Mar 21, 2024, 5:48 pm
Last edit by: joejones
TL;DR VERSION
- ANA award seats are strictly limited in quantity. Unless you have status with the ANA program, there is usually only one first class seat and one business class seat made available per flight.
- Awards become available for booking to ANA Mileage Club members 355 days before departure at 9am JST, and almost all First and Business Class award seats get booked within minutes at this time.
- Most partner airlines (e.g. Virgin Atlantic and United) do not allow you to book this early.
- If using ANA miles, you need to fly round-trip, which creates a catch-22 for itineraries starting in North America because there will be no return flight available yet.
- After T-355, availability shows up at random times due to other people canceling their reservations. You have to be flexible and search frequently across multiple dates and cities.
- If ANA upgrades a route's equipment to a 777-300ER with First Class, it will result in an award seat being available every day on the calendar. Get them while they're hot.
- Some flights will show more award availability 2-3 weeks before departure, especially during low seasons.
- Useful search tools include ANA's website, United's website, point.me (available to Amex MR cardholders), and seats.aero.
ANA Award Availability
Oct 10, 2021, 7:47 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Metro ATL
Posts: 359
ANA Award Availability
Hello,
After 2 cancellations of our trips to JPN in first class over the last 2 years I was checking for awards and found no availability in J and F at all.
Am i missing something or they are not releasing any award seats for the next year?
Thanks.
After 2 cancellations of our trips to JPN in first class over the last 2 years I was checking for awards and found no availability in J and F at all.
Am i missing something or they are not releasing any award seats for the next year?
Thanks.
Oct 10, 2021, 9:15 pm
#2
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
No you're not missing anything, it's just a crazy time to book. Are you trying to book 1 or 2 J/F seats? I just checked on ANA's site and when searching for 1 passenger, all 4 flights were open, but when i searched for 2 passengers, they were all waitlisted, which most likely means that all 4 flights are booked with a single ticket since there are only ever 2 award seats released.
Last edited by spicymochi; Oct 11, 2021 at 7:52 pm
Nov 5, 2021, 8:31 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: DTW
Programs: TK E+, WY, Radisson R
Posts: 2,360
I'm running into the same scenario, even for just 1 passenger, as far back as March 2022 everything is waitlisted. I'm scrambling to use my miles before they expire, now I regret putting my miles here rather than TK.
Nov 5, 2021, 12:22 pm
#5
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: DTW
Programs: TK E+, WY, Radisson R
Posts: 2,360
I just redeemed my miles and had to pick return date at latest possible (Oct 22), may not be able to fly for many reasons, ironically, I found confirmed booking out of SEA (just 1 day around late March), and couldn't find any from LAX/ORD/JFK/SFO. Had to check each day to find the availability for the long haul J segments, which will give you clue on the availability. Connecting to secondary cities will result in Y domestic flights.
Nov 5, 2021, 12:56 pm
#6
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: SEA
Programs: Bonvoyed
Posts: 7
I just redeemed my miles and had to pick return date at latest possible (Oct 22), may not be able to fly for many reasons, ironically, I found confirmed booking out of SEA (just 1 day around late March), and couldn't find any from LAX/ORD/JFK/SFO. Had to check each day to find the availability for the long haul J segments, which will give you clue on the availability. Connecting to secondary cities will result in Y domestic flights.
Nov 5, 2021, 1:09 pm
#7
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: DTW
Programs: TK E+, WY, Radisson R
Posts: 2,360
I'm basically trying to salvage the miles I have and to use at least outbound (reverse).
My intent is to try to book BR nonstops between TPE and anywhere in US, used Chicago, and found out TPE-SEA-ORD (SEA-ORD in Y with UA) available with TPE-SEA in J and rebook with only TPE-SEA and ORD-TPE open jaw. ORD-TPE return is almost 1 year later (this is how far you'll need book to optimize your NH miles).
Given the difficulty of redeeming NH miles I'll be shifting my AmEx spending (MR points) toward Citi TYP instead
My intent is to try to book BR nonstops between TPE and anywhere in US, used Chicago, and found out TPE-SEA-ORD (SEA-ORD in Y with UA) available with TPE-SEA in J and rebook with only TPE-SEA and ORD-TPE open jaw. ORD-TPE return is almost 1 year later (this is how far you'll need book to optimize your NH miles).
Given the difficulty of redeeming NH miles I'll be shifting my AmEx spending (MR points) toward Citi TYP instead
Last edited by vincewy; Dec 19, 2021 at 7:52 pm
Nov 8, 2021, 11:47 am
#8
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: OZ Diamond *A Gold / Delta Gold
Posts: 775
So Oct 2022 is the only month that has availability in J?
On a separate note, how do you guys look for routes?
I tried to do JFK / ICN R/T and it's impossible to search... you choose a date, it says seats are available, only to get Y on the JFK / NRT, or be waitlisted in J.
How do you "see" dates then? Everything is so slow
On a separate note, how do you guys look for routes?
I tried to do JFK / ICN R/T and it's impossible to search... you choose a date, it says seats are available, only to get Y on the JFK / NRT, or be waitlisted in J.
How do you "see" dates then? Everything is so slow
Last edited by Gasolin; Nov 8, 2021 at 11:59 am
Nov 8, 2021, 8:16 pm
#9
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: DTW
Programs: TK E+, WY, Radisson R
Posts: 2,360
So Oct 2022 is the only month that has availability in J?
On a separate note, how do you guys look for routes?
I tried to do JFK / ICN R/T and it's impossible to search... you choose a date, it says seats are available, only to get Y on the JFK / NRT, or be waitlisted in J.
How do you "see" dates then? Everything is so slow
On a separate note, how do you guys look for routes?
I tried to do JFK / ICN R/T and it's impossible to search... you choose a date, it says seats are available, only to get Y on the JFK / NRT, or be waitlisted in J.
How do you "see" dates then? Everything is so slow
TPE -SEA (March 2022)
ORD-TPE (Oct 2022)
Both are BR nonstop, I also saw OZ awards available out of SEA, maybe you can find something sooner than Oct to/from SEA. It'd always be better to fly nonstop during pandemic.
Unlikely NH, I was able to choose award business saver to Asia with TK pretty much wide open other than around Xmas and New Year out of NYC and ORD, although TK has other types of issues (another topic).
Nov 26, 2021, 1:29 pm
#10
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 11
Has anyone been able to find First Class flights from the US to Haneda besides JFK in November 2022? It looks like the LAX to HND flights got switched to the 789s.
Last edited by RogueExplorer; Nov 27, 2021 at 11:42 pm Reason: JFK disappeared
Nov 29, 2021, 4:37 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Tokyo
Programs: JAL Metal Card (OWE), SAS Eurobonus Gold (*G), Marriott Titanium (LTP), Tokyu Hotels Platinum
Posts: 21,171
Nov 30, 2021, 7:37 am
#13
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: OZ Diamond *A Gold / Delta Gold
Posts: 775
Dec 9, 2021, 10:50 am
#14
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 19
just found this out too when I tried rebooking a July 2022 F seat to Nov 2022. I’m exLAX but seems like the only 777 flight available is from JFK, not sure if it’s new hard product though.