Flying to Tokyo in Business Class with Points? Save over 32,000 points per person return with this one hack.
If Tokyo is on your list (and let’s be honest, it’s on a lot of people’s lists right now), this is one route where how you redeem your points makes a bigger difference than most people expect. On the surface, Japan looks straightforward. In reality, the program you choose - and the city you depart from - can swing the cost by tens of thousands of points.
The most common mistake we see is people defaulting straight to Velocity, assuming it will always be cheaper for Japan. Sometimes it is. Often, it isn’t - especially once you factor in availability and how many seats you actually need.
This is where Qantas Frequent Flyer actually pulls ahead.
When you search Tokyo using Qantas points, you’re not just searching one airline or one route. You’re tapping into multiple Australian departure cities, multiple partners, and far more consistent release patterns. That flexibility is what unlocks the real savings.
Here’s how the numbers look one-way, per person, when booking Tokyo with Qantas points in business class:
Example availability with Qantas points.
BNE → HND (Qantas flight)
82,100 points per person
This is the cheapest direct option and easily the most overlooked. Brisbane flyers are quietly getting a much better deal here - compared to SYD/MEL below.SYD / MEL → HND (Qantas flight)
98,400 points per person
Still reasonable, but you’re paying a premium simply for departing from SYD/MEL as they fall into a longer distance band that Qantas has set up.SYD/MEL → HND (Japan Airlines flight)
108,000 points per person
Slightly higher again, but Japan Airlines sometimes has better availability (only after a major seat drop) and a very solid onboard experience - which can matter if dates are tight. What many people also seek from Japan Airlines is their First Class from Sydney to Haneda for 155,000 Qantas points.
The key pattern to notice is that Sydney and Melbourne aren’t always the best value, even though they’re the most searched. Being open to Brisbane or Perth can immediately knock tens of thousands of points off the cost - with the most affordable rate at 82,100 points per person, it is a whopping 16,300 less points each way per person - or 32,600 points return.
Velocity can work for Tokyo, but it’s much more hit-and-miss. On paper, the pricing looks appealing:
SYD → HND / PER → NRT (Velocity points)
82,000 points per person
Sample ANA availability with Velocity points
That headline number is cheaper than Qantas from Sydney (and make sure you’re seeing the “Reward Seats” rate instead of the “Pay with Points” rate), but in practice availability is far more limited. Finding more than one seat can be tricky, and if your dates aren’t flexible, options dry up quickly. For solo travellers it can be fine. For couples or families, it’s often frustrating. Not to mention the ageing ANA product still being used on this route.
This is where the “hack” comes in - and it’s not a loophole or a trick. Experienced points hackers call it, repositioning. It’s simply understanding the where flexibility actually saves you points - especially when you’re trying to book 2+ seats. These rate differences start to really add up!
By being open to:
different Australian departure cities which falls within the lower distance band
flying Qantas or Japan Airlines
using Qantas points instead of defaulting to Velocity
you can save over 32,000 points per person return while also giving yourself more chances of actually finding seats.
If you want to search these routes properly, relying on airline websites alone usually isn’t enough. You need to see patterns, not just one day at a time.
You can either:
Search it yourself using a seat search tool like Gyoza Flights (there’s a 50% discount available), - use code VIVA50 for annual licence. It is a great tool for scanning Japan routes quickly.
Or get help finding seats from our Points experts, by using the seat search or seat drop monitoring service if you’d rather not spend hours refreshing calendars and looking for alternative routes.
Tokyo is one of those destinations where points strategy really shows. The pricing isn’t bad - it’s just easy to look at it the wrong way. A small shift in how you search can make a surprisingly big difference.
If you’re new to The Points World and not sure how to build a sustainable strategy to collect significant amount of points and redeem them for highly sought-after reward tickets, download our Points Blueprint to save time and avoid costly mistakes.
