RTW TP Run in Jan 2026: Day 13 – Jakarta (CGK) to Tokyo Narita (NRT)

By Nige on January 30, 2026 at 11:09 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: CGK | Jakarta | Japan Airlines | NRT | Tokyo Narita

After all the pain involved in securing my golden boarding pass, it was a relief to be walking through security and immigration knowing I’d successfully avoided a potentially fatal flaw in my complex itinerary.

Once I’d cleared all the mandatory checks, I headed to the Sapphire Plaza Premium Lounge near Gate 6.

From the outside, it looked like a fairly standard lounge. Inside, however, it appeared to be split into several separate rooms that weren’t interconnected, which felt a little odd.

I ended up in a quiet area where there was a half-decent hot buffet — although the problem was that none of the dishes really worked together.

There was a nasi goreng that looked more like a plain bowl of rice, another bowl of plain rice, a pasta dish with sauce, and a collection of other culinary oddities.

Fortunately, there was bread, a toaster, butter, and jam. Guess what I had for dinner?

My flight departed from Gate 1D, and the boarding process was impressively polite and well organised. There appeared to be a team of around eight staff members, and they even held a brief team huddle before boarding commenced. Very impressive.

I eventually boarded into seat 02A, which turned out to be the oddest business-class seat I’d encountered so far. The cabin was arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration and felt like an older-generation product.

This was the so-called Sky Suite, featuring the Apex seat — often described as one of the best business-class seats out there. Not in my book.

While the screen was large (23 inches), the in-flight entertainment system — controlled via a handset — was clunky and unintuitive.

The overall layout vaguely resembled BA’s old herringbone seat, except that both passengers in each pair faced forwards.

Each suite was accessible directly from the aisle and formed a perfect rectangle. Visually, it felt a bit like a morgue.

To be fair, each suite offered more personal space than BA’s herringbone, although — as far as I could tell — there was no usable storage space at all.

My plan for the flight was simple: eat nothing, have a single post–take-off drink, and sleep.

I received two separate welcomes from different crew members, one of whom talked me through the dinner options.

She had the menu open and repeatedly pointed at the Japanese-language section — while speaking to me in English — as if I was somehow expected to read it. Slightly odd.

We pushed back a few minutes late, but nothing of any consequence. I was keen to get my drink and get my head down.

In the end, I didn’t even get the post–take-off drink. The cabin crew were surprisingly slow to get moving, so I made do with the provided blanket and tried to sleep.

It wasn’t particularly successful.

One foot felt freezing, the blanket was thin, and the pillow was embarrassingly small. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get much in the way of quality sleep.

I woke around two and a half hours before scheduled arrival. The cabin lights came on — and I finally received my post-flight mimosa.

I continued to avoid food, on the assumption that I’d be able to eat properly in a lounge.

It was still dark on final approach into Tokyo Narita. The landing was smooth, followed by a long taxi to Gate 61.

Once the air bridge was connected, I was quickly off the aircraft and heading towards International Transfers — which, pleasingly, was completely empty.

Next up: A gallery of photos from Day 13 of my Round The World trip of a lifetime.

---

Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026