Originally Posted by
gilbertball
I would like to visit Tokyo this year and as is well known it is one of the hardest routes to score reward flights on. I have a fair amount of Avios though so could use one of Finnair / Qatar / JAL but I'm really struggling with availability. Are there any platforms that will allow me to see availability though the year much like SeatSpy for BA?
TIA all and apologies if this has been asked before.
JAL release one First seat - the holy grail for travel to Japan from the UK - on each flight as far as I know - but as they appear on JAL's site a few days before BA, you'll only see them if nobody in the JAL scheme has nabbed them. I suspect they also release two business class seats too.
That's moot for you, though, as you want to go this year rather than in 355 days' time. So - for JAL at least the best option is to check each day for availability. They do tend to release First seats closer to the flight time, I was lucky enough to book two of them a year ago and four seats (!) appeared when I checked at 4AM - this was, having checked my emails, 12 days out from the flight. I'd been checking every day from 4 weeks out for BA First seats, so you can imagine how happy I was to see the JAL seats appear!
Even if you have to check several times a day, every day, it's worth the effort - assuming you have the Avios to fly First on JAL, anyway. If you do manage it, though, I wouldn't recommend watching the same film I did!
"Marley and Me" on a 43-inch screen!
Coming in to land in Tokyo
A view of the seat from the door