Originally Posted by
dtw_brad
when i ran into this as Silver my best option was to wait till the 331 days for my return flight, then see what is/was out there.
in that regard you are then competing with:
people with the same departure, but shorter trip
people whose return is your departure
Looks like there really is no easy way here to get the flight, even if you are fast, if your trip is of any length.
I found Low to go and Med to return (65,000) at 331 from departure, using a same day return. I tried to hold it and change to a later date but that strategy did not work at all.
Now I find Med to go and Low to return (65,000) at 331 from return.
I may bite the bullet and get one tix this way, as it is a direct flight. But since UAL/ANA is just 45,000 I am not excited about this. Problem is UAL forces us through NRT, and they only are offering one seat at right now, and we need three.
For what it is worth, customer service is much better if you speak Japanese. I used to select the English, but now that just sends me to someone in SE Asia who doesn't seem to really care if I get the award or not, and is happy to give me the wrong information. Japanese really do provide better service in every type of business.