Japan on Points (Part 1): My Plan to Cover $40,000 in Flights with Points

Jan 23

It’s time for some bonus content! The whole purpose of this post is to take a step away from talking about different credit cards and strategies that go along with those cards. While that is something I plan to continue to do, I also want this blog to feel real and not come off as robotic. So, for this post we’re going to talk about something practical (and fun) that I’m doing for our next trip to Japan using our credit card points.

Background

Back in 2023, my wife and I went to Japan for two weeks. Prior to the global pandemic I had been planning a trip with two of my good friends back at the end of 2019. As you can probably guess that trip didn’t happen as the pandemic shut down the world in the spring of 2020, a week before we were supposed to fly out. So why do I bring up this initial Japan trip with my buddies? It’s because we were planning on using points that one of my friends and I had to cover a decent amount of our hotel cost. Since our trip was cancelled, we received all our points back, but the seed was planted in my head that I could use this time that we couldn’t travel to earn more points to make the eventual trip to Japan even cheaper.

At this time, I was using my Hilton Surpass card for a good amount of my purchases. Then I finally pulled the trigger and got the Chase Sapphire Reserve. When my wife and I were seriously dating, I had her get the Chase Freedom Unlimited. The plan was once we were married, I would be able to transfer her points from her Freedom Unlimited to my Chase Sapphire Reserve. Fast forward to the Fall of 2022, Japan finally re-opened for tourism and we began planning Japan with my buddies. By this time, we had amassed enough points to cover both of our flights to Japan (round trip) solely on points. I used one of 5 Marriott Free Night credits from the sign-up bonus on my Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card to cover the hotel for our first night in Tokyo. I also had enough Hilton Honors points to cover majority of our hotel costs (for two conjoined rooms) at a Hilton down in Osaka for 4 nights. We paid out of pocket for an Airbnb near Ueno when we got back to Tokyo, but the last 4 nights I was able to use the remaining 4 free night credits to stay at a Marriott in Shinagawa.

Low and behold, we had an amazing time in Japan, but the beast had been awoken at this point. Once we came back from Japan, I began daydreaming on ways to make our next trip to Japan even nicer. The biggest part of that dream was to find a way to fly First Class roundtrip to Japan on Singapore Airlines. Now, out of pocket costs for two adult tickets will run you just under $40,000. But at the time that I started working towards that goal, it would cost you 748,000 Kris Flyer Miles. After October 31st, 2025, Singapore Airlines went through a devaluation, pushing the First Class points cost up to 898,000 Kris Flyer Miles.

Where Are We Now?

Since our Japan trip in Spring of 2023, I’ve been working on optimizing the credit cards in my wallet to try and hit this goal. While the devaluation late last year has hurt our chances, I’m still aiming to fly First Class to Japan. If you haven’t read my post that talks about the cards in our wallets, you can check it out HERE! And if you use any of the referral links in any of my posts, we may receive a bonus for you getting approved, so thank you in advance for supporting the blog. But essentially between the 4 Chase cards that my wife and I hold, plus my American Express Gold Card, we have 5 different credit cards that would allow me to transfer points to Singapore Airline’s Kris Flyer program. Now another part of my plan is that I won’t be applying for any new cards to get another sign-up bonus, so I am simply trying to earn the points that we need with the setup we have. It’s a steep challenge but I’m trying to see if I can utilize the cards we have with the spending that we do already to reach the goal.

Here’s the current point total that we have with those 5 cards: 623,158. Keep in mind we need 898,000 points for both of us to go round trip First Class. Do you think we’ll make it? Is this something that you would want to do yourself? Be sure to check out my other posts on the BLOG so you can start earning points and miles towards your travel goals. Hope you enjoyed this bonus post, and I’ll look to update you on our progress in the future as well as other things I’m thinking to use points for on our next trip to Japan later this year!