McG

Doha to Tokyo is about 10hrs flight time.

​​​​​By routing via the middle East, you route that far south that your journey takes nearly twice as long to get to Tokyo.

nivsy

I use ex BUD quite a bit for tier points combined with a few days away somewhere nice. When I went to Japan ,I used all AY ticketed taking advantage of ex HEL a JAL 787 and returned via Osaka on AY. Flight between Tokyo and Osaka was on JAL again with AY flight code.

To and from BUD was on BA, I got a decent Club fare. I stayed at the airport hotel night before for this trip which was fine. Have also just gone and stayed in BUD which is ofcourse well worth a visit if you have time. Just be warned, allow plenty of time to get back to airport. At certain times the traffic can be very heavy.

Spinstorm

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I think all flights to Tokyo are overnighters going east.

If you could get to DUB/FRA/MAD/BCN there are routings on BA/AY/JL ( some via london ) for about 2200GBP depending on your starting point and which might be quicker
A few weeks ago I got a DUB-HKG-TYO return on Cathay pacific ( outbound 10th and back on 24th) wihch given it covers the ester period was reasonable for a holiday ( not great tier points wise)

If you want the Q suites you will probably have to accept the layover.

Regards

TBS

LapLap

OP is from London. Japan is really cheap. Plenty to do in Tokyo for a week and it doesn’t cost that much to travel around.
Or OP can use AVIOS, no taxes to speak of for domestic flights.
Last Spring I got flights to Naha (Okinawa) from HND for 7,500AVIOS and about £1.50 taxes each way. From there a return ferry trip cost about £25 and we then spent a few days in paradise for under £60 a day full board - bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Costs a bit more in Tokyo, but it doesn’t have to if you’re happy to share bathrooms. Wherever you go it’s going to be clean and safe.

tobsw

I really don´t think it´s worth travelling to TYO via DOH, no matter how good the Qsuites are, it is a f*cking long journey. If you need TP you also have the Finnair flight from Malaga (AGP) - HEL and then to TYO, also available on JAL business (for around 2k). Key is AGP-HEL is over 2000 miles, si you would sill earn 560 rtrn.

I´ve seen on your dates, there´s also availability from AMS via LHR outbound (on JAL) and rtrn via HEL for £1700

Japan is expensive if you want holidays like a westerner. If you travel like Japanese do, it can be quite cheap.

hearingdouble

A week is a pretty short amount of time for a first visit to Japan. I'd suggest that you don't fly via the Middle East and try to maximise your time in Japan instead.

Here's an alternative proposal. If you want to maximise TPs on the long haul, I would break journey in HEL as the flights between the UK and Japan fly that direction anyway. This will net you 80 + 140 + 140 + 80 = 440 TPs, on a routing that is almost as efficient as a direct flight.

One of the other advantages of AY routings is that they serve several destinations in Japan: FUK, KIX and CTS as well as TYO. So, I would arrive into, and depart from, different cities. Then, within Japan, fly around using domestic JAL tickets with a Japan Explorer Pass. One of the best features of these tickets is that they are already very cheap, and if there's any J availability on the day then you can upgrade for 1000 JPY (about £7), which is a bargain way to get 40 TPs. Provided you avoid the first and last flights of the day (which are most popular for business), and are travelling alone, it's usually quite easy to get an upgrade (especially if OneWorld Emerald). On some routes (e.g. HND to CTS) you can even pay to upgrade to domestic F (for 60 TPs), although this is less good value.

So if you were to (say) fly into FUK (spend two days), fly to ITM (spend two days), fly to HND (spend two days), fly to CTS (spend two days), and then fly home, you would see a lot of Japan and potentially earn 440 + 40 + 40 + 40 + 40 = 600 TPs total. Obviously you can visit fewer cities for a slightly less aggressive itinerary if the TPs are not so critical.

hearingdouble

Also: April is the most popular month of the year to visit Japan, as it's peak sakura (cherry blossom) season in the main Honshu cities. This is probably why you are struggling to find reasonably priced flights.

LapLap

Really? Because once you're there it's fine. Cherry blossom is usually finished by the second week in April, and the school kids, who are off on holiday in the last two weeks of March in Japan are back in school then too.
The middle two weeks of April are low season and IMHO about the best time to be there.
If you ever want to know how busy a particular period is, look at the Tokyo Disney Crowd calendars as popularity barometers. The two weeks in the middle of April have some of the year's lowest crowd forecasts yet the weather is great.
The last week of April this year is going to be very different. The current Emperor will abdicate and the related National Holidays will be added to Golden week making a Mega Golden Week that will last ten days.
Tokyo itself may be wonderfully empty at the very end of April this year, but I'd expect anywhere else of interest to be rammed and priced at peak rates.

Disney Sea prediction for April

hearingdouble

Indeed. If anyone's thinking of visiting the sakura in Hirosaki or Hakodate, they might want to give it a miss for 2019...

And yes, having read the thread more carefully I now see that OP is only planning to arrive in Japan on 11 April. That would indeed throw my pricing theory out the window. Whenever I see someone saying that they find Japan flights unaffordable in March, I assume late March; and whenever I see someone saying that they find Japan flights unaffordable in April, I assume early April. I'm personally not that fussed by it, but I understand why trip-of-a-lifetimers want to see the blossoms (and, as much as anything else, the Japanese traditions around the blossoms) once.

LapLap

Absolutely!

Am arriving on the 8th April this year, the preliminary Sakura forecasts suggest I can’t rule out a day or two of flower peeping as it looks possible that Nikko might go into full bloom around the 6th April. And Nikko is a very affordable day trip from Tokyo (tobu rail pass from 2,000yen - £14 - for round trip and local Nikko travel NIKKO PASS world heritage area | Discount Ticket Information | TOBU RAILWAY )

XLB

Long journey it is. But having just done MUC-DOH-PVG in QSuites (only slightly shorter) I can recommend it. I had an 8 hr layover in DOH which gave me plenty of time to head to the city which I had not done before. So go for it, OP.

Knodde

...seems like I just didn't pay attention during my geography lessons... 😋

Spinstorm

Thanks for all your advice. I decided to take the long long route via BUD, DOH as the the journey may be part of the experience! and I do want to try the Q-Suites.

I wasn't actually picking those dates for any reason other than I get a few days to recover before work thanks to Easter! I didn't even consider the cherry blossom...