Hi Guys,

We ended up making the booking as per our original intended itinerary and got waitlisted on the JAL flight. Our travel agent then liaised with JAL in UK who in turn liaised with Japan.

Eventually they asked us to motivate why we wanted to be on the flight along with our job titles, credentials etc. We obliged with an added "Avid Flyertalk contributor who is keen to document and experience the highly praised JAL First Class product."

2 Days later our flights were confirmed!

Interestingly, the all new JAL First Suites on the JFK-NTR route was rolled out only days before, so maybe that had to do with the fact that our flights were finally confirmed, but I like to think that mentioning Flyertalk made all the difference!