finding flights

Buying tickets

 My friend is also studying at Waseda so we looked for tickets together. We looked online on different airline websites for the prices of tickets to Japan. We could only search for single flights as our return date would have been too far in the future to get a return ticket. The cheapest ticket was with Aeroflot, however I had heard a few bad things about the airline so we were reluctant to go with them. The second cheapest ticket was with Cathay Pacific for around £870. We were going to go with this so I called up my mum to let her know and she wisely suggested going to a travel agents to see if they could do us an open return as two single tickets would have been very expensive.

So we went to a Japanese travel agents in London called H.I.S (http://www.his-euro.co.uk). The service at H.I.S was really good. The woman who served us was really nice and made sure to get us young adult tickets. The tickets we got through the travel agents were much better than what we were able to find online. We were able to get direct return flights with Virgin Atlantic for only £855. The return date is set as an earlier date than when we wish to return, but we can call and change the date for free as long as we do it two weeks before the set return date.

Things to remember when buying tickets to Japan
-You must book your flights to Japan and have your Hotel or accommodation address set before you apply for your visa as flight information and an address is needed for the visa application form.

- If you are searching for flights online remember to delete your cookies so that prices don't go up. If you do not some websites raise the ticket prices if you visit them more than once, deleting your cookies will combat this problem.

- If you decide to use a travel agents make sure you do some research first. Find the best flights you can and make a note of the price, dates and airline (if you can print it out so you can show them). This gives them a target meaning you are more likely to get better flights. Without giving a price to beat you are likely to get higher prices. Travel agents are also really helpful for getting flights more tailor made e.g. if you need an open return or other special requirements.