Aug 4, 2015, 1:37 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
GUIDE to redeeming AA miles for Japan Air Lines awards:
For 2012-2015 posts, please see
ARCHIVE: AA Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)
For further information, see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
- JL awards are now shown show and can be booked on aa.com
- AwardNexus (free to FlyerTalk members for basic searches) will also reveal, and (for a fee) alert, on JL award seats
- AA awards on JL must be MileSAAver (AAnytime awards are only available on AA marketed and AA operated flights)
- There are no onerous fuel or carrier-imposed surcharges using AAdvantage miles for awards using JL
- JL initially releases awards to AAvantage members 330 days out at 10:00 am JST time (18:00 PDT, 17:00 PST). Note, JL award inventory is released to members of other FFPs 360 day out and updates award and revenue seat award availability once daily ~09:30-12:00 Pacific time
- JL may release 0-2 F and 0-4 J award seats initially; until taken they remain available up to three months from release
- No further seats are likely to be released until shortly (~14 days) prior to scheduled departure - but the last F seat will be retained for sale, not released into award inventory
- No stopovers are allowed on AA awards. Connections may be as long as 23:59.
- Only JAL Mileage Bank members can waitlist awards
- All awards for domestic Japan will default to Economy (including international F or J award with domestic segments); these can often be upgraded at reasonable cost at the ticket counter in the Japan connecting airport
- If JL & QF are showing availability, but AA can't see it, try calling the Australia AA center as it may be a point-of-sale issue
For 2012-2015 posts, please see
ARCHIVE: AA Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)
For further information, see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
AAdvantage Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (2016-2023)
Jul 16, 2020, 5:11 pm
#1501
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Western PA
Programs: AA EXP/2MM
Posts: 441
I don’t remember where I read it, but there was an Internet rumor a week or so ago that from 4/2021 on, JAL would restrict F awards to their own program only.
Bill
eta: most bloggers had the rumor on their site around 6/15
Jul 16, 2020, 7:50 pm
#1502
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
It's not just AA, something really weird is going on with JAL F award availability. I'm trying to book F for next year with AA miles but doesn't seem like I can.
On AA, the website says every 777 flight has F availability but errors out when you actually try to book it.
On Qantas, all 777 flights >340 days out have F availability , but F always disappears for all flights at <=340 day mark (at least for the past week that I've been checking). No program that I could find opens up at 340 days that would explain them being gobbled up, and all J space is still there, so not sure why it's only F that disappears.
On BA, for every 777 flight on all the dates in June I've checked, the BA site says that "First Cabin not operated on this flight" even though it's a 777 that does have a First class. This includes dates/flights that Qantas can see F availability.
On JAL OneWorld search, it seems to say there's no F availability for any date. Also I have to mention that the JAL website is hot garbage and probably the worst website I've used since the 90's.
Hope they can get it figured out soon.
On AA, the website says every 777 flight has F availability but errors out when you actually try to book it.
On Qantas, all 777 flights >340 days out have F availability , but F always disappears for all flights at <=340 day mark (at least for the past week that I've been checking). No program that I could find opens up at 340 days that would explain them being gobbled up, and all J space is still there, so not sure why it's only F that disappears.
On BA, for every 777 flight on all the dates in June I've checked, the BA site says that "First Cabin not operated on this flight" even though it's a 777 that does have a First class. This includes dates/flights that Qantas can see F availability.
On JAL OneWorld search, it seems to say there's no F availability for any date. Also I have to mention that the JAL website is hot garbage and probably the worst website I've used since the 90's.
Hope they can get it figured out soon.
Jul 17, 2020, 9:09 am
#1503
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 105
For AA's purposes >340 days is meaningless since they cannot book that far out and AA's web search is completely broken for JAL F so do not use it. And, AA's web booking is completely broken as well. One report said they were able to book when calling in. I assume this was with verifying availability with a non AA search. I see quite a few F awards using QF and confirmed with JAL OneWorld search. For example, JFK-HND 6/10/21 has two non-stop flights which each show 2F awards via QF and JL/OneWorld search. If the one poster was correct this should be bookable via phone. It's quite possible you may have to get the agent.to long-sell into Z class for this to book given the sorry state of AA IT.
I'll try booking via phone once the dates I need open up in a few days and hope I get lucky. It's just been frustrating trying to plot everything out and verifying availability. I'll report back then.
Edit: Did some more searching based on sombrachinesca's comment, and looks like I might be out of luck. So frustrating because I had these same F flights for last month but COVID f'd it all up so was trying to do the same for next year. We'll see....
https://onemileatatime.com/japan-air...-class-awards/
https://pointmetotheplane.boardingar...l-first-class/
Edit2: From a comment.. hmmm
"JL is changing the booking class code for award tickets from April 2021 onwards. I work at a oneworld airline and we got a memo from them in late February. This requires us to change our system process and due to covid furloughs this has not been carried out. This is probably why it isn’t working with partner miles so cause for alarm yet."
Last edited by BananaFusion; Jul 17, 2020 at 9:39 am
Jul 19, 2020, 7:28 pm
#1504
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite
Posts: 1,971
Choose a different flight or fare
We're sorry but at least one of the flights or fares you chose is no longer available.
EDIT: reading through the rest of the post, it makes sense now
Jul 24, 2020, 1:28 am
#1505
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 105
To followup with my previous posts, the good news is I was able to book a pair of Japan Airlines first class tickets from HND->JFK with AA miles.
However there is definitely something weird going on, at least compared to last year when I booked these same award flights on the same dates. I figured out how to view an award calendar on the JAL website, and F award availability is wide open >=340 days out. However for all dates <340 days out (which is important since AA only lets you book 331 days out), almost all the availability disappears. The JAL website says they're wait-listed. Meanwhile J awards are still wide-open with all 5 seats available when AA gets access, so this seems to be an F only thing.
There's only a very small handful of days that there is any F awards available that are not wait-listed, and for some reason they're always on Fridays. I found only 4 dates with F awards available between March, April, May, and June, all on a Friday and checking HND to LAX, JFK, ORD, or SFO. Thankfully the lone date in June that had F worked with my schedule, and I was able to snag it. The AA website let me hold it and then a few days later ticket it. So if the award actually exists, AA will let you book it, so I don't think it's an IT issue but that JAL just isn't releasing F awards like they used to. Though AA's website is still f'd up and thinks every date next summer has F availability even though it doesn't actually exist for 98% of those dates and will error out if you try to book it.
Now just crossing my fingers I'll actually be able to do this trip a year from now or if COVID will screw things up 2 years in a row. We'll see!
However there is definitely something weird going on, at least compared to last year when I booked these same award flights on the same dates. I figured out how to view an award calendar on the JAL website, and F award availability is wide open >=340 days out. However for all dates <340 days out (which is important since AA only lets you book 331 days out), almost all the availability disappears. The JAL website says they're wait-listed. Meanwhile J awards are still wide-open with all 5 seats available when AA gets access, so this seems to be an F only thing.
There's only a very small handful of days that there is any F awards available that are not wait-listed, and for some reason they're always on Fridays. I found only 4 dates with F awards available between March, April, May, and June, all on a Friday and checking HND to LAX, JFK, ORD, or SFO. Thankfully the lone date in June that had F worked with my schedule, and I was able to snag it. The AA website let me hold it and then a few days later ticket it. So if the award actually exists, AA will let you book it, so I don't think it's an IT issue but that JAL just isn't releasing F awards like they used to. Though AA's website is still f'd up and thinks every date next summer has F availability even though it doesn't actually exist for 98% of those dates and will error out if you try to book it.
Now just crossing my fingers I'll actually be able to do this trip a year from now or if COVID will screw things up 2 years in a row. We'll see!
Last edited by BananaFusion; Jul 24, 2020 at 1:51 am
Jul 24, 2020, 11:14 am
#1506
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
To followup with my previous posts, the good news is I was able to book a pair of Japan Airlines first class tickets from HND->JFK with AA miles.
However there is definitely something weird going on, at least compared to last year when I booked these same award flights on the same dates. I figured out how to view an award calendar on the JAL website, and F award availability is wide open >=340 days out. However for all dates <340 days out (which is important since AA only lets you book 331 days out), almost all the availability disappears. The JAL website says they're wait-listed. Meanwhile J awards are still wide-open with all 5 seats available when AA gets access, so this seems to be an F only thing.
There's only a very small handful of days that there is any F awards available that are not wait-listed, and for some reason they're always on Fridays. I found only 4 dates with F awards available between March, April, May, and June, all on a Friday and checking HND to LAX, JFK, ORD, or SFO. Thankfully the lone date in June that had F worked with my schedule, and I was able to snag it. The AA website let me hold it and then a few days later ticket it. So if the award actually exists, AA will let you book it, so I don't think it's an IT issue but that JAL just isn't releasing F awards like they used to. Though AA's website is still f'd up and thinks every date next summer has F availability even though it doesn't actually exist for 98% of those dates and will error out if you try to book it.
Now just crossing my fingers I'll actually be able to do this trip a year from now or if COVID will screw things up 2 years in a row. We'll see!
However there is definitely something weird going on, at least compared to last year when I booked these same award flights on the same dates. I figured out how to view an award calendar on the JAL website, and F award availability is wide open >=340 days out. However for all dates <340 days out (which is important since AA only lets you book 331 days out), almost all the availability disappears. The JAL website says they're wait-listed. Meanwhile J awards are still wide-open with all 5 seats available when AA gets access, so this seems to be an F only thing.
There's only a very small handful of days that there is any F awards available that are not wait-listed, and for some reason they're always on Fridays. I found only 4 dates with F awards available between March, April, May, and June, all on a Friday and checking HND to LAX, JFK, ORD, or SFO. Thankfully the lone date in June that had F worked with my schedule, and I was able to snag it. The AA website let me hold it and then a few days later ticket it. So if the award actually exists, AA will let you book it, so I don't think it's an IT issue but that JAL just isn't releasing F awards like they used to. Though AA's website is still f'd up and thinks every date next summer has F availability even though it doesn't actually exist for 98% of those dates and will error out if you try to book it.
Now just crossing my fingers I'll actually be able to do this trip a year from now or if COVID will screw things up 2 years in a row. We'll see!
Can you confirm the AA award booking class for your new JAL F award? Is it still booking Class Z? There was a comment from another poster that implied the booking class may have changed since April 1st so it would be good if we could get confirmation on what it is currently.
Jul 24, 2020, 11:23 am
#1507
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: PHL
Programs: HH Lifetime Diamond, AA EXP, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 587
Congratulations on your F booking! That is a great data point.
Can you confirm the AA award booking class for your new JAL F award? Is it still booking Class Z? There was a comment from another poster that implied the booking class may have changed since April 1st so it would be good if we could get confirmation on what it is currently.
Can you confirm the AA award booking class for your new JAL F award? Is it still booking Class Z? There was a comment from another poster that implied the booking class may have changed since April 1st so it would be good if we could get confirmation on what it is currently.
Now if i could only get *TO* Japan without hopscotching across the country..... The phantom availability is frustrating.
Jul 24, 2020, 11:58 am
#1508
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 105
Congratulations on your F booking! That is a great data point.
Can you confirm the AA award booking class for your new JAL F award? Is it still booking Class Z? There was a comment from another poster that implied the booking class may have changed since April 1st so it would be good if we could get confirmation on what it is currently.
Can you confirm the AA award booking class for your new JAL F award? Is it still booking Class Z? There was a comment from another poster that implied the booking class may have changed since April 1st so it would be good if we could get confirmation on what it is currently.
Also as another data point, JAL flights 331 days out show up at midnight Central on the AA website, but you can't actually book it successfully until about 1:50AM Central time. Calling in won't help and the web will error out when you try to book it before that time. It's been very consistent for that time. Thank god I'm a night owl.
Last edited by BananaFusion; Jul 24, 2020 at 12:03 pm
Jul 24, 2020, 9:00 pm
#1509
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
It says First (A) for the JAL leg, and First (U) for the domestic leg.
Also as another data point, JAL flights 331 days out show up at midnight Central on the AA website, but you can't actually book it successfully until about 1:50AM Central time. Calling in won't help and the web will error out when you try to book it before that time. It's been very consistent for that time. Thank god I'm a night owl.
Also as another data point, JAL flights 331 days out show up at midnight Central on the AA website, but you can't actually book it successfully until about 1:50AM Central time. Calling in won't help and the web will error out when you try to book it before that time. It's been very consistent for that time. Thank god I'm a night owl.
Jul 24, 2020, 11:03 pm
#1510
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite
Posts: 1,971
Thanks for the tip BananaFusion I was able to book 6 weeks in April and May of next year via two one-ways from LAX-HND through the mess of waitlisted days. Both of my booked flights are also booking code A.
Last edited by seigex; Jul 25, 2020 at 12:37 am
Jul 24, 2020, 11:56 pm
#1511
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite
Posts: 1,971
My 9/19 JAL F (JL15) flight LAX-HND was rescheduled to 9/18 and switched from a 773 to a 789 with no F so now it's a J flight. Assuming AA won't reimburse me 20k miles, is it worth keeping this at the 80k rate for what's now a JAL J or just rebook to a 60k AA metal J that's available instead? Is JAL J worth 20k over AA J?
Jul 25, 2020, 12:00 pm
#1512
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 105
I figured out another piece of the puzzle - For <340 days, JAL appears to only release award flights for one day in a month for 24 hours, and then once that day is over, availability opens on the next day and closes for the previous day.
So for instance, a few days ago, all the F award flights available were only on Fridays. So Friday, June 18th, Friday, May 21st, Friday, April 23rd.
The next day though, all the F award flights available were on Saturday. So Saturday, June 19th, Saturday, May 22nd, Saturday, April 24th. But now, none of the previous available Friday dates were available. They all say wait listed.
Today, all the F flights available are on Sundays, again shifted over one day. So Sunday, June 20th, Sunday, May 23rd, Sunday, April 25th. And again, none of the previously available Friday or Saturday dates were available.
The switch appears to happen at midnight Tokyo time, so 10AM central. Also it's not that *every* 777 flight has F availability on those open days, but a lot of them do. So right now Sunday dates just opened up, and tomorrow at 10AM CST then you should be able to book F for Monday, June 21st, while any unbooked Sunday dates will disappear until next month.
Hope this helps someone else out too.
So for instance, a few days ago, all the F award flights available were only on Fridays. So Friday, June 18th, Friday, May 21st, Friday, April 23rd.
The next day though, all the F award flights available were on Saturday. So Saturday, June 19th, Saturday, May 22nd, Saturday, April 24th. But now, none of the previous available Friday dates were available. They all say wait listed.
Today, all the F flights available are on Sundays, again shifted over one day. So Sunday, June 20th, Sunday, May 23rd, Sunday, April 25th. And again, none of the previously available Friday or Saturday dates were available.
The switch appears to happen at midnight Tokyo time, so 10AM central. Also it's not that *every* 777 flight has F availability on those open days, but a lot of them do. So right now Sunday dates just opened up, and tomorrow at 10AM CST then you should be able to book F for Monday, June 21st, while any unbooked Sunday dates will disappear until next month.
Hope this helps someone else out too.
Jul 25, 2020, 1:36 pm
#1513
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,654
Depends on your priorities. AA has superior seats, more comfortable, roomier and with a lot more storage space for personal items; JL has larger IFE screens. JL has more attentive flight attendants and their food and alcohol selection are infinitely superior to AA's.
Jul 25, 2020, 1:54 pm
#1514
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 53
I have an upcoming flight in October and probably won't get to go. Is AA will offering free cancellation and reinstatement of miles for award tickets?
Aug 9, 2020, 3:17 pm
#1515
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: NC
Programs: AAConciergeKey/1MM, DL DM/2 MM, UA Gold,Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 11,982
When booking AA awards for JL F, it seems to always put any domestic Japanese segment in S (economy). Is this a known issue or does JL not offer any premium (or F) cabin on domestic flights. Or perhaps this is just an aa.com glitch where it doesn’t show domestic F or J?