Introduction: A Princely China Eastern Escapade

Raymond

November 7, 2023

Hello, welcome to another JakartaPotato trip report! I apologise for the delay but we’re happy to say that we’ve finally finished publishing all posts on our previous report, Back and Forth Around Asia! This time, we’ll be going on a brief China Eastern adventure, whilst also featuring two Japanese low-cost carriers. This is: A Princely China Eastern Escapade.

Background

Sometimes life just happens, and everything happens everywhere all at once. 😛 Mix that in with a few rendezvous needs, and you’ve got yourself another to Japan! Whilst I had planned to meet my sister in Singapore, it somehow became logistically simpler to do that in Tokyo. Since this was totally last minute and unplanned for, we had to make do with a few unusual choices to get where we were going.

Planning the Journey

Tokyo, the Shanghai Way

When I saw reasonable airfares to Tokyo on China Eastern Airlines, I knew this was the moment for me to finally try a mainland Chinese airline! What really sold me was the layovers in Shanghai, which I thought would be fascinating. Since China Eastern operates a myriad of aeroplane types between Jakarta, Shanghai, and Tokyo, I deliberately selected dates on which I could try as many different products as possible. In the end, I managed to fly three different Business Class seats on their Airbus A330-200 and A350-900 aircraft.

Springing to Sapporo in Autumn

Given how absurdly pricey last-minute trips could be, I decided to head back to Sapporo to avoid the crazy hotel prices being charged in Tokyo for some dates of my stay. Since repeating my Japan Airlines flight to Sapporo would be uninteresting and pricey (mostly pricey, though 😉 ), I decided to check out two of Japan’s low-cost carriers. In particular, I decided to book Spring Airlines Japan, which I think is a lesser-known subsidiary of Japan Airlines. On the return, I flew Jetstar Japan to mix things up.

So why ‘Princely’?

Well, let’s be honest, flying China Eastern and a couple of low-cost carriers most likely wouldn’t conjure thoughts of luxury or opulence. But the ‘Princely’ aspect in the title is derived from the three hotels I’ll be reviewing! In SkyTeam SakuraTiming, you might remember that I reviewed the Sapporo Prince Hotel and Prince Hotel Tokyo. Well this time, I’ll be writing about not one, but two Prince Hotels in Tokyo – Grand Prince Takanawa and Grand Prince Shin Takanawa (confusing, I know!). Add to that the ‘Sapporo Grand Hotel’, and I think we have a ‘Princely’ combination 😉

Let’s go!

Overall, our final itinerary looked like the following, which is probably much simpler than you’re used to here on JakartaPotato 😉

Over the next several weeks, I’ll write and share all the reviews from this trip. Please refer to the following list of reviews to check out the written and upcoming reviews you can expect. As always, the list will be updated with links to the reviews as soon as they are ready.

Thank you so much and please stay tuned~ ♪