017 - 12:17:25, 21.37

[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. Welcome back to another episode, and in this episode we're gonna be talking about.

What should you book first? Should you book your flights or your hotels? In a recent podcast, we've talked about booking Hyatts throughout Tokyo and , we talked about other Hyatts throughout Japan that are on my list and maybe they're on your [00:01:00] list. And we've also discussed booking and redeeming flights to Japan from the us.

So now that we've learned those different things of booking hotels and flights. Now comes apart to decide what gets booked first. And the answer to this isn't the most exciting, but it really depends. It depends on what you value more. Uh, for flights, there's business class seats, or for hotels, there can be more luxurious days or places that are just in an incredible location that can really benefit your time and your trip.

And I'll go ahead and mention my experience. And mainly what I do is I tend to book flight first just so I can. Generate an idea of how I can book the rest of the trip. Uh, if I find a good deal in economy, which is mainly what I book for flights, then I [00:02:00] kinda work around those flights. Uh, I book two different legs, so I don't book a round trip with points.

I always book it one way just to give myself flexibility. And flexibility is also. A very key factor when it comes to using your points and miles. You're gonna want to have some kind of flexibility because it's going to make redeeming and getting the value for your points and miles a whole lot easier.

When you're flexible, you can manage around different dates and different times. But when you're more specific, which it is, it isn't impossible. You can have a specific timeframe. You just have to plan way more ahead and lock things in as early as possible. Where with being flexible, you're able to find better deals, whenever you're looking for flights or hotels, and it gives you, uh, room to play with and, and ways to [00:03:00] find just incredible deals that can.

Be used with points in miles. So from my experience, most of the time I'm looking at booking flights first, but I'm still so new to this hobby and I'm still learning my ways to, uh, redeeming and traveling more often. And I'm finding that in future trips, I plan on booking my hotels first, and the reason is because there are specific hotels that I have in mind that I would like to stay at just because of the location.

And maybe it's popular, or maybe we're gonna go during some busier times of the year because with flights, we normally fly economy. We've only flown business class once, and that was in 2023, which I booked in 2022, and Japan was still in lockdown. So finding business class flights was a piece of cake.

Now it's extremely hard because it's very in, in [00:04:00] demand, so. It's very easy to find flights for economy with points and miles. Where if there's a specific hotel or a specific time of the year that's a little bit more peak.

Finding hotel rooms can be a little bit harder. So it's, I'm starting to, to shift my mindset to maybe booking my hotel stays first, and then finding the flights around what I'm booking. But before then. It was, I was mainly booking flights first for most of my trips. There were some situations where I was booking our, uh, hotels first, but I think maybe that was one or two trips.

I, I, I know I've done it. I just don't remember what trips. It might've been a, a Hawaii trip. Um, the one we went to Oahu and stayed in Waikiki. I think I booked a hotel first for that trip, and then I booked the Southwest flights after. But for the most part, before I was always booking [00:05:00] my flights first. So let's get into it.

The big decision flights versus hotels. So when it comes to flights, the main reason you would wanna prioritize a flight is to fly business class. So if you're someone who doesn't really get much sleep in economy or. Just doesn't like the feel of sitting on a long haul flight in economy. Then you can prioritize business class.

Business class seats to Japan are in very high demand, which makes it very difficult to find, but there are ways to find it, and one strategy is to fly to neighboring countries around Japan if you can't find one directly. But we'll get a little bit into that later. Just know that a handful of award seats.

Get released by airlines. So the whole cabin for business class isn't available to use with points and Miles. Airlines release only a few business class seats on their flights. [00:06:00] So that's why they're pretty hard to come by. 'cause once they get scooped up and there's only a few of 'em, they're gone. The best way to get these business class seats are to book way in advance, usually in year or a year plus in advance to.

Securities business class seats, they are hard to find. So this is when award tools come in handy. To really help you find those business class seats. But we'll get into those award tools really soon. And like I mentioned before, booking your flights separately instead of one round trip flight is best because you have the choice to get a business class seat one way and find another business class seat going back.

Or just a really affordable economy flight if you can find one, which are pretty easy to find and they're really affordable. So it gives you those options.

So now, when [00:07:00] hotels come first, this is usually if you wanna stay at a specific hotel, um, or you're traveling during a very. Popular season such as cherry blossom season or maybe the holidays. A few examples of specific hotels. I know one of the most, or if not the most popular hotel to book, uh, with points is the Park Hyatt at Kyoto.

Um. This one is extremely hard to find availability for. So if you know you want to stay at the park, Hyatt, Kyoto, this is something you will book first before looking at flights because of the availability is so hard to find for this hotel. To find availability at the park Hyatt, Kyoto, you'll need some kind of alert system.

There is a website called Rooms Arrow it. They have a free version, but the paid version gives you more features like the alerts, and you [00:08:00] can set an alert during the time that you want to visit, and once availability drops for those dates, you'll get an alert. And then you'll go ahead and book. Just, you'll have to have the points ready for that booking.

Um, it can be very difficult, but from the videos that I've seen of the park High Kyoto, it does look like an amazing, uh, stay. It's in a great area of Kyoto around so many things to do. So this is a good example of when a hotel booking would come first with points just because of how popular this hotel and the value.

I mean, these rooms are nearly $3,000 a night. And you're booking it for maybe 40,000 points. That's incredible value. So this is a good example of when hotels would come first. There are some other places like the Hyatt House, Shibuya, which is in a great location.

It tends to get booked up, but you can find availability if you do an award search that we'll talk about this tools really [00:09:00] soon. But, um. I think the only hotel that really is hard to find is like the Park Hyatt, Kyoto, but there are other it. It depends, like if you really want to stay in a specific area or a specific hotel, then this is when hotels will come first.

Another example is like if you're with larger families and you need to book more than one room and you only have a limited amount of points.

So then you're looking at specific hotels that allow you to do this because of the limited amount of points that you might have. So that's something to also think about. So like I mentioned before, you'll want to plan ahead when it comes to points and miles to get. Just the value and the availability.

You'll usually want to book a year out in advance. In some very rare cases, if you're extremely flexible. Then you can find really good values maybe a few weeks out. Um, but this, I know it's very limited to the amount of people that [00:10:00] can do this. I thought I just mentioned it 'cause I've listened to other podcasts and, and other people who've been very lucky to find business class seats or maybe a stay at the park high Kyoto.

And it was, I mean, they basically booked it only two weeks before they actually left for this trip. So yeah, very rare. Um, for most people, but it is possible if you have that flexibility. So for most of us, it'll be booking around a year out before we take that trip. Now let's talk about finding these award availabilities for flights.

I've mentioned this in my flights to Japan episode, but. There are tools like points yeah. Dot com , that is a really great option. Um, it's free to use. Um, definitely play around with this website and this tool because it's really cool to see. What you can find, uh, when you do these searches, and it just [00:11:00] gets you more comfortable of looking at how, how much flights are with points, what banks transfer over to these airlines.

It just gets you more in the flow of, okay, I'm, I'm seeing this redemption a lot, or I'm seeing these type of points used for this type of, uh. These type of flights and it, it just gets you, um, it gives you the opportunity to visually see the entire breakdown of the points, the flights, all of it. So I'm actually gonna just give you an example 'cause I'm on points yeah.

Dot com right now. I put in a random date of, let's see, August 24th. And right now what pulled up for me was. I put in LAX to Tokyo, all airports, doesn't matter where I'm going. And the first one that came up was a Delta Airlines flight in economy, LAX to Haida, nonstop, 11 hours, 15 minutes. I can book this flight [00:12:00] with American Express membership rewards.

I don't have any Amex card. I've, I've never opened up in an American Express. Card before, once again tells you how new I still am to this hobby. Even though it's been almost five years of me slowly getting into it and slowly getting into the flow, it's taken me a little bit to understand this whole process by I'm getting better, the more and more that I travel, and I, and I use these cards.

And now that I have this podcast, I'm, I'm learning even more because I'm, I'm di I find myself diving deeper into. Into all of this, and it's really fun for me. So, yeah, I'm, I see this, um, this flight right here. I can go from LAX to Haida nonstop 29,000 Amex points on a , Delta flight, and the tax would only be $5 and 60 cents.

So now what I'll do is I'll go over to Delta's website because this is [00:13:00] booked straight through Delta. I will put in the exact same information. I put L LA LAX to Haida August 24th. It's extremely hot in Japan during the summer, and I know the humidity is also very high, so this is most likely a low season, but I am on the Delta website.

I'm looking at August 24th. I put in all the information and I see the flight there for 29,000 miles. And all you would have to do is take your American Express, uh, membership rewards, transfer 'em over to Delta since they're a transfer partner, and boom, you got an economy seat for 29,000 points and $6.

So this was a very loose example, but it, it's just what you can find. You can play around with this and you can get used to it, and it just makes you more comfortable with looking for flights and it's a lot easier than having to go. From like airline to airline looking day by day, this [00:14:00] gives you a much easier visual and it's just a lot more straightforward and just less overwhelming of an idea.

So this is a fantastic tool to use for flights. Another tool you can use is seats Arrow. There is a sampled version for free. It's pretty limited. But if you wanna pay for more features, this is a, a tool that you can use to really find those business class seats because it lets you search way more in advance.

And it's very, I mean, it's a very good tool. I did mess around with it for a little bit. Uh, I bought it for a month just to, just, just to mess around with it. Uh, this was maybe about a year ago. I didn't book any business class seats. I just wanted to see for myself and, and see what kind of, um, awards that I could find.

I found a lot of really good ones. But at the time, I already had my trip booked and I was maybe thinking of booking another trip for later on this year, but [00:15:00] that, that obviously didn't happen because we're having our baby boy and just about a month from now, it could be sooner. It could be a little bit longer, but.

Yeah, this is a good tool to use if you really do want to find those business class seats. Another option you can do is an award, alert service, and this is with Thrifty Traveler. This is a paid service, so what you would do would put whatever airport you wanna fly out of. So if you're over in Orlando like me, you wouldn't put Orlando because there's really no direct flights over to Japan.

It would be better to put like an LAX or San Francisco and just find a way to position myself from Orlando over to the West coast and then have these alerts from the west coast over to Japan or to Asia, and then. This will be a really good option to find those business class seats. The only thing with Swifty traveler, it's not by [00:16:00] specific dates or destinations.

It just gives you those best points deals from the airport that you choose. But you can find some really good ones, especially on the West coast . I would think you would see more of those, deals that you can find for like, um. Maybe South Korea or Taipei, Singapore, Japan, um, some of those other countries.

So this is an option I would like to really experiment and play around with. I haven't had the chance to, and, um, with us having a house just recently buying our, our baby on the way. Uh, I, I'm gonna pause on that, but I'd say maybe, maybe by the end of next year, thrifty Traveler is something that I invest in and I book, maybe I can book a business class flight for 2027, and I'll let you know all about that experience if that ends up happening, because in the back of my mind, I know I had [00:17:00] mentioned economy is basically what we're gonna focus on for flights.

We're not gonna really go for those business class seats. But the more I think about it and the more I've researched, um, in the past weeks, maybe a business class flight will be easier with a child in time to allow us to be more comfortable for long hauls, um, to actually get some sleep and not feel the jet lag and not feel so exhausted when we get to these destinations.

So it's something that I'm gonna think more about because maybe going business will be the better option. I'm not sure, I'm still going to experiment around maybe booking, uh, economy, but maybe booking a third seat in between us so that we have three seats in a row, allowing us more space can be an option as well.

Um, so yeah, there, there's different things and, and points of [00:18:00] Miles really gives you that flexibility. Do you wanna go business class? Do you want to go economy and get maybe a better hotel stay? Or do you wanna book an extra seat, uh, to give yourself more space? Like there's so much opportunity and that's what I love about this.

So yeah, that's kind of where my mind's at right now. And with flights for positioning Flights, like I mentioned, I have to position myself and my wife. Uh, from Orlando, Florida over to the West coast. Whenever we're going to Asia. Uh, definitely look at neighboring countries. Um, use, if you cannot find a business class flight from the West Coast over to Japan, you can use tools like Flight Connections or Google flights and learn different routes to different neighboring countries, such as my example to South Korea.

Uh, it wasn't a business class fight, but it was still a really good value and a, a good redemption for us, and we spent some [00:19:00] time in SEO and bussan, and then we made our way over to Japan. This is a very good option. I, I think, for, for anyone wanting to get over to Japan. If they can't find business class seats over, maybe you could find a business class seat to type, type A, spend a few days there, and then go over to Japan.

Uh, so Flight Connections, Google Flights, it'll help you visually see the different routes that you can take and see what, uh, neighboring countries fly into to Tokyo. And if, if you don't wanna fly into Tokyo, you can fly into other airports in Japan. So this might be a better option for you. Um, there's just, there's so many opportunities and choices.

So this is when learning and, and, um, taking the time to research, uh, will really benefit you and you planning your trip. And this unforgettable memory that you'll create. Now let's focus over to tools for hotels. And this is one I just learned about [00:20:00] recently and it's called a max my point.com. I'm not sure how I missed this tool for so long maybe 'cause I was so already stuck in Hyatt and I already understood how Hyatts were and it was pretty easy for me to find availability 'cause I wasn't really going after.

Um, high-end brands like Park Hyatts, even though I did find a Park Hyatt in Busan, but it, it's not like the extremely high-end demand properties. So I was able to find availability for most of these places, so maybe that's why I missed it, but. Max. My point is a really, really good tool, and I wish I knew about this when I recorded my Hyatt episode because I would've included it, but as well, I didn't mention that Hyatt has an award calendar that you can use as well.

So you can just look throughout the whole year and see how much points are valued for that property you're looking at. But anyways, max my point.com. [00:21:00] It, it seems like a really great tool. Definitely. I'm gonna link these tools down below. I'm not affiliated with any of 'em. I just find them to be extremely valuable and they can really help you plan your trip and, and make it easier for you to use your points to make these.

Amazing redemptions. So you can use Max. My point for, uh, brands like Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and I'm gonna go over some examples here that I found. So I'm on max my point.com and I'm looking at the Osaka Hyatt, which is the caption, BA Hyatt, NABA Osaka. So I type in the hotel, the hotel comes up, and then.

A whole calendar comes up for me, and in this calendar I'm able to see every single month. It's December, 2025 right now, and it lets me see all the way until December, 2026. [00:22:00] So if I'm looking at February, for example, February, 2026, two months in advance, I actually see a decent amount of rooms available. Um, it seems like that first week of February

you can book with points, 8,000 points a night. After that, it tends to feel a little bit more scattered. You can find, some nights at 9,500 a night, but mostly 8,000 with some days not available. But if I was to go into like cherry blossom season, which is like. mid-March to, or late March to mid-April, I can see that a lot more rooms are booked up.

So if I was planning to go in March, 2026, this is something I would have to do a year in advance because I'm seeing maybe one room available for a Tuesday on the 17th. The rest of the week is booked. Uh, the week after that, in March 23rd, I see [00:23:00] three days available, but one of them's already split up, so I see one available for 9,500 on a Monday, and then on Wednesday and Thursday I see availability.

For 9,500. But then that's it. So this tool is really actually incredible and I'm having a lot of fun just kind of like browsing through it. And I wish I knew about it earlier, but I mean, we learn as we go. Right? And, and this is a tool I'm definitely gonna look at, uh, especially for. The high house Shibuya, which I would like to stay at, just for the convenience of being so close to a station.

Uh, I feel like it would be easy to manage with a child, , there's a lot of properties I'd like to stay at, and some of 'em are a little bit harder to find. This tool really helps you find availability, but also if you wanted to find off peak times, I'm finding. [00:24:00] In July of 2026 for the caption Osaka, I'm finding Knight for 6,500 points.

That's incredible value. I would love to book a property for 6,500 points in a city like Osaka. So that's incredible. And yeah, thi this is a tool I'm definitely gonna link, definitely play around with it. It's. I'm, I'm just excited to have, uh, just learned about this, but. I can see this is extremely valuable for, um, looking at hotels and finding the best value that you can. Now, if you wanted to set up alerts, say for the Park Hyatt, Kyoto, there's rooms arrow it, there's a free version, but you'll need the paid version for the alerts, and this will just send you an alert. Once the availability for like the Park Hyatt, Kyoto, that you wanna stay at becomes available.

This is when a tool like this comes into play. Um, know that all the major brands that I talked about for [00:25:00] hotels like Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, IHG, they actually have all their own award charts. So that if you, you were to go on Hyatt's website and like put in some dates and, and start to try to get an idea of when you wanted to book this, um, you can actually hit a little button that says points calendar, and it'll show you just like what Max my point was showing me of.

The different hotels and, and the different dates and the different points for each day. So each major hotel brand has that option. Um, and you can do it. One thing I am noticing with the, uh, max, my point real quick is I'm seeing like in August of 2026, it was last of updated seven days ago. So whenever you're redeeming points through like using tools.

Just make sure you always verify on the actual website that it's showing the redemption for. So like with Hyatt, I would go, I'd see [00:26:00] the award availability on Max. My point, I'd go to Hyatt, I'd put in the same hotel, same days, and I'd make sure that availability is actually there because on maximum point I say it was last updated seven days ago.

Uh, for most of the days, one in November, 2026, it was last updated five days ago. So it's the same thing for flights. If you find flights on a, a tool like point c.com, always verify on the actual website of that airline to make sure that flight is actually available, because sometimes these award tools don't instantly refresh and it'll show that something's available when it's actually not available.

So that's important to know. Just always double check. So overall, that's it. When it comes to flights, if business class is something you prioritize, then you would go for flights first. If it's hotel that you wanna stay at specifically or specific time [00:27:00] of the season. Then that's something you should look at first.

So it really depends on what you're wanting to look at. Uh, just remember if you can stay flexible, but if you can't just book as early as possible because that's when you'll get the best availability for what you need. I hope you enjoy this episode and I'll see you on the next one. See ya.