I, too, would like 10 million dollars

January 25, 2007 10:33 AM

Can these fares to Japan possibly be real?

I found - through earlier questions here and here - IACE, a travel agency "founded in 1970 to provide discount tickets to Japan". They have fucking unbelievable rates. Is there something I'm missing? Does anyone have experience with this place?

posted by scrim to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

They sold me my railpass, without incident.
posted by Rash at 10:38 AM on January 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Holy moly! These prices are unbelievable!

I did a little digging and I saw that flyertalk says that IACE is good stuff and they get pretty rave reviews. One poster said that he travels on IACE almost 10 times a year and never has any problems. Thanks for the link, though!
posted by banannafish at 10:47 AM on January 25, 2007

I think the advertisements I see of theirs sometimes just show the one-way fare, however -- call 'em to make sure.
posted by Rash at 10:55 AM on January 25, 2007

Yeah, those fares are for real. There are a lot of flights from the West coast to Japan and plenty of competition. JAL, ANA, Singapore, United, Delta, American, and a half a dozen other airlines all fly to Japan from LAX, SFO, SEA, or PDX.

I've paid around $400 for a round trip ticket to Japan before. Ticket consolidators. Usually the tickets have restrictions and you'll go through flaming hoops of pain to make ANY changes though.
posted by drstein at 11:03 AM on January 25, 2007

I've flown courier to SE asia for $300 & through a consolidator I once got roundtrip to Bali for $760. Cheap seats do exist, you just have to know that and to take the time to look for them... which most people don't. They're booking major airlines & it looks pretty legit. So I say Bon Voyage!

One thing to be aware of is that a lot of times the posted fare doesn't include taxes & fees, though. I got $159 rountrip airfare to London from LA once & it ended up being $260 after the fees & stuff were tacked on. Still a great deal, but more than I was expecting.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:08 AM on January 25, 2007

Wow. Cheap. I used Amnet last year for bargain airfares and railpasses. Maybe they get them from the same place.

The English is better on this IACE, however.
posted by notyou at 11:08 AM on January 25, 2007

I don't know what the prices in question are (so I don't know if the prices that you're looking at are the cheap ones that don't include the taxes and fees, which can add 1 or 2 hundred dollars to a ticket, or the all-included ones), but I do have experience with IACE: my ex-girlfriend works in the IACE in Dallas, and whenever I fly back to Houston, I get the tickets from them. Much cheaper than buying plane tickets here in Japan.
posted by Bugbread at 12:35 PM on January 25, 2007

Remember, these fares don't include taxes, fuel surcharges, and airport fees. These can easily amount to an additional $100-200 on an international flight.
posted by Aanidaani at 3:23 PM on January 25, 2007

I flew IACE with 5 buds in 2002.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 9:59 PM on January 25, 2007