Takeaction

caliform

The poorly kept secret is flying out of Canada — it's quite cheap. I booked ANA J for ~$2300.

abmj-jr

You don't say when you wish to go but I am seeing +/- $3800.00 in October for LAX-NRT. That is not terrible for J-class but admittedly a bit pricey. If you are willing to trade time for money, you can connect through China or other points for around a grand less but add 8 or more hours to travel time.

If you still need less, you might look for Premium Economy on either ANA or JAL. For that, it looks like about +/- $2400.00 non-stop for the same time frame. That is a fourth class of service with better seats, food and service as opposed to UA or AA, which only offer Economy Plus, which is not. Personally, I'd jump on that ANA Premium Economy fare.

evergrn

It's true that flying out of Canada is very good value. You can often fly nonstop YVR-TYO on J for $2000USD on like AC. I've flown 1-stop premium economy via TPE to Jpn for ~$1100USD on EVA.

Premium economy, though, represents poor value in my opinion. Generally speaking, PE seats take up only ~50% more space than Y seats, while Business seats occupy 4~6x more space than Y on long-haul 77W/787. Based on occasional observations (so I could be wrong), ANA's PE fares usually run at least 2x much as economy, whereas sometimes I see J fares for as little as 3x economy. So when you look at it from the standpoint of how much space you occupy and the service you get (J>>>PE>Y), it makes you realize PE is poor value. People just take it, because they can't stand Y yet J is too expensive.

abmj-jr

Bingo!

evergrn

Yup. That's the reason why I myself get PE occasionally. But I know I'm getting ripped off. On average, PE seat should be priced at 1/2-2/3 more than Economy, not >2x. But hey airlines will charge whatever based on demand.

joejones

LA is going to be cheaper because there's four way competition (UA/NH, JL/AA, SQ and DL). SFO is dominated by UA/NH, their only nonstop competition is a single JAL flight, and they price accordingly.

AC often has very low fares connecting through Canada from the US as well, and it's a fairly low-stress connection.

abmj-jr

AC is often cheaper but you then have to add on time and $$ for the r/t LAX-YVR-LAX. It works the same as flying one of the Chinese carriers and connecting in PEK or HKG. It is cheaper but you add 8 to 12 hours of additional travel. It might be worth it but in many cases the extra time is not worth the savings. YMMV.

joejones

No, my point above was that you can often get very competitive fares on AC from the US to Japan (not buying the US-Canada segment separately). Looking at random dates next month, for example, AC LAX-YVR-NRT and v.v. is a lot cheaper than any of the nonstop options out of LAX in business class, and even cheaper than the Chinese and Korean airlines. They have consistently been cheaper, point to point, than US/Japanese carriers from the East Coast this summer.

evergrn

All true. AC fares are very competitive.

The only unfortunate thing is that I feel like AC tacks on a little too much extra just for the short US-Canada portion. This is different than what I remember from the past. I'd often see BOS-NRT(via YYZ) and SEA-NRT(via YVR) even cheaper than YYZ-NRT and YVR-NRT, respectively. You don't see that anymore. SEA-NRT(via YVR) is generally $200-400 more than YVR-NRT on aircanada.com (SEA-YVR segment is coach). Luckily I can drive to YVR, but it's a pain. Even then, AC via YVR/YCC is quite often the cheapest option to TYO from SEA.

abmj-jr

I don't disagree about price. I just don't want to tack on that much time.

evergrn

Actually, transiting through Canada en route from US to Jpn is about as good as a 1-stop transit itinerary goes.
A 2-hr layover in YVR only adds 3hrs on top of SEA-NRT nonstop.
From SFO, I'm not sure but I bet it's not much different... maybe 3-4hrs extra depending on the circumstances.
Depends on how much you value $ vs time, but I'd jump on that if I could save $500.

I like AC. Canadians seem to complain about them, but I think they're not bad. I've not flown in their business class recently, but at this point their economy product is at least as good as NH.

freecia

Looking at YVR's Transfer guide, US-YVR-non-CA on AC from 07:00 - 02:00 involves a border interview. There's no transit security check listed? Is that correct? One line/checkpoint doesn't sound that bad and could probably be optimized with Nexus?
Passenger Guides | YVR

I remember an AC-AC transfer on the other coast where transiting required three security checks many years ago. Was definitely not thrilled.

evergrn

I thought you had to go through security screen again, although I may not be remembering correctly. Hopefully someone can confirm.
But the entire process is pretty quick and easy. At least at YYZ and YVR. Canadian transit immigration is always fast and pain-free, and you don't deal with checked bags as long as they're tagged through to the final destination. On average, gate to gate time for US to Int'l AC-AC transit in YVR would probably take not much more than a domestic transit at a large US airport such as MSP or ATL.

joejones

I have no experience at YVR, but at YYZ, there is no customs, immigration or security when connecting from US to international on AC (you go directly into the sterile international departures area), so it is just as fast as connecting within the US. In the other direction, there is security, US customs (without claiming your bags, just waiting in a room for your name to show up on a screen), then US immigration.