Going to Europe via Tokyo?

[SCM]

Hello

I have some conferences to attend around Jan/Feb, and I'm very interested in the concept of going to Europe via Japan (Tokyo specifically) in J. Ideally with ANA because I assume the new VA 2.0 partnership is not far away. These Japanese airlines are happy to allow a "long layover" in Japan for such a ticket as well.

Typically JAL and ANA discount such a trip because obviously it's a long and indirect journey through Japan, however right now the cheapest is JAL 5.6k and ANA 6.8K - which is not only that cheap, but I'm also unsure why there is such a big price difference between them.

Origin SYD, I am happy to fly to AMS, CDG, FRA or any smaller airport in the area, but I can't seem to get far in terms of prices. Flying out of AMS is ideal but not a requirement.

Does anyone have any experience with this, and do you recommend any specific airports to search for? I've tried to play around with different options according to ANA's website in terms of where they fly to, but nothing seems cheaper than FRA or CDG anyway (though I haven't exhaustively tried all options). Also, what might be some good "pre-covid" return J prices for such a trip, just to get some idea?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would just go to google flights. You can select multiple destinations. The Japanese carriers will be in the mix. about the best you can get to europe these days via anywhere is in the $4800 range and up, for carrier like Etihad and Bamboo. $5600 is a pretty good fare.

 

[SYD]

I did Europe via Tokyo on JL precovid. About $5k from memory. I found it using ITA Matrix but got a TA friend to book it.

Initially it was SYD-LHR//CDG-SYD but I worked out I could get France in for free (we were going to a birthday bash) plus a status run at the end! So ended up with (all J):
(QF) SYD-HND-(BA)-LHR. In one hop.
(BA) LHR-TLS
(JL) CDG-NRT - spent a couple of days in Tokyo
(JL) HND-SIN-(QF)-SYD

JL was quite good not to mention a tidy SCs haul (albeit QF not VA).

I’d happily do it again.

Edit: and most importantly - it’s all one ticket! No repositioning and seperate tickets shenanigans like I’m currently on to Europe via CGK/DPS.