There are a few anime song singers in Japan I love to go see at a concert. I love it so much that I go to Japan from US just to get to a couple of them (or even just one that I really like) and get back. As a result, I often book flights around these concerts. There are certain things I’m looking for (in priority order):
- Minimize PTO Usage:
As a tech industry worker in the bay area, there are plenty of workplaces with “Unlimited PTO” but that really doesn’t mean what it says as coworkers and your manager starts noticing you once you take too many of them. I also don’t try to minimize this by “working at Japan” or “working on plane” because my work productivity is simply not high enough. Using too much PTO may mean that when my favorite artist announces a new concert/tour, I may not be able to go to them.
2. Maximize surrounding events/concerts:
Usually, I’m planning my Japan trip around a single concert to go to. But I do like going to concerts in general. So I try to look for other concerts surrounding the concert I want to go and will book flights with that in mind.
3. Cost
Flying to Japan is expensive. If I run out of money, I will have many problems in life. I should try to minimize cost.
4. Keeping my flights in the same alliance:
It’s really hard to keep up with these schedules without some of the benefits you get from achieving airline status. Because I mainly fly out of SFO, this means keeping most of my flights to be Star Alliance (United).
5. Choose Haneda over Narita whenever possible:
Narita airport often has longer immigration line.
Narita airport is often very far from concert venues.
6. No overnighting at the airport:
I have once decided to overnight at an airport to save cost. When I got to Japan, I was sick as a result of the overnight. I didn’t end up enjoying the concert and I had a flight back the next day. :(
There is a flight that meets most of these criteria pretty well and that I often try to use:
This route takes a PTO on Friday, arrives at Haneda on Saturday 2 PM which lets me go to any night concerts that typically start around 5~6PM. For the return flight, I don’t have to worry about hurrying back to the airport after Sunday night concert (as my flight back is Monday) but at the same time, arrives at SFO just early enough to go to work on Monday morning (The flight arrives at 8:40 AM or 9:20 AM depending on daylight savings).
But this price tag is insanely high. In fact, this price tag is high every week. Here is the price for all 3-day roundtrip ticket prices for non-stop star alliance flights on September and October.
The annoying aspect of this is that just by starting and ending at Los Angeles, things get quite a bit cheaper even though you end up taking the same flights (plus a few extras).
