LCC Cheap Flight Booking Techniques: Sale Timing, Seat Selection and Baggage Fees
AuthorMIRUTOBE editors
Table of Contents6 items
Getting a budget fare in Japan down is not about waiting for a sale. It is about where and when you buy. Checked baggage and seat selection are cheapest on the website, dearer at the airport counter, and dearest at the gate.
The fees on top behave the same way. Jetstar charges a booking and service fee of JPY 690 per passenger per sector, and on Peach the JPY 640 ticketing fee disappears the moment you move one fare type up.
Check first: what to settle before you pick a fare type
- You know whether you are checking a bag (if you are, buying it through the fare type is sometimes cheaper)
- You know whether you want to choose your seat
- You know whether the dates might move (change fees vary enormously by fare type)
- You are comparing totals with the payment or ticketing fee already added
- You know the passenger facility charge is billed separately at both ends
The last one is the one that slips past. The passenger facility charge applies on departure and again on arrival, even one way. Spring Japan publishes its domestic figures: JPY 390 for an adult at Narita, JPY 370 at New Chitose, JPY 430 at Hakodate, JPY 440 at Chubu and JPY 340 at Hiroshima. New Chitose rises to JPY 530 for tickets issued and flown on or after 25 October 2026. A one-way Narita to New Chitose carries both airports’ charges.
Five steps to the number you will actually pay
Jetstar runs a separate peak-season price list on domestic routes. The peak dates are 28–31 August 2026, 17–28 September, 9–13 October, 30 October to 4 November, 20–24 November, 25 December to 12 January 2027, and 29 January to 27 March. On the 15kg allowance that means JPY 1,470–2,500 off-peak against JPY 1,720–2,800 in peak. Aiming at a long weekend, then, you are not only paying a higher fare: the options move with it, and the total has to be built on the peak column.
ZIPAIR builds its prices differently from the other three. The fare itself includes 7kg of hand baggage and nothing else — checked baggage, meals and seat selection all sit outside it. Above that there is a layer of service packages, Flex Biz, Value and Premium, on sale until 48 hours before departure. Checked baggage is chargeable from the first bag: JPY 4,000 Narita to Seoul, JPY 6,000 to Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore, JPY 7,500 to Honolulu, and JPY 11,000 to North American cities.
The full picture: what the cheapest fare leaves out, across four airlines
On Peach, if you already know you are checking a bag, Standard can work out cheaper than Minimum with the bag bolted on. Minimum adds JPY 640 for ticketing and JPY 2,000 for the bag, so JPY 2,640 of extras; Standard waives both. Wherever the gap between the two fares is smaller than JPY 2,640, the more expensive fare is the cheaper purchase. Locking in Minimum while the baggage question is still open is the version I would not do.
Only Jetstar’s Flex and Flex Plus drop the change fee altogether and let you move dates for the fare difference alone. Flex also allows a free same-day flight change and refunds into a flight voucher. Book Starter and then find the dates moving, and a domestic change costs JPY 6,000 within 30 days of departure, or JPY 5,000 at 31 days or more (for bookings made on or after 23 July 2026).
Where people trip up
The identical item costs more depending on where you buy it
Buy Jetstar checked baggage or a seat through the contact centre or at the airport and JPY 450 is added to the list price. Four options added that way is JPY 450 four times over. Making the booking itself anywhere other than the website costs more again: JPY 5,000 through the contact centre or JPY 3,500 at an airport counter, on domestic flights.
Peach charges JPY 2,200 to book through the contact centre and JPY 3,300 at an airport counter. Spring Japan charges JPY 1,000 for either. ZIPAIR has no fee on web purchases at all, but an administrative fee of up to JPY 2,000 through the contact centre, and JPY 1,000 if you pay for checked baggage by phone or at the counter. The ZIPAIR airport counter also does not accept cash.
Some payment methods exist only inside an app. Jetstar’s d Payment and au Kantan Kessai are available only when buying from a smartphone or the Jetstar app.
Of the two paid memberships that cut baggage costs, one is closed
ZIPAIR Point Club Plus costs JPY 5,000 a year and takes 30 per cent off checked baggage. The discount applies only when you are logged in and buying on the web, and sports equipment is excluded. Membership runs 365 days from the date you join and renews automatically. Since a checked bag from Narita to North America is JPY 11,000, two bags on a return trip save JPY 6,600 — the annual fee paid back inside a single round trip.
Club Jetstar gives 20 per cent off added baggage and seat selection on new online bookings, plus early access to some sales. New enrolments and renewals in Japan have been suspended since 1 July 2026, though, so there is no way in now. Only existing members with valid memberships can still use it.
When a flight is cancelled, you are rebooked onto the same airline or not at all
ZIPAIR’s international conditions of carriage, article 7 paragraphs 3 and 4, state that whether the cause lies with the airline or outside it, the remedy is a change to another of the company’s own flights with seats available, or a refund — and that except where specifically provided, no transfer to a flight other than the company’s own will be arranged.
The other three are built the same way. Peach’s article 7(B) offers carriage on another of its own flights with seats available, or a refund. Jetstar’s article 10.2 offers the next of its own flights with seats available, or a refund. Spring Japan’s domestic conditions, article 6(2)(i), offer the earliest subsequent flight of its own or another of its own flights. All of them state that they accept no liability for costs arising from a delay or cancellation except where the law requires it.
The thinner the route, the more this matters. On a route with one round trip a day, a cancellation puts the next flight of that airline tomorrow. ZIPAIR goes further in article 7 paragraph 2, saying it does not arrange connections and accepts no liability if a connection fails — which at least makes it clear where the risk sits when you build a connection yourself.
What if the dates move after you have booked
Choosing the cheapest fare means selling your freedom to change in exchange for a lower number. Peach’s Minimum cannot be changed to another flight at all, and on cancellation neither the fare nor the taxes and facility charges come back. There is no refund and no points.
Standard cancels for JPY 1,000 up to 30 days before travel and JPY 3,000 from 29 days out. Standard Plus allows a free flight change on the web and cancels for JPY 500. Where the gap between fares is inside that band, the more expensive ticket is the cheaper outcome.
What also gets missed is that the options go down with the flight. Peach states that changing flights cancels the seat selection and checked baggage attached to the original booking, and that those charges are not returned. Load up on seats and bags early, then move the dates, and you pay for them twice.
Jetstar does return the facility charges and taxes even on a non-refundable fare, less a JPY 3,000 administration fee for refunding them. The fuel surcharge and insurance are not returned. Where the fee would exceed the refund, the airline neither refunds nor charges the fee.
If the plan is to avoid checking anything, read the cabin allowance first instead. The weights and dimensions for all four airlines are set out in how the 7kg carry-on limit is counted.
Common questions: sale alerts, peak season, and payment fees
Where is the most reliable place to hear about a sale?
Email and the apps, which is what the airlines themselves run. Peach has a newsletter sign-up page and an official app, plus X, Instagram, Facebook and LINE. Jetstar has JetMail, registered from inside My Account, and an official app. ZIPAIR has the free ZIPAIR Point Club, which can only be joined on the ZIPAIR website. Spring Japan has a newsletter preferences page. How often the rounds actually come is recorded in our log of Jetstar sales.
How much more expensive is peak season?
The options rise with the fare. On Jetstar domestic routes, 15kg of checked baggage goes from JPY 1,470–2,500 at booking off-peak to JPY 1,720–2,800 in peak, and a Standard seat towards the rear from JPY 910–1,020 to JPY 1,030–1,140. Extra Legroom in the first row goes from JPY 1,650–1,800 to JPY 1,900–2,050. Spring Japan introduces a peak season of its own for travel from 21 December 2026, taking the 20kg allowance from JPY 3,500 off-peak to JPY 4,500 when bought on the official site.
Is there a way to avoid the payment fee?
It depends on the airline. Jetstar waives its payment fee only when you pay entirely with a flight voucher. Peach’s ticketing fee disappears if you buy Standard or Standard Plus. Spring Japan does not charge the payment fee for cash at an airport counter, but booking there costs JPY 1,000 instead. ZIPAIR has no such fee to avoid if you buy on the web.
How frequently each airline actually runs a sale is logged, airline by airline, in our record of airfare sales.
- Jetstar Japan — fare types and fare rules↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- Jetstar — fees and charges (payment, change, refund)↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- Jetstar Japan — conditions of carriage, article 10 (delay and cancellation)↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- Peach — fare types (Minimum, Standard, Standard Plus)↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- Peach — fees and charges (baggage, seats, cancellation)↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- ZIPAIR — fares and service packages↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- ZIPAIR — international conditions of carriage, article 7↗Checked on 2026-09-14
- Spring Japan — fare types and passenger facility charges↗Checked on 2026-09-14
Source: the reference block above / Photo: lasta29, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons) / Checked on 2026-09-14
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