How we booked Japan for $388 [$13,600 Value] and you can, too!

Ryan and I just returned from an unforgettable week in Japan!  We visited temples, spotted a Geisha heading to work, walked through the bamboo forest, ate our weight in sushi, hung out with monkeys, drank some good sake, hung out with some friendly deer, ate Kobe beef, and drove through the streets of Tokyo dressed like Daisy Duck and Batman in a go cart.

Japan can be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be!  Our flights and hotel stays totaled less than $400!!  We weren’t exactly roughing it, either.  This trip is a great example of the value that you can get out of miles and points.

In this post, I’ll show the breakdown of our flights and hotels and how many miles/points we redeemed for each.  I’ll explain how we booked the flights and how you can earn the points needed for similar flights.  It’s easier (and quicker) than you may think.

Business class flights and a week at Ritz-Carlton properties in Japan for $388

Our grand total for our flights to Japan plus our hotel stays was only $388 out of pocket. The total value of our flights and hotels is over $13,600!!

We flew into Tokyo on an American Airlines flight, and we flew home from Tokyo on a Japan Airlines flight.

Fun fact: We did not use American Airlines AAdvantage or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles to book either of these flights.  Instead, we used American Express Membership Rewards points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points.  Neither of these transfer directly to AA, nor do they transfer to JAL.  Instead, we transferred Amex and Chase points to airline programs that can be used to book American Airlines and/or Japan Airlines flights.  Indirect partners.

I’ll discuss how I booked each of these in more detail, which points are needed, and how you can earn them (within a few months) with very little effort.  Here is a quick overview:

Flights between the US and Japan

DFW to Tokyo in business class on an American Airlines flight

• Miles redeemed: 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards (50,000 Amex Membership Rewards per person)
• Taxes/Fees: $68 (~$34 each)
• Total Value:$7000 (~$3500 per person)

Tokyo to DFW in economy on a Japan Airlines flight

• Miles redeemed: 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points (30,000 Ultimate Rewards points per person)
• Taxes/Fees: $320 (~$160 in taxes and fees per ticket).  Not terrible, but this would be significantly lower if the flight was operated by American Airlines.
• Total Value:$1200 (~$600 per person)

Hotels: Japanese Ritz-Carlton sampler

We did a Ritz-Carlton crawl.  Not because we’re boujee, but because we had lots of points and these properties were a good value!  We stayed at 3 different Ritz-Carlton hotels.

• Points redeemed: 120,000 pre-merger SPG points (360,000 Marriott Rewards points)
• Taxes/Fees: nothing
• Total Value:~$5400

How we booked our Japan flights (and you can, too)

DFW to Tokyo flight details

Miles redeemed: 50,000 Amex Membership Rewards per person (100,000 total)

How we earned the points: We already had lots of Amex points.  Some from everyday spending, some from welcome bonuses.

I received a targeted offer for 50,000 Amex Membership Rewards points when I opened the Premier Rewards Gold Card.  The annual fee was also waived.  That card is no longer available, but a new version is available! It has been changed to the American Express® Gold Card.

How to earn American Express Membership Rewards points

The quickest way to earn lots of Amex points is to earn a welcome bonus by opening an American Express Membership Rewards earning card. The current highest offers are on the Platinum Cards.

The American Express®Gold Card has a welcome offer of 60,000, which may be the highest I’ve ever seen on this card. (Note: always check my current offers page as there are occasionally better offers through my personal referral link. When this happens, I post the link on that page!) Also, the Gold Card is one of my favorites for everyday spending. It earns 4 points per dollar at restaurants, 4 points per dollar on up to $25,000 annually at US supermarkets, and 3 points per dollar on qualifying travel expenses.

Click here for a list of Amex Membership Rewards earning cards.

If you are a beginner, I suggest starting with Chase cards before applying for American Express cards. This is due to the Chase 5/24 rule. There are several Chase cards that are great for Japan flights and hotels.

How we booked our flights to Japan with American Express points

1. I found 2 MilesAAver business class seats* to Tokyo on an American Airlines flight for dates that work for us.
2. I transferred Amex Membership Rewards to Etihad, an American Airlines partner.
3. Then I redeemed the Etihad Guest miles for the American Airlines flights.  Click here for instructions.

*Only American Airlines Milesaaver seats are available to partners.  If you search AA.com and only find AAnytime tickets, those seats will not be available to book with partners such as British Airways or Etihad.  Click here for more info about award seat inventory. 

Why did I use Etihad to book?

1. Neither American Express Membership Rewards nor Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to American Airlines, but even if they did, we would have wanted to use Etihad…
2. Booking the American Airlines flight with Etihad requires 10,000 less miles than AAdvantage requires

I explained this in more detail in this post, but I did not have enough AAdvantage miles to book this flight.  So I had to find an indirect partner with the points that I did have, American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards.  Chase’s options for AA flights weren’t ideal for this particular award ticket, but American Express had a great transfer partner, Etihad!

Etihad is not in an alliance, but Etihad and American Airlines have a non alliance partnership.  You can use Etihad miles to book American Airlines flights.

A few things to note about Etihad Guest (their frequent flyer program):

• You can transfer Amex MR points to Etihad at a 1:1 ratio.  Chase Ultimate Rewards points do not transfer to Etihad (but there are other Ultimate Rewards partners that you can use for Japan).
• Etihad does not collect fuel surcharges on American Airlines flights.
• If you do not live in a city with nonstop flights, no problem.  A connecting flight will not add to your redemption cost!
• Etihad miles do not transfer to AA.  Instead, you can use the Etihad miles to book the AA flight.

Etihad’s chart for redemptions on flights operated by American Airlines

Flights are priced each way; roundtrip is double the amounts shown:

Japan is in the Asia 1 region.  Etihad’s off peak dates for US-Asia 1 are October 1-April 30.

• Economy off peak is 25,000 one way (50,000 roundtrip)
• Economy peak is 32,500 one way
• Business is 50,000 one way (to compare, US to Tokyo with AAdvantage requires 60,000 miles one way in business class)

(“P” refers to flights that have suites, but this isn’t even an option on American Airlines)

Return flight from Tokyo to DFW

Japan Airlines and American Airlines both operate nonstop flights from Tokyo to DFW, and I really wanted a nonstop flight if possible.  American Airlines and Japan Airlines are both in the Oneworld alliance.  As a result, I can use British Airways and other Oneworld partner programs to book flights operated by either of these.

Miles redeemed: 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points per person

How we earned the points: We had lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards points from spending and shopping portal bonuses.

How to earn transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points

Open a transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards earning card. There are 3:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred®
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Chase Ink Business Preferred®

Currently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a welcome bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. If you qualify for business cards (and have a lot of business expenses), the bonus on the Chase Ink Business Preferred is currently 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points! These are 5/24 cards, which means you want to open them before opening cards from American Express and other banks. Click here to learn about the Chase 5/24 rule.

How we booked Tokyo to DFW flights with Chase Ultimate Rewards points

I wasn’t able to find any return flights in business class, but there were economy options on AA and JAL that were bookable with partner airlines such as British Airways.

A one-way nonstop Tokyo-DFW economy seat on either airline requires 30,000 British Airways Avios per person, and I was good with that amount, so I decided to use British Airways to book.  To do so, I transferred 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points to my BA account.

Then I redeemed the British Airways Avios for the Japan Airlines flights. Click here for instructions.

Why did I use British Airways to book?

1. Neither American Express Membership Rewards nor Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to Japan Airlines
2. Of the Amex MR and Chase UR partners that can be used to book JAL, British Airways was the lowest redemption cost.

I could also use Etihad miles (transferred from Amex) to book the AA flight, but not the JAL flight.  Etihad is not in the Oneworld alliance and does not have a partnership with JAL.

A few things to note about British Airways:

• British Airways has a distance-based pricing model for award tickets.  You can read more about that here. You can find their award charts here.
• BA isn’t good for long haul premium cabin award seats, but economy is usually a good deal if the flight is nonstop.
• Adding a connecting flight will require more Avios because British Airways requires you to redeem for the distance of each segment, not the total distance of all segments.
• Fuel surcharges may be added, but they aren’t a deal breaker on this particular route (NRT-DFW).

Fuel surcharges

I recently wrote a post about British Airways Avios and fuel surcharges (even on partner-operated flights) for transatlantic routes.  The worst.  But the good news is that other routes such as US-Japan may or may not have fuel surcharges.  It depends on the airline that is operating the flight.

Using BA to book JAL flights has fuel surcharges.  But they are very reasonable.  None of this $400+ nonsense like you see on transatlantic routes.  Our total taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges were ~$160 per person.

Fuel surcharges are avoidable on flights between the US and Japan

Using British Airways Avios to book NRT to DFW on an American Airlines flight means no fuel surcharges!

The only fees are the mandatory government taxes and fees that would be applied to an award ticket from NRT no matter what airline program you use to book.  It’s only about $40.

Why would I choose the Japan Airlines flight (that had fuel surcharges) when seats were available on an American Airlines flight (with no surcharges)?

Mainly because I just wanted to try something new.  I wanted to book the flight operated by Japan Airlines because they have a great reputation and we had never flown on JAL metal.  It was definitely a more pleasant economy experience than long-haul economy flights we’ve had on American Airlines.  No regrets.

Grand totals for our flights to Japan

Outbound Total: 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards points and ~$68 (50,000 American Express points transferred to Etihad plus ~$34 in taxes and fees per ticket)

Outbound Total Value: $7,000 (~$3,500 per person)

Return Total: 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points and ~$320 (30,000 Ultimate Rewards points transferred to British Airways plus ~$160 in taxes and fees per ticket)

Return Total Value: $1,200 (~$600 per person)

Total Redeemed: 160,000 points

Total Value: $8,200

 Japanese Ritz-Carlton sampler

We stayed at Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, Ritz-Carlton Osaka, and Ritz-Carlton Tokyo.   We didn’t plan this on purpose, but these properties just happened to be available and they were a good value for our dates.  All three of these stays were amazing, and you can read more about our hotel stays here: Our Free Ritz-Carlton Stays In Japan.

The redemption cost for each of these 3 properties is 60,000 points per night.  Since I had lots of Starpoints (pre-merger), I think of that as 20,000 SPG points rather than 60,000 Marriott points.

• Total points redeemed: 120,000 pre-merger SPG points (360,000 Marriott Rewards points)
• Taxes/Fees: nothing
• Total Value:~$5400
• How to earn the points: The way we earned our points is no longer an option*.  We had lots of pre-merger SPG points because we used the SPG Amex for all non-category bonus spending.  Those points were multiplied by 3 in August when SPG and Marriott’s programs were combined.

*The earn rate on the SPG Amex has devalued, so I no longer suggest using that card for everyday spending.   The current welcome bonus is only enough for 1 night at a category 7 property (you’d have some leftover points, but still…).  

I’m not ruling out SPG and Marriott, but I think if the goal is luxury properties, there may be better options.  There are plenty of ways to get nice hotels on points in Japan.  If I was starting from scratch, I’d probably look into Hyatt rather than Marriott/SPG.

See also: Japan Hotels: How To Book A 9 Night Stay For Less Than $400 Total [$3400 Value]

Final thoughts

Japan was amazing.  You should should try it.  You can earn a roundtrip flight to Japan with just one credit card welcome bonus!

The welcome bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred is potentially enough for a roundtrip economy ticket to Japan if you use the right transfer partners.

You can find a list of our top travel credit cards on the current offers page.  

Amex Rates and Fees:

• American Express Gold Card [rates and fees]
• The Platinum Card from American Express [rates and fees]
• Business Platinum Card from American Express [rates and fees]

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