Hi All,

I just booked Avios J awards on Japan Airlines (JL/JAL) for two of us for Jan. 2024 (JL3 JFK – HND and JL4 HND – JFK return). This was my first Avios partner award booking. I don’t normally book award tickets 355 days out, but I had to lock in the dates in advance due to work. Unfortunately, I need to plan a couple of other non-refundable aspects of this trip right now. As a result, I have a couple of questions and I was hoping FT members could give me some clarity/peace of mind as I am planning my trip around these seats. Also, for anyone that has booked JAL awards via BA Avios, please feel free to chime in with your experiences! My questions are:

1) How reliable are Avios bookings on JL in J-class this far out? Is there a significant risk of flight cancellation or downgrading of our J awards? As of now, we’re booked on JL 777-300 flights which have ample J capacity

2) Do any FTers have any insight as to how seamlessly JL or rather BA will rebook us if our original JL flights are cancelled? Will our confirmed J class booking be honored if rebooking is needed due to JL’s cancellation? I have seen examples on FT of how AA and AS handle this, but have not been able to find any scenarios involving BA.

Thanks in advance for all your help! I am posting this in the BA forum, as opposed to the JAL forum, as the JAL forum moderator said that they often advise members who have cross-over issue posts to post in the forum of the ticketing carrier (my post in the JAL forum was closed).