Cheap flight advice JFK or LGA to NRT

[HMANSION LOVER]

Hey all TDR fans. Planning a trip in approx. spring 2018(not golden week) and wondered if anyone had advice about finding less than expensive (because none will be cheap) airfare from NYC to Tokyo.

Thanks in advance to all who can help.

 

[Feistygirl916]

I would start by watching flights on google flights for the month you are looking for, but for 2017 and base it off of those numbers. I started watching flights for months before our anticipated dates (Nov 2016) and was able to book the best rate about 5 months before. I started watching November 2016 flights in January 2016, and booked in June when they fell the lowest.

Flights won't be out for that time frame until about 11 months out, so you can watch for March/April 2017 until they come out so you can get an idea of fares. Don't be specific on dates, and search for all international airports at the same time; NYC vs specific airports and TYO for both airports in Tokyo vs just Narita.

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Feistygirl916, thank you. I have been trying to figure out how to best approximate the fare for the flight. We, my family and two other families (15 in total) are practically giddy with excitement at the prospect of going to TDR. So much planning to do (truly part of the fun) and so much anticipation to deal with. We truly appreciate your help.

 

[aussie shaz]

Can't help with the airfares, as we flew from Australia, but we were just in Japan this last Spring. The weather was beautiful and if you time it correctly, you'll also get to see the beautiful cherry blossoms. I was just lucky to be there at the height of cherry blossom season, but the downfall is also the huge crowds.
Have fun planning. Yes, it's half the fun!

 

[ko4211]

Get email subscriptions from Japanese travel agencies. They often run really good sales. I usually use IACE-USA and Amnet USA, but there are HIS and other places as well. They have Facebook, too, so worth checking. But keep in mind that if you want to wait for the sales, it will be about 3~4 months before your trip. So, if you are thinking about going in Spring, the sale will be sometime around January & February, which actually works out great for you since Japanese companies always throw a big sales during New Year time. You may want to check 2017 New Year sale price and that will give you a good estimate on how much it will cost in 2018.

From my last experience with IACE-USA:
I just scored round trip flight from my town(stopover in Chicago) to Tokyo to my birth place in Japan for $900.00/adult when IACE had a 1 day sale couple weeks ago. The flight is with UA but I was able to select ANA operated code share flight between ORD and NRT for this price. Considering we usually pay somewhere around $1300~1800/adult, it was a big success to me. I'm leaving in mid January but this sale was good till 3/31/17 departure... I believe. On the same 1 day sale, ads showed a roundtrip from NY to Tokyo starting from $558~.

Hope this helps!

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Thank you ko4211 you rock!!!! Awesome info. I truly appreciate your help. Thank God I have plenty of time (17 months) to figure it all out. Have never traveled internationally so I have a lot of work to do. Hope you have a wonderful time, and would love to read about adventures.

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

Hi!
Depending on what you can cope with, try looking at more budget airlines and indirect flights.
Direct from London to Tokyo is £900pp and 11 hours but for £510pp we got an indirect with Turkish Airlines with a changeover of only two hours and a 17 hour total flight.
It may be worth trying something like that! I use Skyscanner to find the ideal time and cheaper airlines then book directly with the airline (I've had less than stellar experiences with third parties!)

Also if you see a good price, book straight away as early booker fares tend to vanish fast.

Good luck!

 

[NeedsNEscape]

We left on a nonstop from Dulles (IAD) to Narita in August and it was really expensive, but worth it to us because we had 2 weeks in Japan and didn't want to miss a day. However, I had lots of folks point out that there was a lot of cheaper flights to Narita from LAX or Seattle. In fact they were 50% cheaper than our nonstop. United has them on sale on occasion. So you could probably look for cheaper tickets if you plan a layover. From Narita there was a bus that took you straight to TDR (we stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Bay) for about ~$25 each. Once there, we took trains and buses all over Japan. Japan has a great train/subway system -- so easy to use, much better marked than our own here in Wash DC. Sounds like you might be there during Cherry Blossom season. It should be beautiful.