Marvel wrote:
> "John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" <john@rarebooksinjapan.com> wrote in message 
> news:4h5iq6F1q0dovU1@individual.net...
>> Rind wrote:
>>
>>> Sigi Rindler wrote:
>>>
>>>> Watch out and have a Japanese ask for the end price before revealing 
>>>> your
>>>> nationality! On the other hand, these agencies  might have dropped this
>>>> practice as of today since airlines (e.g. ANA) and a relevant 
>>>> governmental
>>>> agency have already complained.
>>>> It was over 50,000 yen profit for me by not going with the two biggest
>>>> ticket discounters in Japan! By the way H.I.S and Travel No. 1 are one 
>>>> and
>>>> the same company...
>>> Sometimes that doesn't even help; I'm a member of a yahoo group for
>>> foreign women with Japanese husbands and on numerous occasions women
>>> have reported/complained that when they're husbands give the names for
>>> the tickets (that are booked at the "japanese" discount rate) they
>>> actually still try to charge extra for the foreign wife... have you
>>> ever heard the likes of it. Makes me sick to the stomach.
>> I'm really surprised. I must have flown from Japan maybe a couple of dozen 
>> times over the years, and it's always my Japanese wife who makes the 
>> bookings. She gets a quote from different agents (sometimes cross-checking 
>> with the actual airline itself) and then we decide which one to book. Her 
>> double-barrelled foreign-sounding surname doesn't get mentioned until 
>> then, and there's never been any question of the company trying to revise 
>> the price at that stage.
>>
>> We've used No. 1/H.I.S. a number of times.
>>
>> John
>> http://rarebooksinjapan.com
>>
> I have been using IACE travel and never had such a problem.
> The $300.00u.s.  gas sur charge sucks

I have had very competitive pricing, good service, and always get 
upgraded when buying from JTB's web site.  Their prices are as good as 
No. 1 for most major destinations and I've found they're better when you 
have a multiple destination schedule that includes several smaller 
regional airports -- both in the US and Europe.  I'd been ignoring 
Japanese sources for a long time, thinking Travelocity was cheaper (it 
was, for the first 6~8 months) but, the established Japanese tour 
companies have gotten extremely aggressive recently.  And no price 
silliness.

They very often offer additional discounts if you ring the 0120 number 
they list at the bottom of the ticket estimate -- which is *not* the 
number for the order desk that is shown on the web site.

CL