Flying to Japan on a budget from the United States
When traveling there are 2 things that will take a good chunk out of your budget and that is transportation and accommodation.
Getting the right flight on the cheap side can be very challenging especially if you’re traveling as a family with your kids, finding the right time with the right price often gives some challenges since most of the time when your kids have the time off from school it is often during a high season the price are usually higher.
There are several ways that you can do to save on transportation to Japan and we will be listing some of them below but first and foremost is that we are specifically talking about going to Japan from the United States, while some of the ways will also be true from other countries but we are listing it just from the United States. Here they are:
Unless you or someone you know works in an airline the cheapest way is to use your credit card points or frequent flyer miles, of course this may take some time to accumulate however plenty of financial institutions offers a welcome bonus that gives you quite some points that basically you can use to get a free return flight or business / first class (you still have to pay the tax but it’s super minimal). Do keep in mind that not all of them are created equal so do your own research if you want to explore this, all we can say is that the top 2 best credit cards products for travels are from either American Express or Chase (this is purely based on our experience and our opinion, not necessarily be the same for others)
The second way is to fly using budget airlines. Many people doesn’t like flying budget airlines especially if it’s a long flight, tight seats, minimal leg space, the front seats are right at your face, all these things can drain your energy and emotion. Thankfully now there is an airline that flies to Tokyo (Narita) directly that has the price of a budget airlines but provides a good service that makes it does not feel like it’s a budget airlines.
Now which airlines is best to take if we only have a small budget? Well this one is by far the cheapest that we ever found at least from San Francisco that gives good experience, food, service as well as direct flight and that is ZIPAIR.
ZIPAIR has direct flight in the United States from places below:
Honolulu (HNL)
Los Angeles (LAX)
San Francisco (SFO)
San Jose (SJC)
Places outside United States:
Bangkok (BKK)
Manila (MNL)
Seoul (ICN)
Singapore (SIN)
Vancouver (YVR)
If you’re located outside United States then you may have better option
If you have never heard of ZIPAIR before, ZIPAIR is owned by JAL (Japan Airlines) but considered as their budget airline. Although I’ve been in a budget airlines before and I have to say that ZIPAIR doesn’t really feel like it and it kind of falling in between. Their prices are very cheap all things considered, I’ve seen one as low as $281 one way for 1 person although you don’t get any food or luggage you do get carry-on baggage (to be brought into the aircraft cabin) up to 2 items and within specific size limit free of charge which is pretty generous compare to some other flights (You can check here).
You can watch our review from the video below, don’t forget to like and subscribe to help us grow our channel.
Last but not least is to get the ticket when the airlines are having a sale or promotion, although this probably won’t be available often and even when they are available it only has a limited number of seats.
Let us know what is your favorite budget airlines or any airlines when you’re traveling to Japan!