Just noticed qantas is having a sale on several routes. Return flights to Tokyo from ~$700.
Tokyo Sale Dates:
Sat 11 May 2019–Tue 18 Jun 2019
Sun 7 Jul 2019–Wed 31 Jul 2019
Sun 3 Nov 2019–Thu 21 Nov 2019
Other routes available as part of this sale.
Sale ends midnight tonight.
Wonder if the drop in FX has anything to do with people not wanting to go…. $1AU = ¥78.
Probably just competition happening, with Japan Airlines running sales also. JAL is ALOT better airlines than Qantas, so my first preference would go to them.
$1AU = ¥78 is actually not that bad. There hasn't been many times which it has floated above ¥90.
Japan is truly a additive place, I've been there 5 times already, and every friend who i recommended to go there, they came back saying they wanted to go again…
If you get a chance to watch a show on Netflix, it is pretty cool: Japanese Style Originator
Agreed except JAL.. I guess I had high expectations but the food were pretty mediocre..
@sauce2k: True… however every airlines i've been on the food is mediocre… Unless you are in Business Class / first class.
I don't think the airlines bother doing BETA testing of food when its 38,000 feet in the air. Since our taste buds change when we are that high.
You are treated as if you are family
Ehhh maybe if you're white. Japanese people tend to keep to themselves. But yeah they're very polite when you do interact with a Japanese person at a shop for instance.
@ippy: Haha, not white, but asian here, and they seem very nice to me. Another story i had was:
Wife thought she lost her earrings in the hotel room… she spoke to the staff. They got a hold of the chief maid and they said they didn't see anything. Then they said "maybe it was accidentally thrown away, we will look through all the hotel rubbish for it".
Obviously I was sceptical that they would do that, however we were just about to walk out of the room, we walked by the rubbish closet, and you can indeed hear people rummaging through rubbish. Nowhere in the world would you get this type of service especially being in a 3 star hotel! Even a 5 star hotel will not be doing this and will just say "here have some money".
They couldn't find it, and both the head maid and manager came to our room to make a full apology.
In the end… my wife forgot that she stored it in her luggage…
I agree with all you said.
Last time I came back from Japan, first thing I noticed was the amount of litter on the road from airport to the carpark. :(
Why can't our fellow citizens learn the manners from the Japanese, then we all do our cities and country proud !
@sauce2k: Its been hammered into their culture. Its your rubbish, take it home and dispose of it. You will notice that most japanese will have a small bag in their purse for storing rubbish.
We're planning our first trip to Japan later this year (thinking mid October). Which cities would you recommend we visit? We're thinking Tokyo and Kyoto for 5 nights each. Do you also have any hotels recommendations?
TIA :)
@greenie: Tokyo 5 nights and Osaka 5 nights.
Then do day trips from Osaka to kyoto (15-20min train), Kobe and Himeji. I often fit in Nagoya cuz there is an amazing Unagi Hitsumabushi there, once you try this one all others will disappoint you.
Tokyo stay wherever you want.
Osaka stay in a place near Shin-Osaka station to make it a better base for travels.
Shin Osaka is a central hub for the area so all Shinkansen flows through there.
Buy a 1 week JR rail pass and only activate it prior to doing the shinkansen trip from tokyo to osaka. Since most of the shinkansen trips will be done from shinosaka.
If you wanted to do Mount Fuji do it before leaving Tokyo with JR pass. Pretty much the aim of the game is to fit all your shinkansen travel within a week is how you will get the best value from it. Imagine a 7 day pass for unlimited domestic flights (yes shinkansen costs as much as aussie domestic flights).
Do not make the mistake of using the JR pass to get from airport to hotel and vice versa. Heaps of cheaper options. Do not make the mistake of activating JR pass for just local JR trains, cost of traveling on local trains is only $1-3 each way. I've seen people activate a 2 week pass and only travel around tokyo on local JR trains on the first week then really get into Shinkansen on 2nd week.
PM me if you want more info around food and stuff. Happy to help.
that deal mentions
Valid Departure Dates: 16 May to 20 June 2019 (limited availability)
this has July onwards so not really a dupe
In that case, it would be better to amend the dates on the existing deal. It's the same Qantas sale.
if this deal was from the same site iwantthatflight.com.au then yes to amending existing deal
this is booking direct with qantas.com.au though
@marantz: No worries. It is the case for nearly every one of those deals from beatthatflight, iwantthatflight, etc, that you can pay a little more and buy direct from the airline in the same sale. It seems a bit redundant to make a separate deal linking to the airline's site on each occasion but the mods seem fine with it so it's fine with me :)
This was my thinking as well. It’s directly through Qantas as well (I’m not sure if the other deal is), which may be more attractive for some.
From MELBOURNE.
Is that not worth mentioning?
My bad, title updated.
There are sale prices from other cities too. Eg Perth from $399 one way.
damn it missed it by 4 days :'(
How does QANTAS compare to Japan Airlines? I notice Japan airlines is slightly cheaper for dates I want? Are they full service?
Go JAL. They are LITERALLY full service. Best Service i have flown. FYI, I've flown: Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Jetstar… and a heap more.
Very spacious seats in Economy. They use a 2-4-2 configuration.
Extremely polite, and the thing that blown my mind, was their attention to detail!
I remember being on a JAL flight from MEL to Tokyo. I was asleep and missed the dinner meal. Every time I woke up even for 30min, they would ask me "would you like to have your dinner now"… I said "not now please ask me later". After a few more times they asked me, i finally ate my dinner (albeit 3 hours later).
No other airlines have done this to me, and it totally blew my mind on how they knew I was awake!!!
I concur.
I had good experience flying JAL as well. Much better than the usual suspects like Qantas and Cathay Pacific. Comfort wise and food wise.
I try to avoid Cathay Pacific at all costs now. They used to be awesome, but ever since they changed from their thick foam fabric chairs to the new "shell" chairs, they are ultra uncomfortable when you have any flight longer than 2 hrs. Its as if you are sitting on a plank of wood.
Ok sounds good to me.
JAL is good but I've had better experience from ANA and SIA from check in to in flight. Especially if you travel with under 4 yrs old. They are very accommodating and will offer assistance without you asking.
Qantas on the other hand…
@sauce2k: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/au/
Can fly Sydney to Tokyo or Osaka from $814 return. They don't charge seat selection like Qantas do $35 one way. Return Qantas flights +$70.
Not THAT expensive ;)
So many deals to Japan!