Airlines have marked the period Dec14 to Jan7 as the coming peak travel season. As usual every year especially the period from Dec28-Jan3, flights will be 100% sold out, and there are not going to be any discount tickets offered by the airlines themselves. "SF tickets" will give you the best price. "SF ticket" is a method of buying the ticket at half its normal price by redeeming the shareholder's 50% discount coupon(available on JAL, JEX, ANA and IBEX carriers only). These valuable coupons are sold everywhere in discount stores and are snapped up in bulk by travel agents.
Above are samples of the ANA and JAL Shareholder's Discount Coupon currently in use. It has a validity period where you must utilise this coupon otherwise it will go to waste. It is worth around 7000yen for a ANA coupon and 6000yen for a JAL coupon.
I have compiled the fare table below so that you can compare the price that you have been quoted by your agent. The prices are taken from a mid-size vendor that specialised in discount tickets. Prices may fluctuate a little due to supply & demand and vendors competing with one another.
ANA 28,200yen(SF) Haneda to Okinawa one-way, normal price at 39,500yen. 27,400yen(SF) Haneda to Nagasaki, Kagoshima one-way, normal price at 37,800yen. 26,400yen(SF) Haneda to Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Miyazaki one-way, normal price at 35,800yen. 28,400yen(SF) Osaka to Sapporo one-way, normal price at 39,900yen.
JAL 27,000yen(SF) Haneda to Okinawa one-way, normal price at 39,500yen. 26,200yen(SF) Haneda to Nagasaki, Kagoshima one-way, normal price at 37,800yen. 25,200yen(SF) Haneda to Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Miyazaki one-way, normal price at 35,800yen.
Looks the same but entirely different
Thank you for bringing up this plan using Skymark Airlines where it is offered by another tour operator. Following my coverage on the "Best flight deals to Sapporo, Okinawa and Fukuoka", a reader asked if the below plans were the same as my aforementioned. This is one good example where usually a layman would easily be mistaken that both offers are the same.
A seasoned ticketing person at one glance could tell that they are heaven and earth apart. The biggest difference is that the KNT plans are fixed stay plans limited to either 2 days or 3 days stay duration whereas the genuine deal allows you up to a maximum of 21 days stay. Worst still, the price does not even match the one that allows for 21 days stay. And more worst, I observed that only partial flights are offered in the KNT plan (going to Fukuoka and Sapporo). It makes me wonder if they conduct adequate market research before launching this product. Don't penalize KNT for this as they do have good offers too. It is just not their turf coming in to the bargain tickets sector.
This is one of the longest running good deal offered by Japan Airways Co. (JAW) using Skymark airlines flights. Price to Okinawa starting at 23,800yen, to Sapporo starting at 18,800yen and to Fukuoka starting at 20,800yen. It striped down to the most basic by offering you just return ticket and accommodation with nothing fancy for its basic plan. You have to pay additional to get breakfast included for certain hotels. It is like a "budget carrier" concept where you pay for what you need unlike full-fledge carrier will dump in everything and you might be paying for things that you actually don't need.
You are allowed up to a maximum of 21 days stay. 1 night accommodation is included for the first night, you can choose to extend the accommodation for the entire length of stay or simply for just the first night. Prices quoted were for twin occupancy and single occupancy is also available. Optional car rental is also available. You can purchase this plan even 5 days before your trip. Not advisable because take up rate is very high. Departure on Fridays and Saturdays sell out fast.
www.tabi-suru.net
Where to make reservation: sadly you won't find them in your usual JTB, NTA or KNT chain stores but quite a number of smaller vendors do have them. Of course you can always turn to their official website for online reservation (a bit disappointing though but still work). Again in Japanese only.
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