rhia_b

Currently searching for flight for a one-way flight from Sapporo (chitose) to Tokyo (Narita) on the JAL website and found heavily discounted flights under a fare called Super Sakitoku for the date required. Very excited!!! But curious to know if people living outside of Japan can book these flights?

ninja138

Technically no. You are supposed to have a Japanese mobile number to make a reservation and a Japanese credit card (or go to your local convenience store) to pay for the ticket if reserving on the domestic website. However, I have never tried to purchase on JAL's domestic website using an out-of-country mobile number and/or international credit card, so it could be possible albeit risky. It would be best to have a Japanese friend book the flight for you or else go through a travel agent that specializes in Japan, i.e. JTB.

Is there any particular reason why you need to fly JAL or into Narita? If you can fly into Haneda, Air Do or Skymark may be a better and cheaper choice.

JALPak

Welcome to FT, rhia_b!

Are you flying to Japan on an Oneworld carrier? If that's the case, the OW Yokoso fare is probably cheaper than the Super Sakitoku fare.

rhia_b

Hi JALPak

No not travelling on a OW carrier unfortunately.....

RichardInSF

If you are travelling on a Star Alliance carrier, there is an ANA equivalent to the JAL Yokoso fare.

JALPak

NH's is bit more expensive

jamar

I don't see much of a way to get around the Japanese mobile number requirement (have someone get a cheap Softbank or au prepaid phone for you?) but the credit card requirement can be worked around. JCB cards from the Greater China area have been proven to be treated the same as Japan-issued JCB cards when shopping at places that check this. Whether this applies to other countries where JCB cards are issued is unknown.

Simmo

Prepaid mobiles in Japan now are only issued by Softbank and require gaijin cards so basically not available to non residents. I don't think you need a Japanese credit card to purchase a domestic flight. I have never heard of this and it has never been a problem for me (I live in Japan now but before i did use international card for purchasing domestic flights with no problems). JCB is fairly okay in Asia but totally sucks anywhere else unless you just plan on spending money at a branded hotel when on vacation like Hilton etc that might accept it all over the world.

To be honest, this is not checked and you can put any phone number you like in there. I would not describe this move as risky as the only time they might contact you is if the plane was rescheduled etc which rarely happens. Many of my friends from overseas have had no problems just putting a dummy phone number in this field.

However the OP is right that you are suppose to be living in Japan to gain access to those fares with even more fares available on the Japanese version of the JAL site if you are up for it and can speak the language.

JALPak

Are you sure about this?

FYI, usually I put in JAL reservation hotline number when I tried to make a booking. As Simmo said they don't check it. But I do recall someone having trouble buying a domestic ticket on JAL sit using an international credit card. But after he/she switched to another card, everything is fine.

Simmo

Probably due to their credit card declining the transaction due to fraud or something.