Originally Posted by
guv1976
Search on aa.com. If you find AA flights priced at exactly 60K one way in Business, or any JL Business or First flights (60K or 80K miles, respectively), those flights should be available for redemption with AS miles (at AS' redemption rates, not AA's).
Why use AA? I find AS' calendar search to be much better and faster. I use it to search for awards to book with my AA miles too.
OP wants to fly from the west coast. JL should be preferred since it's direct. Gateways with the most flights are SFO and LAX. Secondary West Coast hubs are SAN and SEA. So do a calendar search from each hub to TYO (one at a time) and select "business" in the dialog box on the left (or "First" if it's not greyed out). If you see a day with 60k (or 80k for F) you are probably good. Just take a look and make sure it's not a connecting mixed cabin award. This allows you to check for 1-2 months of space in a few seconds (maybe 1-2 minutes for all 4 hubs)