TokachiM

Are there many Japan hands here? I'm trying to find flights to the US from Hokkaido (Chitose or Obihiro). I know we'll probably be routed through Haneda/Narita. My destination is Omaha. Oh, and I want to go during summer vacation.

What are the best airlines, and who has the best deals? So far, it looks like ANA is my best bet.

Should I try booking through an agent, or would I be better off going straight to the airlines? I may have one or two stopovers.

Thanks for any help!

M.

Dukey

You might try looking at www.itasoftware.com which will show ALL flights if there are any.

use the month-long view for lowest fare days.

For your destination I am thinking United may be your best bet

TokachiM

Dukey, I want to thank you for that ITA software site. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

They found an airfare that would go through VANCOUVER! Oh, my goodness, I've always wanted to go to Canada, but just haven't been at the right place at the right time . . . of course, the layover is four hours and 3 minutes, so all I could say is that I'd BEEN -- not that I'd done anything. Still, it's a start.

ITA makes it really easy to search for extra legs, though, so I might find a longer layover in Vancouver, yet.

Any chance you know anything about renting cars in the US, then? Or some good URLS? I guess I should check the US forum. But which is better? A voucher from my Japanese travel agent, or reserving over the internet?

Will continue searching on my own, but if anyone has the magic answer, I'd love to hear it!

M.

Dukey

Sorry cannot help much...I usually only rent from one agency (Hertz) because I get discounts, am a "gold" member blah blah blah....you can probably do better using a discounter like Priceline or Hotwire so will top this so others can see it and give you all sorts of conflicting advice to make your travels even more interesting.

KimJapan

If you can read Japanese, www.tour.ne.jp gathers special discount fares from a wide variety of agencies and will display them for you along with how to book. Fares displayed don't include tax and surcharge. Any time between July 22 and late August you will see some of the highest fares of the year. If you can go in early July or very late August you will do better farewise.

TokachiM

I'm bumping this back to the top, because I'm looking for inexpensive fares again. Are there any left from Hokkaido to Nebraska? (USA) I looked on Yahoo!'s shortcut, and got quoted about $3000 per person for a flight in July.

Where's the best place to find cheap fares *from* Japan?

(I looked at the tour.ne.jp site, but it didn't include any fares from Hokkaido, it looks like.)

Alec

Few international fares are quoted ex Sapporo, other than official full fares. Just get to Tokyo using Tokuwari or Air Do specials and then find a fare ex-Narita. Non-stop flights to the West Coast are to Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, SFO and LAX. Then just book a separate connecting flight to Omaha etc.
Try HIS.

hawaiiantraveler

Tokachisan, Are you still near Obihiro? We are planning a tour of the East Hokkaido area in the fall 2009. We will do the Sounkyo Onsen, Lake Akan and Shiretoko areas and would love some Hokkaido koyo information or suggestions if you have any, kudasai

I agree with Alec on getting to NRT and going on from there.

HIS website

http://his-usa.com/ja/top/Top.aspx

What's happening in Omaha?

Aloha!

DonTopaz

Actually, I do not believe that you will realize any particular saving by starting the trip in NRT -- the fares that I've seen from NRT are only $100 or so less than from CTS, and the cost of getting to NRT plus the inconvenience of separate tickets just isn't worth it.

Big hint to getting a lower air fare is to travel midweek -- Tues/Wed/Thurs.

Check out American Airlines (www.aa.com) -- I just plugged in a random midweek trip in July and got a round-trip Sapporo-Omaha for just under $2000.