You can currently fly from the US (or Canada for the United promotion) to Japan on an economy class discounted award ticket with both United and American AirlinesWith United you can redeem your miles for a 20% discount and with American it is a 23% discount.
United Miles: United is currently offering a limited time promotion where you can redeem 20% less miles for travel to Japan January 13 through March 11, 2015. This means instead of the normal 70,000 miles roundtrip, you can redeem just 56,000 miles. Unfortunately though this is for United operated flights only, which means any non-stop partner flights are not eligible. Taxes are also very reasonable at $45.20 roundtrip. There are some terms to this promotion though:
- You must book your flight by January 11, 2015
- Only round-trip flights are eligible
- Only valid for travel between the U.S. (excluding Hawaii) or Canada and Japan
There is a lot of availability for award flights, especially between the non-stop Newark to Tokyo route. Just make sure to only look at the flights that come out at 28,000 miles each way and not the 35,000 mile flight as those are partner fares. Here are the details for this United promotion.
American Airlines: This is not a promotion, but the yearly off-peak award chart discount where you can fly from the US to Japan for 25,000 miles one-way instead of the normal 32,500 miles. This is cheaper than the United promotion, but availability isn’t as good so you will need to be flexible with your plans. This standard discount is available for flights October 1 through April 30 every year. And the best thing is that round-trip reservations are not required. Taxes are also reasonably low and if you can find a direct flight you’ll pay $45.20 in taxes. Partner flights are available for this off-peak award chart discount as well.
Overall, this is a great discount to Japan, but keep in mind it is during the Winter time. If you want to plan ahead for next year you can take advantage of American’s off-peak award chart discount and go in October when the weather is still good and less crowds than the summer time. Booking ahead of time will also give you much more availability.
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