Originally Posted by
IkeEsq
Thought I would provide my experiences trying to book flights to TYO from the US for next Spring. There are 5 of us leaving from the East Coast and we wanted to fly out on Saturday March 28. At least two of us need to fly together (my son) and we were hoping to be at least 3 and 2. I checked out flights about a month or so ago to determine what routes are available and with which aircraft. Our preference was flying JFK-HND as HND is closer to the city and that route uses the 777 with Sky Suite. Ideally flying two-three in Business and two or three in First.
On May 2, 330 days out, I checked flights and there was not a single business class seat from any US airport for Friday-Sunday March 27-29. In addition, the ORD-NRT route was the only one with two seats available in First on Saturday. There were also 2 seats in First on Friday and Sunday out of ORD and Sunday from SFO-HND. Other than that, there were a couple of seats in First on other flights, including JFK-HND on Saturday. AA domestic MileSAAver seats did not open up until May 4 (for Saturday March 28 departure), so I had to wait to book.
In order to see what my chance of getting additional seats later might be, I checked every Saturday and Sunday from JFK to NRT and HND in Premium Economy, Business, and First for the next 360 days on BA's website. There were only two Business class seats available (on a Sunday) for the entire next year and only occasional first class seats. There were no seats on most Saturdays including for the next two weeks.
Looking at the two weeks prior to March 28, there were only three days with any business class seats available from JFK, 7 to HND on a Monday, 3 to HND on another Monday, and 3 to NRT on a Tuesday. And there was no more than one seat in First on any of those flights.
If you want to fly on a weekend and the Wiki is true, then it seems like you need to book right around 330 days out and check all of the US gateways if you want more than one ticket. We ended up with two people on Sat from ORD and two on Sunday, and the final person JFK-HND on Saturday. Now I just have to hope some other seats open up and I can shift people around a bit.
End of March, early April is a peak time for travel to Japan. I have a trip coming up this summer and after initial booking we invited my daughter's new BF to join the trip which meant I was searching for availability for one more J returning from TYO on a Saturday. I had been monitoring off and on for months before and there had been a couple of J opened up in the few months past 330 (before new pax added to the trip unfortunately) and then nothing for months until about 4 months prior to travel 2J opened up with POS JP which I missed, then a week or two later 1J opened up with POS JP which I was able to grab, and since then I have seen random 1 or 2J with POS JP from about 4 months to 2 months out. Then, around 2 months out I saw 2J with POS US briefly but most of the availability has been trickling out 1-2J at a time either only available from POS Japan or 1J available only to JAL members.
I would strongly suggest if you are looking for extra J from JAL that you perform daily searches with a tool that allows you to check availability of the route from a Point of Sale in Japan. QF will do this if the origin of the flight is in Japan but not if it is in the US. I use KVS using the Awards/QF-Oneworld method with POS set to JP. If you find availability only from POS JP you can call the AA Japan call center, which may be routed to another country so you need to make clear that they search for the award with POS Japan, and book the award. The route I was tracking to SFO definitely had way more availability trickle out with POS JP than I ever saw with POS US. I have also checked in the past a route from SEA-TYO and seen an extra seat available with POS JP. The moral of the story is if you want JAL J awards to or from the US you can greatly increase your chances of getting one by searching POS JP regularly.