Originally Posted by
Kieron
AA to Japan is really hard to find, if only because so many of their west coast flights are JL codeshares. I think your only AA-metal option is from Los Angeles, so there's not going to be much availability on that one single route even at the best of times. Maybe a little better if you start from further east, but I don't think that SEA-JFK-NRT (for example) is a valid award routing.
From both SEA and LAX, there're at least 3 options on AA metal to TYO: via LAX, ORD and DFW. (SEA-JFK-NRT is definitely a valid award routing on DL, btw. Not sure about AA.) 1st class is readily avail on the domestic portion, but I've never seen J/F available on the TPAC segment whether it's from LAX, ORD or DFW. AS award seats are easy to get on DL J, but I'd hate to throw down 70k miles each way.