Best Strategy To Book 4 J Awards
Jun 19, 2018, 6:14 pm
#1
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Best Strategy To Book 4 J Awards
So, my ANA Mileage account has sufficient miles for me to book a family trip from the U.S. to Japan in June 2019. My preferred outbound would be mid June and return about 2 weeks later. If I wait until my return date to book, odds are I'll be waitlisted for the outbound flight. If I book the outbound at 355 days out, how do I book a "phantom" return flight to make it a "round trip" that I can change the return flight when my preferred date becomes available. Help please!
Jun 19, 2018, 9:07 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2017
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I believe the recognized technique is to book the outbound and return for the same date 355 days out, then at 9:00 a.m. JST when the outbound becomes available, swallow the 3,000 miles for the itinerary change and grab that date. However, do you have status with ANA? I think there are generally only 2J seats per flight available for regular members at the -355 mark for the JFK/LAX/SFO routes, but possibly 4 on the Houston and Chicago routes.
Jun 20, 2018, 8:27 am
#3
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Just a lowly base member right now. So, if I look to go out of ORD or IAH to Narita, what would be the best same day return pair? And you are saying that award seats show up at 0900 JST? So if I wished to book outbound for June 25, I would check for seats the evening of June 24 ( which would be morning of June 25 in Japan)?
Jun 20, 2018, 11:21 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2017
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Just a lowly base member right now. So, if I look to go out of ORD or IAH to Narita, what would be the best same day return pair? And you are saying that award seats show up at 0900 JST? So if I wished to book outbound for June 25, I would check for seats the evening of June 24 ( which would be morning of June 25 in Japan)?
I would suggest you play around with the award booking tool at 0900 JST ias a practice run, select the forward-most dates it allows, and you should see the seats become available, or move from wait-listed to available. And click through a few steps (short of booking), to get a feel for what you need to do quickly when the time comes.
Jun 20, 2018, 11:26 am
#6
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Depends on direction, I guess. Right now I can see 1 J for June 10, 2019 NRT-IAH, but a whopping 5 J for IHA-NRT on that same date. I suppose that indicates that the demand is coming for U.S.-originating travel and folks are snapping up their return legs.
Jun 20, 2018, 5:26 pm
#7
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Return is always tough to IAH.
Jun 20, 2018, 5:27 pm
#8
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Does it make sense to book Economy rather than waitlist and hope for upgrades or should I just book waitlist?
Jun 20, 2018, 5:55 pm
#9
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I would also check what the seat map (expert-flyer) looks like for the same flight(s) this year to see how much unsold space they have at the T-2WK mark.
Jun 20, 2018, 6:08 pm
#10
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So, at 0900 today JST, I put in an outbound from ORD to NRT on 6/11/19 and saw 4 J seats. I put in a return for same day and it came back with a day later( 6/12/19) which meant no ANA flights but there was a Star Alliance (Asiana) flight in Economy. No ANA flights were showing. This is strange since the outbound flight lands at 14:30 and the return departs at 17:50. Should have been able to see that flight but it was not listed. Does ANA release Japan to USA flights later than 0900??
In order to lock in the outbound, should I accept the Asiana Economy seats now and make the change when my actual return date comes up?
In order to lock in the outbound, should I accept the Asiana Economy seats now and make the change when my actual return date comes up?
Jun 20, 2018, 6:13 pm
#11
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Torode; My thanks for your help so far! I've navigated ANA fine in the past but that was either one ticket or 2, not 4. Arrigato.
Jun 21, 2018, 10:00 am
#12
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So, at 0900 today JST, I put in an outbound from ORD to NRT on 6/11/19 and saw 4 J seats. I put in a return for same day and it came back with a day later( 6/12/19) which meant no ANA flights but there was a Star Alliance (Asiana) flight in Economy. No ANA flights were showing. This is strange since the outbound flight lands at 14:30 and the return departs at 17:50. Should have been able to see that flight but it was not listed. Does ANA release Japan to USA flights later than 0900??
In order to lock in the outbound, should I accept the Asiana Economy seats now and make the change when my actual return date comes up?
In order to lock in the outbound, should I accept the Asiana Economy seats now and make the change when my actual return date comes up?
You do realize that the return cannot leave on the 6/11, right?
If you are still asking for a decision, you might already have lost the outbound 4 seats.
If the seats are still there, wait till tomorrow when 6/12 departures open up.
Jun 21, 2018, 1:38 pm
#13
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ORD NRT departing 6/11 and arriving 6/12 & NRT ORD departing 6/12, arriving 6/12, right?
You do realize that the return cannot leave on the 6/11, right?
If you are still asking for a decision, you might already have lost the outbound 4 seats.
If the seats are still there, wait till tomorrow when 6/12 departures open up.
You do realize that the return cannot leave on the 6/11, right?
If you are still asking for a decision, you might already have lost the outbound 4 seats.
If the seats are still there, wait till tomorrow when 6/12 departures open up.
Jun 23, 2018, 6:58 am
#14
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Reporting back. Managed to book 2 J and 2 F outbound ( sorry, kids but Mom and Dad get the F). Booked a dummy return which confirmed in F but waitlisted in J. Plan to keep checking until I can confirm a return in J so all the credit card entries will be completed. I would then have 2 itineraries confirmed and ticketed. When my preferred return date opens, I will change both itineraries. Is all this correct? Also, I have seen posts alluding to a 3,000 mile charge to change a ticketed award but I cannot find this anywhere on the ANA website. Is this true and, if so, is it per reservation or per passenger?
Jun 23, 2018, 11:01 pm
#15
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Tokyo
Programs: ANA: SFC / Marriott: Platinum Elite / Hilton: Diamond
Posts: 77
Reporting back. Managed to book 2 J and 2 F outbound ( sorry, kids but Mom and Dad get the F). Booked a dummy return which confirmed in F but waitlisted in J. Plan to keep checking until I can confirm a return in J so all the credit card entries will be completed. I would then have 2 itineraries confirmed and ticketed. When my preferred return date opens, I will change both itineraries. Is all this correct? Also, I have seen posts alluding to a 3,000 mile charge to change a ticketed award but I cannot find this anywhere on the ANA website. Is this true and, if so, is it per reservation or per passenger?