Hyotei
Kyoto, Japan
Visited April 2015
List Prices
Airfare: $10,431
Hotel: $320
Ground Transport: $5
Meal: $45
I Paid
Airfare: $51
Hotel: $0
Ground Transport: $5
Meal: $45
AIRFARE- 62,500 miles + $51 instead of $10,431
For only 62,500 American Airlines miles and $51 in ticketing fees, I got a first-class seat on JAL that normally costs more than $10,431 each way. Frequent flyer programs are constantly changing, but for right now AA has a very attractive award chart for first-class trips to Asia. The redemption works out $0.17 per mile, an extremely attractive valuation, especially if you consider that even with a decent promotion of 35% off it only costs about $0.02 per mile to purchase them outright. I wrote a handy guide on how to book these types of awards with American Airlines.
THE MILES + POINTS
I signed up for Citi's Executive Aadvantage Card, a serious traveler's card that comes with a hefty $450/year fee and access to the Admiral's Club Lounges, along with a few other benefits. As of this writing, Citi is offering a promotional 75,000 mile bonus for meeting their initial spending criteria; more than enough for one ticket. (UPDATE: As of late 2016, this car now offers 50,000 miles as signup bonus).
When you're far from global hotel chains (like in Kyoto, where there's only a Hyatt Regency that's always booked and a few Crowne Plazas that are roughly the equivalent of Motel 6's) it's very useful to have a hotels.com account. Stay at any of their hotels, whether they are members of a global hotel network or not, and earn free nights. I stayed at the Crown Prince Kyoto, a local chain that was totally decent.
HOTEL- 10 stays = 1 free on hotels.com
GROUND TRANSPORT- Subway, $5
Kyoto has a simple and (somewhat) intuitive subway system (a decent guide can be found here). The price varies a bit by origin and destination, but
RESTAURANT- $45 Bento Box lunch
Hyotei's Bento Box- ¥5,400 (about $45)
Though their lunch and dinner Kaiseki menus can run well over 20,o00 yen (~$200), the restaurant offers a very handsome and reasonably-priced lunch Bento Box for only 5,400.
Call far in advance (or, much easier: have your hotel concierge call to book) and make sure to specify the lunch bento box menu when booking.
GO MAKE THIS HAPPEN FOR YOURSELF
STEP 1
Apply for a Citi Executive Aadvantage Card
STEP 2
Start a hotels.com account- simple walkthrough here
STEP 3
Reach the spend minimum for the Citi Executive Aadvantage Card, collect 75,000 miles
STEP 4
Follow this Walkthrough to actually book the tickets- it's super straightforward
STEP 5
Have your hotel in Japan make the reservation with Hyotei
If you have any questions at all, contact me here. Would love to talk about this with you!