Definitive "Booking Japan Airlines (JL) Using AS Miles" Thread (2023-24)
Jan 26, 2023, 1:51 pm
#48
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Programs: AS MVP Gold 75K, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 1,598
I've been scouting out awards for next December. It's been pretty much non-existent. I don't see any availability after 7 December. That first week of December has Y space, but hardly any J (though I was not looking). It's so bad we've changed plans and are now looking into So. America or Europe. However, return flights (Japan-US) appear to be showing up as predicted based on historic patterns. We can't get there, but we can get back.
Jan 26, 2023, 1:53 pm
#49
Join Date: Nov 2020
Posts: 26
I've been scouting out awards for next December. It's been pretty much non-existent. I don't see any availability after 7 December. That first week of December has Y space, but hardly any J (though I was not looking). It's so bad we've changed plans and are now looking into So. America or Europe. However, return flights (Japan-US) appear to be showing up as predicted based on historic patterns. We can't get there, but we can get back.
Jan 26, 2023, 1:54 pm
#50
Join Date: Nov 2020
Posts: 26
I've been scouting out awards for next December. It's been pretty much non-existent. I don't see any availability after 7 December. That first week of December has Y space, but hardly any J (though I was not looking). It's so bad we've changed plans and are now looking into So. America or Europe. However, return flights (Japan-US) appear to be showing up as predicted based on historic patterns. We can't get there, but we can get back.
Jan 26, 2023, 2:52 pm
#51
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,969
I've been scouting out awards for next December. It's been pretty much non-existent. I don't see any availability after 7 December. That first week of December has Y space, but hardly any J (though I was not looking). It's so bad we've changed plans and are now looking into So. America or Europe. However, return flights (Japan-US) appear to be showing up as predicted based on historic patterns. We can't get there, but we can get back.
Jan 27, 2023, 10:24 am
#52
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Programs: AS MVP Gold 75K, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 1,598
Our schedule is restricted by school schedules. We are looking at Dec 16 outbound, Dec 25 return. The return should show up in the next day or two, but we aren't going to book that given the uncertainty of availability on the outbound. At this point it looks to me like a set plan to not release seats to AS (and possibly other partners) for late-December.
Jan 27, 2023, 8:36 pm
#53
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: bay area, ca
Programs: UA plat, , aa plat, marriott LT titanium
Posts: 4,833
The schedule over the Christmas season is just now coming up. There's no availability US-Japan, but sufficient availability Japan-US. Again, not looking for J space - just Y. We're looking for a total of 7 tickets. We don't have enough miles to go J in even just one direction.
Our schedule is restricted by school schedules. We are looking at Dec 16 outbound, Dec 25 return. The return should show up in the next day or two, but we aren't going to book that given the uncertainty of availability on the outbound. At this point it looks to me like a set plan to not release seats to AS (and possibly other partners) for late-December.
Our schedule is restricted by school schedules. We are looking at Dec 16 outbound, Dec 25 return. The return should show up in the next day or two, but we aren't going to book that given the uncertainty of availability on the outbound. At this point it looks to me like a set plan to not release seats to AS (and possibly other partners) for late-December.
Jan 27, 2023, 9:17 pm
#54
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 5,867
I was told that about March/April/1st week of May as well. Perhaps we should all just go at the worst possible time of the year.
Jan 28, 2023, 9:07 am
#55
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Programs: AS MVP Gold 75K, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 1,598
One would think this would be the case, but we were able to secure tickets SEA-TYO on 7 April and TYO-SEA on 17 April. Now we did speculatively book before the reopening was announced. The one other time I've been to Japan, I went during late-October/early-November - which turns out to be an incredibly nice time of year to visit Kansai. I had one rain day in the seventeen day trip. School holidays now limit our travel windows.
Jan 28, 2023, 11:52 am
#58
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: AS 75K, BW Plat, Marriott Gold, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 10,724
If you don't mind waiting until a week or two prior to departure, a lot of premium award space gets dumped into the system around the holidays....even saw J seats available on AA LAX-SYD during the holidays last month.
Jan 29, 2023, 6:14 am
#60
Join Date: May 2006
Location: KSNA/KLAX
Programs: IML GOLD, Bonvoy LTPE, WOH Globalist, AAEXPLT
Posts: 645
Experiencing a very strange issue with AS, curious if anyone also noticed.
Example 1: SIN-HND-LAX
Segment by Segment
SIN-HND = UNAVAILABLE
HND-LAX = AVAILABLE
SIN-HND-KIX = AVAILABLE
(sin-hnd is all same flight and date)
Multi city search:
SIN-HND-KIX + HND-LAX = AVAILABLE
SIN-HND + HND LAX = UNAVAILABLE
Thinking it is phantom inventory, I booked SIN-HND-KIX + HND-LAX and the booking system TICKETED the reservation lol. So right now I may have to fly this strange itinerary (its fine because it gives me 20 hrs in osaka before i need to get a $100 domestic ticket to HND.
Example 2: LAX to TYO
LAX-HND = UNAVAILABLE
SFO-LAX-HND = AVAILABLE (same tpac flight date and #)
I'm not extremely motivated to book a flight to reposition from LAX to SFO just to fly back to LAX again but I guess I can do that if need be if desparate times comes to desparate measures, but has anyone worked their way around these strange inventory issues?
Example 1: SIN-HND-LAX
Segment by Segment
SIN-HND = UNAVAILABLE
HND-LAX = AVAILABLE
SIN-HND-KIX = AVAILABLE
(sin-hnd is all same flight and date)
Multi city search:
SIN-HND-KIX + HND-LAX = AVAILABLE
SIN-HND + HND LAX = UNAVAILABLE
Thinking it is phantom inventory, I booked SIN-HND-KIX + HND-LAX and the booking system TICKETED the reservation lol. So right now I may have to fly this strange itinerary (its fine because it gives me 20 hrs in osaka before i need to get a $100 domestic ticket to HND.
Example 2: LAX to TYO
LAX-HND = UNAVAILABLE
SFO-LAX-HND = AVAILABLE (same tpac flight date and #)
I'm not extremely motivated to book a flight to reposition from LAX to SFO just to fly back to LAX again but I guess I can do that if need be if desparate times comes to desparate measures, but has anyone worked their way around these strange inventory issues?