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Comment by lobochrome | Hacker News Reader

I live in Tokyo where we have both Narita, far out but well-ish connected by train with NEX and Haneda, with direct access to the city.

Haneda is vastly more convenient.

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I fly into Haneda whenever I can, because even though the train is super convenient, for a train, it’s nicer to just throw your bags in a taxi and head straight to your hotel after 13 hours on a plane.

I tend to travel pretty light but trains get inconvenient with any amount of luggage. I'm coming into NY by ship after a longish trip, continuing on home by train at the end of May. I came to the conclusion I should take advantage of a not too expensive luggage shipping service because dealing with the luggage was going to be just too big of a hassle.

That's a key if you want a "rail to plane" setup - if you do it right (read-nobody will do it) you check in for the train with your baggage and your flight at the same time, and give the bags over to a dedicated baggage car that handles everything for you.

Hong Kong recently added this, called In-town Check-in [1]. You can check in and drop your bags at the MTR Hong Kong station when taking the Airport Express. Can even drop off the bags up to a day in advance. Currently only open to Cathay Pacific customers though.

[1] https://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/services/complom_checkin....

Yeah, any airline could set something like this up. Cathay has always had pretty primo service though.

This is not a recent addition. It is more than 10 years old but was shut down during Covid. They are slowly starting to bring it back. It also wasn’t restricted to just Cathay before, but a large number of major airlines had counters at HK Station for check-in services. It’s wonderful - you can check in your bags before heading to work in the morning and in the evening take the train to the airport directly.

It's not recent - I have been using it since the mid-2000s, it's fantastic. It might have been shut during COVID, and just re-opened though.

I used it over 10 years ago too, It's great if you can use it. There are still a lot of stipulations though.

Right airline, right boarding time etc... It's not available for 100% of flights out of HKG.

Luggage tags can take a rail stop as a final destination. Integrate further! Have a person load the bags onto the train for you!

There are luggage services that will take your luggage from your home to a hotel. You pay for it obviously but it's not a bad option if you're looking to simplify things.

How very 1800s of you. Curious minds wonder what you do to be able to have that kind of time for travel. The amount of time you require in just travel is more than most Americans receive in a year's vacation

Fairly routine tech jobs. In a prior long-term job I got up to about 4 weeks of vacation after a time and did some month-long vacations, especially Nepal treks. I was pretty careful to preserve time off for single vacations for the most part and had flexibility to take a few hours here and there without tapping into my pool.

I'm pretty close to that currently--although it's combined sick/personal/vacation. I've done a number of 3-week workcations in my current role and also had a few weeks of vacation banked from a prior paid time off scheme. I've long had a pretty generous amount of vacation time and I've always leveraged work travel (which I used to do a lot of) for sightseeing and related activities.

I'd add that I've always been pretty religious about taking all my vacation and I've seen a lot of people shocked that I just took off for a month. But I've done so deliberately and with an eye to future commitments and it's never been an issue.

> Curious minds wonder what you do to be able to have that kind of time for travel

In developed countries outside the US annual multi-week vacations are routine for the middle classes

yes, and in developed countries outside the US, healthcare is something covered by the state. neither of which has anything to do with the discussion at hand. you're comparing an apple to a kumquat.

    > Haneda is vastly more convenient.

Many (millions) would disagree. After the opening of the Keisei Skyliner[1], a very fast train from north Tokyo to Narita, from Shinjuku station (west side, busiest train station in the world), it is the same time to either Haneda ("Tokyo Int'l") or Narita.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyliner

and if you're not in a big hurry you can just ride the metro-through line that might be slow but certainly scenic.

I prefer to take a taxi. Also 99% can’t choose. Either you‘re on premium market destinations and carriers (JAL/ANA/LH) or you have no choice to go to NRT.

This very much depends on where in Tokyo you live, no?

Even though NRT is in the middle of nowhere, getting there from my place in Asakusa still is faster then getting across the city to get to HND.

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