How I booked a trip to Japan to see the Cherry Blossom with Credit Card Points
Booking a trip to Japan usually is pretty easy with credit card points but this trip was the exception because it was during cherry blossom season in Japan and during school spring break when everyone else was traveling and trying to book the same trip. We had to book this trip 1 year out for a one week window of opportunity to see cherry blossom at its peak in Tokyo, Japan. If we booked too early, we would only see branches on the tree and if I booked too late, we would only see cherry blossom petals on the ground. We had to book everything at the right time while competing with everyone else that is trying to book the same trip.
Booking the hotels was actually pretty easy for us. We had already applied for the Choice Hotel credit cards that gave us 100,000 points welcome offer. We were able to book a room for the two of us at 10,000 points per night in the heart of Tokyo for 9 days, even during the cherry blossom season in Japan. The room availablity was there but you just had to book it 1 year in advance. The cash booking for these rooms were much more expensive compared to point booking.
Booking the flight to Tokyo was the very complicated part. We ended up booking 2 business class seats on the same flight on a “fifth freedom” flight on Singapore Airlines from LAX to NRT. We booked it through Alaska Airlines' Atmos program at 80,000 points each for a total of 160,000 points, the 2 Singapore Airlines business class tickets were valued at $15,000 during the cherry blossom season. To come up with the 160,000 Alaska Airlines Atmos points, we had to transfer the 160,000 points from my American Expresss account (obtain from my 175k Platinum credit card welcome bonus) to my Hawaiian Airlines account, and then from my Hawaiian Airlnes account to Alaska Airlines account. This was made possible by the Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines merger last year when you can transfer points between the two airlines. We were very fortunate to book this flight because this option of transfer is no longer viable since Alaska Airlines completed it's merger with Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines was a transfer partner with American Express but after the merger, Alaska Airlines have ended this relationship. In addition, Alaska Airlines have also ended its partnership with Singapore Airlines make partner airlines booking no longer possible between the two airlines.
Booking the flight back was also a challenage but much easier. We were able to use our Air Canada Aeroplan reward program to book 2 business class flight back from Tokyo to Los Angeles. Unfortunately we were not able to book 2 tickets on the same flight back. We eneded up booking one ANA Airlines business class flight from HND to LAX and one Asiana Airlines business class flight from NRT to LAX on different airlines both using Aeroplan reward program. Chase is a transfer partner with Air Canada and at the time of transfer, Chase had a 20% transfer bonus plus a 10% Aeroplan credit card holder bonus. We ended up transferring only 115,500 Chase points because of these bonuses for a total of 150,150 Aeroplan points needed to book the 2 flights.