I checked jan-apr 24 for U space to Japan destinations earlier this week and found nothing. This is not really anything new. Earlier this spring I managed to actually get two U-returns booked to Japan this year, none of them on the HND route. In both cases there was one or two days for both legs with U1 in a one-month timeframe, and I feel I must have gotten really lucky here. Required some open-jaw combinations with NRT and KIX.

It is a shame that there is not much feasible competition on this route, as I would gladly abandon AY given that I anyway will more and more often have to book revenue J. JAL would be an option but not very viable from a FFP perspective, although the value of FFP status in general is questionable at best.

I do however find OWE to be a lifesafer on domestic JAL routes that don’t have F and this has kept me renewing AY platinum for now. It says something about the state of AY+ when my AY status gives the best benefits when flying another airline…

On a sidenote: any experience on how the JAL HEL-HND hard product compares with current AY offering?