I was thinking about traveling to Japan this summer(july or august) and I looked at the prices to fly and the cheapest ticks are just under 1,400 dollars! And I only have a little over 4,000 dollars, if I were to travel to Japan I think I would probably have to end up spending more than half of all money I have!

So my question is does anyone know of a way to get Japan cheaper than that? I really only want to spend 700-1000 to get there. I just can not justify spending over half my income for a trip that would only be 1-2 weeks, so if anyone has any tips please share!

What city are you starting from?

detroit, but i would be able to start from chicago also

It seems like ~$1400 is actually pretty reasonable. I would just get the cheapest flights you can, and then you'll be able to have a great time for not very much money whilst you're in Japan. My brother was there for 6 weeks last autumn and only spent around £500 (he was WWOOFing for most of the time).

Blahah Wrote:It seems like ~$1400 is actually pretty reasonable. I would just get the cheapest flights you can, and then you'll be able to have a great time for not very much money whilst you're in Japan. My brother was there for 6 weeks last autumn and only spent around £500 (he was WWOOFing for most of the time).

How is $1400 for a flight to Japan reasonable? You can get return flights from London for like £600.

Zon70 Wrote:I was thinking about traveling to Japan this summer(july or august) and I looked at the prices to fly and the cheapest ticks are just under 1,400 dollars! And I only have a little over 4,000 dollars, if I were to travel to Japan I think I would probably have to end up spending more than half of all money I have!

So my question is does anyone know of a way to get Japan cheaper than that? I really only want to spend 700-1000 to get there. I just can not justify spending over half my income for a trip that would only be 1-2 weeks, so if anyone has any tips please share!

Most of the tickets I saw were $1400. But I recently saw some cheap $600 tickets from around Chicago or something. The catch though is that I would have to fly from the West coast to Chicago, and then head all the way West to Japan. Try searching through a bunch of online sites and you might find them.

fakewookie Wrote:

Blahah Wrote:It seems like ~$1400 is actually pretty reasonable. I would just get the cheapest flights you can, and then you'll be able to have a great time for not very much money whilst you're in Japan. My brother was there for 6 weeks last autumn and only spent around £500 (he was WWOOFing for most of the time).

How is $1400 for a flight to Japan reasonable? You can get return flights from London for like £600.

It doesn't make any sense to compare it to flying from the UK. Reasonable compared to other prices you can find for the same journey online.

edit: scrap that anyway, skyscanner has $1113 for indirect return Chicago to Tokyo...

fakewookie Wrote:You can get return flights from London for like £600.

How are you doing that? Every time I've looked you'll be lucky to get it for 800GBP.

Delta had round-trip flights (from anywhere in the U.S.) for about 500 bucks last week when I checked. This was for flights during July and August. They just opened a new route and are offering cheap fares to fill the seats.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2936557

caivano Wrote:

fakewookie Wrote:You can get return flights from London for like £600.

How are you doing that? Every time I've looked you'll be lucky to get it for 800GBP.

LHR to KIX (Heathrow to Kansai International) is generally around £550-650. I think Narita's a bit more expensive, more like the £800 you gave.

Flights to Japan from most of America range from 1200-1500; you're not normally gonna find anything cheaper than 1200.

caivano Wrote:

fakewookie Wrote:You can get return flights from London for like £600.

How are you doing that? Every time I've looked you'll be lucky to get it for 800GBP.

Okay I exaggerated, it's more like £650. Heathrow to Narita.

I just go on Expedia and sort by price.

London is one of the cheapest places to get flights from, you can't really compare it with other places. Flights going from Japan to London are also much more expensive, even though it's the same route just in reverse.

Ah I guess it depends on where you start from... London-Tokyo-London can be around 600 but Tokyo-London-Tokyo is 800+

You can get some good deals by signing up for a credit card that gives you a ton of miles. ($300-500 for round trip? yes please!)
But, then you have to worry about your credit score.

Try http://www.iace-usa.com

It's an American travel agency for flights to Japan.
Be sure to ask for flights on different airlines.

When I went to Tokyo a long time ago, it cost
me $680 round trip for American Airlines. The
other carrier (I think Delta) cost $880.

But that was when the exchange rate used to be 120 yen to 1 US dollar.
Now the exchange rate is so bad (85 yen to 1 US dollar).

So prices will naturally be higher for Americans.

The exchange rate of the yen doesn't really effect international airline travel much at all.

The biggest issue this year is the price of oil and the fact that JAL went bankrupt. When JAL started shutting down so many lines to and from Japan it gave a free pass to every other carrier to raise prices. Simple supply and demand there.

That said, the best deals this summer are going to be with Delta who are offering some special deals.

swim

My friend got a round trip from Detroit for 1400. But that was around golden week. It might be cheaper at less popular times.

I think it's not so much a question of *how* to find cheap tickets, it's a question of *when* to find them. I booked my tickets in February, and I regularly check the price to see if I can't find a better deal (incredibly tight budget), and the price has increased by over 300 euro now. It's just late to buy a ticket now for in July.
So I think booking early is the best you can do?

I also noticed that there can be a strong variation depending on the date. Somehow, someway, I saved 100 euro by leaving on a Sunday instead of a weekday =/

Cheers

Jorre

Edit: and I also noticed that most flights are way cheaper to Narita than flights to Osaka.