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You might want to check this thread in the UA forum for more info / post your question there:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...sed-nh-7.html#

A few things that might be the problem - are you booked in an eligible fare class (C/D/J/Y/B/E/G), and if you're on a UA codeshare you need to call in to change the flight number to the native NH one.

Wasabi Tofu

You had better ask in UA forum.

However, I have checked NH116 on 1st September.
As a Diamond member of ANA, I can make wait list requests of Y and C on the flight. (e.g, no seat available even for NH DIA).

By the way, when I use NH miles to upgrade a flight of other Star Alliance member, there is no wait list option.

af fp

There are about twelve seats left on the map, plus 1-2 blocked on Expertfyer. And we are still 4 weeks from the flight, so I see them selling those seats. Planning to enjoy PE on this flight...

timfountain

Fare class is E (PE), NH Flight # and separate PNR for that leg from the rest of the trip (UA SFO on the outbound, already cleared!), so I think all is in order. It just appears that there are no upgrades available at this point, so I'll just keep trying...

regatta333

I have 225K miles available in ANA. My husband and I are planning to visit my daughter and her husband, who are stationed in Malaysia for the year. We are somewhat flexible on travel dates and I have been looking for ANA business class fares departing from the DC area and flying to either Bangkok (Dec 25 to early Jan) or Kula Lumpur (early to mid Jan) and returning to DC from Kula Lumpur 2 months later.

I have been searching the ANA website daily for the past two months, but everything is waitlisted. We are even open to flying out of NY or Phila. What are my best options for clearing the waitlist? If the waitlist doesn't clear, will my points be returned? How long should I wait before giving up?
Right now, I see close in flights for this itinerary that are about $3,400 per person. I'd be willing to pay that as a last resort, but not sure if this type of fare is typically available close in. I don't want to wait until 2 weeks before hand to give up on the waitlist and then find that the fares are $8K.

The only other airline points I have are Delta, but I have been unable to find any reasonable business class fares using their program. I also have 145K
AmEx points, but I don't think this is enough to do my any good on any other airline program that they partner with.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

arfaczar

Finding award availability to Asia from the US around the Christmas holidays is notoriously difficult. You may have better luck scheduling the outbound flights in the first half of December. Also , ANA doesn't fly out of PHL. While NYC and DC may be difficult, but Chicago or Houston may work. For example:
ORD-HND on 12/5; or
IAH-NRT on 12/5; and after a 1 day stopover in Tokyo,
NRT-KUL on 12/7
Return on KUL-HND on 1/30; 1-day stopover in Tokyo HND-ORD on 2/1
Good luck!

af fp

An update to my post above: our upgrades cleared just a week before the flight, although there are less than nine seats left. It seems Y and PE are sold out though, so maybe it helped. Happy!

InTheAirGuy

Not sure if this is the right spot for the question but I will try.

I'm on an international ANA flight; I got an upgrade from J to F on the flight. I used ANA miles to request a similar upgrade for MrsITAG, using ANA miles. The reservation shows the upgrade as Waitlisted but shows a seat assignment in F.

Would that imply it has gone through?

RonnieTheBear

First time poster here, read through the sticky and several threads on FlyerTalk on ANA award seat availability but I was still hoping to get some input on my specific situation.

I'm trying to fly my girlfriend and I award business seats from JFK to NRT next Aug 4, 2018. We both have individual ANA accounts with enough miles in them. I could see when I booked mine that there was one business award seat available, but not 2, and no waitlist (confirmed with a ticketing agent over the phone). I completed my booking and we put the reservation through on my girlfriend's account as a waitlist - she should be first in line. Checking the seatmap on ExpertFlyer, I appear to be the only one on the plane so far (unless any other travelers haven't picked seats, yet).

I know there are no guarantees when it comes to award booking, but given that we are almost 1 year out, they've only sold one award ticket, and my girlfriend is first on the waitlist, she should have a very good chance of clearing, correct? Does ANA pull anything funny where people who waitlist later but have status get to jump the line? Surely most ANA planes must fly with more than one award business seat taken?

Our alternate plan is we are both holding departure seats out of IAD in a separate waitlist - I would have to call a ticketing agent and see if they could combine her departure from one waitlist reservation with a return trip seat from another waitlist reservation- does anyone know if they can do that sort of thing?

CPH-Flyer

NH does generally open additional seats close in if the cabin does not sell out. But that would often only be 14 days out. So it will probably be a bit of a wait until you potentially see much movement.

BRITINJAPAN3

Also waitlist is not purely first come, first served, it will be filled based on Status, and NH will never advise where you are on the list, only how many are on the WL

RonnieTheBear

Thank you both for the useful info. Planning on waiting 11 months to know if we've got a flight at the airport/date we expect may be a bit much, maybe I'll try and look into combining the waitlist reservations.

goofygoofygooberyeah

Looking for flights from Europe to Tokyo in either business or first, I see only around 2 or 3 available dates for all of spring next year (March-May) if I try to book 2 seats. All the rest is waitlist. I looked from a bunch of different airports (CDG, FRA, DUS, BRU) but I see pretty much nothing on ANA metal. If I look for 1 seat I find better availability. Is this common that they only release 1 seat in these cabins?

Wasabi Tofu

In Japanese blog community, a consensus is
( reliable, so many blogger check around availability )

usually, 2 seats are released for ordinary members.

So, 1 seat availability means someone already took a seat.

goofygoofygooberyeah

Finally figured out how to use the search on the United website well to be able to very quickly look through availability. And it's pretty easily apparent that ANA are restricting award seats to Europe or haven't released them yet or something. I looked through 3 destinations in the US and there are many, many dates with 2 seats available for each destination. I then looked at Europe, including the airports I mentioned before and also LHR and MUC. And from the middle of March to the end of July I found a single flight with 2 seats in business/first from Tokyo-Europe. Definitely a bummer.