How to find cheap(er) air fare to Japan from the US?

[Gunzel]

Yes @SL-san after staying ten nights you get a coupon to cover a single room for a night, if you're in a double or twin room you need to cover the difference, and they do open the bookings a month earlier (6 vs 5). The automated checkin machines seem to be spreading as well and the card makes them a lot easier. Love me a good Toyoko Inn breakfast, the best so far is Hakataguchi Ekimae No. 2. You can ask them not to make up the room every day, and you get a full set of towels and often some bonus bottles of water. 

 

@Kingmeow I'd say they are still rolling out the card as a room key, in my experience there are many hotels that have card readers on the doors that don't support the club card yet. They have a pretty good English language site at: https://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/

 

[Yugamu Tsuki]

Yes 100% on Toyoko Inn; been a fan for them for 20 years, never let me down. The room sizes vary by area (Hakodate are much larger than say Numazu) and you need to keep in mind that how they clean during the day, they have all the doors open at the same time and you aren't allowed to go back to the room mid day to rest. Haven't had an issue with safety but if there was a nefarious agent, it wouldn't be difficult for them just to go in a room and grab a random suitcase.

 

Breakfast meals given are always enough to get one through the first half of the day, coin laundry, and the membership is very much worth it. I like to collect their business cards for each of the locations and make a map of where I have been.

[Tony Galiani]

We stayed at the Toyoko Inn at Shin-Amori mainly as it was the only hotel there close to the station.  It worked out fine for us - once we figured out how to use the room card to access the elevator.  I think I posted a picture of my wife enjoying breakfast there on our February trip.

The staff did not have much English but used a hand held device to assist with communication.  The receptionist would speak Japanese to the device and then hold it up for us to see the screen which had an English translation.

 

And added bonus if you are a Toyoko Inn fan is the availability of a GM model!

 

Cheers,

Tony

 

[Kingmeow]

Tony, I will have to check out that model when I'm there!

 

Oh dear!  😲😄  Just found out my wife's brother and his wife will be leaving for Japan next month.  Except they will be staying for THREE MONTHS!  😲😲😲  This is their third time there (I don't know how long they stayed the last two times).  They are part of the FIRE movement.

 

I wish I had no kids, all the time and money in the world.  🤣

Edited July 30 by Kingmeow

[Tony Galiani]

@Kingmeow - meant to ask - which airline did you end up with?  I am seeing slightly more expensive flights by a few hundred dollars (sort of typical since I have to take an extra connecting flight each way) on United with some on ANA metal which is appealing.

Ciao,

Tony

[Kingmeow]

@Tony Galiani We booked United.  I checked this morning for grins and saw crazy prices like $5,000+ for Premium Economy non-stop.  No different if you have a stop either.  I don't know why it doubled in 24 hours!  For $5k, I would take a step backwards and go normal Economy, as much as I would hate that for a 14 hour ride.

 

What fares are you coming up with?

[Tony Galiani]

@Kingmeow  I am seeing about $2400 for Premium Economy for the dates I have been looking at with options for United and ANA flights.  Though there was one schedule that came up with $12K for Premium Economy - bizarre.  JAL also had some for $2500 but my connecting flights would have to be on AA and not sure I want to chance that but maybe.

 

My current status allows me to get economy plus seating at booking for no extra charge so sometimes I will do that - I am heading to Germany next week and opted for PE going eastbound (overnight) but took advantage of the free economy plus option for my return westbound flight and have the first row in that section with huge legroom.  Ironically, I got the idea on my last trip to Japan when I saw someone doing that.  It can be a nice money saver.  

It's funny - I don't chase status but it just sort of happened with all the travel I have been doing recently.  So might as well take advantage of it while I have it.

 

I have to go back and look again as I learned last night I can add a few days to my trip as I have a booking gap into early November so that is one bit of good news.

 

Cheers,

Tony

[Kingmeow]

My brother and his family is leaving from SFO and he's buying the tickets tonight.  I think he said around $2200+ for ANA as they have an inch more leg room and they fly out of SFO.  JAL is pricier he said.  I'll let you know what he decides on.  He has AA points so that made him look at JAL.

[Gunzel]

JAL has the world’s best 787 economy, only 8 across unlike everyone else who went 9. At least some of their flights from SFO are on 787, including JAL 1 & 2. 

[Tony Galiani]

Solo Travel Japan did a video on JAL's economy class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrK4InT9t8

 

He has also done videos of JAL premium economy and business class.  The cost for economy may be a bit more than some other airlines but it certainly seems to be a better product.

 

Ciao,

Tony

Edited July 31 by Tony Galiani
clarification

[kuro68000]

Having flown on the 787 I can say that it's a step up over most other aircraft. The A380 is the only one I thought was better. On a par with the A350.

 

Unfortunately JAL use a 777 on the London to Tokyo route. Not a fan of those things. They are old enough that I'm not worried about actually dying due to Boeing's amazing sort-of-fly-by-wire system, but comfort wise they aren't the best. Unfortunately ANA use them as well, and I wouldn't fly with BA these days.

 

You are a lucky man, if you have to spend 14 hours on a plane then the 787 is one of the best choices.

[Tony Galiani]

Hopefully, I won't regret not purchasing tickets for October when I was on the UA site today.  I found a nice fare and decent schedule for PE with the domestic flights on United and the trans-Pacific legs on ANA.  Though the flights were in and out of Narita and I tend to prefer Haneda.

 

I had hoped to do an open jaws routing into Osaka and return via Haneda but nothing good showed up in my searches.  Last month, I had seen an Air Canada flight into KIX with a return on United that was reasonably priced but it is not showing up anymore.  Schedule change I guess.  I plan to spend time this evening with Google Flights to see if I can find my preferred routing at a good price but, if not, I will opt for the ANA option tomorrow - hoping that the ticket prices don't increase over night!

 

Cheers,

Tony

[Ander88]

My experience is that the sooner you can buy, the cheaper they will be. If you can buy one year in advance (when fligts start to be sold), you will probably get one of the lowest prices.

 

One thing that usually makes the price go lower is searching by multi-travel, that is, arriving in a different city from where you depart from. Last time we arrived at Osaka and returned from Tokyo.

 

Thats at least my experience from Europe. Last minute sales are a myth 

[Kingmeow]

Yes and no.  Until we experienced it ourselves recently I would say you were spot on.  But after this experience we've decided anything goes for plane fares!  🙄

 

We booked RT on United from NYC to Rome 6 months in advance for a Mediterranean cruise.  3 months later my wife read a blurb that United is having a "sale".  Didn't say where or how much, just a "summer sale".  She checked and the price for the same flight dropped $500 for each ticket!  😲  Had she not seen that on her news feed, we would have gone happy go lucky thinking that our 6 months out fare was the lowest.

 

We called United and they gave us back the money BUT in the form of a credit and not returned to our credit card.  Luckily we will use that credit to go to Japan in October but if that wasn't the case we would have to look around and perhaps go somewhere just to use the credit before it expires (1 year) rather to a place where we really wanted to go.

[kuro68000]

If I was less lazy I would go price up tickets every week and make a graph.

[Kingmeow]

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a website out there that does this, not that I know of any at this point.

[chadbag]

Just remember, at whatever price point you buy a fare, you will inevitably find it cheaper in the future.

 

[Kingmeow]

4 hours ago, mojo said:

If I was less lazy I would go price up tickets every week and make a graph.

 

Hmm....  Look what I found!  😁  No rhyme or reason on how many months it goes back or forward.  The one below goes up to May 2024 but if you switch to JFK as the originating airport, it goes up to June 2024.  At least you get *some* idea for a few months back and what the in demand months are.

 

https://www.faredetective.com/farehistory/flights-from-Newark-EWR-to-Tokyo-TYO.html

 

2 hours ago, chadbag said:

Just remember, at whatever price point you buy a fare, you will inevitably find it cheaper in the future.

 

Of course!  For me, that's pretty much everything I buy!  🤣

[kuro68000]

On 8/3/2024 at 10:42 PM, Kingmeow said:

 

Hmm....  Look what I found!  😁  No rhyme or reason on how many months it goes back or forward.  The one below goes up to May 2024 but if you switch to JFK as the originating airport, it goes up to June 2024.  At least you get *some* idea for a few months back and what the in demand months are.

 

https://www.faredetective.com/farehistory/flights-from-Newark-EWR-to-Tokyo-TYO.html

 

I don't understand this site. It doesn't ask for the dates, so what is the fare it is showing? If you want to fly next day, next week, next month?

[Kingmeow]

Yes, it gives you the typical fare search that all travel sites have.  But what's interesting is the archive or past fares.  You don't enter dates, just a departing airport and an arriving airport.  It does the rest and goes into the archives and produces a graph.  Like I said, no rhyme or reason on how far back it goes and and how current it goes.

 

Here's an example of EWR to NRT.  It only goes up to May 2024 yet we are in August.  Also, for other airport combinations it doesn't go as far back as this example yet some do.  Go figure!  It's primitive but better than nothing.  Prices are in USD.

 

 

Edited August 5 by Kingmeow

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, Kingmeow said:

Yes, it gives you the typical fare search that all travel sites have.  But what's interesting is the archive or past fares.  You don't enter dates, just a departing airport and an arriving airport.  It does the rest and goes into the archives and produces a graph.  Like I said, no rhyme or reason on how far back it goes and and how current it goes.

 

Here's an example of EWR to NRT.  It only goes up to May 2024 yet we are in August.  Also, for other airport combinations it doesn't go as far back as this example yet some do.  Go figure!  It's primitive but better than nothing.  Prices are in USD.

 

 

 

Not sure this is useful.  You really want to see this graph of fares for a given flight-date so you can see how it changes as it gets closer to the flight.   I'm not sure what this graph is telling us at all?  Fares aren't static and their relative to the date you're flying amongst other things.  I typed in my city and got the graph but it doesn't really mean anything since you don't know what fares it is using.  It also has a "cheapest month to travel" but doesn't tell you where it got that info from.

 

[Ander88]

Take into consideration that the chart shows the cheapest dates to travel, not the cheapest dates when to buy flights. I think the question was how to find the cheapest fare for a specific date.

 

However the webpage is really interesting if you have flexible dates for when it is better to plan your travel. Thanks for the link.

[kuro68000]

That makes sense, the cheapest times to travel. It's a shame there isn't more resolution. Often if you fly on certain days it is cheaper. I usually go Friday evening and return on Sunday. Also time of day, if you take the midnight JAL flight from London it can be cheaper than the evening one.

 

It's usually best to book early with JAL and ANA because they have super saver economy options that sell out. Or it would be if I could stick to the original dates, but the last two times I have ended up paying to change them.

[chadbag]

7 hours ago, Ander88 said:

Take into consideration that the chart shows the cheapest dates to travel, not the cheapest dates when to buy flights. I think the question was how to find the cheapest fare for a specific date.

 

However the webpage is really interesting if you have flexible dates for when it is better to plan your travel. Thanks for the link.

 

How do they calculate the cheapest dates to fly?  Fares aren't static and the fare depends on when you buy it.  So at what point are they deciding the fare to use for a flight on a specific date?

 

[Ander88]

On 8/6/2024 at 3:10 PM, chadbag said:

 

How do they calculate the cheapest dates to fly?  Fares aren't static and the fare depends on when you buy it.  So at what point are they deciding the fare to use for a flight on a specific date?

 

Not an expert but since that page collects data from flight ticket trackers, I assume it is only showing the cheapest price found for each month (without telling us when the search was made). So if the chart shows February is the cheapest month, I assume it means their data collector made a search we don't know when, asking prices to fly on February. But we still don't know when that search was made.

 

If they want to get the most realistic results, they can make their data collector repeat the searches with certain periodicity and update the average of prices received for each month. But since each different city combination has very different time range results or even no data, we can know very little about how they are collecting the data.

So we can conclude very little . For example the one posted by @Kingmeow shows results that are quite logical:

Good weather months + summer holidays are the most popular dates. Then prices go down in winter except for December - Christmas, when people also have holidays and go to see their family back home.

This other chart, shows prices from Amsterdam to Tokyo also makes sense:

 

The peak in April - May matches the Spring holiday they have (they may see cherry blossom and get less extreme weather than in summer in Japan).

 

--

 

However as said, i'm not an expert and flight companies are much ahead of us when setting their prices.