May 9, 2003 -- The ongoing SARS crisis needn't cramp all travel plans to Asia. According to the World Health Organization, Japan is still SARS-free, and one airline is underscoring this with fares to Nippon that are even lower than many summer fares to Europe.
We don't know what's gotten into American Airlines. They're offering a roundtrip, non-stop flight from Tokyo to San Jose for $396. Think of it as the "tech industry has crashed, Japan's in a recession and now there's SARS" fare. Even with taxes, that's only $462. Sometimes you can't get to Indianapolis for $462. There are sushi restaurants in New York where dinner (okay, dinner for four) costs $462. You even get to fly on a slick new Boeing 777 plane. This very well might be the lowest fare to Japan we've ever seen.
Other low Japan fares from American:
- Atlanta: $474
- New York (JFK and EWR): $528
- Chicago: $529
- Minneapolis and Dallas: $551
- Miami: $556
- Austin, TX: $570
- St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston and, D.C.: $595
AA says to purchase these fares by May 24, but we're sure they'll sell out well before then. Fares are valid for travel in June on Monday-Thursday, with a 6-day minimum stay and 7-day advance purchase required. American's links are always much too long, so just click here to go the details page on their site.
Residents of Detroit can get to Tokyo on American for $730 plus tax, using a different fare sale (with somewhat higher fares than the first one) by going to this link.
The other major airlines seem to be trying to match this sale by offering low fares through the major booking engines (Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com and Expedia.com, i.e.), even though fares there aren't quite as low as American's. Shopping around for dates in June, we found these flights to Tokyo from:
- Atlanta: $605 inc tax (Delta; $534 base fare)
- Los Angeles: $604 inc tax (United; $540 base fare)
- New York: $709 inc tax (United; $640 base fare)
- San Jose: $720 inc tax (United; $638 base fare)
- Chicago: $731 inc tax (United; $660 base fare)
