Fly with me? Booking Flights in Japan

Before coming to Japan, I use to consider myself a flight master always able to sus out a good bargain and find the deals. I racked up about 22 countries in this manner however the UK is fortunate in that we have several budget airlines and a very close proximity to Europe. Making a cheap European getaway a very easy thing to plan.

So, what of Japan? Does it have budget airlines and what about its international options? So, my first experience with flight booking was a little stressful as I did leave things rather last minute however you can still find options if your flexible enough. Budget flight wise Japan has a few airlines that make domestic flights easier. The main two that come to mind are Peach and Jetstar. The latter I have used twice now and will be using again come February.

For booking flights I would still offer some of my usual tips, hit incognito mode to ensure the prices don’t shuffle. Whether there is any truth behind it I am unsure, but I was told visiting a site multiple times to look at the same routes can cause the prices to bump. Either via same IP address or just more page traffic causing this. I have usually found mainly with hotel bookings I can find cheaper prices for the same hotel when doing this.

If using Kayak, it has a useful tool where you can select +3 days and it will create a chart of those dates, showing the cheapest options for all combinations. This can be useful in showing you when it is cheaper to fly. Not necessarily booking via them but its good to now what days are cheaper and when to book a certain route.

Jetstar was flexible for my trip over the holiday season and with my location in Saga City being on a train line I had 3 possible airports to fly out from. So, I was able to price compare my options. I ended up flying from Fukuoka via Jetstar. For a budget line I was impressed with them. I know some friends have had issues with them. But in general, I was very impressed considering they are a budget airline. Firstly, I waltzed the domestic flight airport faff which is a relief when travel can be stressful anyway. But Jetstar were organised on the way out and we boarded completely early. My ticket came with a 500-yen snack and drink which was a nice surprise as I had not read the extras when booking.

Being somewhat of a nerd I enjoy inflight announcements from the captain telling me where we are flying over and what altitude etc so JetStar’s announcements on both my flights made little me happy. Both flights arrived on time and in general departing the planes was almost organised compared to past experiences on certain UK budget flights.

If you have a little more cash to splash Japan offers ANA and JAL airlines too, ANA Is often ranked among the top airlines, and I had to pleasure of using them when I first came to Saga. If you book in advance, you can probably net a few cheeky deals.

So, what about international? Japan’s location is a little different from the UK where your fortunate to be short haul flight away from a huge array of multiple countries, however there are options and options I am starting to eye up as possible trips. Let’s take our friend Jetstar for a moment, they have a few offices in other countries in Asia but if we primarily consider direct flights from Japan your options are Taipei, Shanghai and the Philippines. It is also worth noting Kyushu’s very close proximity to South Korea where either a ferry or plane can be taken for a very low price.

Looking at our friend Peach they also cover South Korea and Hong Kong, Considering I have only looked at direct flights and two budget airlines we can see that the options are certainly there. I intend to visit as many of these as possible because when in the UK these are all very pricey options for me. My general flight tips are to stay flexible, consider all your options if you are between two airports check both. Be mindful of the day you also book on as prices at the start of the week can be higher. Book as early as you can but do not fear for last minute as there are always unexpected options and deals available. My last-minute Jetstar flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka was under 10k.

I will be covering hotels in another entry.