John Diaz: [00:00:00] Ever dream of going to Japan, not just once, but every year. Me too. I'm John. And that dream became my mission, which is why I started rewarding Routes, a podcast about making Japan travel possible. Year after year, I learned how to leverage credit cards to earn points and miles turning everyday spending into flights and hotel stays across Japan.

Each episode I'll share what I've learned from booking award travel to building meaningful itineraries and deep diving into regions, traditions, and experiences that make this country so special. Let's build your rewarding route one trip at a time. So normally when I begin planning my trips to Japan or anywhere I start with the flights.

So in this episode we'll be talking about all the flights to Japan using points. So flying to Japan with points of miles. You have several options available to you. Japan currently is in very high demand. [00:01:00] So just know that finding business class flights can be extremely difficult, but you do get the most value from your points if you are able to secure a business class.

Flight economy is much easier and it's normally the way we've been going. Um, there's a lot more award space , uh, out there available, and it's just overall, you're gonna find you're gonna most likely find those kind of deals. , You also save a lot more on points, but of course, you are getting the economy product, not the business class luxury product.

just a disclaimer, points and miles. Landscape is always changing. Your Alliance and credit card programs are constantly updating their rules and know that your points can lose value over time.

The information I share is, uh, accurate at the time of the recording right now here in, , October of 2025. But just know in the future, um, things do change, [00:02:00] rules pop up. , Programs get devalued, so I'm going to do my best absolutely to update you whenever there are those changes. But just know as of this podcast, these are the, um, the current, uh, values of these points and, , redemptions as of today.

all right. So when flying from the US over to Japan, normally your options are gonna be to Tokyo. And Tokyo has two airports. You have Heida, which is closer to the central of Tokyo, and you have nata, which is further away, over an hour out from um, Tokyo. So I know we talked about this in our last episode of things you should know before going to Japan.

So if you haven't listened to that episode, uh, feel free to go to that episode and listen to everything we talk about the, uh, Tokyo Airports and, and some others in that episode. But in this, episode, we're gonna go [00:03:00] into flights, uh, over to those airports. So we're gonna get much more in depth. . So let's start with Heida.

Heida is, as I said, closer to Central Tokyo. Um, in my opinion, it's my preferred airport to fly into over in terminal three, where most of us will be going. Since it is the international terminal, uh, just knowing the fourth floor, there's the ETO marketplace, definitely try to visit if you can, try to give yourself some time because it's really worth going shopping and, and eating out, , over in that area.

Definitely worth checking out , if you have the time to, , do that.

So some other airports that you can consider. I know Conci over in Osaka. Is a, um, also a very popular one that you can fly into. You also have airports in, uh, Nagoya and Fukuoka down in Shu. And you even have, uh, [00:04:00] sro, which is up north in Hokkaido. Um, now these airlines don't do miles and points, but no, they are budget airlines.

Uh, you have peach and you have Jetstar. So you can consider those. Say if you fly into Tokyo and you want to go up north or down south or um, in any part of Japan, those are budget airlines to consider. If you fly into Tokyo, I mean, you could always take the bullet trains ACON sentence, but yeah, you have, uh, plenty of options and it's really up to you if you wanna.

Take the, uh, budget airline. I think the budget airlines actually are cheaper than the bullet trains. It just might require a little bit more of your time since you have to go through security and check your bags and if you have any, and go through that whole process when on the train you can just hop on and hop off.

Um, but it, it, it's up to you.

So before I go into all the airlines, , that you can possibly fly from the US [00:05:00] over to Japan, I wanted to point out a tool that I use and, um, a friend had just brought this up to me, so I thought it'd be great to bring it up here of like, how do you know where and what flights you can take to certain destinations, right?

It doesn't have to be just Japan. It can be anywhere, anywhere in Asia, anywhere in the world. So what I use is Flight Connections and, um, I'm gonna get more in depth with, uh, positioning flights, but with Flight Connections, it's an app or a website that you can go on and you can pick a destination such as Tokyo.

And from there it's gonna show you all of the nonstop flights, uh, from those, um, different airports that fly into Tokyo. So let's go ahead and look at Haida. I'm gonna go to Flight Connections, and in my two section, I'm going to put in Haida. So now, [00:06:00] and, and if you want to kind of follow along with this, you can go on the website or the app and, and do it yourself.

Do whatever destination you would like, but. Now that I put in Haida, it's showing me all the different us, , airports that fly directly to Haida. So I'm seeing San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, uh, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Atlanta. Uh, we got JFK, we got Newark. Over in Jersey, we got IAD in Washington, dc.

Um, we even have some Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver. So that alone flight connections already showed me what airports that I could be looking at to possibly make a positioning flight. And now I'll get a little bit more into positioning flights. I currently live in Orlando, Florida.

Um, the last few trips to [00:07:00] Japan, , we positioned ourselves over to the West coast and we flew. Out of Los Angeles one year and the second time we, we visited Japan, we flew outta San Francisco. So we positioned ourselves to an airport that would take us over to Japan, and you can use flight connections to find where those nonstop Japan routes begin.

Then you can book short domestic flights over, uh, either using points or cash, whatever you value your points at. So that's what we call positioning flight. You get yourself to that city before your big international leg, and then from there you take that international flight over. Um, so typically when I go to book flights, I'll look at the destinations that have the nonstop over to Japan, and I'll book that with points.

Whatever I find is the best value. [00:08:00] Then once I book that international flight. Then I'll look into my positioning flights and see if I can get there with points or if it's maybe worth paying cash. Um, my experience, we use points both times to position ourselves from Orlando over to the West coast, but it really is up to you.

Say you're, you're not far, maybe you're in Vegas or you're a lot closer to the West Coast or one of those cities that flies over to Japan or, or anywhere you want to go, really, then you can kind of consider these options. So Flight Connections is a really handy app and um, I definitely recommend just playing around with it because visually , you can see the entire map and you can just type in different destinations and yeah,

you can have a lot of fun with it and plan out your route , and, and see how everything looks. So. Yeah, highly recommend and go ahead, give it a look. And this will go ahead and lead us into our very first airline that we're gonna be talking about that [00:09:00] flies from the US over to Japan.

And I'm going to break this down in, into segments. So these first few that I'm gonna be talking about are international carriers, and this is personally my favorite option. I'm talking about four of them, uh, in this section. Three of them you can use points for.

The fourth one was just kind of like a bonus one. Um, but personally this is a favorite of mine. And the first airline I'll be talking about is A and a All PO Airways. Um, a and a is a Star Alliance partner. No, a and a, , is a transfer partner with American Express. So if you have an American Express and you have those, um, membership rewards, you can transfer those points over to a and a and book that way.

So I'll get into more detail there. Personally, I haven't done this redemption because I don't have any American Express cards. I actually have never owned an American Express card, so that shows you I'm still fairly new to this game. I've mainly stuck with [00:10:00] Chase Capital One City and, uh, built, but American Express will be in my game plan probably following next year, um, mid to late next year.

I think I'll start getting into American Express, but from , what I research, I'm gonna go ahead and go over this redemption. So with a and a before. Um, before it was only you were able to book round trips, but now recently, as of this year in 2025, they made changes. You can now book one ways, which is something I also prefer.

I prefer to do things in one way segments. It's easier to find availability for points that way. You just give yourself more options to, uh, use your points and miles to book with different airlines. So I'll give you an example. The first time we went to Japan, I was able to book a business class fight from LAX over to nata.

And then [00:11:00] coming back, I flew with, I don't even think I said what airline I, I flew business class with United, uh, ous, and that was from LLAX over to nata. And then coming back, we flew back on a and a. And that was, , with Air Canada that I was able to, , book that flight. And I'm gonna go over my redemptions as I kind of go through the different airlines so that I can give my personal experience on those.

. I'm gonna go over all the airlines that can get you between the US and Japan. And I'm gonna also give you other positioning, flight stacking, um, get you over to Japan without flying directly into there. And we'll get to that later on. So with a and a, now you can book one way, what you can use to look at the a NA award flight availability.

I know this is gonna be a little bit confusing, especially since you're just listening and not visually seeing, . But what you're going to want to do, instead of going on a a's [00:12:00] website and just go day by day by day, since a and a is in STAR Alliance, you'll want to go over to United's award calendar.

So United's gonna have a monthly calendar, and you're gonna be able to look at United Plus Star Alliance partners through their award calendar. It's gonna make it much easier to find these a and a award flights than going day by day on a a's website. So to recap it, a, a award flights, don't waste your time trying to like piece it together on their website going day by day.

Go to United Airlines website instead. Use their award calendar. Search your US city to Tokyo and make sure you check the box that says Book with miles. This is gonna give you the miles, um, award flights portions.

Then look for flights that say operated by a and a. And that's the award [00:13:00] space you want. And once you see it, you can book it with either United Miles or you can go on a and a type in that date and then book it , , with a and a miles that you transferred over from American Express. , As of right now, the only way to get a NA miles are with American Express.

If you don't have American Express, then you would have to look at maybe other star lines, , partners such as United Airlines or,, air Canada Arrow Plan, I know they devalued their points, so they're more dynamic pricing, which means, , the cash value of the ticket reflects the points. , So it's much higher.

If you want to go ahead and just stay with a and a and book it, um, say with your American Express points that you transferred over to a and a, , , you can do it on their website. So just know that you have to create the account to see the award spaces book on a NA website.

So how a [00:14:00] NA has their points redemptions. , It's split up into three categories, you have low season, regular season, high season. So for low season you can look. At business class flights as low as 50,000 points for economy as low as 20,000 points. Uh, during regular season, you can look at business class flights as low as 52,500 points or economy flights for 25,000 points.

And for high season, such as cherry blossom season or the holidays and such, you can look at business class rising quite up there at 82,500 points. An economy for 36,000 points. These are all one ways, by the way, so if you can find it for low, you'll most likely find most of them for regular season.

Um, it's still a pretty good redemption. There is one con with, , transferring American Express [00:15:00] points over to an a, a and a, which does make it really difficult for booking business class flights. And, uh, that's that when you transfer your American Express, uh, membership rewards over to a and a, it says on the website could take two to four days for those points to transfer.

So say you did get lucky, you found a business class fight. Those normally don't last very long, especially two to four days. It's not lasting that long. So you would either have to risk just having the points in your account or just probably go economy, 'cause you'll, you'll end up finding economy redemptions.

But for business class, , it's a lot more riskier and, um. Yeah, it's, it's gonna be very tough to find those , during this method. There are plenty of other methods that, uh, I'm gonna be talking about with, with a NA and other airlines that, um, fly you over to Japan. Since a NA is a star alliance and United is part of STAR Alliance, [00:16:00] um, there is rates that you can look up and see economy flights for 25,000 points and business for 55,000 points, , using that STAR alliance.

So that's something to look at. Also on the a NA website, you'll see, uh, waitlisted flights, , especially for business class flights, you want to avoid those because you just kind of get put in this wait list that you probably won't get off of. Um, so just. Avoid those waitlisted flights 'cause they're gonna show up and you're gonna think it's, uh, an availability for business class, but it's gonna have a little tab saying waitlisted.

Um, just personally, , I would avoid those from what I researched since I haven't done this type of redemption. , But from what I've researched, I would avoid that. And one last thing with a and a, they do charge higher for, fuel charges. So , [00:17:00] you'll see your taxes and fees be around a 1 50, 200, 2 50.

So something to keep in mind. Um, the fuel charges are, uh, higher. It fuels more expensive. You're gonna be paying more in taxes than fees. So just something to keep in mind. All right. The next redemption for a NA will be through Virgin Atlantic. Now, Virgin Atlantic is, uh, actually a really great one because banks that transfer over are not only just American Express, but you have Chase Capital One City and built.

And when you find these kind of partners that allow , different banks to go into one pool, um, like Virgin Atlantic, , it's really beneficial because, you know, you have the flexibility of having different bank cards. , It's really nice to be able to pull points from different cards.

That way [00:18:00] you're not draining one card completely, , full of your points. And it's actually something that we did back in our first trip, which I'll get into, um, just after I talk about a little bit more details on Virgin Atlantic. So with Virgin Atlantic for a NA, you'll want to use the United Award calendar.

Like I mentioned before, it's just like the easiest way. United has a really good setup and, um, since United is a a star align with a NA, you're gonna be able to see a and a's award flights on United's award calendar. It's just so much easier to look at. , So booking method. The booking method with Virgin is say you found that a NA flight right on United's award calendar and you want to book it through Virgin.

Since Virgin's a partner with a NA well, it's not gonna show up on their website . Uh, you'll have to actually call Virgin Atlantic to do this. [00:19:00] So I know it's a little bit more work on your part, but you know, if you find a good deal, it's a good deal. So just call Virgin Atlantic, uh, tell 'em about the flight you're looking at and then, uh, hopefully they can book it for you.

Um, just know that with doing this, no bookings can be done within 14 days, so you don't have that last minute flexibility. 'cause I know when for business class seats, especially for anyone wanting to do those, you either have two options booking it way in advance, say around a year. Or booking it maybe a few weeks before you want to leave, like within 14 days kind of, uh, thing.

So with this option, you don't get that flexibility of a last minute, um, booking with Virgin. just know with one way Redemptions with Virgin Atlantic, they're typically around $250 one way. This is actually a strategy I want to [00:20:00] do. I haven't done it, um, this way yet with Virgin Atlantic, but I plan on doing it on our next trip.

So it'll be something I'll be able to talk about with experience of doing. . So your one way redemption rates, uh, tax and fees are looking at about $250. One way business class, you could find between five 52,500 to 60,000, uh, economy, you're looking maybe 32, 32, uh, thousand 500.

So really good rates. If you can find those really good values, uh, for business and even economy. Really good. But just know you have to call Virgin. You can't book it on their website. It's a, it's another hurdle, but it'll be worth it if you get those, you know, good seats and, and at good values. So from personal experience, , the way I flew a and a, , back in 2023 from Haida over to LAX, I had booked it.

. In 2022. [00:21:00] I had taken that fly, I think in June of 2023. So, and it was under a year. It could have been , around August or September of 2022. and I booked this through Air Canada, Aeroplan. Um, I had some points over with Capital One. I had some points over with, um, American Express through my wife Cassandra, and know that with Air Canada, Aeroplan Air they're the banks that are paired with Air Canada, Aeroplan are basically all of 'em.

So it, it's nice to be able to combine those Capital One miles and those American Express membership awards. 'cause then you can pull those points together and, and book a, a flight that way. So the points we used for that flight over from Haida to LAX was 63,000. 60 points. This included the option to pay for the taxes, um, with points.

I, [00:22:00] you know, I'm not completely sure if that was worth it, uh, to pay the taxes 'cause I'm not sure of the value. But we went ahead and did that. And roughly per person, this was 31,530 points per person one way in economy, uh, on a NA from Haida over to LAX. And personally from this flight. , The experience we had was great. I mean, the service was top notch. The, uh, staff was very friendly. The food was very good. Uh, and the flight was comfortable back home. So, um, we don't mind flying economy most of the time. Um, we did have a taste of business class, uh, during the first leg of that flight or the first leg of that trip.

 but yeah, we don't, we don't mind economy. I know in, in time as we go to get older, um, maybe , business class seats will be more of a priority for us, um, going forward. But as of right now, that was a, a nice redemption for us. And we have a few more that we'll be [00:23:00] talking about, but to continue with the international carriers, the next flight or the next airline will be Japan Airlines.

Now Japan Airlines is a one world. Alliance,

so you have several options actually for Japan Airlines and some newer, uh, options. And I'm glad I'm doing this now because I get to talk about all the new ones. So your first option with Japan Airlines is with built, built rewards transfers over to Japan Airlines. This was one of the newer options I just mentioned.

Uh, I know as of this year, um, built, announced Japan Airlines as one of their , transfer partners, which is really exciting. Built, is a really exciting program that, , is , gaining more traction and I think will be a, um. A, uh, a key factor in in the next two years. I think built on doing some really great things.

Um, but let's get back to it, us to Japan based on Japan Airlines. Mileage chart, you're [00:24:00] looking at an economy for 27,000, premium economy for 40,000, or business for 55,000. So yeah, some, some good redemptions if you're able to find those. yeah, just know that business class is always gonna be difficult for Japan 'cause Japan's just so in high demand.

Um, but you should have no problem finding the economy flights. Capital One just announced that Japan Airlines is a new transfer partner. That is very exciting. The normal ratio for this is four to three, which means 1000 capital one miles is 750 Japan airline miles, but there's currently a bonus going on of 30%.

So effectively. You can transfer 1000 capital one miles and get 975 Japan Airline miles. Uh, this runs until October 22nd, 2025. So if you have some Capital One miles, uh, this is actually something to consider. And [00:25:00] I have Capital One miles, so this is something I might consider and I'll let you know if I do, um, pull any, um, triggers here on that promotion.

But it's also a, um, it's also good to know that there are promotions that happen throughout the year and there they're transfer bonuses. So you'll see on different banks offer transfer bonuses for different airlines. Example you'll see often is Virgin, Virgin Atlantic, or British Airways or, um, uh, KLM. Um.

You'll, you'll see so many different, uh, transfer bonuses throughout the year. So that's something to keep an eye out because something like this, it's, it's worth it most likely. But without the transfer bonus of it being four to three, which is 1000 capital, one miles over two, 750 Japan airline miles, then it's not as [00:26:00] valued and it's something I probably wouldn't do.

Um, you have the built that's one-to-one, so , it goes equally and that's a better value for you. Um, but yeah, it's something to consider. So with the, uh, capital One, you're looking at the same, uh, Japan Airlines mileage chart as built because you're just transferring these points over to Japan Airlines.

So economies, you're looking at 27,000 premier economy, 40,000 or business, um, business class for 55,000. So something really good value, again. , That's something to definitely keep an eye out and I'll let you know if I, if I do decide to, uh, go that route and I can kind of go over my experience of booking that.

All right. Next option is going to be American Airline Miles. Since American Airlines is part of the one world, same as Japan Airlines, their alliances. So you can take American Airline miles and use those points from American to, to, uh, book those Japan airline [00:27:00] flights. Um, the redemptions on these are gonna be roughly around 35,000 for economy, 50,000 for premium economy, and 60,000 for business class.

A one way to get American Airline Miles is getting their co-branded cards, , that only earn AA advantage miles, which are American airline miles, or Citi just announced that. , American Airlines is now a transfer partner for Citi. So now you can get city cards that have the thank you points and take those thank you points and transfer over to American and then you can use those American miles to book Japan airline flights.

Since it's a one world partner, I know this seems like a lot, it's probably super overwhelming, especially hearing about all these different programs. Uh, knowing my stand store over in my Instagram, I actually have a [00:28:00] transfer partner sheet that you can look at. It shows all the banks, it shows all the airlines and it, I even have 'em grouped in, um, all the alliances such as Star Alliance, one World and Sky Team.

And then you have partnerships underneath and also hotels in that, um, in that sheet. So feel free to, um. Message me or go to my stand store. That's, uh, in the bio of my Instagram. Or you can type in Stan Do Store slash Rewarding Routes. You'll see my shortcut to Smarter Points transfers we'll, which will, uh, go ahead and, , email you my transfer partner, , guide that I made.

And you can look at visually all the banks and flights and partnerships that are affiliated because I know this stuff will take time to learn. And, um, yeah, there is a level of learning that you're required [00:29:00] to kind of understand the Points of Miles game with flights and in hotels. But once you understand it, once you learn the basics, I swear it will get easier and just make more sense in time.

Uh, I, I remember feeling overwhelmed and, and feeling lost a lot, especially with all these different banks and transfer partners and alliances. But I swear it'll all start to come together as you learn more and more. And as we talk about it more and more, it's gonna be become a lot more easier. 'cause I'm gonna be repeating myself quite frequently, so you'll be able to take those things and he'll be like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I remember him saying that, or I remember someone else saying that.

So it's all about repetition and we'll get around to it. I'll go ahead and, uh, make sure that my, uh, stand store also in the show notes below. So you can go down there and, um, find your way over to the stands store if you want that, uh, transfer partner guide. Next way to book Japan Airlines [00:30:00] is with Cafe Pacific Asia Miles.

Uh, cafe Pacific is also a one World Alliance, American Express, capital One City and built transfer over to Cafe Pacific. Uh, you can find business class seats from 63, uh, 63,000, um, possibly up to 89,000 in business, which is still a really good deal. Um, but you're gonna find the best deals. If you're flying from Seattle in Vancouver, that's where you're gonna get that low 63,000, business class flight if it's possible to find those.

Uh, no one Cafe Pacific Award space opens 30 days earlier than aa. Uh, so you can possibly find those earlier flights over. You, you'll just need a, uh, free account with Cafe Pacific. This is also something that I really wanna try out for myself. , This is all from research that I've done, but this is an option I [00:31:00] wanna look into as well.

Uh, I wouldn't mind flying into Seattle or Vancouver visiting a buddy , over there in Seattle. So yeah, that's, that's definitely an option that you can, uh, consider. Uh, you can research as well, uh, if you wanted to learn more about it. But Cafe Pacific seems like a really solid option. They're a Hong Kong based, um, carrier and I hear only good things about 'em.

So I'm excited to hopefully one day fly on Cafe Pacific, but also take this, um, redemption and book Japan Airline Flight Stew Cafe Pacific as well. So, yeah, there's so many different options you can do. All right. British Airways, Avios, also one World Alliance.

, Banks that transfer over to British Airways are Chase American Express, capital One, and built. This is a tricky redemption, um, from what I've researched, , what you'll want to do with , British Airways is you'll want to go on American Airlines similar to [00:32:00] United, how they have a, an award calendar, which makes it easier to search these award flights.

So since this is one world with, with, uh, Japan Airlines, American Airlines has that award calendar that you want to use. So if you go to American Airlines and look at their calendar, you'll be able to see, um, the Japan Airlines award flights. So you don't have to go, go and guess, um, and go day by day on Japan Airlines.

Just use that calendar to make it a lot quicker , and a lot more easy.

So what, what you'll wanna do is use the award calendar, search your US city to Tokyo and make sure that you check the box that says Redeem miles. Then you'll look at the flight that says, operated by Japan Airlines. That's the space you can book. And then now you can consider going over to British Airways and then looking at the date that you saw that availability for.

You can even look at the other airlines that I mentioned before, the other programs such as American [00:33:00] Airlines or , you can look at the Cafe Pacific. We're even gonna get into Alaska Airlines 'cause they're also part of the One World Alliance. And you're gonna kind of consider your options with British Airways specifically.

Your one way redemption rate is your taxes and fees are , typically gonna be a lot higher. They're gonna be around 200 to $300 one way. Um, so I know the British Airways from what I research, isn't something that I'm really considering, uh, in doing. Um, maybe the only way I would is if I could find a business class seat because with British Airways, and we talked about just recently that there are transfer bonuses with banks.

So like what I said with Capital One, having a transfer bonus right now with Japan Airlines, a bunch of banks can have transfer, um, bonuses for British Airways, which can make the business class seat if it's available. [00:34:00] Probably worth trying to get. So with British Airways, you can possibly find business class seats from 70,000 up to 110,000, an economy from 25,000 up to around 37,000.

Those transfer bonuses are, um, very helpful, uh, especially for, for flights or points like this that you wanna use British Airways, uh, you, you do have those higher taxes and fees, but if you were to secure a business class flight with, uh, transfer bonus, that can be a really solid redemption.

So your next option will be Alaska Airlines. Now, Alaska Airlines, how to get those points are with either the co-branded card cards from Alaska Airlines or with Bill. So Bill is the only bank that transfers over to Alaska, other than Alaska having its own cards at most. And, um, and you'll [00:35:00] find, you'll see from Seattle or Vancouver, you can find economy for 30,000 on Japan Airlines, or 60 to 75,000 in business.

This was actually a redemption I did this year, flying back from Japan over to San Francisco, and we had Alaska miles. Um, we had two Alaska. We had actually one Alaska card that I applied for last year. If you listen to my Mistakes video, uh, I opened a authorized user account for my wife, which I shouldn't have, but yeah, it took a five and 24 slot from her.

Um, but it's okay. It, it wasn't like a, a big deal or anything. But we did have Alaska miles. I had 75,000 Alaska miles. I was able to book two one ways from Haida over to San Francisco. This was 75,000 points in total. Uh, I believe the taxes and fees [00:36:00] was super low.

Actually, let me look at it real quick. Yep. The taxes and fees for that flight on Alaska Airlines was $113 and 62 cents. Uh, this is for two one ways from Heida Airport over to San Francisco. I think the cash value that I had this flight at, um, at the time was for $3,953 and 92 cents. So for 75,000 points and $113 and 62 cents in taxes and fees.

That's a pretty, pretty solid redemption, uh, for economy right there. Now that belt transfers over to Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines. You know, they, it gives me that, um, that option of, uh, either trying to find business class seats if, if possible, uh, through Japan Airlines or through Alaska. [00:37:00] And yeah, you know, you, you, you give yourself all these opportunities and you know, if you can find business, that's awesome that it's really a cool experience.

But the mission is to get there. So if, if you do fine economy. It's all good. Um, you're still gonna have a great time once you land over in Japan. Alright, that wraps it up for Japan Airlines. Now we have one another option, which is Single Port Airlines, which is Star Alliance, um, banks that transfer over to Singapore or Chase, American Express, capital One City.

This is also kind of, um, a rare one. I haven't done this one and it's one I researched, but, I just wanted to put it out there. It's not really one worth considering that much. You could if you want to, but with Singapore, they fly once daily from LAX Los Angeles over to NATA Airport.

Uh, you [00:38:00] could find business class seats for 103,000 points. Uh, you could book this either. Going on Singapore, or you can , use Air Canada since Air Canada Star Alliance, but they are di dynamic pricing, so that might not be a great option anymore. Uh, this is very li uh, limited availability. So best direct with Singapore, uh, if doing this option, but I just wanted to put it out there.

It's once a day LAX over to NATA and , if you want to look more into it, go for it. I don't think this is an option. I'm really gonna be considering too much. I prefer the other options and um, yeah, that's just a personal choice. All right, last international carrier that can get you from the US over to Japan.

This one is not bookable by points of miles. I just wanted to give you a budget option that is with zip air. Uh, I know it's a fairly [00:39:00] new airline, but I'm seeing flights for like round trip under a thousand dollars. So this is a budget option. If you don't have points of miles, but you want to go to Japan, um, this is an option.

I mean, they currently only fly from LAX Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and Honolulu. This is to Tokyo Narita. So it's an option if you want to go on a budget. Um, look at those flights and uh, see if it makes sense for you. All right. That takes us over to US carriers. Um, there are just a few US carriers that we're gonna be looking at, uh, I believe just three in total that take you from the US over to Japan.

And the first one's gonna be with United. And I'll just start with um, my personal experience. 'cause this was my very first carrier for our very first trip to Japan. And I had booked this back in 2022 and this was the only time [00:40:00] I've flown business class. And this was using Air Canada Aero plan. 'cause Air Canada is part of Star Lines and so is United, um, are able to book through Air Canada and find either United Flights or an a NA flights or, you know, star Alliance partners, um, on Air Canada .

At the time, not anymore. Uh, that's, that's done. But at the time, air Canada was a really solid option for redemptions and especially business class seats. The reason I was able to se secure 'em, um, so easily, 'cause there were so many business class seats I saw available was because when I booked this in 2022, before, this was before October, so uh, I wanna say it was around August.

Japan was actually still closed because of the pandemic. So there was still no international travel [00:41:00] going on to Japan. So I had been keeping up with the reports and the news and I saw Japan was on track to open up later in 20 10, 22. And we knew we wanted to fly in May of 2023. So I went ahead and booked the United Business class, um, with Polaris.

On Air Canada. And that was only for 79,660 points. Each, which in total for two people was 159,320 points. Uh, this included the taxes 'cause it gave me the option to pay taxes with the points. So I went ahead and did that. Um, what we did was we used a combination of, uh, chase Capital One in , American Express membership rewards.

And yeah, this was such a fun flight, especially for our first flight to Japan to go business class. What a treat it was. As soon as you walk in, [00:42:00] you get greeted and you get served champagne and you get, you get pampered, you get spoiled on these flights and we got a taste of that. So it was really nice and, and I'm glad I was able to do this redemption.

I'm just saying this, this redemption isn't really possible anymore because Air Canada went to dynamic pricing, which means that their price ticket, , basically equals the amount of points you're gonna use. So it's called dynamic pricing, and it's just gonna be a lot more now than it ever was before.

So now we have the other options that I talked about with the, uh, other international carriers you can still use United to, to fly over to Japan. Um, but yeah, these, these redemptions personally aren't the best. That's why I really prefer the international carriers, the international carriers. I, I enjoy [00:43:00] their food, I enjoy their service, and, and you find a lot more options to use your points for those carriers.

Um, with United and. And like Star Alliance with Air Canada, it, it just makes it a little bit more difficult to find points, um, using United to get to Japan. The next US carrier I'll be talking about is American Airlines. They fly over to Japan. Um, no, American Airlines uses dynamic pricing as well as Air Canada.

So those prices on those American airline flights are gonna be a bit more expensive for sure. That's why I recommend doing international carriers because American Airlines, uh, has Citi as a bank that transfers over to them. And then you can use American Airlines to book Japan Airlines since it's a one World Alliance.

Um, but with American Airlines flying. [00:44:00] Their own flights over to Japan. It's dynamic pricing. You're gonna end up paying more points for that. You know, both cash fairs and mileage redemptions can swing up and down. So timing is flexible. Uh, and it's key. So roughly you'll find flights operated by a NA from 60,000 points to 150,000 points, which is insane.

Uh, AA miles, uh, you'll want to use the AA award chart to find flights, as we talked about previously. And yeah, it's, it's better to use your AA miles and use those miles to book the Japan Airlines Flights and using 'em actually for American Airline flights to Japan. Um, but I know American Airlines can be good for domestic flights.

So if you wanna do positioning flights, that's something you can consider. All right. Another carrier from the US is Delta. Delta flies over to Japan. Um, also uses dynamic pricing. So as you can [00:45:00] see, all three US carriers use dynamic pricing, uh, for Japan, which makes the international carriers just much better to redeem your points with.

Um, typically with Delta, it's, it's very expensive. With sky miles, they're normally a very expensive airline to transfer points over to. Um, this is something I haven't done and I don't plan on doing because it's not really a good option. Uh, even domestically, Delta can have some really high, um, points, values, I mean, like really high.

So it's really not an option I'm looking at. Maybe if you're in a Delta hub, you can find better deals. Um, that's, that's up to you to kind of research and look at. But yeah, for me it's, um, it doesn't make sense. So. I don't consider it now. Those are the three US carriers. What we're gonna look at now is positioning to neighboring [00:46:00] countries around Japan.

'cause this, this adds a lot more flexibility, um, for you to, to get to Japan and to also make it a multi-country, uh, trip. Right? And this is something we did on our last trip, uh, from South Korea. We flew from San Francisco to Seoul and then we used that as a part of our trip and then we made our way over to Japan.

And it's a great, it's honestly a great option and it's something we plan on doing too. So I'm gonna go over a few of these, uh, um, possibilities with different airlines in different countries surrounding that you can use your points for. Your first option is EVA Air, it's a, uh, Taiwan based airline. You have your direct bookings with Capital One, which transfers over, and Citi, uh, Citi has a better, uh, rate at one to one where Capital One has two [00:47:00] to 1.5, and if you're confused, what one to one and two to 1.5.

If you download my guide, I actually have a little description at the very bottom of that guide that goes over the different numbers and examples of what those transfers look like. So if you wanna look at that, uh, definitely download the guide. And once again, it'll be in the show notes, or it'll be in my Instagram bio in my stand store.

So you can look that up. I know it's tempted to say Eva Air, but it's actually EVA air. Um, this is a type pay based airline. And it's part of Star, star Alliance. You can fly from the US to Taipei on EVA and then connect to Japan on E-V-E-V-A or another star alliance partner, like a NA. Uh, so it gives you that option to maybe take a flight over to Taipei, enjoy Taipei for a little bit, and then head [00:48:00] over to Japan.

So that's a positioning flight you can look into and then make it like a multi-country trip. Another option is SLU Star. Lux is also a Taiwan based carrier, routes to Starbucks. Um, you can find 'em from like LAX San San Francisco, Seattle over to Taipei. Um, how you want to book this is with Alaska Miles.

Um, remember that built transfers over to Alaska miles, or you'll have to get, um, branded cards by Alaska. You can find flights on Star looks from. Um, on economy for 35,500 points, 50,000 points in premium economy and 75,000 points in business, which is really good. And, um, yeah, you, you can basically take the long haul flight, try to book it in business class if you can for 75,000.

[00:49:00] And then once you land in Taipei, see if you could take a budget air or maybe there's another airline like EVA Air, since it's Star Alliance, um, maybe you could book an a NA flight from Ty Taipei over to, um, Tokyo. So you'll, you'll, with flight connections, you'll be able to see this. Um, I'm gonna list some tools at the very end that you can kind of play around with and, and see different options that, um, you can possibly piece together, but this is one that I really want to try as well.

And I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna have to rack up, uh, Alaska Miles, um, through their new card. Uh, at most, I believe it's what it's called, and I'll have to look into it. I haven't really looked into their brand new card because they had just rebranded. Um, they had combined with a Hawaiian Air, Alaska and Hawaiian are now merged.

Uh, and they have this whole new program. So I'm gonna have to like, learn more about it 'cause I haven't even, um, I haven't even, uh, looked at it. [00:50:00] So that's something to highly consider and uh, it's something I'll be going more over in the future. Now we have Korean Air. This is something that I personally did on our last trip and we did this through Virgin Atlantic.

And Virgin Atlantic is a partner with Korean Air. Um, personally, we were able to book this. Transferring points over from Capital One over to Virgin Atlantic Red. And um, it costs us only 31,000 points in economy each for one ways. Um, you have partners for Virgin, which are Chase American Express City Bill.

Uh, for Virgin Red, you have Capital One City built. So basically all the banks transfer over to Virgin and then you can use those points to find partners such as Korean Air. Take a flight over to South Korea, enjoy Seoul, enjoy Bussan. Um, just enjoy that beautiful country of South Korea. And then you can [00:51:00] take a flight over on Korean air as well, which is what we did.

We did it with Virgin Atlantic as well, uh, on Korean Air. And we did that from Busan over to Tokyo. And yeah, it's a fantastic way to, to position yourself and, um, and. I if your, your, your end goal is Japan, hey, you can just add another country to it. And there are definitely other options. You can fly into Singapore.

You could fly into Vietnam. You could fly into Hong Kong. Um, just do some research on maybe some countries that are nearby Japan, um, that you would like to visit. And maybe there's a way over to there using points and miles. And then you can also use points and miles from that country over to Japan. So it's a way to position your yourself , if you can't really find anything directly from the US to Japan, you can always position yourself not only within the US but you can position yourself, in, uh, neighboring countries in Asia that could [00:52:00] get you to your final destination.

Wow, this is, uh, a longer episode than I had me imagined. I thought it was gonna be a, maybe a, a 30 minute, but it's almost coming up to an hour now. Um, but before I wrap it up, um, we're gonna go over kind of some tips, and we had talked about this briefly through throughout the episode, but keeping an eye out for those transfer bonuses can really help you maximize , these point redemptions when it comes to points and miles, just like the Capital One with Japan Airlines

Which is really good. It is something to consider, and you'll see a lot of these deals for, um, for example, you'll see, uh, a 30% bonus for Virgin Atlantic. And I think that was one that happened recently with Capital One, which say I was a transfer 10,000 capital one miles, it would become 13,000 virgin points.

And I think a larger transfer can mean more points for you [00:53:00] and, uh, make it cheaper for you to redeem those points for either economy or business or whatever you would like. And at the end of the day, your points, your rules, you don't stress about maximizing every single cent possible.

Um, I do, I value my points the way I want to value 'em. I try to maximize, but when I can, I'm just happy that points allow me to travel, um, more affordably and travel more often. And that's what it means to me and that's why I enjoy this hobby so much because I want to be able to travel every year without having to worry about saving up loads for flights and hotels when that can be covered by everyday spend.

So I just wanna point out that, uh, focus on what works for your goals and, um, keep it simple if you wanna travel like that. If, , if you don't wanna [00:54:00] do, if you don't wanna maximize every cent, don't worry about it. Just do what's comfortable for you. Um, because I know this, this hobby of points, miles, , takes a bit of learning and, uh, understanding.

It really does open a lot of opportunities to travel more and to, um, travel more affordably and to create memories and amazing experiences. I wanna round this episode out with some tools that I found really helpful, uh, that I've used, and I know I'm missing quite a few from this list.

But these are the ones that I've, uh, used either briefly or, or more often. But, uh, , flight connections is a big one just to visually see all the routes that go to the destination you wanna visit. And possible positioning flights that could get you there, uh, seats, [00:55:00] arrow, uh, quickly searches award availability across multiple airlines.

So it's a great way of finding rare business class seats. Um, there is a free version of this and there's a paid version of this. Um, the free one does limit you. So if you want do a YouTube search on all of these and visually see how all these are done, um, maybe you could visually see the free one compared to a paid membership one and see if it works out for you.

That's what I've done, uh, in the past. Uh, another tool I use is points dot. Yeah, this is one I highly recommend just playing around with yourself and, um. Getting a feel for it because it's really user-friendly and, uh, it's a really good award search tool that scans like hundreds of airlines and it shows real-time results.

It shows the different banks that transfer over to that airline. Um, yeah, it's really, it's really cool. I definitely recommend going to [00:56:00] Point do, um, pointier.com and playing around with it. Just play around with dates, destinations, uh, get a feel for it and you'll see how cool, uh, that tool is to use. I, I believe it also has a free and a paid, just like most of these, most of them , have a, free version and then a, pro version, just like a.

So many other subscriptions out there that we all have. , another tool that's available here is Thrifty Traveler Alerts. So this is more of a like notification. I, I haven't done this one, but I've, I've read about it and I've watched videos about it. And this one, basically, you input like the information you want to receive and you'll be sent alerts in your email.

Say if like a business class flight for two pop up for Japan, 50 travelers gonna go ahead and notify you of that. Show you all the information that you need to [00:57:00] do. You transfer your points, you book it, boom. Done. Uh, I believe it's like a hundred dollars a year for that plan. I don't know if they have a free version, so just do your research on that.

Uh, next to is Point, do me searches. Dozens of a loyalty program, shows step-by-step on how to transfer and book the best award. Uh, kind of similar to point and seats arrow. Uh, Rome Travel is another tool similar to point me. Um, but with Fast live searches, um, alerts, transfer partner details built in.

So you, they're all sort of similar in, in aspect. I think Thrifty Traveler is the only one that's more like alert based. Um, but yeah, I, I say just play around with these, um, get a feel for it. Get a feel for, um, seeing the different points, values, and, and airlines and. Yeah, I think, uh, these [00:58:00] tools are definitely very helpful.

It's up to you if you wanna take it to the next level and get like a pro subscription for them. Um, it could be very helpful and it could potentially save you thousands of dollars because it's helping you secure, say, a business class C that could be worth up to 12 to maybe $20,000. Um, so it could be worth it that, that's, that, that all depends on you, so.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Remember, I do have a guide in my stands store. I'll make sure to link you in the show notes below. It's also in my Instagram page. Uh, feel free to message me at any point. I'm always free and available to talk about points of miles in Japan. Um, I'm always free to answer any questions and I actually am thinking of doing a q and a episode coming up maybe for episode 10 just to see if there's any [00:59:00] questions I can answer.

So if you have any questions, just feel free to reach out and I'll see you on the next one. Take care.