Expert: Stephen Tanenbaum - 3/1/2008

Question
Our daughter lives in Okinawa (husband in military) and we would like to visit her in Japan.  So, we don't need to worry about hotels, etc.  We just need round trip tickets (for two weeks).  We already have our passports - but only have $2,000 to work with (that is the absolute max amount we have!)  I had heard about companion tickets before - so did a search in google and your site came up.  We have searched the different discount air fare sites and the cheapest tickets we found were for $1,300 each.  I am hoping you can help - we haven't seen them in 2 1/2 years and really want to be able to find a way there (and back).

Answer
Hi Shari:

Congrats on your worthy research efforts. My expertise is FREE travel. Aside from my concern about the 'timing' you could have AND STILL CAN go to Japan FREE just as we have not paid for our global travels these past ten or more years. Aside from your expected...sounds too good to be true...you need only take your homework a bit further. Before I toss web  sites, LINKS and info you will need....I did some checking...as if I were setting the trip up for ourselves. Before I get to the good  news here are the possible glitches given your situation:

First, if you were reading this six months ago you would be likely qualify for the two FREE tickets to Japan RIGHT NOW. The same holds true if you can wait till October. The only glitch in using free travel arises when people have time constraints, like you must fly SOON. The time lag in this offer of free tickets is likely 4-6 months from today.


The Citibank promotion that can get you two free tickets requires you spend $750 in purchases for each card. Since you will each have two cards this adds up to $3,000 of spending for both of you. Using your cards instead of checks for all possible family purchases, bills, repairs, medical, school etc. this would mean a delay of 2-6 months depending on how fast you spend $3000.

This is my favorite current offer. The Citibank offer permits you, with a few key strokes, to each obtain two Citibank Visa or Mastercards, one personal and perhaps one business (yes, anyone can get a Business card....IF they do it correctly...also explained). The cards are FREE, annual fees are waived. The best part, you instantly get 50,000 American airline miles (25,000 per card) good for a FREE RT ticket to Japan OFF PEAK which is Oct thru April. So very close on the timing...but not close at all if you wait 7 months till October.

Here is the American Airlines award chart. IF you needed to go earlier in Peak season here is a LINK that shows you may BUY the extra miles needed, in this case 15,000 miles each to pump up your American account to 65,000 miles needed for PEAK season fares as of May 1st. Cost to buy the 15,000 miles is $375 plus $30 fee plus tax all way under your budget. But as noted tickets are FREE thru April and as of next October.

I've put together info and LINKS that will immerse you into the FREE travel world. Plus our newsletters (totally FREE to all). Here we go:

First read my FREE TRAVEL article: http://ctnsummer2007ed.blogspot.com

Next a back issue, our Summer 2007 CTN  newsletter where the first article is on the super Citibank give-away that we would use to get such free tickets:  http://freectnsummer2007.blog.com

Our Fall 2007 CTN newsletter:   http://ctndec07.blog.com/


Next our just published Winter 2008 CTN newsletter:  http://ctnwinter08.blog.com

Should any LINKS not work check my YouTube promo video which also, in the text, has most newsletter LINKS:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VZ0zl1jVhPI

CAVEATS: I mentioned the Off Peak vs. Peak travel. Also, takes about 8-10 weeks to get the 50,000 miles into your account.

Of course I don't know how long the 'kids' will be in Japan so don't know how urgent that you go now versus October when FREE tickets would likely work. I do know that if, for any reason, they don't work for Japan you can use those 50,000 miles to treat yourselves to two free RT tickets to Europe off season or you need only 35,000 for 2 RT tickets to Maui etc. etc. All explained in the material.

Good luck. Feel free to send my follow-up questions...
GOOD LUCK and HAPPY (FREE) TRAVELS.