Haven’t been back since 2019, covid hit prices are now terrible, I was wondering to people with kids are you able to go back without ruining yourself? Are you travelling during the school year?
I want to go back to Canada (East coast) but its like 700-800k for 4 people (during summer vacation). I can afford it but it seems like a dumb financial decision considering off season is half price
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Paid $10k to bring the family back to Vancouver during the summer holidays, worth it after not seeing family for a couple of years, but definitely can’t be doing that once a year no more. Sad.
Company pay all , one time a year all family 😅
Going to the U.S. in a couple weeks with 2/3 of my kids and without my wife. I always took the direct flight by JAL to LAX but JAL costs like twice the price now so I am changing in SF. It costs over 400K but luckily I have some money in my U.S. bank and credit card so the $2700 looked a lot better lol
If you don’t care about kids missing school, offseason will save you. Teachers seemed fine and they are sending homework.
Yea flew them out for Christmas last year. Son was not 2 so seat was free. Around 400k.
Need to fly again this year + another baby. Maybe 500-550k?
Hell no for me. I haven’t been home for 12 years. My kid is going to a prestigious private high school now, I pay for music lessons, commuting, allowance, random times me and wife hand her money… But my kid is having the time of her life now. That’s what’s most important. I don’t need to go home.
2 kids, used to go 3 times per year, but that will change now that oldest is in school. About 1 million the last time for all of us. I won’t trade travel time for cheaper airfare, it takes long enough already.
I go back and forth more.
It’s more expensive, but can’t be helped.
I am from the east coast (fredericton). It seems that prices have stabilised themselves to not so different to pre-covid pricing ie. 20万円per person. Taking the whole family is affordable but we are thinking about travelling separately me + daugther.
I am not sure what you want, travelling back to Canada has never been cheap, especially with the whole family and especially not to the east coast.
Yes.
It’s a lot of money, but it’s a priority for us because of the family and the language. It’s not something we can catch up on later.
We planned our trip late last year and wanted to book a trip back to California in June for July to go back. Zipair was all sold out and JAL was literally $10k just for 1 child, 1 baby, and 2 adults. We decided not going back last year and used the money for Okinawa. Needless to say, it was one of the best decisions we’ve made. Entire trip to okinawa was 1/3 of airfare to go back to California.
Unless you’re really rich or love your family so that they they will cough up a little, it’s not worth it. You can go to anywhere in japan, Okinawa, Thailand, Hawaii for less than half the price than flying back to Canada, UK, America etc.
I spent over a million going back for a family cruise then got COVID 2 days in and was quarantined to my room. Not really the best bang for the yen I’ve ever spent I have to say….
We went during the summer and it was expensive. Keep a tracker going on Google flights, with some different options, they’ll email you if a cheaper flight comes up. I was tracking out of like three different cities.
Doubt we’ll be going every year like I used to, and my son and I will probably go without my husband sometimes. Thinking of alternating summer and winter, so like summer 2023, winter 2024, skip 2025, summer 2026. We’ll see how it goes.
Booking very early or using air miles possible options. Also in the same boat. I’m taking only one kid this summer. Even though my parents are not happy about it.
My wife suffers from air sickness. Like, weapons-grade shit – can’t even fathom it based on how she gets.
My kids can’t deal with being on the same train for 2 hours without going stir-crazy. Going home would take close to 24.
I think it’s just easier for people to come here. Plus most of my friends and family still have the “Japan is cool” sunglasses on, so it’s not really an issue for them.
If prices stay like this I’m probably going to send the kids to visit the grandparents by themselves next year. It’s not just the airfare but the cost of things there (eg going out for beers and dinner with friends). I personally enjoy going back but it’s not necessary.
My parents also come over to see their grandchildren (and me) more often now instead as conversely it’s so cheap for them.
Don’t go during summer and book very early. We are flying for Christmas and tickets were 400,000 for 3 of us to the US. But we did book in April. As far as school goes, ours on is only missing like 3 days and the family experience and cultural exposure outweighs a couple days missed.
If you can go during other holiday times like spring break or golden week, you can find good deals as well. My mom visits a couple times a year and never pays over the equivalent of 120,000 for her flights.
Just take them during the off season. School might complain about them being absent for a couple of weeks but they won’t do anything especially if you guilt them about keeping your kids from seeing their grandparents, it’s fun to turn the whole “Japanese culture is all about respecting your elders and family” around on them.
That said it’s better to just pay for the grandparents to come here all things considered. Especially since they give free babysitting on the weekends giving you precious time away from the kids for a bit to make more of them.
Spent around 10k bringing my wife and kid home last Xmas.
Definitely not taking that trip this year.
8 year old kid, international school, living in central tokyo. Its rough.
Same really…. The prices are Insane – even though I could technically afford it – It is REALLY hard to justify spending that much money on a simple trip back home for a few weeks…. z.z
Which is why I haven’t been back either – starting on year 6 soon.
Well, it’s certainly tough. We had USD savings until this last trip. It was crazy expensive for 3 of us (and our fault too; we could have done things cheaper).
Now, out of USD, we are going to have to look at this carefully next summer unless the yen magically turns.
We may still go. I have one parent left and she is 84. I would like my son to remember her and to know his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He also loves speaking English, watching Cartoon Network, going to the ocean, playing with cousins his age, so…we may suck it up.
Collecting airline miles is the way to do it, especially if you have access to North American sign-up bonuses.
Im in the same boat, want to take the boys home to Toronto next year, but prices seem high.
Better to go now while they are young to hopefully get some core memories, actually feel Canadian and the language/multicultural exposer while it makes the biggest difference.
To answer you question, if you just move yoru dates by a few days from teh vacation periods in japan, you’ll get the off peak rates.
JAL and ANA allow unaccomponied minors from teh age of 5, I don’t know canada, but US is age 12. So we ended up just sending the kids with no parents this year. Recommend JAL specifically for this as they are great with kids.
Their is a triple punch of other routes are more profitable, there is less invenotry of airplanes flying as they are still pulling planes out of storage, and business’s cut their business/first class flying budgets where all the airline companies make their profit. this tied to th eweak yen making japan #1 for covid revenge sightseeing has pushed up the flight costs.
From people in the industry that i’ve spoken to, they don’t see prices adjusting back down until April. And for the time beign flying JAL/ANA should be cheaper because the weak yen affects a smaller portion of the ticket price compared to foreign carriers.
May not work for everyone but since my parents/family are still considered healthy and strong enough to travel considering their age, theyre the one who has been visiting as it is cheaper for us to do so. Its also a win win as they can visit Japan, so might as well!
Between when daughter was born and in kinder we went home a few times, but only once as a family. (wife, daughter and me). The other times it was just me and my daughter, since the whole point was not really a family vacation, but rather take daughter to see grandparents and cousins.
I did not consider it breaking the bank because we would go for a month or more at a time. My work was flexible and there is no issue to take daughter out of pre-school for a month.
Then she was in elementary, and harder to get a break, then there was COIVD, and now she is in Junior High, prepping for high school entrance tests, I have a “regular” job, my Yen is worthless, so it has been five or so years now.
Even if we did get tickets to go home, we could not get more than a week or ten days, so it just does not seem to be worth it.
Instead, I am saving my vacation days and looking for a time when my parents can come to Japan (they are always traveling somewhere anyway). If my daughter and I can get a week off, we can go on trip around Japan with grandma and grandpa, and then even if I am working and she has school, my parents can still putz around the area for a few weeks so we will at least have in-person face time.
It is still the same price as two plane tickets, but much more time together for that money, and my parent’s dollars will go a lot further here as well. The same with my brother and his family. Trying to get them to come to Japan to visit. It would be expensive for him because he has two kids, but again with the dollar / yen right now, not so bad, and his kids would benefit more from a trip to Japan (where they have never been) than my daughter would another trip to the US, I think. They also have a long summer vacation, compared to Japan schools, so it would be easier for them to take an extended trip.
You’ll look back on these days with fondness once your children start attending university abroad!
I’m not. Went alone last month and plane and rail tickets to the north of Sweden was over 300,000 in all.