expired Posted by serra | Staff • Apr 5, 2023
Apr 5, 2023 7:27 PM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
expired Posted by serra | Staff • Apr 5, 2023
Apr 5, 2023 7:27 PM
Singapore Airlines: RT Nonstop Flight: Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo, Japan (NRT)
(Travel 12/4-2/28, Return 12/11-2/28)$679
$924
26% offSingapore Airlines
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Singapore Air is a gold standard airline, you'll get decent food, a baggage allowance, and you even get free drinks in economy. There's no comparison here.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/
And check out YouTube videos for ideas. There's tons of great travel content there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/
And check out YouTube videos for ideas. There's tons of great travel content there.
Their current promotion includes economy flights from several U.S. cities (from the east coast to Denver, no west coast) for 10-15k points or less, which would only cost you 8-12k because of the 25% transfer bonus.
Flying from Atlanta to Paris for 16,800 miles roundtrip would be a pretty exceptional value.
Sometimes the FlyingBlue promo includes business class fares for around 40-50k and the Chase transfer bonus is good until May 15, so I'll be watching to see what they offer next month.
https://www.google.com/travel/fli...Ni9vn1gpv
Their current promotion includes economy flights from several U.S. cities (from the east coast to Denver, no west coast) for 10-15k points or less, which would only cost you 8-12k because of the 25% transfer bonus.
Flying from Atlanta to Paris for 16,800 miles roundtrip would be a pretty exceptional value.
Sometimes the FlyingBlue promo includes business class fares for around 40-50k and the Chase transfer bonus is good until May 15, so I'll be watching to see what they offer next month.
There are a lot of sites that track this stuff, but this is one of my favorites and his writeup on Aeroplan is great stuff:
https://onemileatatime.
The Points Guy is probably the best known. I don't think they're great, but they track all the other sites and repost most of the good deals, and they do have plenty of "newbie friendly" content. I bookmark their /all page and skim it and try to ignore the clickbait:
https://thepointsguy.co
https://www.google.com/travel/fli...YdKH2MSja
Or, I guess you might want to see the price for 5: https://www.google.com/travel/fli...W8pGf9w5V
Details on baggage pricing are here [zipair.net], but it's basically $50 each way for a light checked bag (30 lbs) or $60 for a standard 50lb-er.
ZIP Air is owned by JAL, so there's nothing shady ... just expect to pay for everything as an extra. Bring your own blankets, travel pillows, and food, because they charge for all of that.
They also fly from SJC [google.com] and SFO [google.com], if the Bay Area is convenient for you.
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Plan to pre-purchase a JR pass/Shinkansen 1 week. spend 5 days to a whole week in Kyoto using that pass. you can spend one of those days going to Osaka from Kyoto (1hr by train, but 15 minutes by shinkansen). Or go to Nara Park and feed deer (they bow to you too). or go to Himeji Castle. Stay at a hostel called House of Gajyun. look it up in booking.com. it's the right hostel if you see some pics of a white dog. Buy yourself a PASSMO or SUICA card at the airport on the day you arrive. put in around 5,000yen on it so you have a commuter card to pay when you use the subway and trains in Tokyo and buses in Kyoto or other cities. Watch your balance on the card everytime you use it and refill when you need to at stations.
Spend the last week or days of your trip going to Akihabara, Shibuya, Ginza or Sky Tree for shopping. I recommend the Kesei Richmond hotel at SkyTree. The hotel has KURA sushi restaurant at the 2nd floor of this hotel. it was just 96 cents per sushi dish at the time I stayed. $72 a night after taxes during my stay two months ago. Might be closer to $90/night with the way the yen is creeping up against the dollar value. The hotel is 30 minutes from Akihabara and 35 minutes to Shibuya with either 1 or 2 trains only.
places to see
KYOTO- Kinkakuji, Kyomizu dera, Fushigi Inari shrine, Arashiyama, Nishiki Market.
Nara- Deer park plus the biggest wooden structure in the world.
Osaka- Dotonbori for food and restaurants, etc. Or, go to Universal Studios Japan.
Recommended tours- Hozugawa River Cruise, Cycle Kyoto
Tokyo- Shibuya, Akihabara, Ginza, Shinjuku, Tsukiji Market, Tokyo Tower, SkyTree. Yokohama is a bit far but they have the giant moving Gundam. Odaiba is an island with two shopping mall complexes. I did not like this place as much as Yokohama, but what you like is subjective. Highly recommend going up the SkyTree so you see all of Tokyo. Spend a bit of time watching the famous intersection in Shibuya where thousands of people cross each day.
off city limits- Lake Kawaguchi. look up online on buses going from Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchiko. They got buses in Tokyo station but also in other parts of the city like Shibuya and Akihabara. Buses in Akihabara are in front of Yodabashi Camera. take the early 7 or 8am and get to the lake. use the local town buses to get around the lake. there is a cable car ride that takes you up the area there so you get a full view of Mt. Fuji. when you get back down, take the boat ride. If you got time for the day, take another bus to Fuji Q Highland (a theme park). they got part of the park themed to be Naruto (if you are into that sort of thing). You need to prepay/schedule the bus ticket(s) ahead of time by two weeks for both departure and return trip to Tokyo. I took the Akihabara bus to the lake, then the return bus from Fuji Q Highland to Tokyo Station.
I highly recommend going to Disney Sea in Tokyo. There isn't anything like it worldwide. You'll get a kick out of Mickey talking in Japanese.
Retro Video game shops- Super Potato, Surugaya, Book OFF/Hard OFF.
CAPCOM, Nintendo Japan store, Pokemon Center are in Shibuya at the PARCO plaza.
Studio Ghibli museum is 1 hr from Skytree/Tokyo. They open up their ticket reservations at the 10th of each month (for going on the following month). So check in May 10th if you are going in June.
Good luck with the crowds in Summer. I generally stay away from summer travel to avoid crowds and the humid heat.
PM me if you want my itinerary from my last trip.
Spend the last week or days of your trip going to Akihabara, Shibuya, Ginza or Sky Tree for shopping. I recommend the Kesei Richmond hotel at SkyTree. The hotel has KURA sushi restaurant at the 2nd floor of this hotel. it was just 96 cents per sushi dish at the time I stayed. $72 a night after taxes during my stay two months ago. Might be closer to $90/night with the way the yen is creeping up against the dollar value. The hotel is 30 minutes from Akihabara and 35 minutes to Shibuya with either 1 or 2 trains only.
places to see
KYOTO- Kinkakuji, Kyomizu dera, Fushigi Inari shrine, Arashiyama, Nishiki Market.
Nara- Deer park plus the biggest wooden structure in the world.
Osaka- Dotonbori for food and restaurants, etc. Or, go to Universal Studios Japan.
Recommended tours- Hozugawa River Cruise, Cycle Kyoto
Tokyo- Shibuya, Akihabara, Ginza, Shinjuku, Tsukiji Market, Tokyo Tower, SkyTree. Yokohama is a bit far but they have the giant moving Gundam. Odaiba is an island with two shopping mall complexes. I did not like this place as much as Yokohama, but what you like is subjective. Highly recommend going up the SkyTree so you see all of Tokyo. Spend a bit of time watching the famous intersection in Shibuya where thousands of people cross each day.
off city limits- Lake Kawaguchi. look up online on buses going from Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchiko. They got buses in Tokyo station but also in other parts of the city like Shibuya and Akihabara. Buses in Akihabara are in front of Yodabashi Camera. take the early 7 or 8am and get to the lake. use the local town buses to get around the lake. there is a cable car ride that takes you up the area there so you get a full view of Mt. Fuji. when you get back down, take the boat ride. If you got time for the day, take another bus to Fuji Q Highland (a theme park). they got part of the park themed to be Naruto (if you are into that sort of thing). You need to prepay/schedule the bus ticket(s) ahead of time by two weeks for both departure and return trip to Tokyo. I took the Akihabara bus to the lake, then the return bus from Fuji Q Highland to Tokyo Station.
I highly recommend going to Disney Sea in Tokyo. There isn't anything like it worldwide. You'll get a kick out of Mickey talking in Japanese.
Retro Video game shops- Super Potato, Surugaya, Book OFF/Hard OFF.
CAPCOM, Nintendo Japan store, Pokemon Center are in Shibuya at the PARCO plaza.
Studio Ghibli museum is 1 hr from Skytree/Tokyo. They open up their ticket reservations at the 10th of each month (for going on the following month). So check in May 10th if you are going in June.
Good luck with the crowds in Summer. I generally stay away from summer travel to avoid crowds and the humid heat.
PM me if you want my itinerary from my last trip.
Getting some decent sleep on a 12 hour transpacific flight can really help you beat the jetlag and hit the ground running instead of burning a day being exhausted.
It's not business class, it's just the "full flat" seat. There's no "business class" on this LCC.
https://pasteboard.co/aF90a3ohQCbs.jp
https://pasteboard.co/rIif7ou8Bfqx.jp
It's not business class, it's just the "full flat" seat. There's no "business class" on this LCC.
Yeah actually found this to be a really interesting business model... if you only care about the "seat I can easily sleep in across the pacific" part rather than all the rest that comes with business it's a pretty appealing offering--- especially with how difficult getting award seats in "real" biz on this route has been lately.
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But there are many ways to get more value out of those points and learning about transfer partners is well worth your time, IMO. Premium flight redemptions are my preferred way to spend them. My 180k trip (LAX -> SIN -> BKK -> LAX) is definitely more expensive than this one, which would be under 50k points, but if you paid cash for those tickets it would be $4,650 for the cheapest business class fare I can find (which is on a lower tier airline, Phillipines Air, and involves wasting extra time with stops in Manila). Booking them on the airlines I booked would cost between $6,200 (EVA) and $7,100 (Singapore). Depending on which value you go with, I got between 2.55 cents and 3.94 cents per point. And I could have added another stopover on the way home for 5k more points (Taipei and Tokyo were both available), if I had the time to spend in three cities. You can also use stopover routing to make some amazing journeys, like flying from the east coast to Europe and then going on to Africa.
I won't fly transpacific in coach, because I can't get a reasonable amount of sleep doing that, but I probably would have done it 20 years ago. If flying business class isn't for you, I'd suggest looking at hotel prices and considering transfers to Hyatt. Sometimes you can find award nights as cheap as 6k, and I really considered spending 15k a night in Tokyo to get a room at a Hyatt Regency instead of one of the econobox rooms that make up the vast majority of Tokyo's hotel room inventory. A comparable room will cost you at least $300/night in most cases.
But if you're looking to travel on the cheap, then this is a good price and you can certainly justify spending points at 1.5x on it. Personally, I'd just rather pay cash for this one (especially since it's $33 less that way) and save my points for the big splurges.
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