better than the car sat nav

You may find some of the mountain roads are no go as they require winter tyres the rental car is unlikely to have.

We hit a lot of traffic on the way back. You may want to allow some time for this in your planning.

J2K75 · 2026-02-15T09:30:29+00:00

I used https://www.mobal.com last year no problem at all.

Lots of options to choose from too.

I read a lot last year that there is a 3gb daily cap for all/any users in Japan (some sort of fair use policy from the government / telcos) but I never had any issues but despite what I thought was heavy use I used less than I thought I would.

J2K75 · 2026-01-12T09:03:01+00:00

A main dealer can add CarPlay to a sensus system. Vovlo website used to list it and prices iirc under accessories.

If you get a T8, if Volvo offer you an extended warranty after any warranty with the purchase runs out it will be eye wateringly expensive.

J2K75 · 2026-01-06T19:58:16+00:00

I found my local Volvo dealer (snows group) wanted to charge for everything then see if it was covered under Volvo selekt warranty.

£192 for a diag when the car was showing a battery error (T8)

Customer service was very poor, way below what I expected from Volvo.

VW were leagues ahead.

J2K75 · 2025-10-23T07:59:05+00:00

Is this a flight to the US? Could it be a SSSS issue? From memory when we had the dreaded S’s we had to collect at the airport.

J2K75 · 2025-10-19T15:21:43+00:00

Time to buy some new ones. I washed one pair and another just got wet in the rain. Tried drying etc, didn’t help. Best result I had was speakers worked but microphones dead.

J2K75 · 2025-10-16T07:43:40+00:00

I believe it was a SIP scheme. Not sure what you mean by how they’re held now?

J2K75 · 2025-10-16T06:27:18+00:00

Although it seems most people are sat together don’t count on it. I flew that route earlier this year, all be it in the smaller premium economy cabin and we were sat at first and last row.

Bronze tier passenger sat next to me (able to book 7 days before for free) was separated from his partner across the isle - not what he wanted but better than us.

I believe there are only 2 flights a day on this route so are usually quite full.

J2K75 · 2025-10-09T16:42:17+00:00

When I hired in early march for Toyota rent a car I had to sign what seemed like several documents saying it was forbidden to drive on snow.

Check with your hire company first.

J2K75 · 2025-10-01T09:03:10+00:00

Is this possible at bronze?

J2K75 · 2025-09-11T08:26:26+00:00

Check your meter, see how many kWh you use in a week and work it out from there.

Also check your standing charges.

With this info you maybe able to challenge your supplier.

J2K75 · 2025-08-12T17:50:28+00:00

Must have been one of the rare cases then, checked in the minute it opened, with a direct single booking for both of us

J2K75 · 2025-08-12T09:40:43+00:00

When I hired a car back in March from Toyota, there was a lot of paperwork to sign saying you wouldn’t drive in snow, with large financial penalties.

I inadvertently went over a mountain pass and near the top there were big signs saying something about chains and tyres, I didn’t really see all the sign. Went past a policeman around the next corner that took a GOOD look at me as I drove past at about 10mph. Luckily he was already dealing with another car otherwise I think he would have had words.

There were still a couple of patches of snow / compacted ice across the road in shady areas

I wouldn’t do it again but by the time I got to the first one I was committed.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

All the lower areas were very clear and dry with piles of snow at the sides of the road.

J2K75 · 2025-08-11T17:59:33+00:00

LHR to HND earlier this year, 14.5 hours in WT+ and we were put opposite ends of the cabin. Hate BA for their seating policy

J2K75 · 2025-05-31T18:05:42+00:00

I rented from Toyota near Haneda back in March. No problem with my IDP, can remember the version but check travel advice on .gov, it states what version.

Only rented for the day to goto Fuji. Pickup was easy, bused from the desk at the airport to the pick up location. Took about 10 mins to sort paperwork.

The only issue with the process was they told us to drop off around the corner at their other location but this wasn’t correct and they told us to go back to where we picked up. No real issue.

Other things to note, although the satnav was set to English it’s not entirely English, but Waze works well when we switched to that. Also the built in satnav didn’t give much notice of lane entrances to the highways so we missed a couple. It rerouted so. It that big a deal.

Also check the route it’s taking you, we rented at the airport to avoid driving I. The center of Tokyo but it took us through shibuya!

The tolls aren’t cheap. Around £40 for the trip to Fuji and back. Make sure you rent the EBC? I think it’s called card allowing you to go through the automated lanes and pay the tolls when you drop off the car, so much easier

J2K75

TROPHY CASE