Booked a flew SEA - NRT in Jan, lovely flight.

Has Japan airlines award flights from East Coast reduced from Alaska website?
Can't find JAL direct flights after Sep

Japan is fully open after 2 1/2 years of full isolation; JAL still hasn't caught up capacity to pre-pandemic. Anticipate reward space to be extremely limited if you haven't book EOS or t-14 days

It makes sense to JAL and that is all that matters. All you have to do is work within the parameters they set.

They restrict flights on certain days and not others; that is just the way they do it. They may do it for ranges of dates and they can impose or remove restrictions anytime they feel it benefits them. My sense is that if they restrict flights they will do it early on and at some point later they will remove the restriction.

ok thanks...i know it is difficult to answer...but when do you think we can see availability for April 2024?

It�s a continuously moving window. Don�t think month, think date specific, then expect to find space open up, if at all, beginning at t-330. So for 1 April 2024, you can expect to see that space sometime around the 1 May 2023 timeframe (whenever the actual 330 days out comes up).

JAL awards in general are harder to find since Japan has reopened, not just through Alaska. Have you looked at JAL availability through other partners? It's the same. The reasons are many; Japan has re-opened so there is more demand, Japan has not reached pre-Pandemic numbers so there are fewer flights, JAL would rather sell a seat for cash than as an award so they may be holding back awards until they get a better handle on what the new supply/demand situation will be.

East Coast is much more difficult. You might have to consider another gateway. That said, BOS-NRT has a few days at the end of schedule with availability - mostly in economy. Are you looking for economy? Booking within the last 5-6 days of schedule will require either the Calendar Trick (not 100%) or the Round Trip workaround (Reverse Round Trip if you need a one-way).

I agree with WillTravel4Food, the very end of schedule (330-331) days out is the best time to try to book something, although you should be pre-checking availability on other partner sites beyond 330 days to get a feel for your chances. If you don't find anything then you should keep looking every day until you find something because windows of opportunity will usually pop up eventually but they will not last long so you need to be ready to move quickly when something becomes available.

Beginning to mid April is peak time for North America to Japan so your chances are less that by the time the AS booking window opens that there will be something leftover that has not been poached already by other partner programs that can book beyond 330 days. And, if there are seats still available in peak times at 330 days they will go like hotcakes. Book immediately if you find what you want, because others will be doing exactly that.

Did you ever play Musical Chairs when you were a kid? The opening of the 330 day window can be like that. The opening of the window is when the music stops playing and everybody jumps on any available chair and there are always kids left standing without a chair.

The other option is just to wait til next March since last minute availability is particularly good and predictable on JL.

Yes, with a confirmed backup booking this could be a good plan.

I was hoping to swap my LAX-SIN nonstop on SQ in J for LAX-HND-SIN, with LAX-HND in F, and then onward to SIN in J on JAL.
There is availability LAX-HND in F, but nothing from HND-LAX in J - at all - over the next few weeks. Just a couple days with PE.

I checked both LAX-SIN and HND-SIN and even though HND-SIN are J9 on a couple dates, including this Friday, no J award space on that leg (checking AS and BA).

Surprised to see awards tougher on HND-SIN than LAX-SIN close in, when it's J9. Is there a trick I"m missing? Or doe these just sell out between now and Friday.

I just ran into a divorced segments situation with QF, when using AA miles: trying to get DFW-SYD-BNE in J. AA agent saw DFW-SYD confirmed, but any flight to BNE under 24-hour layover came back unconfirmed. If the connection was over 24 hours, the second leg was OK. I also asked to add SYD-PER with 5-hour layer in SYD, still unconfirmed. This looks like the same restriction that JL imposes.

QR is notorious for this divorced/unmarried segment logic, where to and from DOH are available, but not when connecting at DOH. I've seen same with AC with TK not allowing to connect to or from its domestic flights, and with NH not allowing to connect to or from its domestic flights. Of course these restrictions come and go, but the worst is with QR, I observed.

Bobdh13 please see your PMs and delete your comment when you read this

Only very limited J space is opening very close in for HND-SIN and combined with AS website bugs this is tricky to piece together and I would not even attempt it if you do not have enough AS miles to make a new booking while keeping the old one for protection in case it did not work out.

I see one opening now, complicated to book because it involves married segments. You could book 2/23 LAX-SIN in J (JL15,JL35, married segment on JL35). Then after ticketing, change JL15 from J to F. You must do it this way because AS has a bug booking JAL that won't show F when combined with J originally but you can change after booking.

It's been almost 5 years since I booked a JL award with AS miles (just used partner desk before)... I am wondering what is the optimal process to book this award, I tried searching multi-city, but did not get a straightforward routing so was not sure if phantom availability
USA => HND (stopover) (Flight in F, booking T-14)
HND => CTS (In J?)

I'm showing the domestic business leg available now for my dates (JL obviously has a ton of daily flights)
I will be booking a US to Haneda flight in F in the T-14 window, I'm flexible on US gateway so don't anticipate any availability issues.

If I book the HND-CTS business leg now, is it possible to add the international F leg online? Or do I need to call the partner desk? Would either have an issue tying the segments together into 1 award? (I read through the previous thread, but still don't quite understand what married segment logic is)

Or should I get the international F leg booked first, and then add the HND-CTS leg after via online or partner desk (some risk being the domestic flight I want to take may not be available at T-14 from my F leg)

At end of day, just want 1 award reservation like SFO-HND (stopover)-CTS