Travel to Japan with Points in 2025
We’re back from our Japan trip. I had actually booked two different award flights for this trip, one on Japan Airlines for 75k Alaska miles and $75 in taxes and fees, and one on Delta for 51,000 miles and $56 in taxes and fees. While the Delta flight was a much better “deal”, it involved a connection via Seattle, while the JAL flight was nonstop. So we repurposed those Delta miles for a trip to Europe and kept the JAL flight, and I’m glad we did. JAL’s economy seats are enormous and comfortable, the food was great, and we had plenty of room to watch a little TV together on the way. As important as it is to get good value when redeeming points, it’s ultimately about maximizing both your savings and experiences, and flying JAL with Alaska miles threads that needle perfectly.
All told, we were able to spend over a week in Japan, almost entirely on points. It wasn’t luxurious, but we were more than happy to explore the food, culture, and sights of Japan, with our flights and hotels covered almost entirely with credit card points earned from everyday spending and maybe a single new card bonus. Here’s how.
Getting to Japan
We’ve done this before—last time, we used a bonus on the AA Aviator to earn most of the points for our trip. It’s still possible to fly to Japan from many US airports for about 70k AA points, and the Aviator is still around, but it’s not long for this world, and is currently only offering a 60k bonus, so you’ll need some AA miles in the bank or a way to earn the difference if you want to get to Japan this way. If the Aviator doesn’t work out, the Citi AA Platinum Select sometimes offers a 75k mile bonus, including right now.
This time, we used Alaska Miles. Award flights to Japan can usually be had for 75k if you fly on the right days, although I see that post-merger Hawaiian Airlines flights connecting through Seattle will be 70k, at least from SFO.
For now, there are many great ways to earn Alaska miles. Most of ours for this flight came from rent paid with the Bilt Mastercard and miles from restaurant spending on Bilt and my Amex Gold, because Amex points are transferrable to Alaska via Hawaiian, at least for now.
As long as that pathway is open, it’s fairly easy to accumulate enough Alaska miles for a flight through sign-up bonuses with Amex cards or the Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard.
Of course, you can just go directly to Alaska, where the Alaska Visa Signature frequently offers 70k+ sign-up bonuses. Alaska is also launching a premium card later this year, and I would expect the welcome offer on that card to be even more enticing.
Staying in Japan
This time, we stayed every night but one at a Comfort Hotel. These hotels are located across Japan and are bookable with Choice Privileges points for 8,000 points per night.
The Comfort Hotel Tendo
These points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio from Amex, Capital One, and Wells Fargo, and at a 1:2 ratio from Citi. Nights in rural Comfort Hotels can be had for as low as $50 per night, but prices in Tokyo can run well over $100 per night. We used mostly Amex points (because I have a ton) and Capital One points (because it’s hard to get great value for them), and probably got a true value of a little better than 1¢ per point. It wasn’t the best redemption, but it was serviceable and kept us from needing to spend cash.
I’m strongly considering adding a Citi Card like the Strata Premier for future Japan trips, as booking these rooms for just 4,000 Thank You Points would have been tremendous value. That card’s current 75,000 welcome offer would equate to at least 20 free nights in Japan after factoring the points earned from spending to earn the bonus.
We did splurge for one night at Ginzan Onsen, a gorgeous hot spring town in Yamagata prefecture.
That hotel cost several hundred dollars in cash, but we were able to “erase” the purchase with Capital One miles from my Venture X. Because that card earns (at least) double points on every purchase, it gets a fair amount of use, usually leaving us with quite a few points in the bank. Although the redemption rate of 1¢ per point isn’t great, it’s perfectly fine, especially considering the flexibility it offers, for example the ability to book a Japanese ryokan directly in Yen and “pay” with points.
Whether you’re looking for a night or two of luxury or a weeklong stay at a budget hotel, you could pay for it with the 75k bonus points from the Venture X or Venture Rewards welcome offer (the latter is currently also offering a $250 Capital One Travel credit).
Getting around Japan
You can also use Alaska miles to fly within Japan. A round trip from Tokyo to Sapporo will cost you 15k miles plus $26. Flights within Honshu tend to be fairly cheap using cash, though, making miles an inefficient way to get around..
I’m partial to the Shinkansen; while the bullet train can’t be purchased with points, it is another travel expense you can “erase” with Capital One miles.
The Venture X also comes in handy for it’s $300 Capital One Travel credit, which can be used to book a rental car. However, it doesn’t always work in Japan, and it didn’t offer any rentals in our corner of Yamagata. I had already used the travel credit anyway, though, so we paid cash for a few days of renting a car from Toyota.
Conclusion
We flew to Japan for 75k Alaska miles and $75 each, stayed there for 8 nights for 64k Choice points total, and got two bullet train tickets to and from Tokyo for about 20k Capital One miles. We also rented a car for 5 days for $337 and splurged on one night in a fancy ryokan. We could have stayed the whole time in Tokyo and saved the rental car, bullet train, and Ryokan expenses, without spending any more points on our hotel stay. With so many ways to earn Alaska miles, Capital One miles, and Choice points, it might be easier than you think to take a trip to the land of the rising sun.