Hello travellers! Has anyone been to Narita Airport? We're looking at Thailand in January and I noticed a flight that has pretty much an hour between connections in both Vancouver and Narita. In your opinion, is that enough time? We did a short connection like that in Dallas-Ft. Worth once and ended up sprinting. Don't want to repeat that if we don't have to. TIA.

It’s a big airport. Can you find out if the arriving and departing flight are from the same terminal ? Will they be booked on one ticket ?

Thanks! I'm guessing it's a little too early for terminals to be assigned. It should be booked on one ticket, though.

Scott if you are looking at a certain flight (United maybe ?) you can look at their current flights for that destination to try and figure it out

Marjolei likely hood is slim as arriving in domestic terminal and departing from international terminal and they are a fair distance apart depending what gate the domestic flight lands. YVR is a gong show most days. 1 hour in Vancouver is doable provided your flight from YYC is on time. Can’t speak for the other one.

Taunia sorry, I was actually referring to Narita, not Vancouver.

Marjolei oh I see, it is a big airport but would they not do the same, domestic /international terminals? Or is it different there? Arriving and departing in o e terminal would make it so much easier lol.

Hmmm…we were looking at this same itinerary. Narita shouldn’t be a problem, arriving and departing from the same terminal. I would have issues with the 1 hour in Vancouver…arriving domestic, departing international.

Shane We often fly Calgary, Vancouver, Narita - one hour between Van and Narita is tight. You do want to miss that connection.

I meant "do not" want to miss your Van to Narita flight

I don't know about Narita airport but last time I was in Vancouver airport after we landed, we were on the plane waiting for a gate for 25 min. It hink having 1 hour between flights is a high risk

My experience with Calgary, Vancouver, Narita airport is that if all of your flights are on one ticket then they hold the next connecting flight for your arrival in Narita, get you off the Van-Narita flight first or rebook you onto the next flight from Narita to your destination

It is so efficient. It’s not the airport I’d be worried about it’s the arrival flight being on time.

I wasn’t connecting, but took me an hour and a half to get through Narita due to long lineups.
Last year my son had the Vancouver flight leave late for Japan as they waited on other late planes to arrive. I’m guessing because it’s not a daily flight. Missed his connection for Thailand so air canada put him up for the night in Narita

I'm most concerned about missing a day in Thailand, so I think I'll opt for the longer layovers. Thanks!

I had a 1 hour and 5 minute layover in Narita and air canada was late taking off in Vancouver and about 50 of us missed our connection to Bangkok and were delayed 24 hours in Tokyo. I’d book a longer layover if possible.

Most of my air canada flights were like that from Narita to Bangkok. I fly to Bangkok almost once a year. I lost my luggage once after Covid because the flight was very delayed, and we had to wait forever to get the stroller before going through the gate again. If you have no kids, I think you will be okay.

Can’t answer your question as I did a stopover in Japan so didn’t have to connect right away… but if you have some time stop at the Royce chocolate store at the Narita airport. It’s expensive but so good. It’s all good but the green box (champagne) is probably one of my favorites.

Narita is a huge airport. Even with your booking under one ticket which means your luggage will be tagged direct to BKK, one hour is cutting it really close. It does not even account for delayed flights out of Vancouver. I would not risk it personally.