Tokyo Return

[XavierP]

G'day,

I am finding it really hard to put together an itinerary for Tokyo. I fly there several times a year and it has been a mixture of JQ and QF. I am really trying to avoid JQ but they offer a lot of SC for example for "business", you can get up to 180SC by taking 2 flights one way. I have no lounge access on return so I tend to book with QF to access the lounge.

My question is that how can i find a better route? Cathay is not viable for me due to reasons but apart from that I am mostly game. One option is flying to Narita through Nadi in Fiji Airways and/or return. I am looking at this for my return leg but in Comfort Economy; now sure what that class if and how many SC that would land me if I did NRT-NAN-BNE? Trying to work out the SC's is my newbie issue. It's a bit confusing when airlines have their own class types such as "Value, Comfort & Plus"

Happy to take long routes to maximise SC's if need be. But trying my best to avoid the return flight from Tokyo in JQ.

Starting location is Brisbane.

Would greatly appreciate thoughts and pointers. Thank you.

 

[Quickstatus]

I fly there several times a year and it has been a mixture of JQ and QF.

But trying my best to avoid the return flight from Tokyo in JQ.

Why limit yourself to those airlinesand do you really need the SC?
You need to indicate your home port - without that very difficult to help

 

[Forg]

Is there a reason not to JAL, which I believe are OneWorld?

 

[XavierP]

Why limit yourself to those airlinesand do you really need the SC?
You need to indicate your home port - without that very difficult to help

Not limiting. I just gave that as an example and looking for thoughts and ideas. So please suggest

 

[Quickstatus]

So please suggest

whats your home port

 

[XavierP]

whats your home port

Sorry, it's Brisbane. I edited the original post
Thank you so much.

 

[elanshin]

So with BNE as your starting point for time and efficiency its only QF and JQ that fly there. BNE-NRT is probably the weakest of the QF routes in terms of general demand when compared with the others (probably because it exists on JQ too) and i find is often the most likely to have award space.

If you're trying to maximise QF SC per $ then JQ Busines is one of the top contenders there's really no two ways about it. If you're after QF routes then going backwards from HND-SYD-BNE or NRT-MEL-BNE might be a consideration. To japan this is only feasible on BNE -SYD-HND with the evening departure.

Once you move past QF, your status gains aren't too great. You could do BNE-SIN-TYO (with mix QF/JL) but you're adding a big chunk of time to the journey. BNE-MNL-NRT is one option but you're on Jetstar Japan from MNL and Tokyo.

You could go via Fiji, but i prefer Singapore as it's a much nicer stopping point and loads of things to do at Changi.
If you're considering non OW then there's a few other options as well.

 

[Quickstatus]

SQ is a possibility from BNE with generally 3-4 hr layover outbound but a much longer inbound unfortunately.

But yes, BNE is difficult