Best way to get 2 business/first class award tickets 1+ year out
 

Am trying to book 2 business/first class award tickets from NYC/IAD/ORD (flexible) to Tokyo for our honeymoon, sometime late October or November 2020. I have 180k+ MR, and a similar number of UR for transferring to Virgin. We are open to having 1 business, 1 first class since I don't see 2 award tickets of the same class available.

What is the best way for me to accomplish this? Looking 1 year out, it seems that availability disappears pretty quickly. ANA is showing that 1 year out, there's typically 1 business class and 1 first class availability. I was thinking that I would book the first class through Virgin, and the business class through ANA. However, does Virgin not have access to the same inventory until a few weeks later? It seems that these availabilities disappear by then.

Appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks

Your timing is excellent, with sufficient time to map out your strategy before availability opens up.

I suggest you begin by reviewing this Virgin Atlantic thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-atlantic-airways-flying-club/1847346-ana-nh-redemptions-using-vs-flying-club-points.html]Sticky ANA (NH) Redemptions using VS Flying Club points[/url]

and going through some of the award booking threads in the ANA forum. E.g.:

Best Strategy To Book 4 J Awards

You can glean quite a bit of knowledge there, then circle back if you have further questions.

I've done ORD-NRT-ORD awaed tickets for 3 PAX in Business class numerous times with NH and VS miles . These trips occur in November (my favorite month in Japan) and March/April.

Booking 11 to 11.6 months out is the key.

I see more HND seats offerred than NRT. But NRT works best for us.

I often see 3 First offered, too.

Booking 10-11 months out I was able to get First ORD-NRT with Avianca miles! It seems NH is rather more accommodating than many other airlines??????