Why is SFO-NRT so expensive now?
 

I've been eying a departure from SFO on March 20 and a return on May 22. Nothing ever comes up lower than ~$1700 on .bomb and hasn't done so in months. I also need to get back to NRT on May 25 or so, with an unspecified return date, but I'm only worrying about the first flight for now.

ANA offers a good price for the same route (substantially cheaper at ~$1180 after they dropped their fuel surcharges), but no E+, 70% mileage only and I believe no 25% bonus (I'm 2P). If I could help it, I'd rather fly UA.

It's due to the length of your stay, which moves you from the V fare ($1525) to the Q fare. The V fare has a 2-month max stay. There's also an S fare ($1100), but that has a 30-day max stay.

Wow. That I did not know. I'm also noticing that very short trips are pricey on UA as well. Did a weekend SFO-NRT and NH offered the best price back in October. ;)

In that case, it's probably not worth going with UA for this trip. OZ can get me to NRT via ICN for about $1,000. Would still only get 70% miles, but the ICN-NRT legs can give a little extra and I hear OZ is a fine airline.

Here, you are running into the opposite problem. Most UA US-Asia routes have a 6-day minimum stay requirement for the cheapest fares.

Most US-Asia route have a 6 day minimum and 30 day maximum stay requirement.

Thanks. I'm going to Tokyo for grad-school, which is why I have to stay for long periods. I guess NH and OZ will better serve me for trips that aren't short.

Oh, for grad school? In that case, you had better check out various student discount fares. UA offers several student-only fares that are ~$1000 round trip SFO-NRT with several month stays-- you can often also get one-way fares for ~$500 as well on these student deals.

http://www.studentuniverse.com

I don't think those fares earn miles...

I'm almost positive they do. I know someone that's a complete status junkie that used to book tickets through here frequently.

I would check individual fares to be sure, but my brother has booked those fares in the past when studying abroad in Brazil for grad school, and he received miles.

http://www.studentuniverse.com/faqs.html

Unfortunately, UA's fares don't earn any miles. But thanks for the tip anyway!

Another option
 

Try breaking up your itinerary - you can do SFO - ICN (round trip) for ~ $1000 on UA or SQ, and have a separate itinerary ICN - NRT (round trip) for ~ $376 on UA.

Flights to / from Korea are significantly less than Japan because of the sinking Won. Ironically, you can go on UA to Seoul (ICN) via NRT for $100 more. The above flights are nonstop.

Good luck, and enjoy Tokyo!

If you have a patient travel agent who enjoys the game, try buying a round trip to one of the Korean cities that served by KAL out of Haneda airport, routed as follows:

March 20 SFO-NRT on United
March 21 HND-Korea on KAL
May 21 Korea-HND on KAL, stopover in Tokyo
May 22 NRT-SFO on UAL

Don't use the March 21 and May 20 tickets.

Because you are changing airports in Tokyo, you will get your bags back at Narita. And because KAL isn't United or Star Alliance, on May 22 UAL won't know that you didn't take the March 21 or May 20 flights and won't cancel your May 22 return ticket.

As Jgish noted above, USA-Korea round trips are usually cheaper than USA-Japan rount trips.

Used to do a similar route; to TPE via NRT and back, for a much lower biz class fare. Not sure if that is still viable.

Since it's on one ticket, as soon as you skip the March 21 segment, the rest of the itinerary is canceled.