Home
Back

Dear visitor, if you know the answer to this question, please post it. Thank you!

Note that this thread has not been updated in a long time, and its content might not be up-to-date anymore.

When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/26 05:11
Hi,

I am planning to go to Japan from March 22 to April 11 2014. I am leaving from Montreal to Tokyo, and since it is the high season for the cherry blossoms, I do not know when is the best time to book for plane tickets. My airline choice is Air Canada (one stop in Toronto or Vancouver). As of Sept 26 2013, plane tickets are about $1,800/person which is very expensive.

Hope you can help!

Thanks!
by panbear  

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/26 08:02
That's about the price for a Chicago-Tokyo non-stop on JAL or ANA, give or take about $100. It's getting expensive to fly there.
by John B digs Japan rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/26 12:02
I'm also planning a trip to Japan in Mar-Apr 2014 and check air fare occasionally. The prices for me seem to be consistently around $1500, although I expected this. I think I paid roughly that amount (maybe slightly less?) when I flew to the Philippines a couple of years ago. Basically, anything trans-Pacific will be fairly pricey.
by Sato San Hai rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/26 12:27
All of the times when I've checked flights between Japan and Toronto or Detroit (My hometown is a bit between both). it's always between $1500-2000 though sometimes it can be more than that depending on time, routes, airlines.

If you really use all of your cheap ticket finding resources you may be able to find a cheaper route but it may not be the airline you want or have the same layover.

I think the days when you could wait for last minute cheap airline tickets is gone as many flights now overbook themselves. I think your best bet is to book early and take advantage of any of the super economy fair prices for early bookings.
by Sage (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/26 16:43
Booking early is the way to go (especially for high season tickets), the longer you wait the more expensive it gets.
by reprazent rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 00:04
We too will be going in April 2014. My travel agent told me to check back with them in December 2013. The lowest ticket price comes out in January for spring.
When my wife went to Japan this year in April, I started to check the airline ticket price around late Nov (after Thanksgiving - USA) and Dec on Kayak everyday. Some sales come out for a day or two and disappears. But I was able to get a ticket from LAX to Narita in the low 800's.
by Mikey (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 00:14
Panbear, if you wait until two months before your flight, prices will go down! I went this year in June, bought my tickets in April, and paid just over $1600.00. The tickets likely won't sell out either.
by Amyranth (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 00:17
Thank you all for the info.

Mikey, so are you going to book your hotels in December too? I am the type of person who likes to plan ahead, and Ifm worried that hotel rooms will be fully booked by December.
by panbear rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 00:28
Panbear, one more thing! Have you already booked your hotel/hostel? Plane tickets are easy enough to come by, but having a place to sleep could be hard to find because cherry blossom season is so popular.
by Amyranth (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 01:40
I'd just like to add a "don't panic" note... this year, I was originally planning to travel in the summer, then for various reasons I changed my plans to spring when it was already March. I managed to book flights and accommodation just a few weeks in advance, and still found some available at reasonable prices. So it is possible. Naturally, it's better to book further in advance if you can.
by Aoi Ninami rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 02:07
@ Amyranth, yes I have started looking at hotels! Some hotels are already fully booked (especially ryokans), and some say they will only open their rooms 3 months in advance. Itfs so contradictory. Ifll be staying at least at 5 different places (Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Miyajima), and I already booked a hotel in Tokyo and a ryokan in Hakone. It is the first time that I book hotels BEFORE buying my plane tickets. I feel so crazy!

@ Aoi Ninami, thanks for your reassurance! I will not panic! :)
by panbear rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 04:13
Sorry to tell you this but when your traveling far the best time to buy plane tickets is 6 month in advance so they say. i bought my ticket 2 month and advance because i started watching for cheep air fare within the 6 month before going to Japan. i was lucky and got my Ticket for $1,200 and that was a steal, normally the price now to go to Japan is about $1,800 depending where your flying from. I travel from Connecticut USA to Japan. i had to drive in to New Jersey and from their off to Japan. rule of thumb when your traveling to Japan and your paying over $1,200 people on blog site will tell you, you better be staying there for up to 2 weeks or more or your just losing money on your plane ticket.
by SeikoSKO rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 05:02
Panbear is going to be there for 20 days, and having flown the same airline they have (and watching prices for over a year before I bought my ticket), $1600.00 for a round trip could be the best that they will get.

I DID see it lower last year, but I couldn't afford the tickets then. Even then, Air Canada doesn't seem to go much lower than $1400.00 And sometimes, that's only during a seat sale for certain time periods.
by Amyranth rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 11:11
I plan to stay at Toyoko Inn Hotels since my wife got the membership when she was in Japan past April. With the Toyoko Inn membership, you can reserve up to six months ahead. Without the membership, you can only reserve 3 months ahead. So, in early October, I will start making reservations.

We will also be going to 3 different onsens in Tohoku region and will start making reservations in October. I may be asking Japanese speaking people to help me make reservations thru the phone or go thru Japanese Guest House travel agency.
by Mikey (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/27 11:51
Best time to book is about 2~3 months in advance. For example right now you could get a round trip from Montreal to Tokyo, November 22 - December 11, for about $1000. Right now you can book a round trip from March 22 to April 11 for 1400~1500. All this assuming of course you don't care which airlines you take. Air Canada will be more expensive simply because it is Air Canada.

Use a search aggregator like www.momondo.com and play with dates a bit around January. You might be able to find something a bit cheaper .
by Saku K rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/28 13:45
The general rule of thumb is a few months before...with a possible exception of peak times like the start/end of the year. If you buy too early there are not many sales and you are wasting money. Wait until very close to your desired departure and you might get something good, or all the cheaper seats are sold out. On the other hand, with the price of oil very high now, nearly all airlines are charging high fuel surcharges, adjusted every couple of months. If you wait and the price of oil jumps up a lot, you could pay more.
And be sure to know the cost for changing or refunding your ticket - something unexpected could always come up.
Remember also that cheaper isn't always better. Cheaper tickets have more restrictions, like no refunds or stiff refund charges - the same for making date changes. And if you buy through one of the online agencies, you will have a toothache if you need to change anything.
It's the agent's responsibility to take care of any changes before your outbound departure, since any change requires a ticket reissue. But usually they just try to foist you on the airlines to get rid of you, and the airlines will send you back to the agent, wasting a lot of time. There is a good reason why many in the airlines refer to Travelocity as "Trouble City".
by rsl rate this post as useful

Re: When to buy plane tickets - Spring 2014 2013/9/28 15:37
I hope I'm not being redundant; I didn't read every reply in this thread because I am getting tired, but I just wanted to throw in my two cents and experience from traveling this past April.

I live in Ohio, and I bought my open jaw, round trip tickets from Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio (hour south of Cleveland) to Hiroshima (CAK-CVG-LAX-NRT-HIJ!) and then back from Haneda to Akron (HND-LAX-ORD-CAK) in September of 2012, and our travel dates were April 3 - 18, 2013. I purchased said tickets for somewhere around $1250. This was my second trip to Japan, and for my first trip in November of 2010, I bought the tickets in something like July, similar layout of open jaw ticket, and only paid $900. So it is getting more and more expensive to fly there. However, I feel that you shouldn't be paying $1800. I would relentlessly check at least once every day and with as much flexibility as possible. I have also always booked directly with the airline in these types of international flights. I'll get an idea of which carrier is cheaper by using a price comparison site, but getting the frequent flier miles AND the guarantee of buying directly from Delta, Continental, United (or however they merged) is very important.

Like I said, I apologize that I did not real all the replies and conversation. I also booked my lodging as far ahead as possible, but in most situations this was only 3-4 months ahead since that is the limit for most ryokans.
by Heidi (guest) rate this post as useful

reply to this thread