I Love Credit Cards and Japan!

[djmeredith]

This is a companion thread to the I Love Credit Cards So Much! thread on the Budget Board. It is a place to discuss our Japan trip planning and get tips from old and new friends on this forum. We welcome anyone who has questions or can give advice about Japan and Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea!

 

[DianaMB333]

Following.. tks

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Hope we do get folks chiming in here!
DH and I hoping to go to Japan for the first time Nov 2024 and see the holiday season at Tokyo Disneyland. 3-4 nights there, then the rest of a 2-week trip seeing more of the country.

So far our planning has only involved getting points/miles together for business class seats for 2 on JAL, booked via AA. Barclay's Red Aviator cards came in very handy as you get 75K AA miles just for making a couple of purchases (FYI!!!), so DH and I are each doing that. For someone who doesn't need business class seats, this one card could pay for a roundtrip economy flight for one person so it's a great deal.
Also already had a stash of miles from Citi cards earlier this year, hope all the miles are set and earned by the time my booking window starts in late December.

 

[djmeredith]

I am planning a trip for May 20-June1. This trip is a HS graduation gift to my nephew. He chose a trip to visit and commemorate the WWII sites in the Pacific Theater. We are stopping in Honolulu on the way for a quick 48 hours to see Pearl Harbor and then going on to Tokyo. We arrive at HND on June 20.

I have booked the first 2 legs of airfare. I used United e-credit to book Premium Plus from home airport to HNL. I used AmEx MR to book Economy+ from HNL to HND (but thinking about paying to upgrade). I still need to book our flight home. I saw a Super Saver economy fare yesterday on United for 65.7K pts on ANA. I researched ANA economy and was impressed. I almost booked it, but decided to hold out in hopes for a sale on United Premium Plus or biz class. Those ANA fares were not available this morning. However, if past patterns hold true, they will likely pop back up and Again, if patterns hold true, United will also have a sale rate in the nearish future.

I found out last year with United that if you book a flight and they change the time, it triggers a free change option. I booked a super cheap biz class seat that had 1 stop over. They changed the time slightly and I was able to switch to a much better (and more expensive) direct flight for free! Granted, I ended up getting downgraded to Premium Plus at the airport due to earlier flight cancellations, but I ended up with a huge amount of credit for the inconvenience.

I have 4 days to spend in Tokyo and Disney, so I am planning 2 in the city and 2 at Disney. I am currently trying to decide whether to do the first 2 days in the city or Disney. Any advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I have 4 days to spend in Tokyo and Disney, so I am planning 2 in the city and 2 at Disney. I am currently trying to decide whether to do the first 2 days in the city or Disney. Any advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Do any of those 4 days fall on a weekend? If so, avoid Disney during the weekend at all costs. Everything I've read says that the weekends are extremely crowded. A blogger said that any Saturday at TDL was like Christmas Day at WDW. Never been, wonder how much of that is true, but since I'm rather crowd-adverse I will certainly be doing only weekdays at TDL.

 

[jujubiee4]

Tentatively planning for May 2025 so I will be reading all your tips and how best to get there
with points/miles.

 

[Haley R]

Do any of those 4 days fall on a weekend? If so, avoid Disney during the weekend at all costs. Everything I've read says that the weekends are extremely crowded. A blogger said that any Saturday at TDL was like Christmas Day at WDW. Never been, wonder how much of that is true, but since I'm rather crowd-adverse I will certainly be doing only weekdays at TDL.

TDR explorer just recently released a new video talking about crowds and he said with the varied pricing now for tickets that more people are starting to come during the week because it’s cheaper. But weekends will still always be busier

 

[calypso726]

Chiming in here to follow along as well since I know we will be returning. We've been twice and flew business or first with miles both times. We did Singapore suites in first and took the long way just for the experience once and would do that again but also stop in Singapore for a few days. We've also flown ANA using Virgin Atlantic miles and JAL using British Airways miles.

 

[wanderlust7]

I am planning a trip for May 20-June1. This trip is a HS graduation gift to my nephew. He chose a trip to visit and commemorate the WWII sites in the Pacific Theater. We are stopping in Honolulu on the way for a quick 48 hours to see Pearl Harbor and then going on to Tokyo. We arrive at HND on June 20.

I have booked the first 2 legs of airfare. I used United e-credit to book Premium Plus from home airport to HNL. I used AmEx MR to book Economy+ from HNL to HND (but thinking about paying to upgrade). I still need to book our flight home. I saw a Super Saver economy fare yesterday on United for 65.7K pts on ANA. I researched ANA economy and was impressed. I almost booked it, but decided to hold out in hopes for a sale on United Premium Plus or biz class. Those ANA fares were not available this morning. However, if past patterns hold true, they will likely pop back up and Again, if patterns hold true, United will also have a sale rate in the nearish future.

I found out last year with United that if you book a flight and they change the time, it triggers a free change option. I booked a super cheap biz class seat that had 1 stop over. They changed the time slightly and I was able to switch to a much better (and more expensive) direct flight for free! Granted, I ended up getting downgraded to Premium Plus at the airport due to earlier flight cancellations, but I ended up with a huge amount of credit for the inconvenience.

I have 4 days to spend in Tokyo and Disney, so I am planning 2 in the city and 2 at Disney. I am currently trying to decide whether to do the first 2 days in the city or Disney. Any advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Why so short in Tokyo? Where else are you planning to go?

 

[nono]

Do any of those 4 days fall on a weekend? If so, avoid Disney during the weekend at all costs. Everything I've read says that the weekends are extremely crowded. A blogger said that any Saturday at TDL was like Christmas Day at WDW. Never been, wonder how much of that is true, but since I'm rather crowd-adverse I will certainly be doing only weekdays at TDL.

Tokyo metropolitan area has 38 million people. 17 million international tourists have entered Japan in the first 9 months of 2023. Don't know the number of domestic tourists to Tokyo area so far this year, but there's plenty. The transportation to/from Maihama Station is good. Therefore, there's always a boatload of folks there. Just to set expectations. If you are crowd-adverse, I suggest a day when there's a typhoon coming. And even then there will be folks in line an hour early.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Tokyo metropolitan area has 38 million people. 17 million international tourists have entered Japan in the first 9 months of 2023. Don't know the number of domestic tourists to Tokyo area so far this year, but there's plenty. The transportation to/from Maihama Station is good. Therefore, there's always a boatload of folks there. Just to set expectations. If you are crowd-adverse, I suggest a day when there's a typhoon coming. And even then there will be folks in line an hour early.

Laughing at the typhoon idea .

I know it'll be crowded, we'll survive. But I'll choose "slightly less crowded" over the alternative

 

[nono]

Duckbug.Ducktales, the good news is that the rest of the country isn't as crowded. As you plan, try to take advantage of that. So many smaller cities and large towns have many attractions, and it's easy to fill your days. As great as TDL/TDS can be, the whole rest of the country basically competes well against TDL/TDS.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Duckbug.Ducktales, the good news is that the rest of the country isn't as crowded. As you plan, try to take advantage of that. So many smaller cities and large towns have many attractions, and it's easy to fill your days. As great as TDL/TDS can be, the whole rest of the country basically competes well against TDL/TDS.

I'm definitely really stoked to see the rest of Japan, big and small! I already know two weeks won't be enough and we'll need to be back! We were actually going to do an Adventures by Disney trip there but they're so expensive, we decided we'd just plan everything ourselves and figure it out

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

We've also flown ANA using Virgin Atlantic miles and JAL using British Airways miles.

I'm reading up on using VA to fly ANA so as to have as a back-up option while the Chase transfer bonus is active. I wouldn't mind having the points stuck with VA as I know we'd end up using them the following year for something. But I find it hard to find award availability on United and Aeroplan. Know any good guides?

 

[djmeredith]

Do any of those 4 days fall on a weekend? If so, avoid Disney during the weekend at all costs. Everything I've read says that the weekends are extremely crowded. A blogger said that any Saturday at TDL was like Christmas Day at WDW. Never been, wonder how much of that is true, but since I'm rather crowd-adverse I will certainly be doing only weekdays at TDL.

Luckily, none of them are weekend days. It will be Tuesday-Fri.

Chiming in here to follow along as well since I know we will be returning. We've been twice and flew business or first with miles both times. We did Singapore suites in first and took the long way just for the experience once and would do that again but also stop in Singapore for a few days. We've also flown ANA using Virgin Atlantic miles and JAL using British Airways miles.

I would love to do suites but didn't have time to plan ahead and collect pts for this trip. That is a bucket list item for me for sure. Thanks for mentioning the ANA/VA and JAL/British options, I wasn't aware of them. Did you book on the VA and British sites? I am going to have 190K UR for our return trip, so those would be good options for me.

Why so short in Tokyo? Where else are you planning to go?

My nephew's priorities are Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Okinawa. I would like to see Kyoto if I can squeeze it in. Therefore, I don't think we can spend more than 2 days there. There is nothing specific either one of us wants to see there, so I think that will be enough for this trip.

 

[Kwami]

Does anyone know of a good way to get JAL miles or seats with Citi's ThankYou Points? They have a 1:1 transfer to Cathay Pacific, which is OneWorld, at 89K points for a one-way business-class award. Is there a better deal out there?

 

[calypso726]

I'm reading up on using VA to fly ANA so as to have as a back-up option while the Chase transfer bonus is active. I wouldn't mind having the points stuck with VA as I know we'd end up using them the following year for something. But I find it hard to find award availability on United and Aeroplan. Know any good guides?

Last time I did it I stalked UA’s site for availability and when I found it called Virgin and booked.

 

[calypso726]

Luckily, none of them are weekend days. It will be Tuesday-Fri.


I would love to do suites but didn't have time to plan ahead and collect pts for this trip. That is a bucket list item for me for sure. Thanks for mentioning the ANA/VA and JAL/British options, I wasn't aware of them. Did you book on the VA and British sites? I am going to have 190K UR for our return trip, so those would be good options for me.


My nephew's priorities are Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Okinawa. I would like to see Kyoto if I can squeeze it in. Therefore, I don't think we can spend more than 2 days there. There is nothing specific either one of us wants to see there, so I think that will be enough for this trip.

I don’t think you can book ANA on VS directly unless something has changed, it requires a phone call. I did book JAL directly on BA. Pretty sure it was more miles than it would have been booking on AA. However, BA releases earlier than AA so I took the quicker option.

 

[djmeredith]

United has ANA economy as low as 55K pts for several dates in May. I researched ANA economy and it appears to be better than most if economy is your only choice.

 

[djmeredith]

United also has some routes between cities in Japan on ANA for 5.5K.