How I Booked a Luxury Honeymoon in Japan and Vietnam Using Points and Miles

23.02.2024 - 23:33 / cntraveler.com / Airlines

If it seems like everyone and their mother is trying to use points and miles to go to Japan these days, you’re not wrong. But can you really blame them? Between the people, the history, the culture, the architecture, the nightlife, the shopping, and of course, the food, Japan is an absolute dream of a destination for so many, including honeymooners planning their once-in-a-lifetime vacations.

My husband and I fell squarely into that category, and were fortunate to have a very significant stash of credit card points—namely American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards points—to put to good use here. All in all, we spent 607,000 American Express Membership Rewards points and 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points on the following: business class flights to and from Asia, two inter-Asia business class flights, and a five-star hotel stay. We did plan to use a bit of cash for some other hotel stays, as well as a positioning flight within Vietnam, but the bulk of our trip was paid for using points and miles. It took a lot of research, planning, and frankly, a bit of luck, to make it all happen in October 2023. Here’s how we pulled it off.

My husband and I wanted to go on our honeymoon in the fall of 2023, so we started planning in late fall of 2022. Since we’re based in the New York City area, our nonstop flight options to Tokyo were either with United, All Nippon Airways (ANA), or Japan Airlines (JAL).

We nixed United because it doesn’t fly into our preferred airport in Tokyo—Haneda Airport, which is only about 15 minutes from the city center (compared to over an hour if you’re coming in from the larger Narita International Airport). Additionally, while United Polaris, the airline’s business class product, is certainly solid, it just doesn’t really hold a candle to the Japanese airlines in terms of service and catering. We also ruled out ANA pretty quickly (although not for lack of trying to make it work!) because award availability for one person, let alone two, was nearly impossible to find.

Luckily, JAL had availability in the timeframe we were targeting, so the decision was more or less made for us. I transferred a total of 150,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles frequent flier program at a 1:1 transfer ratio for two one-way business class flights on Japan Airlines; each cost 75,000 miles for a flight from New York-JFK to Tokyo Haneda. Booking JAL through Cathay is possible because both airlines are part of the Oneworld alliance; in theory, you could book the same tickets through another partner airline in the alliance, like American, if you have the right miles currency. Because we booked through Cathay Pacific, the taxes and fees were