I am planning a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto next year with my wife and doing 4 nights in Tokyo and 3 nights in Kyoto. I’ll be using Delta miles to book two roundtrip tickets there. I’m having a hard time deciding how to fly there:
A)
Open jaw where I’d be flying from BWI/IAD to NRT with atleast one stop (MSP, ATL, etc) then departing from KIX back to BWI/IAD BUT taking 2 stops on the way back (no flights with 1 stop). Take the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.
PROS:
I only have to pay for 2 one-way train tickets to Kyoto.
CONS:
The routing back home sucks with atleast 2 stops (with some flights containing a stop of 14 hours or more). Trying to use the least amount of miles.
B)
Flying into NRT from BWI/IAD then flying back. One stop on both to/from (MSP, ATL, etc)
PROS:
Only one stop leaving/arriving. The flight selection is ALOT better.
CONS:
I have two pay for two roundtrip ticket train tickets.
Here’s the big con: taking the train back to Tokyo from Kyoto on the same day my flight leaves almost defeats the purpose of having only one stop since the train ride is ~2.5 hours back to Tokyo.
So I guess, it really just comes down to: deal with 2 stops on the way back home from KIX or deal with a ~2.5 train ride before flying out of Tokyo. I know I could possibly reverse it to help alleviate the train return back to Tokyo but the flights to KIX still sucks. But atleast the flights to KIX seem to be a lot better than the departing flights.
What would you all do or recommend? Has anyone visited these two cities, if so, how did you set up your flight/train plans?
TIA
A)
Open jaw where I’d be flying from BWI/IAD to NRT with atleast one stop (MSP, ATL, etc) then departing from KIX back to BWI/IAD BUT taking 2 stops on the way back (no flights with 1 stop). Take the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.
PROS:
I only have to pay for 2 one-way train tickets to Kyoto.
CONS:
The routing back home sucks with atleast 2 stops (with some flights containing a stop of 14 hours or more). Trying to use the least amount of miles.
B)
Flying into NRT from BWI/IAD then flying back. One stop on both to/from (MSP, ATL, etc)
PROS:
Only one stop leaving/arriving. The flight selection is ALOT better.
CONS:
I have two pay for two roundtrip ticket train tickets.
Here’s the big con: taking the train back to Tokyo from Kyoto on the same day my flight leaves almost defeats the purpose of having only one stop since the train ride is ~2.5 hours back to Tokyo.
So I guess, it really just comes down to: deal with 2 stops on the way back home from KIX or deal with a ~2.5 train ride before flying out of Tokyo. I know I could possibly reverse it to help alleviate the train return back to Tokyo but the flights to KIX still sucks. But atleast the flights to KIX seem to be a lot better than the departing flights.
What would you all do or recommend? Has anyone visited these two cities, if so, how did you set up your flight/train plans?
TIA