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Chicago to Tokyo in October for Two
Hi!
I’m new here and still trying to get the hang of things. Baby steps! So, I’m trying to plan a trip in early October for 16 days, but we’re really flying for two of them. I’m searching for two nonstop tickets and the prices still make me cringe. More cringe-worthy? I missed out on $869 nonstop tickets from AA in March. For all you travelers who have flown in and out of Narita or Haneda:
1. Did you have a right time to purchase?
2. Not counting last-minute flights, are there certain deals I should look out for from certain airlines?
3. I have ~111,000 points with Chase Sapphire Reserve and ~20,000 points with Citi. If I were to use points for my ticket, would it be worth more to redeem through Chase or transfer both to an airline instead? UA/JAL/ANA?
Thank you for reading! I would appreciate any words of wisdom!
Welcome plumeria. Are you searching for economy or business class? Unless you are planning economy, you unfortunately don’t have enough points as of now to cover the trip.
Also… flights seem to still be around $800, if that’s what you were referring to? I just searched leaving Chicago on October 1st, returning on October 16th.
[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 31864, member: 1436″]Welcome plumeria. Are you searching for economy or business class? Unless you are planning economy, you unfortunately don’t have enough points as of now to cover the trip.
Also… flights seem to still be around $800, if that’s what you were referring to? I just searched leaving Chicago on October 1st, returning on October 16th.[/QUOTE]
Just economy works for us, really. Still getting the hang of it. Our dates are unfortunately Oct 6th to the 21st.
No worries. Are you in a position to possibly open a new card to bolster your Chase point balance? United actually has Saver (lowest point level) availability on your requested dates. It would be 70,000 points round trip per person, plus $91 in taxes and fees.
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You could also look at booking through the Chase portal and using your points as a form of payment. That way you’re not dependent on award availability.
[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 31870, member: 1436″]No worries. Are you in a position to possibly open a new card to bolster your Chase point balance? United actually has Saver (lowest point level) availability on your requested dates. It would be 70,000 points round trip per person, plus $91 in taxes and fees.
[ATTACH=full]344[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
Hi rickyw, I definitely am but I think the Chase portal might be a cheaper option, considering I’ll have roughly $1,500 to spend if I convert my points to miles.
[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 31902, member: 184″]You could also look at booking through the Chase portal and using your points as a form of payment. That way you’re not dependent on award availability.[/QUOTE]
Hi MidSouth Skier! I might go that route. I’m just feeling a little salty that I might have to use all of my points for one trip, you know? Just trying to spend as little as possible.
Has anyone ever found a good time to purchase tickets for Japan though? Or apps/websites to recommend (aside from this awesome one of course)?
On Google Flights you can set up monitoring on flight prices and they’ll email you when the price changes (up as well as down). Sometimes you’ll notice a pattern of when prices drop and then go back up.
Also try the hopper app
How important is a non-stop to you? It may be more pleasant to transfer in Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific or Seoul on Asiana than flying direct with a US Airline. Both have tickets hovering around $1K for certain dates in early October.
[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 32048, member: 184″]On Google Flights you can set up monitoring on flight prices and they’ll email you when the price changes…[/QUOTE]
Yep. Definitely tracking via Google Flights.
[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 32068, member: 79″]Also try the hopper app[/QUOTE]
And I do have my alerts on for Hopper (and Kayak but that’s iffy).
[QUOTE=”Weymar Osborne, post: 32107, member: 1177″]How important is a non-stop to you? It may be more pleasant to transfer in Hong Kong…[/QUOTE]
Very, honestly. I’m actually looking at ANA or JAL flights…sometimes advertised through the UA site.
So through Chase UR, I can use 81,610pts to redeem a $1,224.16 ticket. I’d be covered but I’m trying to find a better price for my friend. We’re fairly budget conscious so this is more for my friend than for me, although I’d benefit from a cheaper ticket as well because…who doesn’t want to save money :/ ?
I found a cheaper ticket on Kayak, about $200 off…would you rather book on Kayak or through the airline…which would cost $200 more?
I’d use Kayak.
Another option would be to transfer both Citi TYP and Chase UR to Virgin Atlantic and book 2 round trip economy tickets on ANA for 130,000 points.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/04/17/redeeming-virgin-atlantic-miles-ana/[/URL]
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