ikatamari

Hi everyone,
I am trying to book a roundtrip flight from NRT to Seoul in November 2012. The cheapest flight I saw were over $400. This seems a bit steep, as it's only a 2 hour flight.

Does anyone know of any travel agencies or airlines that offer cheaper flights between Tokyo and Seoul? Any tips would be appreciated!

armagebedar

Sadly, that's the going rate these days -- especially with the high JPY. You could probably find a cheaper package deal from HIS or another tour agency.

You could also wait until Jetstar or AirAsia announce their flights to Seoul, but whether theyll start flying by November is up in the air.

RichardInSF

If you have any UA miles, the NRT-ICN flights are cheap in terms of points, round trip is only 20,000.

Note that to use the consolidators (like HIS) to save a few bucks, you have to actually be in Japan to pick up the ticket.

O Sora

You could do HND-SEL on NH or OZ too with UA miles.

What ticket do you have to pick up? Do some airlines still use paper ticket?

mg0901

try low cost airlines? easter jet? tway airlines?

RichardInSF

I think the non-UA routes cost more miles.

ksandness

Are you in Japan now?

If so, keep watching the English-language press for specials from travel agencies. There are a lot of consolidators there.

Otherwise, if you are in a different country, see if you can arrange a flight from your home to Seoul with Tokyo as a stopover.

I know that when I took a trip that included Taiwan for a week and Japan for two months, my original intention was to go to Taiwan at the end (U.S. West Coast>NRT (stay for two months)>TPE (stay for a week)>U.S. West Coast), but my travel agent convinced me that it was significantly cheaper to go U.S. West Coast>NRT (stay overnight)>TPE (stay for a week)>NRT (stay for two months)>U.S. West Coast.

Back in the days when I was advising students for study abroad in Japan, they often found that it was cheaper to do a U-turn in Hong Kong (U.S. West Coast>NRT (change planes)>HKG>(spend a couple of days)>NRT (stay for a semester)> U.S. West Coast) than to just fly to Japan and stay there.

Play around with the routings from your home country. When I planned my last trip to Japan, it cost about 60% more to fly non-stop from MSP than it did to go MSP>LAX>NRT.

ikatamari

Ah, I am actually coming from LAX. I already have roundtrip ticket to Narita, so I was hoping that I could fly to Seoul and back while I am in Japan. So even if I purchase cheaper tickets from HIS travel agency, I have to pick it up in Japan?

ksandness

Yes, you have to pick up the ticket in Japan, but you should be able to find something. Just keep your eyes open. The discounters advertise in the Japan Times and other English-language publications, although in the case of the JT, some days of the week contain more ads than others.

jsw1773

If you have access to British Airways Avios miles, they only charge 7500 miles + fees ($55 between HND-GMP, $65 between NRT-ICN) each way on JAL.

joejones

It's a pretty cheap award in just about any program. DL charges 15k round trip, while AA and UA charge 20k round trip. DL miles can (at least theoretically) be used for KE flights while UA miles can be used for NH or OZ (and contrary to RichardInSF's comment above, the required mileage is the same).

RichardInSF

Oh, cool, I didn't know that -- that means you could do Haneda-Gimpo too! Thanks.