I knew airline prices were rising, but I'm not a frequent flyer – to put it mildly – so I hadn't paid attention. And it's not just the cost of a ticket; it's the charges for baggage, of course. As an infrequent flyer, seeing actual costs is quite the shock.
The Zipair website is pretty decent, better than most Japanese travel sites catering to Westerners. Japan Airlines runs Zipair, and they have standards.
To my mind, the critical thing with this is to accept a long, boring flight – the seats are comfortable – and save money for Japan. My only “extra” was to help avoid issues at check-in. We’ll see how that goes.