WillTravel4Food

For next December I've been tracking release schedules on the west coast flights to TYO. Depending on the originating airport, it appears that JL stopped releasing seats for flights on or around 7 December. If releases had continued to follow the pattern I observed, flights around 14-15 December would be showing up now, but they're not. I am seeing the phantom availability popping up on various flights (e.g., SEA-JFK-TYO in F), but that's about it.

Does anybody have any experience observing de facto blackouts on JL flights during the holiday season? I'm contemplating various alternatives to using JL to get us to Japan for the holidays.

skimthetrees

I have not been tracking lately but I was a couple of months ago on the SFO-TYO route. A brief look leads me to believe not much has changed with award release since then. I suspect there is just a large demand and AS is last on the totem pole to access these awards so folks with access to other programs that can book further out than AS are taking the awards. Note, this includes AA who has a few hour advantage over AS in booking at the window.

SFO-TYO, last I checked was making around 6J available most days (except Fridays and Sundays where only 2J were released) a couple of weeks beyond the AS window and those seats get eaten away slowly up until the AA and AS windows open at which point they go faster. it was rare for J to last a week beyond the AS window opening but in non-peak season there were usually a few dates that would last into the AS window. At peak season I can imagine it will be even harder. Some folks may grab what they can at window open and change to a day or two later so keep checking frequently because some seats that are taken now may be returned to inventory when someone cancels.

If you want those awards at peak time at window open you want to try as soon as they become available. Don't sleep in until 8AM and expect to snag them at window open (unless maybe you are on the East Coast).

Use another program to check availability coming up just outside the window to determine whether you have a chance at window open or not (if there are no seats available today for a date that AS opens tomorrow then come tomorrow they probably are not going to be available either. Right now I see SFO-HND has 6J available (checking on BA) for 12/18/23. Today 1/19 AS can book through 12/16/23 so in two more days 12/18 will become available if no one takes them. If you want to have a chance at those you will need to be booking early in the morning and use the reverse round-trip trick, otherwise -- No Soup For You

WillTravel4Food

We're looking for a total of seven award seats, which will put us in Y - much to my dismay but quite acceptable to my wife who doesn't share the same priorities. J, for cost in miles and availability, is definitely out of the picture. So I checked the AA and BA sites and found the same availability situation as on AS. Availability up to 7 December, then nothing. We are looking specifically SEA-Osaka, KIX or ITM will work. I was expecting seats to become available 1/20 or 1/21. Right now it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I'll keep looking and hope for the best. Right now it's looking like we might have to go with Korean on the outbound.

olouie

IIRC Korean charges same miles for roundtrip and one way so if you are doing that might as well get the roundtrip.

WillTravel4Food

KE requires it only be part of a round trip. They don't require KE be the carrier in both directions. If JL is available for the return, I could use them and still get the 35K rate on the KE outbound.

olouie

Yeah that makes sense, just wanted to chime in as some don't know the KE RT mileage vs. OW.

skimthetrees

That is a tough one. My searching was all Business not economy so I do not have a handle on that. It does look like availability for large numbers of Y awards goes away after December 7th so there could be some economy blocking going on. It is strange though because PE and J do not seem to be blocked so it could be just high economy demand but I have rarely seen a hard cutoff like that in Y but not J so I don't know. Good luck.

nologic

Alsaka agent said on the phone to me today that there no bookable flights currently on JL. She said this is JL thing, until they open back up, not an AS thing.

She expressed her frustration seeing award space and spending time entering all the info for four people, only to discover that the system wouldn't allow her to fully book and ticket the reservation.

She suspects this will be resolved when JL opens back up...she said the same applies for KL and CX awards, not currently bookable..

Sandeep1

I'm sure it will be conveniently resolved once Alaska devalues partner awards.

WillTravel4Food

I've been trying to figure out if this was said in humor or from the pessimist's perspective. I can't knock you for either one, because it's funny - but only because it might also be true.

Sandeep1

I tried to combine humor and my pessimistic outlook in one sentence, so you read it correctly. Well done!

WillTravel4Food

So I posted a question today on the JL forum about this topic. They're not seeing any issues with award space. Yet I have seen the same availability issues on the BA an AA websites, so I don't think this is exclusively AS. So somewhere between JL and their partners' reservations portals there's a break and nothing seems to be getting through. I'm losing hope this gets resolved anytime soon.

usefuloxymoron

There are some award spots that are real; the first class ones don’t seem to be real though. I just switched a day in J successfully. As a data point I also saw that flight I changed immediately open up award space.

olouie

AS inventory is so bad. Was looking for business class award on a date in the fall, none on AS but AA and BA both had it. Sadly nothing agents could do so I just booked on AA. Not sure if IT issue or just AS doesn’t get access.

skimthetrees

The only hiding of JL awards I am aware of is the last week of the schedule. Was your situation different? Was the award non-stop or a connection? With or without stopover? Did it relate to a specific destination? If you have an example of this happening today I would like to look into it. Do you see this happening today?