Firstly, many thanks for taking time to read this post – I genuinely appreciate it.

Would anybody possibly be able to advise about the cheapest way — preferably, in terms of airmiles but possibly cash, too — to pay for domestic business class flights between HND and CTS airports in Japan?

In years past (most recently Feb ‘24), I've been able to get 2 x return flights from HND to CTS in business class for a combined 38,000 JAL miles for 2 x pax.

When I go to the JAL site now, identical flights (HND-CTS-HND) are costing 77,000 miles in J for 2 x pax. If I then look at cash flights, JAL wants £375.00 return per person in economy whereas ANA requires approximately £174.00 return in economy (admittedly, a reasonable cash price).

Are there any known workarounds for finding domestic Japanese J flights at much more reasonably-priced airmiles prices for return flights on either JAL or ANA?

I did have a look at both BA and AA websites for return flights from HND to CTS, but I'm getting only indirect flights (HND-FUK(!)-CTS) on BA and when it comes to AA there aren't even any results for HND-CTS flights: the best AA offers is an alternative airport in Hokkaido, which is even less convenient than CTS.

I did also read that the Qatar Airways website was better-priced in terms Avios for domestic Japanese flights (vs BA) and yet, whenever I go to the Qatar website or app, they both just return an error message when I search for any HND to Sapporo flights (even when JAL clearly has availability for these flights on these dates).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks again.