Flights to Tokyo for next Easter

[Awcw1234]

Advice please! Just looking at flights for next March/April (Easter holidays). Direct flights from London to Tokyo are approximately £8000 for my family of 4 so looking at indirect now. Indirect flights from Manchester (30 mins from me) to Tokyo via Dubai with Emirates are less than £5000. I think this is a decent price for our dates but I’m not sure?🤔 Would I be mad to book these flights given the current world situation? Booking flights via China (which are significantly cheaper 🙄) aren’t an option as lots of flights from there are being cancelled. Thank you.

I wouldn’t personally book via Dubai. Those flights are cheap because they may not be reliable. I know more than one person who had to cancel trips to Asia (including Japan) this Easter because they were due to fly via the Middle East.

£2000 per person is roughly what direct flights to Japan have cost at Easter for the last few years. It’s expensive, but not far out of line with what is normal for the Easter holidays.

Be aware that JAL’s fuel surcharge is roughly doubling at the start of next month, so if the direct flight is a JAL flight they will be more expensive in a couple of weeks’ time.

We live 30 minutes from Manchester so ideally, I’d like to travel from there. Indirect is our only option really which means travelling via the Middle East?

The indirect prices I’ve found aren’t cheaper than normal I don’t think. I was looking at prices before the war and this is what they were?

You can fly Cathay Pacific Manchester to Hong Kong then Hong Kong to Tokyo. I did it a couple of weeks ago in order to avoid transiting through the middle east.

There’s also European connections. AirFrance fly to Tokyo and Osaka, as do Finnair. JAL also fly to Frankfurt in addition to London, Paris and Helsinki.

The Middle East isn’t the only option.

I’ve read that flying via China isn’t a good idea as China are cancelling half of their flights to Japan?

TBH no-one knows what state the airline industry will be in this time year so it's hard to advise.

If you're looking for the option that would leave you best placed should a connection not work out I'd opt for London-Tokyo on one of the several non stoppers (maybe flying down from MAN), that way if you get stuck/delayed anywhere it's in the UK so fairly easy to get home by road, rail or air....

Yeah, I’m jus struggling to find decent prices 😟

Lufthansa via Munich
Swiss via Zurich
KLM via Schiphol

All would be less risky than ME.

You’re a bit early. 11 months before and there will be most flights released.

I think that’s mainly from mainland China.
Cathay are cancelling some flights due to fuel shortages but think that’s different issue.

@Awcw1234 The prices are high because it’s the Easter holidays and peak cherry blossom season. I’ve been to Japan for the Easter holidays for the last three years. These prices sound fairly normal to me.

The flights at that time of year are eye watering. We’re going back in September and our flights were over £1000 per person cheaper than the same flights would have cost us this Easter (we went via Helsinki on our way home, which saved a few hundred each).

The world and their dog want to travel to and from Japan during that 2-3 week window.

We’re looking for the exact same! So I’m following with interest.

We’ve just got back from Japan and flew Cathay. No issues at all with either leg. I think it’s Air China that’s affected by cancellations.

So do the indirect prices I’ve quoted sound normal via Dubai then? Wish I had a crystal ball and knew what the situation will be this time next year 😩

April 2025 flew JAL for £1200 each. So it's was possible then, but not now.

£1250 for decent indirect flights (not via mainland China) at that time of year definitely doesn’t seem higher than usual. I seem to recall that when we booked last year for this Easter, flights via the Middle East were about £1500pp vs the £1900 odd that we paid. DP wanted to take the Dubai flight and was a bit annoyed at me at the time for not taking the cheaper option. Turned out to be the right call, even though a potential war wasn’t the reason why I didn’t want to take those flights.

We went for that sort of money in 2025 too, but Easter was late in 2025 and outside of the expected cherry blossom peak. In 2024 and 2026 when Easter fell at the end of March to early April we paid closer to £2k. Next year is another March-April Easter, which ramps up the prices.

Thanks all. Think I will wait a few weeks to see what happens when other airlines release their flights.

Has anyone flown via Turkish Airlines/Instanbul?

@Awcw1234 No, but I’ve heard pretty good things about them from colleagues.

I’d imagine flights via Istanbul are less vulnerable to cancellation than ones via the Gulf or mainland China. Obviously anything can happen, but Istanbul seems a better bet from a geopolitical angle to me. I’d also be fairly confident with Cathay via HK too if they have a good price.

I flew Turkish airlines Edinburgh to Istanbul then to Qatar for a holiday last year..... (A lot cheaper than edi- Doha direct)They are a great airline. Good reputation clean, good food. I'd fly again with them if needed.

We did Air France & KLM to Tokyo last year
no complaints, transfers were short, flights were excellent

Fly to Shanghai, spend a few days there then hop over to Japan.

@PoppySeedBagelRedux Over the last couple of months Chinese airlines have cancelled more than 60% of their Japan flights. Those routes aren’t reliable due to diplomatic tensions.

Yeah, this is why I won’t book via China. Shame as the Chinese flights are like £3k!!!