Megan shared her ten-day trip to Japan as our latest reader success story. Here it is:
In April of 2025, my family of four (me, my husband, and two kids—ages 6 and 8 at the time) successfully executed our first major miles and points redemption. We traveled to Japan and spent a total of ten days there. I know that this type of trip is very trendy right now, and I think our experience shows that there are different ways to do it. Even if you can’t find business-class seats for the whole fam, you can still have a comfortable, amazing experience!
Flights to Japan
We began using points and miles at the end of 2023, starting with the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card. By spring 2024, we were eying a trip to Japan and had stockpiled a lot of Chase Ultimate Rewards® points thanks to the welcome offers on the Chase business cards. Finding four business-class tickets on the same flight from the East Coast to Japan is really tough (I know our community knows this firsthand!), so we felt pretty good about using our points for four premium-economy seats.
We booked our seats as soon as they were available (about 355 days in advance) and transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards® to the British Airways Avios program. We were able to book four premium economy seats on JAL (via BA) on Friday, April 11, direct from Boston to Narita, for 72,250 Avios per person plus $264 in taxes. The JAL premium economy seats and service were fabulous, and we even received complimentary access to the British Airways lounge in Logan Airport.
Hotels
We split our time between Tokyo, Tokyo Disneyland, and Kyoto. Our first four nights (April 12, 13, 14, 15), we stayed at the
Hyatt Regency in Tokyo (a Category 4 property at the time). We needed two rooms to fit the four of us and used a total of 126,000 points for the four nights. Many of these points came from opening
the World of Hyatt Credit Card in 2024, but we also transferred some from Chase. Luckily for us, Jess and her family had just visited Tokyo and Kyoto, so we had some great suggestions for our itinerary—highlights included the sakura blossom tea at the Andaz hotel, visiting the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, feeding the sacred deer in Nara, checking out the fun snacks at 7/11, and, of course, Tokyo Disneyland!
We spent one night (April 16) at the Miracosta Disneyland Tokyo Hotel and paid in cash. After spending time at Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea on Wednesday, April 16, and Thursday, April 17, we took the bullet train to Kyoto.
We used 38,000 Hyatt points for four nights (April 17, 18, 19, 20) at the
Hyatt Place Kyoto (Category 2). Most of these points were transferred from Chase. This hotel was great! One room accommodated our family of four, and the breakfast buffet (complimentary for my 6-year-old, with a fee for the rest of us), the laundry room, and the lobby bar were very convenient. Plus, there’s a subway station directly underneath the hotel, so getting around the city was a breeze.
Return to the United States
For our return to the U.S., we took the bullet train back to Tokyo on Monday, April 21, and flew out of Haneda airport that evening. We secured four premium economy seats on United for 65,000 points and $48.40 in fees per person. Our flight was premium economy from Haneda to Newark, then regular economy for the short flight from Newark to Boston.
This was my family’s first trip to Asia, and I can honestly say that PTS made it possible, not only from a points and miles perspective (saved us so much money!!), but inspiring us to visit a place we were unfamiliar with. I can’t tell you how many notes I took while watching Jess’s IG stories and listening to podcast episode 74, when Megan took her family of 5 to Korea and Japan for spring break. So many great tips!
Thanks, Megan, for being a loyal follower and sharing your story with us!
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