Later this summer, Scott and I will be Japan-bound.  This is a trip we’ve been talking about for 18 years and through the magic of air miles and hotel points, we’re doing it on the cheap.  I’ve already talked about the fight portions and key requirements for the trip in a past blog entry.

As of today, we have booked all the hotels in Japan.  We’re staying at mostly Starwood properties – Sheraton Miyako Tokyo, Westin Miyako Kyoto, and Sheraton Hiroshima

And we’re staying at the Hilton Nagoya and Tokyo to use up my points on Hilton.

We haven’t got Hong Kong fully booked yet, but I’m hoping to by the end of July.

What I have found is that hotels are actually not too expensive for a city the size and status of Tokyo, as well as other places in Japan.  The cheapest hotel night is about $134 in Nagoya had we not paid with points.  The most expensive is $270 in Shinjuku and the cheapest being about $183 in Minato-ku, again had we not paid with points.  So far, we’ve saved about $1600. in hotels!

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel is the most expensive where the rate is $430 which is for one night – gotta splurge when we’re saving elsewhere for our last night on the trip. If we weren’t staying at Disney, we’d have only paid $265 in hotels, rather than $856 in hotel fees to date!

Were averaging about $220 a night had we paid, I’d say which is very reasonable for such a trip.  Try paying that in London!  With the points, $78 per night. Wow!

This trip is proving to be considerably cheaper than expected!  Just over $400 each for taxes on the airfare, which would have been between $13,000 to $29,000, this really does show the value of airline miles and hotel points.