So I did a thing! A very last-minute thing! I planned out a 10-day itinerary and bucket-list trip to Japan – solo! This called for RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH—and lots of it! Here’s how I checked off this bucket–list vacation for less than $500; the cash price should have been over $25,000, less than two weeks before take off!
Flights: Business Class on ANA “The Room”
One of the biggest items on my travel wishlist was to fly on ANA’s “The Room” business-class product and experience Japan Airlines (JAL) business class, which is often available for 60,000 miles via American Airlines’ saver fares. The main challenge with ANA is that to book award flights directly, you must book round-trip tickets, and most premium seat categories like “The Room” are frequently waitlisted. They release limited partner award availability, which would have been great to stack with Virgin Atlantic’s 40% transfer bonus using Membership Reward points. However, ANA business class partner award flights cannot be booked within 14 days of travel.
Initially, I found a potential itinerary with American Airlines saver fares for JAL from Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo (NRT) for 60,000 miles. This would require me to reposition from Chicago for the outbound flight and then return from Tokyo to Chicago with a layover in Boston, also priced at 60,000 miles. This flight was available to book through JAL OneWorld alliance partners, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines (AS). Since AS charges non-refundable partner booking fees and DOES NOT allow you to hold flights, I checked AA, found the exact flight, and immediately put it on hold while I found a return flight. One thing I love about AA is the ability to place flights on hold, sometimes up to 5 days before paying or redeeming miles.
However, after considering the time and cost of repositioning to SEA and returning from BOS, I decided to continue my search for a better option. I decided to search on ANA’s website directly, where I found various nonstop round-trip flights from Chicago to Tokyo for just 105,000 miles plus $453 in taxes and fees on ANA, with confirmed ANA “The Room” seating. Not all ANA business class products feature “The Room,” so you want to make sure you confirm it when booking. This option saved me an additional 15,000 points and time that would have been spent repositioning to another city.
The cash price for this ticket would have been around $15,073.01, making the redemption a no-brainer and providing a value of over 13 cents per point (cpp). This means that redeeming those points for cash at a 1 cent per point ratio would have been worth $1,050.
I transferred 105K Membership Rewards points from my account to ANA Mileage Club, which took about 48 hours. This was somewhat of a gamble since I was within 5 days of travel, and transferring points at this time meant risking having them expire if flights were no longer available. Thankfully, my points transfer was successful on Wednesday at 10 a.m. CST, and by early Friday morning, the points were in my ANA mileage account.
One unexpected mishap was that my ANA mileage account was missing my middle name, which I couldn’t edit online. Since international travel requires that your documents match precisely, I wanted to avoid any issues with TSA. I called ANA customer service, and although the agent reassured me that it wouldn’t be a problem, I didn’t want to take any chances. It took 24 hours for the name to update in their system, which put me within 48 hours of my departure and meant I could only book via phone, which would be an additional $20 service fee. The agent was very helpful and even called me back to complete the booking (which she held for me) on Saturday morning.
Total for Flights: 105,000 miles + $473 in taxes and feesÂ
Hotel Stays
As a Globalist member, I can book hotels in advance without the points in my World of Hyatt (WOH) account. You have up to 7 days before the stay to ensure the points are in the account before being charged the cash rate. This allowed me to research hotels that had award availability that aligned with my itinerary and booked strategically.
- Hyatt Centric Ginza (Tokyo): 4 nights at 25,000 points per night (cash price $1,500+ per night).
- Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay (Disney Day): 1 night at 12,000 points (cash price around $250). I was upgraded to the Regency Suite, which would have cost $555 per night.
- Hyatt Place Kyoto: 3 nights at 9,500 points per night. This hotel had sold-out nights, but I searched daily and secured availability one day at a time vs. a consecutive booking and had them combine them onsite. Again, I received a complimentary suite upgrade which was over $1,134.
- Grand Hyatt Tokyo (Roppongi): 1 night at 30,000 points (cash price $1,355). I redeemed a Free Night Certificate (FNC), which I earned after meeting the 60-night milestone for Globalist status.
While I didn’t get suite upgrades at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo due to availability, they offered complimentary breakfast at the hotel’s French breakfast spot, which is typically an added cost.
Total for Hotels: 140,500 points + 1 Free Night Certificate
Total Redemption Summary:
- Flights: 105K miles + $473
- Hotels: 140.5K points + 1 FNC
- TOTAL: 145.5K points and miles used + $473
This last-minute adventure should have cost well over $25,000 if paid in cash, but thanks to points and miles, I managed to travel in luxury at a fraction of the cost. From the comfort of ANA’s “The Room” to luxurious Hyatt hotels and unforgettable experiences in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, it was truly a trip of a lifetime.
You’ll often hear that you should book award travel nine months to a year BEFORE your travel dates, but as shown here, sometimes having flexibility and redemption skills can lead to nice last-minute saver fares!
Follow my social media accounts to see my Japan vlog series as I take you on this experience with me! 🙂
