Our latest reader success story is from Katie, who with her husband, Kenny, headed to Japan for a marathon. Say what??? Using points and miles to compete in a marathon is the first from this squad! Here is her story:

 

Journey in Points and Miles

My journey into points and miles was fast and furious. I’ve always enjoyed travel, and especially love chasing the deal, but I only ever did this two ways: via Southwest® points and the Companion Pass, and discount travel sites like Priceline. These served me well for many years, and I have no complaints about the trips we were able to go on because of them.

One of my friends private messaged me and simply said, “Have you ever looked into using credit card points and miles for nearly free travel?” And I responded EXACTLY how everyone now responds to me when I suggest it: arrogantly and totally uneducated.

Since she was in the very beginning stages of learning points and miles herself, she didn’t fully know how to respond to my criticisms except to say that she had heard there was a way you could earn Companion Pass for two years and continue to do it over and over. This made no sense to me. I know how Companion Pass works. You have to put all your spending and bills on the card so you can reach 135K points by the end of the year to earn it again! That’s the only way! I’m an expert, remember?!

But it piqued my interest enough that I decided to give some of her podcast recommendations a listen, because if that was true? I’d love to know how to earn it year after year like that! I popped one on on the drive home from work, and from the first episode I listened to, I was totally hooked. It ignited an absolute wildfire in me. This hobby isn’t for everyone—it’s complicated and requires extreme organization—but for some reason,  from almost that first moment, it has just clicked for me. It matches up well with the way I think and enjoy working out systems.

 

Convincing My Player Two

Even so, I knew it would be an uphill battle to convince my husband to give it a go. But the stars aligned and pretty much the very same week a major opportunity presented itself.

I can picture it perfectly: It was March of 2024, and we were sitting in our home. My husband, Kenny, was at the kitchen counter, and I was sitting on the couch. For context, Kenny is a serious runner. And even though it’s just for leisure, he’s good at it. He qualified for the Boston marathon back in 2018, a very difficult and elite accomplishment in the running community. Running Boston sparked in him a desire to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors, a series of six marathons held around the world: Boston, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and Berlin.

Long story, short, Kenny’s desire to compete in the Tokyo marathon allowed me to get more into credit card points and miles. And, as they say, the rest is history.

 

 

Getting to Japan

The first card I opened was the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. We’re based in Omaha, Nebraska and travel often to San Diego to visit Kenny’s parents. This route usually lays over in Denver or Vegas, and I REALLY wanted airport lounge access and had heard such incredible things about the Capital One Lounge specifically, so this was the driving factor behind my choice. I could not wait.

The card arrived the next day, a thick metal card that felt heavy in my hand and way too expensive for my wallet, but here we were, on our way to earning our first sign up bonus of 75,000 points! I continued to voraciously take in all the info I could. Non-stop podcasts, blogs, and Facebook groups. They’re all so invaluable, and it’s such a gift to just be able to lurk on the sites, read all the questions posed, see examples of redemptions made, and learn from other people’s mistakes!

We earned that first welcome offer and moved on to several of the Chase cards when they had elevated offers. We earned those bonuses, rapidly accruing points. I could tell I had a lot of “Pam” in me, having ZERO chill. I found (well, still find) it so difficult to slow my roll! 

Business-Class Flights or Bust

I specifically started seeking out podcasts about Japan to understand how they booked their trips and with which miles, learning that American Airlines was a big one for these flights. So I opened the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite card for both of us. 

Aside from airport lounges, I also really wanted to experience a business-class flight. That had been a bucket list item of mine forever, and before learning about points and miles, I just assumed that someday (even though I had no game plan to get there and was not independently wealthy) I’d magically be able to afford to book it. Okay? So when I learned that these could be found for as low as 50K points, and realized I knew how to earn those points, the more I realized that the dream was well within reach, much sooner than I’d ever imagined. And I got really excited. 

I initially found two premium economy seats from Dallas to Tokyo for 50K each. I went ahead and booked them, knowing that if I found business class later, I could change them with no penalty. I set an alert on seats.aero for two business-class seats on AA, and wouldn’t you know, just a few days later, it hit. The seats I found were non-stop from San Francisco to Haneda for 60K points each and $5.60. When I got that alert, I RAN to the AA website. The seats were still there. My hands were shaking as I went through the process of holding those seats so I could then cancel our premium economy and book the business class. With the help of an AA rep and the transfer of points from my husband’s account (for a fee), it finally worked.  I rode this high for a long time, absolutely ecstatic to get to experience business class for the first time and with the legendary Japan Airlines, no less. These seats had a cash value of over $8,000 each. We had both paid just $99 for the annual fee on the credit card and then $5.60 for taxes. Truly unbelievable.

To book the rest of the trip, I again searched out seats.aero for return flights. We were completely out of AA points now, so that was not an option. I found a nonstop economy flight from Haneda to San Francisco, booking through Emirates for 38K miles and $75 in taxes each way. Cash value was $3737. I used the Capital One miles I got from Venture X to book these.

 

On to Hotels

For hotels, we had limited availability since we were booking about six months out. We had accrued lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards® and obviously went the Hyatt route. We chose one of the nicer options: Hotel Toranomon Hills. This is part of the Unbound Collection. At the time, it was a Category 6 (and I believe it’s now a 7). We stayed six nights for a total of 138K Chase Ultimate Rewards® and $0 (an average of 23K points per night). Cash value: $3,300.

 

Flights

Finally, the day had arrived. We were headed to Tokyo and on our first business-class flight! We arrived at the airport three hours early and joined the priority check-in line, which had only us in it. I could feel snobbishness seeping into me. While my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card gave me Priority Pass lounge access to other spots, we were excited to instead use our business-class boarding passes to access the British Airways lounge. It was great! Lots of space, lots of food and drink options, fun views of the runway.

The 13-hour flight went by so fast. I sampled pretty much everything they offered on the menu including the much hyped vegetable ramen—it was good! The basket of snacks they set out to enjoy during the flight was fun and we enjoyed the whole experience a lot. We tried to take advantage of the lie-flat seats to sleep, but it was mostly a daytime flight, and I was WAY too wired and excited, so it was a lost cause. 

 

Hotel Toranomon Hills

The Hotel Toranomon Hills is so, so good. It’s dark, sexy, modern, and beautiful. The hotel itself is located in the middle floors of a skyscraper, along with some high-end shops and a couple of restaurants. It’s connected to the same train station as the oft-talked-about Andaz, sharing a sort of courtyard with it, and making it super-convenient to get to and from other parts of the city.

I had used Pam’s template in the hopes of getting a room upgrade, a treat, or something. I mentioned it being our first time in Japan and how Kenny would be running the marathon, so we were celebrating that accomplishment. Clearly, something got lost in translation because they had a note waiting, wishing just Kenny a happy anniversary. HA!

The hotel room was beautiful. It was not an upgraded room but the view was decent (I think any room in the place probably offers a good view) and it was spacious with plenty of room for luggage. It had luxurious fixtures and bedding, and of course, it was immaculate. Plus, we were just down the hall from the club lounge! This was open to everyone staying at the hotel and had a variety of light snacks like mixed nuts and cookies, sodas, juices, and a latte machine. It was so fun to be able to go there and hang out for a little while each day. Plus, it had a really nice view of the Tokyo Tower!

 

Activities (Besides the Marathon)

1. Coffee Aoi. Kenny and I love coffee, and it’s always a top priority to find a great local shop, wherever we go. While Japan is known for its traditional tea service, it’s also known for meticulous coffee making. We searched for a traditional shop or, kissaten, as they’re called, and struck absolute gold with one right near our hotel. Coffee Aoi is a tiny, dark little shop that, if you blink, you’ll walk right past. It was phenomenal.
2. Omoide Yokocho. I got a real kick out of all the narrow alleyways with sit-up bars to eat your food. Omoide Yokocho was definitely the most packed and narrow we experienced. It was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and the restaurants would form long lines of people waiting to sit down, so we just decided, purely for the experience of it, to fight for our lives and walk from one end to the other, but didn’t actually stop to eat or drink anything.
3. Starbucks Reserve Roastery. Say what you want about chains, especially a monster like Starbucks, but this place was incredible. Four floors of thoughtful and Japanese-specific details and decorations. And despite being packed with people and lines, this Starbucks, just like Coffee Aoi, took meticulous pride and time in crafting every drink. It was such a unique experience sitting there observing every employee take their job so seriously. Their uniforms are meticulous, their hair well-styled, and they are always, always so polite and friendly.
4. Share Lounge. I hesitate to say this was actually a “top 5” experience, but it was pretty unique and fun, and I mostly want to make sure people headed to Tokyo know this is an option. The one we went to overlooked Shibuya Crossing, which is considered one of the busiest crosswalks in the world, with several hundred thousand people crossing daily. It’s a tourist must-see at least once. There’s also a Starbucks overlooking the crosswalk, but the floor above has a Share Lounge. This is a space that you have to pay to be at. The Shibuya Crossing Share Lounge charges approximately $12-15 per hour, but the beauty is that this includes unlimited snacks and drinks, including alcohol! They had a huge variety from trail mix to frozen entrees, ramen, ice cream, desserts, endless sodas, wines, and beers. It was great! And also a perfect spot to rest and observe the chaos of Shibuya Crossing from afar.
5. Japanese people and culture. Speak to almost anyone who has gone there and you’ll hear the same thing: “I was profoundly affected, but I can’t articulate why.” It truly is hard to explain. You’re going to get five-star service everywhere you go. Not just at the expensive hotels or restaurants, but in unexpected places like the airport where an attendant stands and catches EVERY BAG that comes out of the luggage chute before it can hit the side and be damaged, or the 7/11 (a must go, btw), and even the McDonald’s where each worker serving you your food gives maximum effort and service. It’s mind-boggling! The streets of the biggest city in the world are silent. We never heard a car horn honk. They’re immaculate to the point you could eat off of them. I saw elderly people VACUUMING sidewalks.  It inspired us to be better humans, better helpers, even back in the loud and boisterous United States. 

 

Bottom Line

In every way, Tokyo exceeded all of our expectations. I’m not sure we ever would have gone to Japan if not for the marathon, so I’m extremely grateful we “had to” because it now sits at the top of our favorite places we’ve ever been, and we absolutely cannot wait to go back.

 

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