My husband and I originally planned to attend the 2016 games in Rio but we were discussing starting a family at the time and the Zika virus was new and scared us out of it. So we set our eyes on Tokyo, Japan for the 2020 Summer Olympics and put a plan in motion to do as much of this trip on airline miles and hotel points as we could. I studied dozens of articles from my favorite points and miles expert, The Points Guy, and started putting my newfound obsession to work for me. I now I want to share how we are attending the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Points and Miles.

Earning Enough Points and Miles to Get to Tokyo

Since we essentially had about 4 years to plan and save for this trip, I know that we could earn enough airline miles and hotel points to get there virtually for free. But the more exciting fact was that we were going to fly in Business class.

Why not first class? Most of my research found that there wasn’t much of a difference between first and business class except when you consider the price (airline miles or cash) of each product. I couldn’t bring myself to drain my rewards account for one-way first class suites and then have to fly the other way in economy (I would be so sad – first world problem), so I decided to do business class roundtrip instead.

Between 2016 and 2019, we traveled pretty frequently but flights alone never would have given us the airline miles that we needed. So we starting applying for and using credit cards with lucrative sign-up bonuses. We opened and earned bonuses on 5 different cards between the two of us to add to mile and points that we already had. By September 2019 (the earliest I could book flights), we had 235,000 American Airlines Miles, 98,000 American Express Membership Rewards, about 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards, and about 200,000 Marriott Points.

Whoa. Now let me tell you what my redemptions looked like.

International Business Class is THE Best

I know this because I’ve been drooling over other people’s pictures, Instagram stories ,and blog posts about lie flat seats, expensive champagne, multi-course meals, showers, premium pajamas, amenity kits, lounge access, etc., etc., etc. for forever. I have upgraded myself domestically before and it’s great to have the extra legroom but it’s easy to impress when domestic economy is such a punishment.

Listen to me when I say that I cannot wait for these flights in August. I’m preparing myself now to pretend like it’s not my first time. 

For our outbound flight, we are traveling Japan Airlines business class from SFO to HND for 60k miles and $5.60 each. That’s 120k airline miles and less than $12 cash for business class seats on a highly rated airline. JAL is a part of OneWorld so I was able to use some of my American Airlines miles to book these flights. What excites me the most about this booking is that I didn’t have to use hundreds of thousands of miles to book. In fact, this is an off-peak flight from SFO to HND in August and during peak season, this same flight would have been twice as much.

Pro-tip: Always consider the season when redeeming miles (and cash) for travel. You want to ensure that your hard earned miles (and money) are being spent the best way they can be.

On our flight home, we are flying Singapore Airlines from NRT to LAX for 92k miles and about $50 in fees each for a total of 184k miles and $100. Singapore Airlines is a dream airline for me and I’m just as excited to fly them home as I am for the trip in general. From LAX, we will use cash to get home on Southwest.

At the time of booking, these flights were over $5,000 each one-way. That’s about $20,000 worth of travel for less than $120. So far, our trip to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is off to a great start. But what about accommodations?

Where to Stay in Japan with Hotel Points

We will be away for about 12 days and we plan to take full advantage of traveling so far and not having the babies. Did you think we were traveling with a toddler and baby in business class? Ha! This trip is our annual baby-free vacation, if you hadn’t already caught on to that. Anyway, we plan to travel a little while in Japan and we will spend our time between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

Finding hotels with points availability during the Olympics was about as difficult as you’d imagine, especially in Tokyo. For that reason, we will only be in Tokyo for a short time during the days that we have tickets for events and be traveling the rest of the time. Here is our itinerary:

Tokyo – 1 night

Kyoto – 2 nights

Tokyo 3 nights

Osaka – 3 nights

Tokyo – 1 night

In Kyoto, we are staying at the Park Hyatt Kyoto for 30,000 World of Hyatt points (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards) per night. In Tokyo the first night, we are staying at a hotel near the airport because we arrive fairly late into the day and head to Kyoto the next day. On our second round in Tokyo, we will be at a non-points hotel that I booked with 60k Chase Ultimate Rewards points and cash and on the last night, we are at the Westin Tokyo for 40k Marriott Bonvoy points on our last night in Japan. In Osaka, we are staying at a Courtyard Marriott near the train station for 105,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

To Points or Not to Points (Tokyo edition)

You’ll notice that I decided to pay cash for some of our hotel nights instead of using all of my available points. The reason for this is because of what I found when I weighed the value of using my points vs. using cash. At the time I reserved my hotels, Park Hyatts were still redeemable for just 30k points per night, which is a steal. The price of the room that we got at this hotel is currently 207,000 JPY which is $1,880 USD! Almost $2,000 dollars a night. Chase Ultimate Rewards are worth about 1 cent per point when booking through the Chase portal (i.e. not transferring to travel partners) meaning that my 30k points had a value of about $300 if used to book a non-points hotel. In the case of the Park Hyatt Kyoto, I got WAY better value by transferring my points to Hyatt than I would have by using them in another way.

With that said, for the hotel that I used 60k points and cash for (about $450), I just couldn’t bring myself to use my points to make up for $450 when I could use them to stay at a hotel valued at almost $2k a night.

Full Tokyo Itinerary Loading…

I still have to get our train tickets to get us around Tokyo as well as get my list of restaurants, reservations, and activities booked. I’m so excited for this trip even though I’m going to miss my babies terribly. I think that’s the side of traveling that we don’t talk enough about – the need for independence and time to yourself or with your partner but also acknowledging how much you miss your kids. Anyway, that’s a post for another time.