My husband and I will be flying to Tokyo (I hope) in April 2022 for a cruise that departs from Tokyo/Yokohama. We are planning to arrive a few days prior to sail date.

We need to fly American Airlines or JAL (booked through AA) in order to use funds from canceled tickets. I am trying to decide whether to fly SAN - NRT NS on AA/JAL codeshare flight operated by JAL or fly out of LAX on AA/JAL flights LAX - HND. All AA flights shown for SAN - HND require bizarre routing: SAN-PHX --> PHX-LAX --> LAX-HND (18 hr total) or SAN-DFW --> DFW-HND with only 40 min layover. Those flights don't make any sense to me.

I am not familiar with either JAL business class or AA Flagship Business. How do these choices compare to AA business class?

For those who are knowledgeable about the two airports, which is the better option for arrival in Tokyo - Haneda or Narita?