OneWorld – Flying Dublin to Tokyo March 2023

Flights booked on Expedia through OneWorld Airlines

Dublin, Ireland – London Heathrow, UK

11^th March 2023 17:35 – 19:05 (1hr 30m) British Airlines

London Heathrow, UK – Hong Kong International, Hong Kong

11^th March – 12^th March, 22:05 – 18:25 (12hr 20m), Cathay Pacific

Hong Kong International, Hong Kong – Narita International, Tokyo, Japan

13^th March, 01:30 – 06:35 (4hr 5m), Japan Airlines

In February, we booked a very last minute and somewhat spontaneous trip to Japan. We had been talking about going to Japan the following year, due to unexpected unemployment circumstances, I found myself in the happy situation of having some spare time, so we threw caution to the wind and booked a two week trip to Japan for the following month.

We had 3 connecting flights, booked through Expedia using the OneWorld Alliance Partnership, so even though they weren’t the same airline, there was some comfort knowing there was an alliance if anything did go wrong. Return per person was €1249.10. We travelled from Dublin to London Heathrow, London Heathrow to Hong Kong and then finally Hong Kong to Narita International in Tokyo, Japan.

We decided to only take hand luggage, so with the maximum small suitcase we could take and a backpack each, due to the connecting flights and due to the amount we would be travelling around – 5 destinations in two weeks.

Vegan Red Thai Curry / Scrambled tofu, vegan sausage, spinach on Cathay Pacific

Setting off from Dublin was slightly stressful. Our flight was delayed by over 2 hours, there weren’t any announcements made by the airport, I was able to see the changing expected departing time on the British Airways app. We landed in Heathrow with about half an hour to spare, luckily the crew announced asking only people with connecting flights to disembark first. We needed to get to another terminal, we raced down to where the free terminal buses were along with a good number of other passengers. After a tense bus ride that seemed to take a detour, and a sweaty, stressful dash to the gate, we miraculously made it in time and were grateful to see a message on the gate saying ‘Take A Seat’. A sigh of relief all round, our layover in Hong Kong was over 7 hours, so we had a lot more leeway there.

The flight from London Heathrow to Hong Kong was operated by Cathay Pacific. It was very comfortable, lots of entertainment and the food was really quite good. Dinner was Vegan Red Thair Curry with Tofu, with a side of an obligatory bread roll + Sunflower spread, a fruit salad and a delicious chickpea salad with avocado and radish. It was great and the rice tasted fresh and soft. Breakfast was scrambled tofu, roast tomato, mushrooms, sausage and spinach, with a bean salad, bread roll and fruit salad. The scrambled tofu very much looked like scrambled egg, it was very jarring but the label clearly said scrambled tofu! It was all very tasty though. Excellent in-flight catering!

In Hong Kong International Airport, we had a several hours to spare – we eventually found a hub where all the shops and restaurants were. There were a few options for food, I eventually settled on a shiitake mushroom noodle dish from Moon Thai Express on Level 7 in the food court area.

Hong Kong International Airport was quite an interesting place to wander around, there were many shops in a hub area and all around were sculptures and art.

Our connecting flight to Japan, operated by Japan Airlines went smoothly. We had failed to choose our vegan meal for this flight as we hadn’t realised it was operated by Japan Airlines – our fault. So, no food on this flight. We landed in Narita International Airport in Tokyo on time, just after 6am, tired but excited to be here.   

*After booking through the Expedia website, we were able to obtain our flight details and access the bookings separately on the Airlines’ apps to request vegan meal options.  

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