Job Discussion Forums

Kestrel · Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 31 Location: Kyoto, Japan

I know there was recently a thread on this topic, but it didn't have the info I was looking for, so here goes:

I'm heading back home (to the States), and wondering if anyone has any favorite places to find shockingly cheap flights, one-way if they're cheaper, since I don't plan on coming back any time soon. I'm planning to leave either just before or just after Golden Week, whenever works out, since I'm assuming that travel is much more expensive during Golden Week.

On a related note, I've been told that it can be cheapest to just bring all of your stuff on the plane and pay the extra luggage fee--anyone have experience with that?

Thanks for the help guys.

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

Paying excess baggage charges at airports is probably the most efficient method of spending lots of money quickly that has ever been devised.

At LHR, the going rate when I asked about it was GBP 20 a kilo, thats about 4000 yen. Let's suppose you bring 30 kg of excess, thats 12 man yen. You could buy a whole new plane ticket with that.

There are discount air ticket shops in Nagoya near Sakae station, but I can't remember the names offhand.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

you may have an issue finding a one way ticket that is not exorbitant. I wanted one way for our recent move to Seoul and the agent balked at it saying that a return was way cheaper. You know the conversation... no but I want a single, no but return is cheaper, no but... etc etc

I got it but it cost me (or rather my new employer who would ONLY pay for a single anyway).

So, be prepared to experience a bit of turbulence...

melirae · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 145 Location: Korea

Check the price of a round trip ticket and if it's cheaper than a one way, just buy that and don't use the return portion (unless it HAS to be a one-way for you to be reimbursed).

Sites like expedia, orbitz, etc. have cheap flights but I'm not sure that they can be used from Japan- don't see why not though. I'm still in the states, but hoping to be coming over soon, so I am planning to use these sort of sites for ticket purchases for my trips home to vist.

shmooj- you seem to be pretty up on the travel- can I buy tickets using these web sites from Japan for my trips back to the US (expedia, etc)?

Kestrel · Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 31 Location: Kyoto, Japan

Expedia and Orbitz only work when departing from the States, though Travelocity will work for departures from other locations. I'm more wondering about Japanese travel agents, as I"ve been told they can be far cheaper than US based travel agents.

foster · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 485 Location: Honkers, SARS

I went to ISLA in Osaka and they were fair and reasonable. Near Namba Station. Little tough to find. Great help to me when I booked holidays and tickets.
http://www.isla-j.com/office.html

You can also check www.zuji.com they deal with a lot of Asia tickets

When I moved to HK, I was told to get a one way ticket as that was all they would re-imburse as well. But, alas a return trip was cheaper. I bought it and had little trouble with it, since my school, upon checking out the price of a one-way, agreed it was cheaper so they were more than happy to pay for my cheapy cheap return ticket.

Luggage at the airport....cost me more than another ticket. Cost me almost 40,000 YEN!!! So, uhm, no, I would say that this is NOT the best option. Mail something to yourself in your new place. Mail the heavy stuff, as the shipping from Japan is reasonable. I sent a 5 kg box back to Canada for about 3000Yen, which should be about the same as it was to the States.