Virgin Atlantic Air Fare hike
 

Just checking out how much it will cost to go home for Chrismas. I'm completely blown away by the 400,000 Yen price for an economy seat from Tokyo to London return. I'm sure it used to be about 150,000-200,000 Yen. Is this right?

That is outrageous.

The clue is in the question. You want to fly for Christmas. Check out the flight costs at less demanding times of the year and I suspect you'll find they're far more reasonable.

Yay Capitalism!

I've tiddled around with the Virgin Atlantic booking thing, and they seem to be responding to the demand for English people wanting to go home for Christmas - A return TO Tokyo for Christmas is the usual £630, but FROM Tokyo is 410,000 Yen. One-way flights aren't an option either, as that's also stupid expensive.

Try a Japanese airline. You may find their situation is the exact opposite. I wouldn't count on it, though, as Christmas isn't such a pressing concern for the Japanese, and they are likely to have also cottoned on to English in Japan wanting to go home for this "family" time.

Right, I've just searched ba.com for flights leaving NRT on the 21st December and leaving LHR on the 29th December (avoiding Boxing Day, which is the 28th, and thus could be more expensive), and it came to "From ¥32500", which is far more realistic. Bear in mind BA quote you per leg, so that's ¥32500 each way, but it's far more in line with what I'd be expecting to pay.

I've flown LHR <-> NRT with both Virgin and BA, and they're equally as good as each other. It's common to think of BA as the expensive option, but they can be just as affordable as Virgin :)

Air fare
 

Troo, 30,000? I think you meant 300,000, but this is way over what I paid two years ago. I'm a Virgin Flying Club member as I used to fly once a year an collect points. My points will run out so need to make a trip. It took a while but I actually did a return trip a few years ago on points and that did cost 30,000 for tax or something. I never thought I'd be priced out of visiting home!

As much as I hate them, I've been flying American Airlines for years. I dislike the delays, the service, and many other things, but their prices are usually lower than anyone else's.

After years of abuse, I became a AA "platinum-level" member, and I have a membership in the "Admiral's Club", which I love.

No, I meant 35,000. That's why I typed it. I even copied and pasted it directly from BA.Com, as I know I'm not good with numbers and didn't want to get it wrong.

I mean, you could go there yourself and check it out. It's a whole seven or eight mouse clicks.

The round trip from Tokyo to London came to just under £600 before taxes, so shouldn't be more than £800 after taxes. I've never paid more than £650 for a round trip between London and Tokyo, and would never reccommend that anyone else do either - unless they want to get out of the hold and pay £3,000 for first class ;)

32,500, rather. See how bad I am with numbers? :mtongue:

Anyway, I clearly have nothing better to do, so here: