Hello, everyone! I'm part of the study-abroad support team here. We're based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, so the tips in this column are written for people flying out of Japan from New Chitose Airport, which serves Sapporo.
"I'd love to study abroad. But how much is it actually going to cost me...?" It's one of the worries we hear most often when people come to us for advice.
Tuition. Student accommodation. Food. Travel insurance. Living costs once you're there. Add it all up and you end up thinking, "That's more than I expected..." Sound familiar?
Every time I go to New Chitose Airport, one small thing strikes me. The domestic terminal is packed with Japanese travellers, yet over in the international terminal I find myself thinking, "Not many Japanese people here."
There's more than one reason for that, of course. But I suspect the perception that travelling abroad is expensive is one of the things that holds people back from taking that first step.
You can't make every part of a study trip cheaper, but there are some costs you can do something about. The prime example is your flight.
Even if you're travelling from Sapporo to the same school for the same one-week programme, what you pay can vary considerably depending on the flights and dates you choose.
So this time I'd like to share six tips for booking your study-abroad flights a little more cleverly. No dodgy tricks, I promise: these simply make good use of the way travel search sites and airlines work, and I've chosen them in the hope that you'll think, "I might give that a try."
First, the short version...
Finding cheaper flights isn't necessarily about spotting a bargain straight away. Often, it's simply a matter of adjusting your search and comparing a few different options.
For example, try changing things like this:
- Instead of leaving on Saturday, try Friday
- Instead of a direct flight, try one with a connection
- Instead of coming home on Sunday, try Monday
- Instead of one through ticket from New Chitose, take a domestic flight to Tokyo or Osaka and look for the international flight separately
Do that, and the price of the very same study trip can change.
These are the six things I'd recommend this time:
- ① Move your departure and return dates by a day or two either way
- ② Use price alerts instead of searching every day
- ③ If you have time, consider connecting flights and stopovers
- ④ Weigh a cheaper day against the cost of an extra night before or after
- ⑤ Look at the final amount you pay, baggage included, not the advertised fare
- ⑥ Check how the ticketing date affects the fuel surcharge
Let's look at them one at a time.
① Forget which day to buy: think about which day to fly
Have you ever heard that flights are cheaper if you buy them on a Tuesday? I used to hear it too, with an explanation along the lines of "airlines update their prices on Tuesdays..."
Recent data, however, suggest that the day of the week you buy on doesn't matter all that much. In an analysis Google Flights published in 2026, buying on Wednesday, the cheapest day, came out only about 1.4% below Sunday, the most expensive.
The day you actually fly, on the other hand, made a bigger difference. The same analysis found that itineraries built around weekdays were about 14% cheaper than those built around the weekend.
This analysis isn't limited to trips from Japan, though, so it doesn't mean "flying on a weekday is always 14% cheaper in Japan too". Even so, it's worth resisting the habit of defaulting to weekend dates.
On a study trip, for instance, moving into the dormitory on Sunday and starting lessons on Monday is the usual pattern. Depending on the fares, though, it can be cheaper to leave on Friday and arrive on Saturday.
For how to plan a one-week study trip and how to pick quieter times of year, see Can You Study Abroad on 5 Days of Paid Leave? The 8-Day, 7-Night "One-Week Study Abroad" Model for Working Adults.
② Searching every day is exhausting, so let a price alert do the work
Once you start looking for flights, you check in the morning. You check at lunch. You check again at night. And again the next day. Then your heart sinks: it's gone up ¥2,000 (about US$13) since yesterday! I suspect some of you have been there.
That's where price alerts come in.
On Google Flights, you can set up price tracking for specific dates and routes. You'll then get a notification when, for example, the price changes significantly or is expected to rise. Skyscanner has a price alert feature too: register a route and dates you're interested in (or save a flight), and it will email you when the price changes.
In other words, you don't need to stand guard over a flight website every day.
Once you start thinking about studying abroad, even before you've formally applied to a school, set up alerts for routes such as "New Chitose → Cebu" in the Philippines or "New Chitose → Sydney". That's all it takes to start. Over time, you'll get a feel for what counts as cheaper than usual.
Hunting for flights is less a single roll of the dice, I think, and more a game of learning what the going rate is.
③ If you have time, make connecting flights work for you
Direct flights. They really are easy. Get on. Sleep. Arrive. No changing planes, and no worrying about your bags. If it's your first time abroad, the reassurance of a direct flight counts for a lot.
But if price is your priority, connecting flights are worth checking too. Google Flights' 2026 analysis, which isn't limited to departures from Japan, found that non-stop flights were on average about 20% dearer than connecting ones.
Take a route such as Sapporo → Tokyo → Manila → Cebu. Or Sapporo → Seoul → Cebu. It takes a little longer, but depending on the price, it can be an attractive option.
And if you have a long wait between flights, you might even have time to explore the city you're connecting through. Build in a longer connection, or stopover, in Taiwan, South Korea or Singapore, say, and spend a little time looking round the airport or the city. Experiencing one more country on the way to your studies is part of what makes travelling abroad such fun.
🛂 Popping into the city on a Singapore stopover?
If you pass through immigration in Singapore, you need to submit an SG Arrival Card before you arrive. Our Singapore SG Arrival Card Application Guide walks you through the application one step at a time, with images.
But cheap connections come with pitfalls
This part really matters.
Google Flights' "Cheapest" tab also shows tickets that are cheaper but come with a catch: a Self-transfer, where you make the connection yourself. In that case you may need to collect your bags, check in again, move to another terminal, or even travel to a different airport.
And if your tickets are booked separately and your first flight is delayed so that you miss the next one, there's no guarantee the next airline will rebook you free of charge.
So if it's your first trip abroad, I wouldn't really recommend picking a ticket just because it's cheap when it means a one-hour connection, separate bookings and checked bags. Paying a bit more for peace of mind is, I think, part of choosing a flight too.
④ Cheaper to fly a day early? Don't look at the fare alone
Of all the tips in this column, this is the one I'd particularly encourage you to try.
Say a flight on Sunday is expensive, but on Saturday it's much cheaper. Do you rule it out on the spot, thinking, "But that means an extra night in a hotel, so there's no point"?
Hold on a moment. What you want to compare is the difference in fare against the extra costs you'll run up once you're there.
The idea is simple. If the fare saving is bigger than what you'll spend on the extra night's stay, meals and transport, going a day early may work out cheaper overall.
Suppose, for example, that the school's student accommodation is available for an extra night and costs less than a hotel. Arriving a day early also gives you more time to settle in before lessons begin. So the benefit isn't just financial; the journey may be less tiring, too.
The same works in reverse. Lessons finish on Friday. Saturday's flight is expensive, but Sunday's is cheap. In that case, it may be worth staying one more night and spending Saturday sightseeing.
Stay an extra day to get a cheaper flight, and you get to see some of Cebu into the bargain. Not a bad deal, is it?
Flying from Hokkaido? Weigh up an overnight stop in Tokyo or Osaka
Because your trip starts in Hokkaido, there's one more option to consider: searching New Chitose → Tokyo/Osaka and Tokyo/Osaka → abroad as separate journeys.
Sometimes buying the domestic and international flights separately is cheaper than buying a single ticket from New Chitose to your destination. The savings can be substantial, particularly if you combine domestic flights with low-cost carriers (LCCs) or take advantage of promotional fares.
Here again, though, what matters is the total. The domestic flight. The hotel the night before. Getting to Narita (Tokyo) or Kansai International (Osaka). Checked baggage. Meals. Add all of it up.
If it still comes out cheaper, it's worth considering. If the difference is only a few thousand yen, on the other hand, booking one ticket all the way to your destination may be the safer choice.
⑤ Don't stop at the advertised fare: compare prices with baggage included
When you search for cheap flights, eye-catching figures such as "Sapporo → overseas ¥29,800!" (about US$187) sometimes pop up.
You think, "That's cheap!" and click through, but by the time you've added checked baggage, seat selection, in-flight meals and payment fees, you're left thinking, "Hang on a minute..."
On a study trip in particular, you carry far more luggage than on a holiday. So don't judge the cheapest fares, the ones with only 7 kg of hand luggage, at face value. Google Flights itself explains that its "Cheapest" tab, which puts the lowest price first, can involve trade-offs, such as less convenience or having to transfer your own luggage between flights.
When you compare, add up the fare, checked baggage, seat selection, payment fees, the cost of getting to the airport and any extra costs at the connection.
Compare the final amount you pay, not the lowest fare. That alone will save you from a good many mistakes.
⑥ Even the fuel surcharge can depend on when you buy your ticket
Some airlines add a fuel surcharge to the base fare. And this amount can depend not on the date you fly but on when the ticket is issued.
Take ANA (All Nippon Airways, a Japanese airline). For itineraries from Japan ticketed in September–October 2026, the surcharge was ¥19,300 (about US$121) one way for the Philippines and Vietnam, and ¥55,000 (about US$345) one way for Oceania. For tickets issued in November–December 2026, however, it is ¥21,500 (about US$135) for the Philippines and Vietnam and ¥62,000 (about US$389) for Oceania.
In other words, even for the same travel dates, the surcharge you pay can differ depending on when you bought the ticket.
Of course, "The surcharge is going up, so buy now!" isn't the whole story. If the fare itself drops the following week, that may still be cheaper overall. But knowing when fuel surcharges are revised is one more thing to weigh up when you compare flights.
Fuel surcharges can go down as well as up over time. For more on surcharge revisions and when to start preparing a study trip, see Ringing in 2027 Abroad: Why the Fuel Surcharge Cut Means September Is the Month to Start Planning Your Winter Study Trip.
Don't put too much faith in rules like "three months ahead is always cheapest"
You often hear things like "book flights three months ahead" or "book international flights six months ahead". But there's no magic number of days that works for every route.
Google Flights' 2026 analysis found that, for international flights from the US, prices were on average at their lowest about 89 days before departure. That said, prices varied little across the 50–133-day window, and Google recommends booking early for international travel.
These figures only cover flights from the US, so they don't mean 89 days ahead is the right answer for New Chitose → Cebu. Still, it's a useful reminder that holding out on an international flight in a busy season, hoping it will get cheaper if you just wait until the last minute, is a gamble.
A study trip means lining up a place at the school, a room in the dormitory, your time off and your flights. So my advice is this: once your study plans are confirmed, at least start keeping an eye on flights early.
How I'd search: my five-step flight routine, price alerts included
So let's put it into practice. Say you're going to Cebu for a week, two months from now. Here's the order I'd do things in.
STEP 1
First, search New Chitose → Cebu for the dates you want.
STEP 2
Move the departure and return dates by a day or two either way.
STEP 3
Start with non-stop flights and those with a single connection, then check options with more connections or longer waits between flights.
STEP 4
Once you've narrowed down the options, set price alerts for those dates too. On Google Flights you can track prices for flexible dates, not just specific ones.
STEP 5
In the end, don't pick "the cheapest flight"; pick "the flight with the best balance of price and time".
Say it's ¥5,000 (about US$31) cheaper, but adds twelve hours to the connection. Me? I might pay the extra ¥5,000 for the quicker flight. On the other hand, if it's ¥20,000 (about US$126) cheaper and adds only four hours, I'd be tempted to go for the cheaper one.
Where a saving starts to feel worth it differs from person to person. That's what makes choosing a flight so interesting.
What not to do when chasing a cheap flight
Here are a few traps that are easy to fall into when the urge to save money gets too strong.
1. Cutting your connection too fine
If it's your first time abroad, I'd recommend leaving plenty of time to connect.
2. Buying without checking whether you can change it or get a refund
If your start date changes, you fall ill, or the school changes its schedule, you may need to change your ticket, and cheaper fares often come with stricter conditions for changes and refunds.
3. Ignoring baggage fees
This one matters a lot when you're going abroad to study.
4. Assuming separately bought tickets work like a single through ticket
Always check whether your connection is protected.
5. Planning a gruelling itinerary to save a few thousand yen
Picture it: thirty hours of travel to reach your first day, next to no sleep, then straight into a placement test. By that point, studying English is the last thing on your mind.
Saving money matters, but so does your stamina. It's a genuine asset on any study trip.
What I notice in our day-to-day work
When people come to us for advice, many compare school fees in great detail. "This school is ¥5,000 a week cheaper." "A triple room brings it down by ¥10,000 (about US$63)." That matters, of course.
But when you look at the flights, simply changing your dates can sometimes make a bigger difference than that.
So rather than looking only for a cheaper school, I'd recommend treating the whole study trip as one journey.
Tuition. Accommodation. Flights. Insurance. Getting around once you're there. Put it all together and look for the combination that makes the most sense to you. That, I think, is what a budget study trip really means.
Summary: just change how you search, and your flight options open up
This column set out to answer one question: how can you book your study-abroad flights a little more cheaply? Here are the six points in brief:
- ① Move your departure and return dates
- ② Use price alerts
- ③ Look at connecting flights too
- ④ Compare the total, including an extra night before or after
- ⑤ Look at the final amount you pay, baggage and transport included
- ⑥ Check how the ticketing date affects the fuel surcharge
Above all, remember this: don't set your search criteria in stone from the start.
"I have to leave on a Sunday." "It has to be a direct flight." "I absolutely must fly home the day after school finishes." Drop just one of those conditions, and you may find a better flight.
And flights aren't the only thing worth spending on when you study abroad: there are lessons, activities and local food, too. Save a little on your travel costs, and you can spend the difference on experiences you can only have there. That sounds like a pretty good study trip to me.
For our part, we'd like to help you plan your study trip by looking beyond school fees and considering the practicalities of travelling from Hokkaido. That might mean suggesting dates when flights are easier to find, or checking whether staying an extra day could bring the overall cost down.
References
- Google (2026). "Wheels up: Trends and tips for 2026 holiday travel". Link.
- Google. "Track flights & prices". Link.
- Skyscanner. "メールによるプライスアラート通知の設定や解除の方法は？". Link.
- Google (2024). "Find cheaper airfare with this new Google Flights feature". Link.
- Google. "How to find the best fares with Google Flights". Link.
- Skyscanner. "What does it mean when I see Self-transfer on Skyscanner?". Link.
- ANA. "燃油特別付加運賃 / 航空保険特別料金について". Link.
- ICA, Singapore. "SG Arrival Card". Link.