As I posted previously, we’re finally headed to Japan in August. The closest we’ve come before was connecting through Haneda Airport in 2024 on the way back from Southeast Asia. We’re bringing our oldest daughter on her college graduation trip, although she’ll be 27! by the time we go as between Covid, grad school and work, it’s the first time we’ve been able to plan this long-awaited trip.

I booked the “bones” of the trip back in August/September of last year, almost a full year out. We’re flying to and from Japan on Japan Airlines’ new A350-1000 and staying at the Conrad Osaka, Hyatt Place Kyoto and Hyatt Centric Ginza. None of that has changed, but we’ve made some tweaks and filled in some gaps in terms of what we’re planning to do in our 10+ days in Japan.

Flights

For our return flight from Tokyo, we are all on the JAL flight to JFK. My wife will be in First Class and my daughter and I will be in Business Class. I’ve tacked on a positioning flight back to Atlanta from JFK on Delta. We have about three and a half hours to make the connection from Terminal 8 to Terminal 4 which should be fine.

For the outbound flight to Tokyo, I was originally able to grab two business class seats from Dallas for my wife and daughter and one first class seat from JFK for me. I could not get us on the same flights despite logging in to try and book exactly 360 days out with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. As we are flying to Osaka directly from Haneda airport, I wasn’t too worried about meeting up there, although I was concerned about either of the flights getting delayed causing us to miss each other in Tokyo.

I transferred a bunch of Bilt points over to JAL in April during a 125% transfer bonus thanks to my Bilt status and Rent Day and as I recently posted, we used some of those points to book our trip to Morocco next year. With some of the remaining points, I waitlisted for a First Class seat on the Dallas-Tokyo flight. This week, the wait list cleared and I was able to book that seat with JAL miles. I canceled my previously booked JFK flight with Asia Miles (that cost me $120 cancellation fee but I will get 135k Asia Miles back) so that we are all now on the same flight to Japan. The new flight was 140k JAL Miles plus $384. The miles cost me only 62k Bilt points when you factor in the transfer bonus. At this point, I wish I had transferred more miles to JAL when I had the chance!

To position to Dallas, I had booked my wife and daughter in American Airlines First Class using 9,000 Alaska miles each for a flight the night before the noon flight to Tokyo (just in case of bad weather or other delays) and a night at the Hyatt Regency DFW. I canceled my positioning flight to JFK using 13k Delta SkyMiles and a night at the Hyatt Regency Resorts World JFK using a free night certificate and moved that stay to the Hyatt Regency DFW with the free night certificate that expires a few weeks later. I think I will just keep both rooms and give us a bit more space to catch up on rest the night before our long flight. As for my own positioning flight to Dallas, the Alaska deal was no longer available so for now, I have booked the same AA flight using 14k AA miles in Main Cabin.

As for the domestic flight from Tokyo to Osaka, I had originally booked using 7500 AA miles per person, but I realized the flights were only about $68 per person using a fare class called the Japan Explorer Pass, which we are apparently eligible for by taking an international flight to Japan. I canceled the AA awards with no penalty and paid for the cash tickets directly through JAL. We’ll have about three hours to connect from international to domestic in Haneda and we should be able to link the reservations and re-check our bags right after customs.

Hotels

I’ve only made one change to our hotel plans. I’ve booked a second room at the Conrad Osaka with points for our daughter. While I’m sure we’d all be OK in one room for five nights, I expect she’ll want to stay out later than us, particularly on the night of a concert she’s attending. For 380k Hilton points for five nights vs. over $3000 cash price, the value for the extra room is there and will make our stay at the Conrad much more relaxing. This hotel honestly looks amazing and I’m so excited for this stay.

As for Kyoto (Hyatt Place) and Tokyo (Suite upgrade applied at Hyatt Centric Ginza), I’m leaving those alone for now. I did originally get a second room at the Kyoto Hyatt Place as it was only 6500 Hyatt points at the time as a Category 2 hotel. It has since gone up to a Category 3. The only time we’ll all have to share on the trip will be at the Hyatt Centric Ginza but at least the suites there have an extra half bathroom which will come in handy with three adults.

Activities

We’ve booked a few tours. My daughter won a sweepstakes a couple of years ago and the prize included a large credit at a website that sells hotels and tours. While we don’t need the hotel bookings, the tours that are offered for Japan are pretty good. We’ve booked a couple of food tours, a private day trip to Mount Fuji from Tokyo and we may look to book a few more as the trip approaches. This has been a nice cost savings for us, otherwise we would likely have booked through Viator or Get Your Guide.

As for a planned day trip to Hiroshima from Osaka, we had booked a private guide in Hiroshima/Miyajima but they unfortunately canceled due to being double booked. I ended up deciding we would just do the trip ourselves as it seems fairly easy to navigate (famous last words).

As for transit, I need to get everyone set up with an IC card on their iPhones for paying for trains and some of the subways. We may book our Shinkansen train (from Kyoto to Tokyo) in advance or we may decide to wait and just book it on the day. These are things that can wait until just before we go.

We’re now less than three months out from the trip and things are coming together nicely. I’m trying not to over plan most days as it will be baking hot and humid there during our visit (thanks to our daughter insisting on seeing her favorite band perform in Osaka on a certain date). We also have to consider that my wife can’t walk 20,000 steps every day on her bad ankle, but we’ll make the most of our time there and like most people say about Japan, act like you’ll return and you don’t have to see everything the first time.

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