It’s our first family trip to Japan. We flew to Osaka and spent most of our time in Kyoto. We started our journey early in the morning of 17th April from home to Kuching International Airport and flew to Kuala Lumpur International Airport with Malaysia Airlines for transit. Not for transit to Osaka, but to Ho Chi Minh, then to Osaka with Vietnam Airlines.
If we’re to take Malaysia Airlines or Air Asia, we would arrive on the same day. However, due to the expensive flight fares of our national/local airlines, we opted for a cheaper option with a longer time to reach Osaka. We only arrived in Osaka on the morning of 18th April.
Why Vietnam Airlines?
We bought Vietnam Airlines tickets to Osaka because it’s so much cheaper, as it happened to be on offer. It’s an average of less than RM1500 per pax for a return trip (KUL-SGN-KIX). There were 8 of us, 6 adults and 2 children. The cost would be quite high if we were to fly with our national/local airlines. It was between RM2300-3000 per pax because of peak season. Even Air Asia was more expensive than Malaysia Airlines after adding all the add-ons.
However, we bought Malaysia Airlines return tickets for Kuching-Kuala Lumpur. I redeemed my flight miles and topped up with cash. Aside from that, we had to stay a night in an airport hotel when we returned. Actually, we didn’t have to, but we’re just playing it safe in case there’s any delay with the flight back from Osaka to Kuala Lumpur and we miss our connecting flight to Kuching. Furthermore, there was no codeshare among them and flight tickets were booked separately.
We came in from 3 different locations and gathered at KLIA. Four drove from Ipoh to KLIA; one from Singapore to KLIA; and three from Kuching to KLIA. Even with that, the total average of our flight ticket and accommodation was less than RM2K per pax. Still a lot cheaper than flying with our national/local airlines. The only downside was the long travel time. We only got into our hotel room in Kyoto after 30 hours plus of commuting. Exhausting, but it’s OK.
Experience with Vietnam Airlines
Arrived in Osaka & Kyoto
Stay tuned for part 2.
Anyway, I’ve updated my trip until day 2 on my Instagram, you can check it out there.
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