Tokyo, July 29th-ANA filed new fares with Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport, to up competitiveness on routes operated in competition with the ‘Nozomi’ class bullet train.

Discount tickets are broken down into the following:

“Shuttle”
To satisfy the needs of business people travelling to meetings and back in the same day, return fares on the Tokyo-Osaka shuttle service will drop 6% to ´13,700 from ´14,500, with effect from September this year. Shuttle tickets offer the convenience of day of departure purchase, permit schedule changes, and are subject to no embargo periods.

“Repeat 4”
The Tokyo-Okayama/ Hiroshima Repeat 4 fares will also be reduced from the same month. Bought as a group of four single journeys with the same routing, Okayama will be reachable from the Japanese capital for ´15,000 return (previously ´19,700) and Hiroshima for ´17,000 (previously 19,950). As with the shuttle fares, schedule changes are permitted and tickets may be purchased on the day of departure. These paperless tickets are available on a corporate contract basis only, and are booked directly by company employees from their own computers.
“Cho-wari”
Cho-wari, the ANA discount fare system will also be revamped to reflect changes in the current market. This advance purchase discount fare was originally set at ´10,000 to all domestic destinations. Now, depending on the destination, fares are available from as little as ´7,000 one way, and rise to ´12,000. Chowari is available for a set period every month and is bookable from two months before the start of that period. The first travel period to be governed by the new fare will be in October this year.

“Hawa-wari 21”
The Haya-wari 21 fare, bookable up to 21 days in advance and applicable on 59 routes (over 70% of ANA’s network), originally varied according to the time of departure, but from October this year will be fixed by destination. Departures at an earlier time on the scheduled day of departure will also be permitted, subject to availability.

“Totsuzen-wari”
Totsuzen-wari (meaning, ‘sudden discount’ in Japanese) was introduced in the first half of this year to stimulate demand from groups of two or more. Unlike other discount tickets which vary according to the date of departure, Totsuzen-wari varies according to the date on which the ticket is issued. It is put on sale for three days only, about ten days before the date of departure and applies to about five routes, chosen ‘suddenly’ every month, on weekends and national holidays.

Other discount fares available on ANA domestic flights include: Web-wari (booked via the internet), Toku-wari 1 (booked up to one day before departure), Toku-wari 7 (booked up to seven days before departure), and Birthday Haya-wari (´10,000 each way on any domestic route with departure up to one week either side of the passenger’s birthday).
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