snow at Chitose and issues with ground services

[samwillis5 0]

reading through this forum it seems the experience of others with Japanese service at/and Chitose is a little different to ours.

 

Last year we got turned back from Chitose 10 minutes out because of snow. We held in pattern for an hour before being sent to Haneda (we had come from Narita having connected with our flight from Aus that day). the Narita-Chitose flight ended up taking 3.5 hours and landed us at Haneda. We had 6 adults and 6 young kids (4 months to 5 years) so we were pretty tired when we got to Haneda at 11pm. To the credit of JAL they put us up in good accomodation and scheduled a new flight to get our whole planeload of people from the night before up to Chitose by 8am. That all went smoothly thankfully and we were thankful to JAL. Afterall you cant help the weather.

 

The real disgrace was the "service" of our ground service. Given that we had a few babies with us and the expected time of night we pre booked and paid for a private mini bus to pick us up and take us to Niseko. It wasnt cheap and was with a well know Niseko ground service. When we had arrived at Haneda the night before I had called them to let them know what had happened but the office was closed. I left a message. I assumed that they would have checked the arrivals info and known what had happened. I also tried the next morning but by the time the office opened we were in the air on our way to Chitose.

 

The next morning our transfer service was nowhere to be seen. After an hour of running round and making calls it turned out that their attitude was, "we turned up last night, you didnt - your problem". They said they had sent the driver to pick us up the previous night costing them the trip so they had met their obligation and would not be coming today. they didnt even have the common decency to tell us they werent coming. They had all our details, it wouldnt have been hard. In fact they were rude enough to have a go at us for not letting them know we wouldnt be there. when I pointed out that we were in the air at the time and had tried, twice, as soon as we could, they didnt care.

 

Now, this is a service company that makes a living out of providing ground services in one of the snowiest places on earth. Wouldnt you think common sense would tell them to check the arrivals info and if a flight is cancelled, as they would have known the previous night, to reshedule the service? We paid over $1000 AUD for a service that we did not recieve. It was simply appalling. When I went to see the manager in Niseko he flatly refused any refund or contribution toward the extra &800AUD we had to pay to catch the White Liner bus to Niseko. In fact he was rude about it.

 

We are up there again for 3 weeks starting next week so I hope our experience is a little smoother this time round but I will not, ever, use that same ground service again. Thankfully we learnt that not all Japanese (in fact rather few) have the same attitude to customer service as that company.

 

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Thundercat 60]

name and shame!

[thursday 1]

I can guess which one it is. And isn't it foreign owned?

[HelperElfMissy 42]

never had a problem.

 

But we have always used Whiteliner.

Once we got put on an earlier bus because our plane was in, our bags were off and there was space on the bus. BONUS!

And this time I barely had time to pee before chasing after the snakey long line of people for "BUS #4 HIRAFU" - but it was all good.

[thursday 1]

3 attempts to land by the pilot of our 747-400 before he decided to head to Narita before he ran too low on fuel.

 

At Narita, a change of crew was needed as they had done their time and the batteries were low. One hour later, Sapporo had cleared and we were on our way again. When we arrived at Shin Chitose, we had been delayed 5.5 hours.

 

The whole airport had be closed down, so ALL the flights were delayed. The WHOLE airport remained open to receive the flights. The coaches were there as expected. All those guys had extended OT.

 

By the time we arrived at the hotel at the Hirafu carpark, it was near 2am. The guy was sleeping behind reception expecting us. And after checkin, he suggested we take to the onsen to get relaxed.

 

I flew Cathay, took the Donan bus, stayed in a Japanese hotel. Our drama was not made into a crisis.

 

Excellent service.

[foreversnow 5]

You know that is what I love about Japan (as stated in another thread). You fly into Chitose to be warned that we might not be able to land due to blizzard condition - No can't land we are heading back to Haneta (mild disappointment) Oh hang on there is a window in the storm we are going to land. Landed there are our smiling crew to meet us in the freezing conditions - Get into our accomodation around 1am and there they are waiting with a big smile and is there anything we need!! Big difference to Australian service.

[ausi ski bum 1]

My Knowledge of Niseko and the Ground Services companies would suggest that there is a real chance the company is not Japanese owned, next time just hire a vehicle yourself and keep it for the week, you can even arrange for the hire vehicles from the Black Diamond lodge to meet the white liner bus so you can move around during your holiday.

 

Chitose is always a risk in winter but it is extremely well managed considering the conditions.

[Go Native 70]

$800 for the Whiteliner though? Gosh the $AUD must have been extremely weak at the time of your trip!.

[samwillis5 0]

unfortunately Go Native, it was. The day we landed in Japan was Feb 2 which is the lowest the JPY has been against the AUD for the last few years. $1 was buying just under 53 yen from memory.

 

I don't think that this particular company is foriegn owned but I am not certain.

 

I should say that I have been to Japan twice now for a total of 6 weeks and this was one of only two negative experiences. It was just their attitude that was dissapointing. We are with a different company this time so here's hoping things run smoothly.....and that Niseko turns on the pow for the first 2 weeks in Feb.

[foreversnow 5]

No Pow or Blizzards at Chitose on February 10th Please.