I'm trying to book a one way to Tokyo in January of 2017, which is smack dab in the middle of the Oct-Apr MileSAAver time frame for Japan flights. I've known I'm going to need to take this flight for a while now, so I watched last January's offerings, and noticed that there were some blackout dates for the holidays, but that MileSAAver awards became available again early January. I want to fly as early in January as I can, but only if I can get the MileSAAver rates.

I've been checking every day, but the entire month of December and January don't have MileSAAver awards available (other than December 3, 7/8, and 24, which are no longer available but were available at one point). This seems ridiculous, since they say the MileSAAver season for Japan is October-April, but they have almost two whole months blocked off in the middle.

Am I missing something? What have other FF seen in the past? Based on past experiences, do you expect release seats later or am I out of luck? If I call and make the reservation vs. doing it online will I be able to get seats?

Thanks for your help all!