AMAZING FARE: Tokyo for Under $450 Roundtrip

by Gary Leff

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There’s a sale on Star Alliance fares between Los Angeles and Tokyo, and you can fly United, ANA, or Singapore Airlines. Fares go down below $450 roundtrip including all taxes!

A simple fare calendar shows great availability for Monday through Thursday travel at $488 roundtrip.

However airfare metasearch site Momondo will help you find even better pricing than that.

You can get ANA for $444 roundtrip.

You can fly a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 for $447.

Just use this Los Angeles – Tokyo search and change the dates.

Key details:

  • Travel is permitted Sunday through Thursday in each direction
  • Outbound is available August 31 through December 9, December 24 through December 31, and January 10 through March 31
  • Fare rules require tickets to be issued by August 21, but the fare will most certainly not last that long.
  • $300 change fee applies

It’s a wonderful opportunity to get ‘lost’ in this most amazing city.

You’re not going to upgrade these tickets. If you’re a United elite, choose to fly United for access to economy plus extra legroom seating. And if you’re interested in earning the most miles you’ll choose to fly United instead of ANA or Singapore (though those are likely to offer greater comfort) because you can credit the miles for the United flight to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and earn more than you would any other way.

While a non-elite MileagePlus member crediting United flights to the revenue-based MileagePlus program will only earn about 2000 miles (5 miles per dollar on the cost of the ticket excluding taxes), nearly all United fares earn 100% of flown miles when crediting to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (.pdf). That means you earn nearly 11,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for the trip flying United and crediting this K fare to KrisFlyer.

While Singapore miles do expire after 3 years (not 3 years of inactivity), you can top off a KrisFlyer miles account with transfers from American Express, Chase, Citi, and Starwood.

(HT: AirfareSpot)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  2. See that … $450 fares to Tokyo because the flyers are disappearing. Add to that and one earns crap in FF Mile programs, if (let’s say) AA matched it, one still requires $12,000 in spend to reach EXP. $450 won’t cut it there…..Back in 203 AA had ORD-NGO for $409 with an SWU upgrade….back when they gave 8, not 4.

    Up yours, airlines.

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