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Help me out, I refuse to pay nearly $1600 to fly from Japan-->USA

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puma1552

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
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My wife and I are moving to the US in September, ideally between 9/5-9/9, but flexible. I work until August 31st, and then need a few days to tie up things, so anytime after that is good, but the sooner the better.

I'm trying to find flights from OSA (all Osaka area airports) to MSP (Minneapolis) and I can not find a darn thing less than close to $1600 a piece, and that's for round trips (will just throw away the return ticket).

I've checked everywhere I can think of, Orbitz, Cheap Tickets (which pulls from like 10 sites in itself), Kayak, No. 1 Travel, Priceline, etc. etc. etc., you name a site, I've been there. I simply cannot beat over $1500 a piece, no matter how flexible I am on dates, pushing the departure back as far as late September and adjusting the garbage-bound return ticket date out as far as the middle/end of October. No matter how I cut it I just can't beat over $1500. Japanese websites are no good due to how strong the yen is. Local travel agents are even worse, and one way tickets when searching online are all north of $1800, if not well over $2k a piece.

I *really* do not want to waste over $3000 for my wife and I to fly home, that's outrageous IMO, considering I've always been able to get round trip tickets for closer to $1000 each.

Any tips on where/how to get the cheapest flight? I tried to get a round trip from USA-->Japan-->USA and just use the return part and throw out the original departure, but google tells me that if you don't show up for the first flight, they cancel the rest of the itinerary. Bummer, because that was only $1328 a piece.

Help!
 
You are either going to have to travel earlier(late July) or later, August September is insanely expensive for flying abroad, esp. between asia and the US as a massive number of students fly to the US to start/continue school. I ran into the same problem, I saved about $1000 by moving my trip from early August to late July. Sorry, but thats the only way it's going to work.
 
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By Sept. though, that should be over?

August is one of the worsttimes to fly from Japan due to a week of holidays the third week of August...it's moot though, since I'm locked here till September.
 
puma1552 said:
I tried to get a round trip from USA-->Japan-->USA and just use the return part and throw out the original departure, but google tells me that if you don't show up for the first flight, they cancel the rest of the itinerary. Bummer, because that was only $1328 a piece.

Help!
Click to expand...

I've also heard that directly from the airlines, so you are kind of screwed on that part too
 
puma1552 said:
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By Sept. though, that should be over?

August is one of the worsttimes to fly from Japan due to a week of holidays the third week of August...it's moot though, since I'm locked here till September.
Click to expand...

Depends on the school, have you tried moving it back to late September? Also, have you checked Narita? For the most part flying in/out of Narita(or now even Haneda) is usually cheaper, a really quick search on Orbitz yielded $1531, you might even find cheaper if you play around with the dates. Although not common, if you are really committed to finding a bargain you could try looking for flights out of Fukuoka and other 2nd tier cities.

Also you may be able to find even cheaper rates if you go to the companies web site directly, but that obviously takes a lot of time.

Good luck.

Also, I found this out when I was experimenting with flights to Pittsburgh, it may be much cheaper too fly direct to a major destination then take a discount airline(or the Greyhound/Amtrak!) to Minneapolis. When I was searching for TYO->PIT, it was $400 to fly to DC than to Pittsburgh. I can find flights on Southwest for a lot less than that, or just go greyhound for $60 or so.
 
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How much does it cost to fly from Hawaii to your destination? If it's cheap to fly from Japan to Hawaii, then it may be worth it.

Also, how about flying Air Canada from Osaka to Vancouver? I priced tickets in mid-December, and tickets were $1200 Australian! I'm going to fly Jetstar to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Toronto. The total price is $2000, saving me around $1800 in total. :eek:. Flying from Australia to the US would have cost around $4000 near Xmas. :eek:

I'm always flying somewhere, and I have used this trick before. There's always a cheaper way. ;)
 
good luck with that.

i've got a 3,000 dollar one-way ticket out of narita that month (not out of my pocket). august stinks for tickets in japan. i generally avoid the month whenever possible. it used to be that prices went up at the end of july, so if you can leave before then, that might be best.

and, it does seem to be best if you go through the company websites. you might want to take a look at flights out of narita (generally more of these at lower cost, in my experience).
 
palpatine said:
good luck with that.

i've got a 3,000 dollar one-way ticket out of narita that month (not out of my pocket). august stinks for tickets in japan. i generally avoid the month whenever possible. it used to be that prices went up at the end of july, so if you can leave before then, that might be best.

and, it does seem to be best if you go through the company websites. you might want to take a look at flights out of narita (generally more of these at lower cost, in my experience).
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I just search TYO instead of just restricting yourself to Narita. A lot of companies now are trying to promote their Haneda-US services(I think the fees charged to the airlines to land in Haneda are considerably less than the fees they get charged to land in Narita)
 
foidulus said:
I just search TYO instead of just restricting yourself to Narita. A lot of companies now are trying to promote their Haneda-US services(I think the fees charged to the airlines to land in Haneda are considerably less than the fees they get charged to land in Narita)
Click to expand...

Good point. In my case, I had to buy my ticket a month or two ago, and I had to use ANA. If I remember correctly, they don't have flights out of Haneda.

Delta does, though. A round trip flight in September on Delta from Narita is 100,000 yen. The same flight from Haneda is 90,000. Not a huge difference, but even if you count the shinkansen tickets, you will still be well under 1600.

The same flight a week earlier out of Narita is 180,000 yen :(
 
Not a lot of help, but back to England Korean Air is always by far the cheapest. For some reason, the travel agents don't push that, though.
 
palpatine said:
Good point. In my case, I had to buy my ticket a month or two ago, and I had to use ANA. If I remember correctly, they don't have flights out of Haneda.

Delta does, though. A round trip flight in September on Delta from Narita is 100,000 yen. The same flight from Haneda is 90,000. Not a huge difference, but even if you count the shinkansen tickets, you will still be well under 1600.

The same flight a week earlier out of Narita is 180,000 yen :(
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Where are you finding this?

I'm seeing all sorts of flights on Delta's site for 80,000-90,000 yen, but as always fees make it almost 140,000 yen. Why the hell they even bother advertising the "flight price" is beyond me when the customer has to pay the taxes and fees. Just advertise the big ripoff total price in big bold letters, no sense trying to hide it.

Abstract said:
How much does it cost to fly from Hawaii to your destination? If it's cheap to fly from Japan to Hawaii, then it may be worth it.

Also, how about flying Air Canada from Osaka to Vancouver? I priced tickets in mid-December, and tickets were $1200 Australian! I'm going to fly Jetstar to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Toronto. The total price is $2000, saving me around $1800 in total. :eek:. Flying from Australia to the US would have cost around $4000 near Xmas. :eek:

I'm always flying somewhere, and I have used this trick before. There's always a cheaper way. ;)
Click to expand...

Just tried looking these up briefly, going from Osaka to Hawaii alone is a $1300 trip, and it said no flights were available for Osaka-->Vancouver on Air Canada's site.

I also have been looking for flights to Chicago instead of Minneapolis and those aren't any better, nor are flights out of Tokyo instead of Osaka. Hell, even going from Osaka to LAX is $1350.

This is getting really frustrating.
 
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puma1552 said:
Just tried looking these up briefly, going from Osaka to Hawaii alone is a $1300 trip, and it said no flights were available for Osaka-->Vancouver on Air Canada's site.

I also have been looking for flights to Chicago instead of Minneapolis and those aren't any better, nor are flights out of Tokyo instead of Osaka. Hell, even going from Osaka to LAX is $1350.

This is getting really frustrating.
Click to expand...

Swim? I know when my grandmother came over from Thailand (This was years after the Vietnam War). She came in with my mother on cargo ship. IDK why, but I am going to guess it was cheaper. I am sure there's tons of them coming and going between Japan and Cali, but IDK if you can do that anymore.
 
SUCCESS!

I got desperate and decided to try and split the itinerary into two separate ones as mentioned above and started looking for flights from Osaka to just LA, and somehow found one for $932 each including all fees/taxes. Then I found a dirt cheap domestic flight from LAX to Minneapolis for only $159 each, so we are booked and ready for just $1100 a piece!

Oddly enough, both flights are one ways, that's the first time I've ever seen them cheaper than round trip tickets.

So, so happy. Thanks!
 
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