Japan and South Korea are hotspots for international travelers interested in the Asia-Pacific region. Between each country’s fantastic food, distinct cultures, and wonderful people — not to mention the world’s obsession with K-pop, anime, K-dramas, and technology — there’s no shortage of reasons to visit.

I hadn’t been back to South Korea in about 20 years, and this was my first visit to Japan, which is why I was so excited to plan a points-and-miles trip there with my wife, kids, and parents.

Two of my goals for this trip included booking business class award tickets for the whole group and taking full advantage of World of Hyatt Globalist elite status perks. Here’s how I planned our years-in-the-making trip to Japan and South Korea with travel credit cards and a lot of research.

Quick overview of our trip to Japan and South Korea

Our itinerary, using both planes and trains, took us from Las Vegas → Dallas → Tokyo → Kyoto → Osaka → Busan → Jeju → Busan → Seoul → Seattle → Las Vegas.

• Total trip time: About six weeks (40 days)

• Number of flights: 7

• Number of hotels: 7

• Number of vacation rentals: 4

• Number of airport lounges visited: 7

• Number of bullet trains taken: 2

• Total number of points and miles used: 1,048,500 mixed rewards

• Approximate cash value of rewards used: $63,340

Credit card perks and rewards we used to visit Japan and South Korea

Between my wife, my parents, and myself, we used multiple credit card rewards and miles to plan this trip. We already had many of these cards, but we did apply for and open several new credit cards in anticipation of this adventure and future travels.

Here’s a breakdown of the cards we used to plan and enhance our trip:

Personal credit cards

We used our American Express® Gold Card to earn Amex Membership Rewards points for transfers to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. This is typically my go-to grocery credit card.

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We used our Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to make purchases with no foreign transaction fees, including eSIM and shopping purchases that don’t fall into common rewards categories. We also used card benefits to receive Priority Pass, Capital One Lounge access, and credit for the Global Entry application fee.

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We used our Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to make car rental purchases with no foreign transaction fees and to earn Chase points for transfers to World of Hyatt. We used this card for car rentals because it has excellent car rental coverage.

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We used our Chase Sapphire Reserve® to make purchases with no foreign transaction fees at restaurants and to earn Chase points for transfers to World of Hyatt. We also used benefits to receive a credit for the Global Entry application fee and to access Priority Pass lounges.

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We used our Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Card's annual free night reward to book a one-night stay at the Conrad Osaka, and the Hilton Honors Diamond elite status benefit to receive a complimentary room upgrade, free breakfast, and access to the executive lounge. We also used the $199 CLEAR® Plus benefit for a CLEAR® Plus membership.

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We used our Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card to make purchases with no foreign transaction fees, including at Tokyo Disneyland to buy concessions and ride access through the Tokyo Disney Resort app. We had read beforehand that Amex cards worked well at Tokyo Disneyland, and we had no issues.

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We used The Platinum Card® from American Express to access a Centurion Lounge and a Delta Sky Club in different airports. We also used the $199 CLEAR® Plus benefit for a CLEAR® Plus membership.

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We used our The World of Hyatt Credit Card: Used to earn Hyatt points to book hotel stays for the trip. We also took advantage of the five qualifying night credits benefit and two additional qualifying night credits per $5,000 spent benefit to earn and maintain Globalist elite status.

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Business credit cards

We used our Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® to earn AAdvantage miles for the trip.

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We used our Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card to receive one free checked bag each on our Delta flight from Seattle to Las Vegas.

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We used our IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card for a Global Entry application fee reimbursement.

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We used our Ink Business Cash® Credit Card to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the trip.

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We used our Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the trip.

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We used our Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the trip.

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We used The Business Platinum Card® from American Express to earn Amex Membership Rewards points for the trip.

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We used our Wyndham Rewards Earner® Business Card to earn Wyndham Rewards points for the trip. This is typically my go-to gas credit card.

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We used our AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Business Mastercard® to earn AAdvantage miles for the trip, as well as attraction tickets from a Japanese website when my Visa and Amex cards wouldn’t work (card is currently unavailable).

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Debit cards

These aren’t credit cards, but they can help withdraw local cash from ATMs in foreign countries with low or no fees:

• Wise Card: We used this card to withdraw cash from ATMs in Japan and South Korea. We had already converted the money into local currencies through our online account when the exchange rates were good. The withdrawals were free on the Wise end because we stayed within the monthly withdrawal limits.

• Charles Schwab debit card: This card offers unlimited ATM fee rebates worldwide for cash withdrawals. We’ve often used it to avoid hefty ATM fees in different countries.

• Chase debit card: Chase Private Client Checking customers have no ATM fees worldwide. My parents used this card to withdraw cash from ATMs in Japan and South Korea.

Breakdown of the points and miles we redeemed for our trip

Different loyalty programs and transfers involved many moving parts, but our two primary credit card rewards sources for this trip were Chase credit cards (Chase Ultimate Rewards) and American Express credit cards (Amex Membership Rewards points).

These rewards programs provided the points needed to book most of the hotel stays on this trip and some of the flights. The AAdvantage miles were used for a business class flight to Tokyo, while the Wyndham Rewards points covered a Vacasa stay in Seattle on the way back.

The flight to South Korea from Japan was booked with cash on Jeju Air, a South Korean low-cost carrier. We also made cash bookings on Jeju Air to fly roundtrip between Busan and Jeju.

During our time in South Korea — including in Jeju, Busan, and Seoul — we primarily stayed in Airbnbs and paid for these stays with Airbnb gift cards. Airbnb is a popular option for us because many hotel rooms don’t accommodate four guests. We also like having kitchens and multiple rooms to spread out. I regularly check for discounts on Airbnb gift cards and build up our balance over time. If you plan to use Airbnb gift cards, make sure you read the terms and conditions first

My strategy for booking flights to Japan and South Korea with credit cards

I wanted to book at least one business class flight on this trip, which was somewhat intimidating considering business class award seat availability doesn’t typically stretch to five or six tickets at reasonable prices.

I originally had a few different flights booked to Tokyo, including Japan Airlines economy class (one of the world's best economy class options) out of San Francisco and American Airlines premium economy class out of Los Angeles. Both airfare options were booked with American miles, allowing free cancellation at any time before flying.

Some airlines release more award availability as the departure date approaches. So, as the trip approached, I checked for business class availability 14 days from the current date. The AA.com site's calendar view made it easy to search for award flights.

Tourism in Japan was rising to record numbers, so I didn’t expect much regarding award availability, even with trip reports coming in via Facebook and Reddit about sweltering hot and humid weather. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see plenty of business class availability to Tokyo (HND and NRT) on AA.com from loads of different airports.

In the weeks leading up to our planned departure date, I checked award flights every day, often multiple times per day. When the day finally came that we were 14 days out from departure, I was ready. (Note: It was closer to 15 days out because Japan Airlines released availability according to Japan Standard Time, so it was the night before in my time zone.)

I found the flights I wanted, input all the information for the individual travelers in our group, and put the flight on hold (an extremely useful benefit when booking through American). I then canceled the other flights, waited for my miles to be reinstated (this required a quick call to American to expedite the process), and completed the held booking.

Soon after, I also called in to add our youngest child as a lap infant, which required paying 10% of the adult ticket cash price for Japan Airlines. The hundreds of dollars for the lap infant ticket was well worth the cost of getting five business class tickets for the rest of our group.

Over a few years, we opened and used three credit cards and one bank account to amass the 300,000 AAdvantage miles required for these tickets. American miles are generally more challenging to accrue because few rewards programs transfer points to the AAdvantage rewards program.

You could transfer Bilt points to American for a while, which I took advantage of with the Bilt Mastercard, but that partnership ended in June 2024. However, most of my AAdvantage miles came from earning welcome offers with the AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Business Mastercard® and Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® and storing money in a Bask Mileage Savings Account.

We paid cash for the short flight between Japan and South Korea and the domestic Korean flights. We used Virgin points to fly Delta to the U.S. from South Korea and to Las Vegas from Seattle.

Delta availability on the Virgin website is typically extensive but varies by route and date. I had no issues finding and booking flights ahead of time, including adding a lap infant for the SEA to LAS journey. I already had plenty of Virgin points available because I’d taken advantage of a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin using Amex Membership Rewards points.

My strategy for booking hotels and other lodging with credit cards

Hyatt is my and my wife’s preferred hotel brand. We usually stay at Hyatt hotels, with other stays mainly spread out between IHG and Hilton properties and vacation rentals. We first qualified for Globalist, the highest Hyatt elite status, in 2021, and we’ve been fortunate to continue as Globalists today.

We booked 20 Hyatt nights (two rooms per night) for 441,000 points, accounting for half of our lodging for the trip. We also had one night at a Hilton, one night flying to Japan, a few nights with family, and 14 nights in vacation rentals (Airbnb and Vacasa).

A few of us have the World of Hyatt Credit Card, but most of our Hyatt bookings were fueled by Chase points transferred to our World of Hyatt accounts. Valuable welcome bonuses on the Ink Business Preferred, Ink Business Cash, and Ink Business Unlimited cards were especially helpful in building our Chase points banks.

All of our Hyatt stays were booked with Globalist benefits. We already had these benefits, but we made Guest of Honor bookings for my parents so they could also have them. (Side note: my parents ended up qualifying for Globalist status on this trip.)

Here are some of the Hyatt benefits we received:

• Hyatt Regency DFW International Airport: Early check-in, complimentary breakfast, and a proactive upgrade to the Presidential Suite with a connecting room.

• Hyatt Regency Tokyo: Access to the Regency Club Lounge, which included breakfast and an evening cocktail hour that easily worked as dinner.

• Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya: Early check-in and complimentary breakfast. We used a Suite Upgrade Award here to guarantee a larger room since the standard rooms wouldn’t accommodate four of us.

• Hyatt Place Kyoto: Complimentary breakfast.

• Caption by Hyatt Namba Osaka: Complimentary breakfast.

• Grand Hyatt Jeju: Late checkout and access to the Grand Club, which included breakfast, afternoon tea, and evening cocktails. The evening cocktail hour had more than enough food to function as a dinner. We used a Suite Upgrade Award to experience one of their gigantic standard suites, which had about 1,400 square feet of space.

For the one Hilton night, we used free night certificates from the Amex Hilton Aspire card (our group had two of these) to stay at the Conrad Osaka. We received complimentary upgrades to larger corner rooms and access to the Executive Lounge.

The lounge offered complimentary snacks, afternoon tea, and a cocktail time that was good enough for dinner. We also received complimentary breakfast in the Atmos restaurant, which included a full breakfast buffet and unlimited ordering from an a la carte menu.

For the Vacasa stay in Seattle, I used 54,000 Wyndham Rewards points earned on my go-to gas credit card, the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card. This card offers a 10% discount on certain award booking redemptions, including Vacasa.

For the Airbnb stays, we used Airbnb gift cards.

Tips and tricks for visiting Japan

Navigating Japan

Google Maps is extremely helpful and easy to use in Japan. We always used it to find directions, whether walking or taking public transportation. You can download areas to use offline maps, but you’ll need an internet connection to get transit directions.

Available transportation in Japan

Japan has excellent public transportation, so there’s no real need to use taxis in most situations. If you have an iPhone, I recommend setting up an IC card — a rechargeable card (like Suica) that you can use to ride public transportation and make purchases at convenience stores and certain vending machines — on your phone to use for public transit. You can quickly add funds with a credit card and tap on and off buses and trains with your device. You can also buy a physical card in person in Japan.

If you plan to use the Shinkansen (bullet train), consider booking your tickets ahead to be safe. There are plenty of available time slots, so you would probably be fine booking the same day or a few days before, but it doesn’t hurt to book early. We wanted specific seats to see Mt. Fuji on our way to Kyoto from Tokyo, so we booked early on the smartEX website.

Accessing internet/data in Japan

We have a T-Mobile plan that provides slow (but good enough for Google Maps) internet in most countries worldwide. I wanted faster internet, so I purchased and set up eSIMs — digital SIM cards — on our phones to access 5G and LTE speeds. There are plenty of eSIM options available in Japan and they typically aren’t hard to set up.

We used one eSIM (Ubigi) for both Japan and South Korea. It stopped working at some point in Japan, so I quickly purchased a cheap eSIM option from Klook that worked perfectly for the rest of our time until we left for South Korea (at which point, I switched back to the Ubigi eSIM, which was working again).

Payment methods to use in Japan

Credit cards are readily accepted in Japan's big cities, but it’s still worth having some cash on hand for different scenarios. We enjoyed checking out multiple food markets and small restaurants, where many merchants only accepted cash.

Our group used the Wise Card and a Chase debit card (Private Client Checking) to withdraw cash from ATMs without any fees from Wise or Chase. We typically use a Charles Schwab debit card, but I forgot it at home.

Commonly used languages in Japan

Learning a few local words and phrases is never a bad idea when traveling to another country. However, it’s still easy to travel to Japan without knowing any Japanese. We used Google Translate to talk to people and translate writing on menus, food items, and signs. It was especially helpful as we could check food labels for ingredients since our daughter has several allergies.

Japanese attractions

Japan is a popular tourist destination, so book your must-see attractions beforehand. This won’t matter for public attractions open to everyone, like Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. Still, it mattered for many of the attractions we booked, including the Ghibli Museum, teamLab Planets, a baseball game, Shibuya Sky, and Tokyo Disneyland.

If you know you want to do something, research how to book it well ahead of time. I had a running list of all our must-do attractions, when the booking schedules opened for each one, and how to book tickets. Certain subreddits and Facebook groups helped me find specific and updated information about different attractions.

We used Klook to book a few things while in Japan. Klook is super easy to set up and use, and we never had an issue with using our Klook tickets or vouchers.

Tips and tricks for visiting South Korea

Navigating South Korea

Google Maps isn’t great in South Korea, which I knew before our trip. To prepare, I set up a Naver Map account and used it a few times to get used to it. With an account, you can create lists, which was helpful for quickly finding attractions and lodging while we were out and about.

In some ways, we found Naver easier to use than Google Maps, like seeing upcoming driving directions.

Available transportation in South Korea

South Korea has excellent public transportation, so this was our go-to option in Busan and Seoul. I bought T-money cards at a convenience store, loaded them with cash funds, and we used them to ride buses and trains.

We rented a car on Jeju Island because we didn’t want to rely on buses to get around. We had no issues renting or driving a vehicle around different parts of Jeju.

If you plan to rent a vehicle in South Korea and you’re from the U.S., you’ll need an international driving permit. We got ours from a local AAA office for $20 each, plus some passport photos. We had spare photos, so we didn’t have to pay for those.

Note: You drive on the same side in South Korea as in the U.S., and the driving laws are similar, so it’s easy for experienced drivers to get acclimated. Keep in mind that there are speed cameras everywhere. Your preferred navigation app (we used Naver) should notify you if any are on your route. We noticed most local drivers would slow down for each camera and speed up immediately after passing them.

Accessing internet/data in South Korea

We purchased Ubigi eSIM plans that included Japan and South Korea, so we didn’t have to switch eSIMs between countries. The Ubigi eSIM worked well in South Korea. We also had our T-Mobile plans as backups.

Payment methods to use in South Korea

Credit cards are widely accepted throughout South Korea. We found we needed much less cash here than in Japan. However, you should carry some cash if you plan to visit any food or shopping markets. We visited multiple markets in South Korea, and many of the vendors only accepted or preferred cash.

You also need physical currency to reload T-money transportation cards. You can easily withdraw cash from ATMs at convenience stores.

Commonly used languages in South Korea

English is a popular language to learn in South Korea, so don’t be surprised if many locals speak it. However, this isn’t always the case, so be prepared with Google Translate, Papago, or another translation app. Knowing a few Korean words or phrases to be polite is also helpful.

South Korean attractions

We didn’t do as many big attractions (that required tickets) in South Korea as in Japan, but we still booked some things early. For example, the Haeundae Sky Capsule in Busan is popular, so we didn’t want to risk buying tickets at the booth. I’m glad we didn’t wait because it was bustling on the day we went.

We filled some of our time with attractions we booked with Klook on the same day, like going to Aqua Planet Jeju after a hike and lunch. Similar to Japan, Klook works very well in South Korea.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about visiting Japan and South Korea

Can I transfer Chase points to Japan Airlines?

You can’t transfer Chase points directly to Japan Airlines because JAL Mileage Bank isn’t a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. However, you can transfer Chase points to Marriott Bonvoy and then Marriott points to Japan Airlines.

We generally don’t recommend doing this because Chase points are often worth more than Marriott points, so you would likely lose value.

Can I transfer Chase points to Korean Air?

You can’t transfer Chase points to Korean Air SKYPASS because it’s not a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. You can earn SKYPASS airline miles by flying Korean Air and SkyTeam Alliance partner airlines, using certain credit cards, and taking advantage of partner offers.

How many AA miles do I need to fly to Japan?

The American Airlines award chart estimates you need between 35,000 to 95,000 miles to fly to Asia from North America. In practice, here’s how many AA miles you typically need to fly to Japan from the U.S.:

• Economy: 35,000

• Premium economy: 50,000

• Business: 60,000

• First: 80,000

Which airlines offer direct flights from the U.S. to South Korea?

Air Premia, American Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Delta, Hawaiian Airlines, Korean Air, and United Airlines offer direct flights from the U.S. to South Korea. These are a mix of airlines from multiple alliances, including oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance.

Many U.S. cities offer nonstop flights to Seoul, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Which airlines offer direct flights from the U.S. to Japan?

All Nippon Airways (ANA), American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Delta, Hawaiian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, and ZIPAIR offer direct flights from the U.S. to Japan. Most nonstop flights to Japan from the U.S. are through the Haneda (HND) and Narita (NRT) airports, but there are also some out of Osaka (KIX), Fukuoka (FUK), and Nagoya (NGO).

This article was edited by Rebecca McCracken

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