Looking for cheap return flights to Japan during Easter School Holiday

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  seratone on 12/01/2012 - 16:12

  I recently went to Japan and I spend a lot of time looking for flights and I can honestly say the best deal youll be able to find are with jetstar.
  They have sale a lot and you can pick up a return flight for a few hundred each.
  Good luck and have fun, Japan is awesome.

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  YadaYadaYada on 12/01/2012 - 19:12

  Jetstar are having a sale to Japan right now. Have you looked at this yet?

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  Johnny-Kun on 12/01/2012 - 20:01

  @YadaYadaYada, Yeah I was looking at that when it was on the main page yesterday but the offer they have only goes till March and the Easter Break is in April =_=

  @seratone, last time I went to Japan was back in 2006 so I'm really looking forwards to heading back again and seeing friends and having good food :)

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    YadaYadaYada on 12/01/2012 - 21:29

    Hi there,

    How much are they looking at now with the cheapest flights?

    Alternatively if you are already thinking about buying a JR pass and going on the shinkansen, it might be cheaper to fly in Tokyo and out of Osaka or vice versa. Jetstar will do such bookings if you call them up (you couldn't book these online, well not 2 years ago when I went anyway). To find the prices, just look up the return flights to both cities and then look at how much they charge each sector. This will be the same price for a multicity flight.

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      brentsbits on 12/01/2012 - 21:57

      You can book these online, but you need to make them as two completely separate bookings as far as I know.

      If you can do them on the same booking, it's called an "Open Jaw" booking and there will be an option for it. If the option isn't there, then you can't do it. It's just as easy to save your details with Jetstar (by signing up for a Jetstar.com account or whatever) and just make two separate bookings.

      This is a really solid tip though Yada, especially for Japan.

      For your Japanese railpasses, have a look around online for some pricing and then go into an STA, Student Flights or whatever. Often they will price match and you can be CERTAIN that the pass will be valid, unlike some websites. Better safe than sorry I say.

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        YadaYadaYada on 12/01/2012 - 22:22

        2 separate bookings for international flights (even with Jetstar) are really expensive because you get charged departure taxes or whatever from the city you leave. Booking a single ticket from say Tokyo to Sydney - you will get taken to the Jetstar Japan site and there are definitely different fares for the 1 way trip.

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  brentsbits on 12/01/2012 - 21:11

  Hey Johnny, As someone who used to work in reservations at Jetstar I can tell you this for sure. At this stage of the game there will be NO discounted fares to Japan this Easter. Any sales and super dicounts that would have happened would have been between July and September last year roughly.

  The reason they discount flights is to keep the planes full (I am sure you know this) and they have no problems filling planes during school holidays. Deals CAN BE available but only months in advance.

  If you need to go, then book your flights now as they will only get more expensive.

  The other option, and a lot of folks do this) is to book your outbound flight on the last possible day of their sales, get the kids out of school a bit earlier to take advantage of these prices, and then book the return flight as cheap as you can.

  Three months before a school holiday, there will be no discounts anywhere, it's their peak season and it's when they make their money.

  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

  PS: to get good school holiday flight discounts you need to be super organised and have the destinations of your holidays planned AT LEAST 12 months in advance, so that as soon as a bargain comes up, you know your dates and times and you can slap down the credit card and get it booked. If no deal has come up for the place you want to go by about 4 months out from the date, then there is unlikely to be any sales for that destination for that time of the year so by the time that 4 months ahead period comes around do your shopping (via Webjet and similar) and then go book direct with the airline (don't book with Webjet and similar, they charge you a fee for using their site, with no extra benefit).

  I hope all this helped and again, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.