pjs

FYI I saw this comment on an old thread from 11/2021:

Last week I had a January VS award booked on NH F ORD-HND cancel. I was not automatically rebooked on the NH ORD-NRT still operating on the same day. VS said there was nothing they could do other than leave the booking open or refund it since there was no award space on the ORD-NRT flight. A quick call to NH and they were able to open up F award space and add the segment into the reservation. VS was then able to reissue the reservation.

So, it looks like if flight is canceled, assuming there's a routing that works and seats available, ANA may open award space, even to/from a different Tokyo hub.

45garth

Not to beat a dead Wagyu steer but earlier this month I was on an ANA flight (BKK-NRT) that had been downgraded from Business to Premium Economy. This was after an ANA flight (LAX-NRT) that had been downgraded from First to Premium Economy - the next day. Skreeeee!! There were plenty of seats available in both instances for the originally booked class of service. Sadly I got the "Virgin has to request the change of flights!" from ANA and the good old "ANA won't release any additional award seats to us!" from Virgin. In the former case I opted for the PE downgrade (which really wasn't too bad although ANA would not refund the price difference). In the latter I cancelled altogether and rebooked on UA in Business.

I think this is probably just an occupation hazard for booking award flights with one carrier on someone else's metal. Fingers crossed for all of us on future HND-SYD flights.

pjs

That sucks. I'm booked directly thru ANA so it's possibly only one phone call for disappointment not two

LittleYaris

We also had award seats for NH 890 in June 2023. History has taught me that if Google Flights doesn’t list it then it’s likely canceled (happened to me a few months ago for another EVA/ANA award flight). So I went ahead and changed it to the NH 880. Probably want to do it before you get a cancellation email from ANA a few weeks from now.

kodalip

Unfortunately we have 2 J seats so no availability for the dates we want. I figured since we're so far out once the flight gets canceled they can open up more award space for us since that seems to be the norm

LittleYaris

Will they open more award space? What I gathered from another thread is that they don’t always do that. I hope they do though for everyone’s sake. If you’re not firm on your travel dates, the other option is to fly out separately. I saw a few single J seats available on different dates. Good luck.

pmdg7444

So ANA may open up space

Do you find that ANA MB call centre agents will understand the request to open up HND space should NRT be cancelled?

Booked mine using lifemiles....not feeling confident that they what they have to do.

alienguy99

yeah I also have a xxx-NRT-JFK booked via Lifemiles in a mixed class J-F booking. Not sure what’s gonna happen

pesos

just another data point - I had a VS award for ANA F from lhr in mid-July that for a couple months prior disappeared from google flights as well as ANA’s own sales - I was worried it would get canceled or drop to a 787 but in the end it didn’t (whew)

pmdg7444

Maybe a chance some NRT flights will operate if Japan reopens to tourism.....

ToastedSi

It seems like NH121 will operate tomorrow from ORD to NRT. I had this booked and was worried about it for a while.

CPH-Flyer

NH121 has a period in July and August, peak Japanese holiday period where it makes a return. But then goes back in to hibernation.

JALsnipe

I also noticed the zeroed out inventory on NH10.

I have a friend currently booked on NH10 on 11/5. I'm also trying to get on this flight, but inventory is showing 0 in all buckets.
I noticed that ANA added NH110 from Haneda - I wonder if they're preparing to cancel the Narita flight and put everyone on 110 instead.

CPH-Flyer

NH10 has not operated throughout the pandemic, I doubt it will be reinstated from October 30th, but I could be surprised.

Only ANA

ANA has been operating NH110 pretty consistently throughout the pandemic (initially only a few days a week but now daily), and haven’t operated NH10 for… years.

So none of these are recent changes and I wouldn’t expect people to be moved over, especially given how packed these flights are lately. I’ve taken this flight seven times this year, three times in J and four in F. All but two times (in F), the plane seemed packed in all cabins.