So total travel noob here so pardon the ignorance. I’ve been in Japan for 7 years but starting now, I want to make an effort to fly back home (Canada) to family perhaps once a year if possible.
Usually, my travel is infrequent and I only travel when I need to and I usually just get the cheapest flight available at the date necessitated by my plans. So although flying is expensive, the infrequency is not a heavy financial toll. My question is, for people who fly a lot and fly constantly and consistently, how do you keep your costs down, manageable, or reasonable? Are there any programs or is there just no way around it, it’ll just always be an arm and a leg?
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Travel is just super expensive now in post covid and war in Ukraine times.
We just have to suck it up I think.
Pre-covid was usually travel out of peak seasons and know average ticket prices so you know when there is a deal.
Right now? To Canada is pretty nuts. If you are flying mid/east coast though WestJet is starting a new route so you have something other than aircanada. Flights through the US haven’t really gone down that much yet.
Pre Covid, I could get a direct round trip ticket for 90,000 yen. That same ticket is now 320,000 yen. Just gonna wait for things to go down a bit
Consider getting a credit card with JAL or ANA mileage bank points. They add up fast.
I use a combination of Google Flights and Skyscanner to try and find the cheapest flight. Tinkering with the departure date can make a difference, flights that leave on weekdays/in the middle of the week will be cheaper on average.
If you stick with one carrier you can accumulate miles to apply towards discounts/upgrades in future flights. There are also other ways to earn miles, such as getting the credit card from the carrier, etc.
Have been flying to the UK two to three times a year for the past 15 years.
Main thing is to be flexible booking flights in terms of flight times, routes and different airlines. Booking either direct through the airline or through travel providers such as Expedia helps, depending on costs.
As others have suggested plan as far as possible and I would suggest keep checking prices regularly ie once to two times a week until you find the price acceptable to you.
If possible try and do one non direct flight one way and one direct, which helps keeps cost down or two non direct flights.
In addition I have a ANA x Amex credit card along with my wife which helps rack up the points to convert to ANA mileage.
One thing have noticed is that booking flights outbound from Japan appears to be in my case more expensive than booking outbound from the UK.
Hope this helps.
Calendar views/unspecified flexible dates/+- 3days filters on booking sites are your friend. Google flights/kayak are good for this. Matrix ITA is pretty good too though trickier to use. Also if you’re flexible on the exact destination that can help too, you can generally search on these sites for multiple possible departure and destination airports.
Get a credit card that will accrue mileage. I have a United one because united miles never expire as long as you keep using the credit card. ANA miles expire after like a year and a half (I think… I know they expire, but not confident regarding how long they let you have the miles) so be careful when signing up.
One option is to use zip air to fly to LA or San Jose and then buy a separate ticket to Canada. That’s what I did last year and saved a bit over what it would have otherwise cost, if you travel light(no checked bags) and skip meals you can save a bit of money on zip air. Of course the flip side is that you either have to stay in LA for a day or roll the dice on your flight back to LA not getting delayed/canceled since you won’t get a refund or rebooked in that case since it’s not a single ticket.