Picture the best day of your life and then multiply it to last 10 days and that is how we felt every Single. Day that we were in Japan.
While Japan was incredible for so many reasons, one thing that made it that much sweeter for us was the money we saved overall. We want to be totally transparent with what we spent and how we spent it. Know that there are always opportunities to pinch pennies while traveling, it really is a matter of how you want to prioritize your experience. Pair that with using credit card points and it is a match made in travel heaven.
I think Japan has a reputation of being expensive but it actually did not feel that way to us. The abundance of choices when it came to accommodations, food, and activities always yielded budget friendly choices if you looked for them. With every major hotel brand found in Tokyo as well, credit card points can be used in abundance making your trip that much more affordable!
The flight was the bulk of savings and a MASSIVE enjoyment! Flying business class on a long haul Asia flight goes down as one of my most favorite travel experiences yet! It also gave us access into airport lounges where we enjoyed free food, comfy recliners, and even showers! For most of us, the cash cost of these tickets is not an option (see below). That is where travel hacking makes travel dreams come true and the impossible, possible.
Actual flight cost: $18,791.40
What we paid: $440 (taxes and fees)
Total savings: $18,351.40
So how did we do it?
—> I opened a Capital One Venture X card, which after spending $4,000 in 3 months awarded me a 90,000 mile sign on bonus. I bought groceries
-After opening my card, I referred both Geo and another friend for the card earning me another 50,000 miles.
– Geo then spent his minimum spend and was awarded 90,000 miles giving us a total of 230,000 miles.
– Capital One transfer to 14 different airlines. I searched several of them and found Cathay Air one way from JFK——>Tokyo via Hong Kong for 80,0000 miles and $220 each. After setting up a Cathay pacific membership which is free by signing in, I immediately transferred 160,000 points from my Capital One app to my Cathay account and booked the tickets.
—> As for our return flight, we flew United Polaris from Seoul, South Korea —> IAD. Originally I searched airline transfer partners for Chase which you can find with a quick google search or checking out your Chase app.
These include:
To get these tickets both Geo and I each opened the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
We leveraged referral points by having Geo refer me to his card which yielded a total of 135,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after completing the sign on bonus for each card. 🚀
I was also able to refer a friend as well for this card and received another 15,000 UR. This yielded us a total of 150,000 points. 🚀 For our tickets home I found flights on Ethiopian Air via United for 160,000 points and $88 in taxes and fees. Fortunately, we had additional Chase points from a previous card and transferred the full 160,000 UR points to my United account to secure our trip home! In the end, the tickets got switched to United due to a schedule change made on our Ethiopian airline flight that left us having to rebook. But United did that for us with no additional cost. 😁
Other savings included:
$300 lodging savings: We found a unique option for staying with a host family for $50/night.
Food: We had 6 meals comped during our time in Japan. These included those meals we ate at our homestay, a hotel stay that included breakfast along with 2 (incredible, all you can eat) meals in the airport lounges we had access to due to our business class tickets. 👍
ATM withdrawal: From street food stalls to people selling goods that don’t accept credit cards, it’s imperative to have local currency on you. ATM options are always a better exchange rate than bringing your home currency and exchanging it in the airports. For an added savings, use an ATM card that has a zero foreign transaction fees!
This leaves our total savings at $18,891.40! It is amazing to us that we were able to book this flight and fly roundtrip in business class for nearly free. If we can do this, you can too! Keep a look out for our next post where we’ll break down our Korea portion of this adventure!
