Posted on by Mahogany R.

Flying to Japan on Points and Miles…The Deal Duchess Way!

We are HUGE fans of Japan and it’s only partly due to my husband being born in Tokyo and raised between Japan and the United States. Since the pandemic ended, Japan has been ALL THE RAGE, so I figured it was finally time for me to write about how I got there on points.

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Japan Airlines Business Class

Our outbound flight was booked with 60,000 American Airlines miles, that we earned from AA cobranded cards. Our route was economy on Alaska Airlines from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Then we flew business from San Francisco to Tokyo via Japan Airlines. I can’t rave enough about the business class meals on Japan Airlines. I’m not normally a fan of the 2-3-2 layout on the 777 but it worked for our family of 3. In total, we used 180,000 American Airlines Miles and $16.80 for 3 one way tickets to Japan.

Japan Airlines Business Class Meal…Japanese Menu.

Here are a few cards that will help you stack up on American points:

Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®

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Singapore Business Class Seat

We really wanted to experience the hype of Singapore Airlines service for ourselves, so we booked business class flights from Tokyo to Los Angeles. We used 75,000 points transferred from Capital One to Aeroplan(Air Canada) and paid $125 in taxes for each ticket. Since, Air Canada is in the same partner alliance as Singapore(Star Alliance), we had the option of booking the cheaper points flight through them. Booking directly with Singapore Airlines would have been closer to 123,000 points, so I reckon, we won!

The service and food in Singapore business class exceeded the hype and we are happy that we got to experience it. Here are the cards you can use to earn Capital One Miles:

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

I like to keep it short and sweet, so I’ll do a separate blog about lodging and how we booked our stays. If Japan is on your list, save your money and time and use my template to get there!

**I do receive a commission for some of these cards, so thank you in advance for your support.**