Plane Ticket to Japan

So GP, you did fly American Airlines then? I'm leaving for Narita from DFW in August and would be highly appreciative of the best deals to get over there. I know I'll probably be spending at least $1,000 so I'm prepared for that. Everything I've seen so far has been that or above. What cities do you stop at along the way to wait?

 

Flights are packed these days. Don't even dream of counting on this.

Just do what I did. Get a parent to work for the airlines. Narita->DFW $700 round trip.

The plane was AA but we checked in through JAL as wel have miles. My mother works for AA, so I know shit about deals. In fact, I've only paid for a handful of flights in my life, and that's b/c AA doesn't go from Hawaii to Japan. My best suggestion is to get a travel agent, but with gas prices through the roof, it's going to be pricey. Over $1000, I'm sure.

 

I wouldn't generalize like that, the last two times I have flown to Japan and Korea/Japan the flights have had a significant number of empty seats (ANA and Asiana). I think it depends on what day you're flying, obviously certain days will have higher demand.

 

ANA is normally more expensive then BA, Virgin or JAL, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are more empty. I've yet to fly from the UK to Japan / US to Japan or even Hong Kong to Japan without the flight being mostly packed...

 

What Jamtex said. The flights are generally full these days. More than 30 empty seats on a large plane is generally a fluke. The days of laying in a full row to yourself are over. The airlines aren't making enough money to fly non-full planes. I can't speak for Asiana. ANA I fly from time to time.

As my mother flies on passes (free) it's standby only. She has to watch the loads over the span of days, sometimes weeks to find the sweet spot (one with enough empty seats). In fact, the last two trips here she had to leave a day or two early b/c the flight she was going to go home on filled up.

Last empty plane I flew on from Narita to DFW: September 21st, 2001. You can do the math and figure out why.

 

Indeed, as a single traveller I have been upgraded to Business class a few times as they have called me or told me in the airport if I could fly a different day as the plane was full.

 

My best story is when I was flying JAL for a work trip to Honolulu. They did the whole bargaining thing, saying they'd upgrade me if I took a flight the next day (I was on the last one for the night). I was like, "Sorry, gotta be at work like 3 hours after landing". They upgraded me anyway.

 

Been on two near empty 777 from Manchester to Dubai already this year - colleagues have said that the same aircrafts also only had about 20 people onboard.

Another said the flight was completely full... it varies with time and day.

 

the prices are insane, in my previous trip to Japan I paid around 100EUR of taxes, now I had to pay a f***in 330EUR of taxes, its around 50% of the ticket price, its insane x_x

 

That flight is about half the time, and there's probably many fold more flights going as any given mainland US city to Narita (generally 1, maybe 2 from a big hub per airline). I'm not saying it's impossible, just very unlikely. I do quite a bit of air travel, and I've done NRT->DFW many times. It sucks.

Is it only Narita that jacked the tax up so high? I know fuel prices are ricockulous at the moment, but I don't hear people moaning as much when they fly elsewhere.

 

Not sure, when I was scoping prices on other airlines either Narita or Kansai International had similar tax prices

 

Years ago Narita used to charge 2000 yen outside of the ticket. So like Japan... here, just give us 2000 yen for basically nothing. That airline stands for most of what's wrong with Japan: nobody* standing up for anything.

*of course, some people did... farmers, mainly. I heard there was somewhat of a stink when they made the airport 2 days travel from town.

EDIT: I must LOL outloud at this. This stands for what's wrong with most of the world... the fact that it's run by idiots. I found this when googling "Narita Opposition".
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/technology/31online.html
Skip down to the "Back on Drugs" bold face type. This was actually a few days ago.