Originally Posted by
skimthetrees
AS is definitely blocking booking new JL F awards in April of next year. If you want to go in February - no problem.
Of course it is more difficult in general since JL releases award space at 360 days out and programs that support booking further out than 330 days have a definite advantage over AS to begin with. But, in general, AS has shown a pattern of restricting JL F awards for a while during the first few days of schedule open and now their blocking is getting more flagrant. I would guess once they join OneWorld they will not have an excuse to block these awards any longer but I'm pretty sure by then they will have significantly devalued the JL F awards so they will be happy to make them available without restriction at that time.
Spoke with a phone rep today trying to book 2F seats between Tokyo and the US in April. Same thing as others noted: availability on Qantas or AA, but nothing on AS for April. He said that's not surprising. March is wide open, but to check back in June for April availability. Take it FWIW, but if true that means JAL F availability with AS isn't released until closer to 300 days out?