Originally Posted by
safigan
I don't know if I'd call this a "sweet spot" but on a few routes where the cash price was ridiculously high, I've found more reasonable points deals. For instance, one-way flights HND-ATL were selling for over $8,000 and the award price was 185K points. Note that this route usually sells for about 350k points (still a deal compared to the cash price), but for some reason the award price dropped for a few days before going back up and I was able to rebook the award at the lower rate.
They have been offering reduced rate close-in awards between hubs and HND recently as they've restored a lot of HND flying, but demand is likely more heavily dependent on tourism these days and that won't start picking up for another month or so due to seasonality. They had a close-in special for DTW-HND a couple weeks ago for 60K miles roundtrip in coach (roundtrip coach revenue fares were in the $2400 range). They probably won't be offering these again as demand returns to Japan. There are some close-in 40K one-way coach awards on LAX-HND. Also seeing 40K one-way coach awards on new seasonal LAX-PPT route and one-way D1 awards for 140K miles on route.
Don't expect to find any deals to hotter markets like the EU where they are having no problems selling revenue fares.