Job Discussion Forums

[Skrybe]

Hello All,

Back in 04-05 I was in Japan on a WHV, and had a blast doing the English thing. I went home, finished up Uni, and have decided to head back to the rising sun (Poverty and loans are a great motivator). I'll be bringing my wife and child with me for the first bit as I get settled in and start working again, but then she will head off to see her parents in the middle east. The thing is, I don't know who I can call for airfares. We want to book a flight out ot Tokyo, but for the life of me I can't remember the names of any of the agencies I used to read about when I was last there.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[PAULH]

[JimDunlop2]

[Willy_In_Japan]

I wonder if that is still the case.......

I booked a trip to Thailand with No1 and it was 80,000 yen or so.....they sent an email a couple of weeks saying that the fuel surcharge was going up about 2000 yen.

[Gordon]

I just spent over 400,000 yen for 3 tickets (1 of them is for a child) to Canada, so someone's making some profit. Crazy prices!

[PAULH]

[Gordon]

I once tried to buy a cheap (package deal) ticket to Korea through HIS. They refused to sell it to me because I was a foreigner. I told them I was not interested in the tour, I just wanted the airfare and hotel package. They refused saying we had to speak Japanese (we all know that only Japanese people can speak Japanese ) I then said we speak enough Japanese to get by and then they changed tactics yet again and said the Japanese tour agent based in Seoul was "too nervous" to have a foreigner on the package deal. I think it was all a bunch of BS, the "great package deal" was only for nihon-jin.

[Hoser]

The only difference I can think of in price is that the Japanese don't have to pay a security fee (I guess Japanese don't commit crimes). It was about a 5,000 yen difference.

[Dipso]

Well, this is a most interesting thread! HIS owns Number One Travel btw, I believe. I have used HIS on several occasions and always found them to be reliable, although I of course have no way of knowing if I paid the gaijin surcharge.

On a connected point, British Airways is being investigated in the UK and the US over allegations of price fixing the fuel surcharge.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5104946.stm

[David W]

I've used No1\HIS a number of times and while I'm generally fairly happy with them they can be a little sneaky at times. Last year I flew Singapore Airlines from Kansai to Perth. I was quoted a price that included an 8000 yen fuel levy. OK I thought fuel prices are booming, fair enough. A month or so before I was due to leave No1 sends me an e-mail saying that Singapore Airlines have raised there fuel levy and the surcharge was now 18,000 yen, quite a hefty increase. This sounded a bit off to me so I checked the SA site and sure enough they had upped their surcharge- but only from US$45 to $50 per sector. Now my trip was 4 sectors so by my calculations 18,000 yen was still lower than the actual levy. I however suspect that No1 gave me a good price to get me to book knowing full well that once I'm booked I'll lose money by cancelling so I'm more than likely to grin and bear it when they up the price.

This year, I'll be carefully checking www.ab-road.net for the best prices and sending out a lot of e-mails to get the best deal.

[Skrybe]

I'll check out HIS and No.1 Travel. If I have to I will get a Japanese friend to help me do the booking. oo bad you can't just buy the tickets through them online, and bypass all the noise.

[Smooth Operator]

HIS are rarely the cheapest and can't really be trusted. I have used IACE a few times and have always been happy - usually cheaper than HIS too.

http://www.iace.co.jp/english/

[Dipso]

My experiences with Legend Travel in Osaka were not happy ones. Buyer beware!

[ripslyme]

[casual]

Across Travel Bureau have always given me the best service and price.

I have used IACE in the past but they can be a bit unhelpful over the phone so now I stick to ATC.