Temporary Low Cost Travel Cafe

[krahd]

Hi all,
I am going to go from Singapore to Tokyo next August (I already have my tkt from home to Singapore and from Tokyo to home), and I'm wondering about the cheapest way to do it (I am a student, money is a really big issue!)

It would be great if I can save some money by doing a connection in between and then getting know another city... (something like Hong Kong would be awesome).

Any advice would be deeply thanked!!

--krahd

[krahd]

I must add that if there is a cheap direct way, I'd take that, just to save some money...

any help would be great, i'm kind of lost and departure day is approaching (I'll get to Singapore the 24 of july)

thanks!
krahd

[attitudetravel]

Hey krahd, welcome to the Low Cost Travel Cafe.

You can fly from Singapore to the Philippines or to Macau very cheaply on Tiger Airways - Asia's closest equivalent to Europe's pioneer no-frills airline, Ryanair.

You can then fly from Manila, Macau or Hong Kong to Tokyo on a regional airline such as Eva Air or, say, the Hong Kong flag carrier, Cathay Pacific. The tricky bit is still getting to Japan from anywhere in Southeast Asia or East Asia without paying over the odds.

There has been talk for some time of the Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) starting up its own international budget airline, but that project is still on the drawing board. In the meantime, there aren't yet any low cost airlines currently flying to anywhere in Japan from any country (unless you count Jetstar International, but that's a long-haul low fare airline which flies to Japan from Australia).

Unfortunately this means that to get to Japan cheaply from another Asian country, pretty much your only option at present is to look for special offers from travel agents distributing flights from JAL, ANA, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Thai, MAS, Philippine Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Eva Air etc.

One option you might want to look into is the charter flights to Tokyo Narita offered by Viva Macau, though they're not available online and the fact that what's being offered is described as Viva Macau Japan charter packages doesn't fill me with hope that you can easily buy a simple, cheap, no-frills, one-way seat from Macau to Japan.

[attitudetravel]

The Cathay Pacific All Asia Pass would be close to what you're looking for if there were an "Only Asia" option and you could start your journey outside Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, to get the pass, you have to pay for the Transpacific flights to and from Hong Kong as part of the deal, which makes it pretty useless in this instance.