Thanks for all the tips.

I think in the end, I'm just gonna suck it up and fly in J while he's in F for HND → HKG.
It's 45k vs. 70k for me to only fly F between HND-HKG on a HND-HKD-DEL redemption OW.

I've got a JFK-YVR in F coming up. So I've got that at least