March 27, 2026
Reader Success Story: Mother-Daughter Trip to Japan
Pam
Joyce sent in her reader success story about a mother-daughter trip to Japan.
Planning The Trip
I started accumulating points and miles in early 2023 and started planning for a mother-daughter trip to Japan in 2024 (a year in advance!). It’s been close to 20 years since my mom and I last took a solo trip together. We go on family trips with other family members and extended family, but solo-wise, it has been a long time.
My mom lives in Taipei, Taiwan, and I live in Seattle, WA. My goal when I was planning was to secure business-class flights for us, so I knew it would require advance planning, such as booking when the award calendar opens. I was thinking of spending 7 days in Japan, then going to Taipei for 5 days after the trip to see my dad as well.
I wanted to go to Kyoto for sure and was open to another city in Japan. There are plenty of flights between Japan and Taiwan daily across multiple cities, so when I came across Fukuoka being a city that has daily flights to Taipei and also has a Hyatt hotel option (Grand Hyatt Fukuoka), I had that on my list to pair with Kyoto if I could get the flights to work out.
Flights
Outbound, I booked Seattle (SEA) to Osaka (KIX) with a stop in Taipei for 75K Aeroplan points + $98 CAD at calendar open (355 days in advance). The two flights were on EVA Air business class with the 787 Dreamliner. I transferred 1:1 from Capital One to Aeroplan; the 75k points were from a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card welcome offer that I got in 2023.
For the return, I booked Fukuoka (FUK) to Seattle (SEA) with a five-day stopover in Taipei. This was 80K Aeroplan points (5k more than the outbound, as I had a stopover) + $132 CAD. The two flights were also on EVA Air business class. I transferred 1:1 from AMEX to Aeroplan and booked the flight as soon as it became available on the award calendar. I had opened an American Express® Gold Card and an American Express® Business Gold Card in 2023 and earned the welcome offers on both.
Mom’s Flights
My mom lives in Taipei, so she only needed the TPE-KIX and FUK-TPE flights for the trip. I wanted her to take the same flights as me, in business class. I transferred 40K American Express Membership Rewards® points to ANA and found business-class availability on the same EVA Air flights for her. The total cost was 40K ANA miles + 11170 JPY in taxes.
The business-class flights on EVA Air were wonderful, and the meal service on Japan-Taiwan flights was amazing! TPE-KIX, we had the Japanese meal, and FUK-TPE, we had the Din Tai Fung meal. I also enjoyed the SEA-TPE round-trip flights in the 787 business class. The amenity kits are from Giorgio Armani, and the pajamas on board are by Jason Wu.
Japanese Meal on EVA flight TPE-KIX
Hotels
Kyoto
In Kyoto, we stayed at Park Hyatt Kyoto for four nights! I know how hard it is to find availability here, and I couldn’t believe it when I found four consecutive nights (two nights at 40K points per night and two nights at 45K), totaling 170K Hyatt points transferred from Chase. I earned these points when I opened a couple of Chase Ink Business cards in 2023, along with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. I was so happy with this redemption. The property was beautiful, set right next to some of the most popular tourist attractions. I had Globalist status during the stay, and they upgraded us two categories up from the Twin Bed room to the Twin Bed Garden Terrace room.
Joyce and her mom in Kyoto.
The Globalist breakfast at the restaurant was delicious. We opted for the Western option on the first three mornings and upgraded to the Japanese breakfast on our last morning (around $20 USD per person). Beautiful property, and one I still think about a lot! My mom and I rented kimonos and took photos in them at the hotel. We really loved this property; it felt serene and calm here.
Park Hyatt breakfast!
Fukuoka
In Fukuoka, we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka for three nights. I paid in cash for the stay because I found a low rate when I booked a year in advance. My friend gave me a Suite Upgrade Award before the stay, and I had set up a couple of alerts in case a standard suite opened up, and one did open up before our stay! The Grand Suite is 600+ square feet, compared to a standard queen room of 290 square feet, so the SUA really felt like an upgrade!
The hotel sits next to the Canal Mall, with its many shops and restaurants. We loved the Kirby Cafe and Ichiran Ramen at the mall. The club lounge has amazing food at breakfast and dinner—we were extremely impressed by the variety of food offered and how fresh the seafood was. This hotel is definitely off many people’s radars, but it has the best lounge I’ve been to as a Globalist.
Fresh sashimi in the club lounge!
Overall, I’m so glad I was able to use points and miles for this memorable mother-daughter trip. We made so many wonderful memories thanks to points and miles!
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