How do I travel to Tokyo as cheaply as possible?

January 21, 2007 10:31 PM

I need the cheapest possible one-way ticket to Tokyo from the New England area. I need to leave some time around March 1st, but I am flexible. Thrift trumps convenicence: I just need for this to be cheap. What should I do? Are there clever methods of circumventing the Airlines' bureacracies to access inexpensive tickets?
posted by davidriley to Travel & Transportation around Tokyo, Japan (11 answers total)

Kayak is remarkably good at finding cheap flights. You can get a one-way ticket from Boston to Tokyo for $672, which is pretty cheap in my book.

Looks like Airfare.com may have even cheaper prices.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:43 PM on January 21, 2007

Are there clever methods of circumventing the Airlines' bureacracies to access inexpensive tickets?

Yes, they're called consolidators, and they buy groups of tickets at a discount and pass the savings along to you. The traditional way of finding them is looking around where enclaves of immigrants from your target destination are located. For Japan, I've had good luck with H.I.S. and IACE.
posted by Rash at 11:12 PM on January 21, 2007

I've had excellent luck going with j-town travel agents. March 1 is still low season.

www.iace-usa.com is showing one-way from SFO -> NRT @ $350-500. Not sure what they have from BOS tho.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 11:19 PM on January 21, 2007

also, a round-trip is ~$140 more. You should check with the consulate, but IME if you want to be able to enter the country on a tourist visa you should have a ticket out.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 11:26 PM on January 21, 2007

I moved to Iceland after college and found that it was far cheaper to buy a round-trip ticket and just not use the return trip than it would have been to buy a one-way.

Heywood Mogroot also brings up a good point - depending on the type of visa you're using to enter Japan, you may need to show proof that you will eventually leave the country.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:30 PM on January 21, 2007

Either try finding a travel courier flight or see what flights you can find from a consolidator/bucket shop. I flew round trip Bangkok/LA with a courier service for $250 once. This may help you figure out some options. This Consolidator Flight Engine has worked for me before, too.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:52 AM on January 22, 2007

Oh, and away.com can be used to check Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak & Cheap Tickets all simultaneously. Saves a lot of time.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:55 AM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Away.com is a great link. Thanks!
posted by k8t at 6:11 AM on January 22, 2007

I always use gatewayLAX when flying out of boston to tokyo.
posted by quibx at 6:15 AM on January 22, 2007

Got any frequent-flyer miles saved on any airline? We just got a mailer from Northwest offering deals to Asia (around $400, but that may have been from the West Coast only) if you forked over some miles with it (not the full amount needed for a free ticket, much less).
posted by GaelFC at 5:54 PM on January 22, 2007

To beat countries' and airlines' requirements for a return ticket when entering on a tourist visa, just buy a refundable one-way ticket to somewhere random, like Tokyo-Beijing. Show them proof of ticket purchase when you're entering or checking in (if they ask), and then call and cancel the refundable ticket.

This worked for me when I was flying into Hong Kong and planning on taking a bus to mainland China. United wouldn't fly me there without proof of an onward air ticket from Hong Kong, so I bought a Hong Kong-Ho Chi Min City one-way refundable ticket.
posted by jbb7 at 2:17 PM on January 23, 2007