Someone I know recently posed the question to a group chat asking if anyone had some tips regarding finding flights to Japan. Even though I don’t have any magical tools that will find any secret flights, I do follow a number of strategies before I click buy to ensure I feel at peace with my purchase.

And I figured, this would be a good thing to add to this here blog as it could help other friends and/or random internet beings find the best deal to Japan or elsewhere.

While what I write below will use Japan as the primary example, I am confident that my notes will work for flights to any international destination you might want to go. Again, this is just what I do. It’s not proven, it’s likely not the best method, but it’s worked in such a way that I feel good knowing I did as much research as I could within the confines of my proposed vacation window.

Which leads me to my first point:

Vacation Schedule Flexibility

Generally, I don’t pick my vacation dates first and then book flights around that rigid time frame. Instead, I’ll first pick a season that I hope to travel in and the approximate amount of time that I want to be away for. Let’s say for example, that I’m looking to be gone for about 3 weeks (± a few days). Since I only have so many vacation days in a year, I try to find a long weekend or two that I can be gone for to stretch my vacation out a day further. In addition, I’ll play with a wide variety of departure and return dates (and also airports) to see what combinations are looking most favourable to me.

The more flexible you can be with your schedule, the more you can play around with the search tools to find that sweet spot within your budget.

If you’re locked into a certain time window, don’t worry, a lot of what I say below can still apply, you’ll just be slightly limited with how much you play with different dates.

Time to Kayak

I use Kayak a lot during my flight research. I will say though, I’ve never used it to actually book a trip as I prefer to book directly with the airline in case of potential issues that could arise in the future.

But why Kayak for research?

First of all, I find that it does a good job at representing current trends in pricing, yields great search results in flights that I would actually want to take and not just those insanely cheap round trip flights for $800 but with total trip duration of 30+ hours. I mean, it does find those, but now that I have a baby, I’m in the market for standard flight times and layovers. Long gone are the college days where I had no where to be in a rush on a budget that clearly can’t afford the trip in the first place. hah!

Secondly, the search options provided allow for ‘Vacation Schedule Flexibility’ to work for your benefit. When you don’t have dates locked down, you can use the tools provided to yield you a generous selection of options once you select an approximate date you’d like to leave.

For example, here’s Kayak with the ‘Dates’ option selected and ‘Departure’ and ‘Return’ opened up to ±3 days. This will provide you with a grid of totals:

In comparison to flights around your given time period, Kayak will colour code flights based on cost with either green (cheapest), yellow (average), red (highest). This right away can help you narrow down which days you may want to depart and/or return on.

Once you search on a date range, an example of the results will look something like this:

This is a jackpot of info to really help you narrow down which departure and return is best for you. It’s possible to click on any cell in that grid to have the search results reflect that selection.

Another search option is the ‘Month’ feature which allows you to select a start date, input a general duration of how long you’d like the trip to be. From here, it’ll display a calendar with how much it’ll cost to depart on that date and then another to select a return date.

Lastly, Kayak allows you, once signed in to your profile, to setup price alerts on any combination of dates and destinations you’re interested in. I find this really handy in situations where I think prices are a bit too high based on previous experience and I’m willing to risk it for an opportunity to land a cheaper price.

There are a lot more options and filters you can play around with on Kayak, but the ones noted above are typically the main features I use.

The Multi-City

Oddly enough, I’ve found some success landing about the same, if not better, pricing arriving into and returning from different airports.

Earlier in 2024, my family and I went to Japan via All Nippon Airways (ANA). Initially, I had just been looking at a round trip (RT) flight in and out of Tokyo Haneda (HND). As I was playing with different dates and itinerary options, I decided to try my luck with multi-city searches. I’ve had luck with this option once before when booking directly with Japan Airlines (JAL).

Anyway, I wanted to see if I could save myself some time and money by flying into Tokyo and then leaving out of Hiroshima (via Tokyo) without having to book a separate return trip back to Tokyo either via airplane, train (shinkansen) or bus. It’s nice to have everything all in one itinerary and booked directly with the airline just in case something were to happen.

So, I got experimenting with dates again but this time with the flight path described above. Lo and behold, I managed to secure flights exactly as I wanted with a price cheaper compared to if I had just booked a regular RT flight in and out of Tokyo. The price difference wasn’t much cheaper, I think it ended up being about $200 CDN in savings for two adults, but still. The fact that was I able to get the connecting flight from Hiroshima to Tokyo included, for less money, I felt like I was winning.

The benefit of booking a multi-city directly with your preferred airline is you can save yourself some back tracking and guarantee that since all your flights are within the same itinerary, that if some delays or issues occur, the airline is responsible to look after you. If we had booked our own transportation back to Tokyo the same day, but if something happened and we missed our flight back to Canada, in this case, ANA has no duty to compensate us. So, from a risk perspective, multi-city with the same airline made sense.

I will add that this is very hit or miss. It can take a lot of experimenting to find something, if you do at all. It certainly isn’t a sure bet but definitely an option to think about next time.

Here’s an example from Friday, June 7, 2024. While it doesn’t have cost savings and is more, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see to actually how much.

ANA (booking direct) - January 14, 2025 to January 29, 2025

RT from Edmonton to Tokyo (HND) is $2,404.87

But let’s say my plan was to end in Osaka and to save myself the hassle of going back to Tokyo on my own, let’s see what a multi-city itinerary would cost with ANA.

Inbound Flight - Edmonton to Tokyo (HND)
Outbound Flight - Osaka (Itami) via Tokyo (HND) to Edmonton
Total cost: 2,411.07 (an increase of $6.20)

So, for an extra $6.20, you could avoid backtracking and keep all your flights within the same ANA itinerary. For me personally, that’s a win.

I do think that roughly $2,400.00 for a RT flight from Edmonton to Japan is crazily high and I wouldn’t be booking my fight with them at this time. But it does prove that there are some definite wins to be found when it comes to multi-city.

Airline Direct vs. Third Party

While I might use Third Party sites for flight research as it’s a quick and easy way to gauge pricing of the different airlines amongst each other, I very rarely book with them. I typically book with airlines direct for the following reasons:

Customer Service

I’ve had to call airlines a number of times throughout the years for support and most notably over the last couple of years because of trips I’ve had to cancel and ask for certain accommodations (because of having a baby). While I can’t say for certain that a Third Party site wouldn’t have helped me in the same way, I do feel like the process and support I received from dealing directly with the airline was less stressful and I always left those interactions in a positive mood.

Customer Experience

Making changes, comparing flight options (add-ons, insurance, cancellation options, fees, etc.) is a lot more straight forward and direct when dealing with airlines directly. I know what I’m getting myself into if I book the ultra cheap flight compared to other tiers which may include various perks. In addition, depending on loyalty to any particular airline, you may be able to redeem points for free flights or at least obtain a discount on your ticket.

Pricing

Besides some of the ‘hacker’ type flights that Third Party sites can put together, I don’t find the pricing on those sites any better compared to airline websites. With the amount of combinations and playing around I do with dates, I have typically booked flights with airlines directly that were either the same or sometimes even cheaper than what was listed on say Kayak, for example.

Conclusion

While everything I mentioned in this, what ended up being a very long blog post, is just my own personal experience and opinion, I do hope there was something you might be able to take away and try the next time you are in search for a flight abroad. While I don’t think a lot of these tips help for those of flying within Canada since our options are quite limited, I do think there is money to be saved for those willing to put in a bit of grease and research combinations until you land on something you are comfortable with.

There is no perfect price, just a price you are happy to pay. One that allows you to book your trip and start focusing on other pieces such as accommodations and activities. I know it can be stressful and sometimes planning for other things can or won’t happen until those flights are booked. That’s typically the largest commitment so when you find your ‘perfect’ flight, just go for it.

If you have any tips you’d like to share with me, I’m always happy to hear what works for others. I’d love to incorporate some new strategies into my research routine.

Until next time, take care. Enjoy all those future adventures of yours!