Originally Posted by
vintyma
Thank you for your valuable suggestions.
1. How can I search for flights into next year? When I tried searching on google flights and kayak, I couldn't search for anything beyond December 2026.
2. I'm willing to fly to TYO if I can fly business class on AA. and then connect to KIX on coach or by train. Again, how do I find out about business class availability on AA? And how can I find out how many miles the trip would require?
1. No airline makes flights available for sale/award booking more than a year in advance, and most aggregators will only go 11 months in advance (because of airlines that don't load flights more than 11 months in advance). For JAL, for example, the only (best?) way to see availability for January 2027 right now would be to search directly through their website (which doesn't help if you want to book with American).
2. AAdvantage awards on AA flights (AA metal) are a double edged sword. The availability is
way better, but the prices are
extremely dynamic (expect prices of at least 100k miles for DC-Tokyo in Business). You would have to search on AA.com or some other award flight search tool. AA.com has the benefit of showing you a calendar view where you can see what the cheapest mileage costs are, 2 months at a time.
Keep in mind that with AAdvantage, there's no cost to cancel and rebook an award flight, so if you find a better deal after booking an initial option, you can always change your plans. (for example, if you find a premium cabin option flying on JAL)