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)
Mar 5, 2019, 9:55 am
#871
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 19
Mar 5, 2019, 11:15 am
#872
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 14
I am looking for any JAL flights going to the US in the first two weeks of August, but I was concerned because the whole month seems to be blacked out (never seen that before). I was looking out of TYO and KIX for anywhere (ORD/DFW/LAX/SFO/BOS/NYC) and while I see flights to those destinations available in other months I don't see any available in August. The Qantas award calendar that you have there shows (for business) the BA flights that connect through LHR, and for economy AA/BA operated flights along with a couple China ones (JAL codeshare but not JAL flights). If you pull up the calendar for every month from now until August there are at least some JAL flights listed (not for every given award day but for at least some of them). Where I am going with this is that it seems like there was JAL award availability at/near the 330 day window but they all went away and now there is nothing. Why it is relevant is that JAL flights come up as milesaaver for AA (great value) and also because there are direct routings. If August typically gets more awards released nearer the date (60 days out) then all well and good. But if other people who have made summer bookings have seen it essentially dry up completely (as it is now) and only have maybe 1 or 2 award tickets open up sporadically a week or so away from the travel date, then I'd probably look for cheap Jetstar or similar flights to China and get a return ticket from there.
Mar 5, 2019, 12:04 pm
#873
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
Following your advice, I was able to find award space for LGA-ORD-NRT-PEK, though with the ORD-NRT and NRT-PEK segments showing up only separately. The agent was able to book LGA-ORD-NRT, but told me NRT-PEK was "not confirming". It appears that the NRT-PEK space is showing up on BA and AS but not QF. Perhaps phantom space? She ended up placing LGA-ORD-NRT on hold for now.
A few questions:
1. For purposes of determining O/D, do co-terminals count? If I have to depart from JFK instead of LGA, will I have to redeposit the miles?
For award redemption co-terminals do not count at O/D level. So yes, you would need to cancel and rebook. Personally I would always pick the O/D that have more probability to see additional availability as time and again, give a bit of flexibility there often are workable dates, for us anyway. Then no fee to change. That is why for as much as prefer FLL, we almost always use MIA.
2. If I want to change say the NRT-PEK segment but not the LGA-ORD-NRT segments, is my current seat on LGA-ORD-NRT sufficient, or does there need to be availability still on that route? (For example if reticketing involves releasing all of my seats then obtaining them again, the seats may disappear and not go directly back into inventory.)
Change the segments in the middle does not affect your segments on either side. They are independent to each other. Only a very incompetent agent would cause the havoc you fear. However thanks to AA's free change on routing, most AAgents are quite familiar on the process and know not to disturb the existing segments that you dont want to change.
3. Is "not confirming" inventory a common phenomenon? Maybe I should just HUCA and hope the next agent makes it work.
There are many factors that can contribute to the "non confirming". HUCA should be attempted, in the hope to find out why it is "non confirming". On the itinerary I ticketed last week, initially the agent also mumbled something about NRT-ITM not coming back as confirmed. Then she tried something else (she was talking to herself when adding the segment that I wanted before ticketing). Then the segment came back confirmed and we ticketed the ressie. I did not know what was the initial cause that the segment did not come back as confirmed when the agent mumbled, "there should not be any reason this was not confirmed." then she tried something else then it worked.
So yeah, do call back and try another agent.
Also try all JL US gateways, BOS, JFK, ORD, DFW, (seems hard), SFO, LAX (to KIX).
JFK, ORD and SFO have more availability. I have seen some dates at SFO J is wide open, i.e. BA does not even show the number of seats. Also SFO is to HND a far more convenient airport than NRT.
Also keep in mind JL only operates 777 at JFK, ORD and SFO. BOS, DFW and LAX are 787 which we dont like.
My plan is to search around these next few days for the NRT-PEK segment and get something confirmed, even if it's an undesirable routing (for example, LGA-ORD-NRT-HKG-PEK barely qualifies under maximum permitted mileage). Then I can always come back and change it later. The key is to grab the ORD-NRT space for good.
Use TYO so that it would bring up JFK-HND together with JFK-NRT. Always use TYO when both airports can be used. This is the same thing to use LDN instead of just LHR.
You would have some issues on the LGA-ORD-NRT-HKG-PEK, as JL has to publish a fare that allows such routing, i.e. incl HKG in the mix. On top of that, Good Luck in finding NRT-HKG. I haven't been succeeded each time I tried whenever we had too much time in Japan and wanted to go to HKG to kill time. N.E.V.E.R. once we have succeeded.
Case in point, this trip to Japan started our booking a TPAC cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver. To go to Japan we have 2 options - either fly just a couple days early or 11 days early. We opted for 11 days early. But due to complacency I did not call AA to put seats on hold when there were 3 J available and of course there was none AA domestic to JFK available without convoluted routing incl MIA-DFW-JFK i kid you not...or it sends us to LGA / EWR... So when I decided to just buy a positioning ticket to JFK a few hours later, the JFK-NRT had only 1 J left! Back to the drawing board and found now we would need to go another week early - for a total 17 days before boarding the cruise.
That prompted me to look for if we can take a detour to HKG during the 17 days. Well, the truth is, there is only PE available , which is crummy redemption value with BA and AA could not even do it...
it is just the same old story repeats itself again and again... each time we find ourselves in such scenario.
What we ended up doing is, booked another cruise that is a Circle Japan Yokohama to Yokohama and returns on the same day we would board the TPAC cruise to Vancouver.
We still have extra 9 days extra and we would go to Okinawa for 4 days, with 3 days at Osaka before and 2 days at Tokyo after, then we board the Circle Japan cruise...
If your destination is PEK, you really should try to fetch a CX seat instead, I would check all CX gateways incl YYZ.
Thank you all for the good advice!
A few questions:
1. For purposes of determining O/D, do co-terminals count? If I have to depart from JFK instead of LGA, will I have to redeposit the miles?
For award redemption co-terminals do not count at O/D level. So yes, you would need to cancel and rebook. Personally I would always pick the O/D that have more probability to see additional availability as time and again, give a bit of flexibility there often are workable dates, for us anyway. Then no fee to change. That is why for as much as prefer FLL, we almost always use MIA.
2. If I want to change say the NRT-PEK segment but not the LGA-ORD-NRT segments, is my current seat on LGA-ORD-NRT sufficient, or does there need to be availability still on that route? (For example if reticketing involves releasing all of my seats then obtaining them again, the seats may disappear and not go directly back into inventory.)
Change the segments in the middle does not affect your segments on either side. They are independent to each other. Only a very incompetent agent would cause the havoc you fear. However thanks to AA's free change on routing, most AAgents are quite familiar on the process and know not to disturb the existing segments that you dont want to change.
3. Is "not confirming" inventory a common phenomenon? Maybe I should just HUCA and hope the next agent makes it work.
There are many factors that can contribute to the "non confirming". HUCA should be attempted, in the hope to find out why it is "non confirming". On the itinerary I ticketed last week, initially the agent also mumbled something about NRT-ITM not coming back as confirmed. Then she tried something else (she was talking to herself when adding the segment that I wanted before ticketing). Then the segment came back confirmed and we ticketed the ressie. I did not know what was the initial cause that the segment did not come back as confirmed when the agent mumbled, "there should not be any reason this was not confirmed." then she tried something else then it worked.
So yeah, do call back and try another agent.
Also try all JL US gateways, BOS, JFK, ORD, DFW, (seems hard), SFO, LAX (to KIX).
JFK, ORD and SFO have more availability. I have seen some dates at SFO J is wide open, i.e. BA does not even show the number of seats. Also SFO is to HND a far more convenient airport than NRT.
Also keep in mind JL only operates 777 at JFK, ORD and SFO. BOS, DFW and LAX are 787 which we dont like.
My plan is to search around these next few days for the NRT-PEK segment and get something confirmed, even if it's an undesirable routing (for example, LGA-ORD-NRT-HKG-PEK barely qualifies under maximum permitted mileage). Then I can always come back and change it later. The key is to grab the ORD-NRT space for good.
Use TYO so that it would bring up JFK-HND together with JFK-NRT. Always use TYO when both airports can be used. This is the same thing to use LDN instead of just LHR.
You would have some issues on the LGA-ORD-NRT-HKG-PEK, as JL has to publish a fare that allows such routing, i.e. incl HKG in the mix. On top of that, Good Luck in finding NRT-HKG. I haven't been succeeded each time I tried whenever we had too much time in Japan and wanted to go to HKG to kill time. N.E.V.E.R. once we have succeeded.
Case in point, this trip to Japan started our booking a TPAC cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver. To go to Japan we have 2 options - either fly just a couple days early or 11 days early. We opted for 11 days early. But due to complacency I did not call AA to put seats on hold when there were 3 J available and of course there was none AA domestic to JFK available without convoluted routing incl MIA-DFW-JFK i kid you not...or it sends us to LGA / EWR... So when I decided to just buy a positioning ticket to JFK a few hours later, the JFK-NRT had only 1 J left! Back to the drawing board and found now we would need to go another week early - for a total 17 days before boarding the cruise.
That prompted me to look for if we can take a detour to HKG during the 17 days. Well, the truth is, there is only PE available , which is crummy redemption value with BA and AA could not even do it...
it is just the same old story repeats itself again and again... each time we find ourselves in such scenario.
What we ended up doing is, booked another cruise that is a Circle Japan Yokohama to Yokohama and returns on the same day we would board the TPAC cruise to Vancouver.
We still have extra 9 days extra and we would go to Okinawa for 4 days, with 3 days at Osaka before and 2 days at Tokyo after, then we board the Circle Japan cruise...
If your destination is PEK, you really should try to fetch a CX seat instead, I would check all CX gateways incl YYZ.
Thank you all for the good advice!
Mar 5, 2019, 12:13 pm
#874
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 19
I am looking for any JAL flights going to the US in the first two weeks of August, but I was concerned because the whole month seems to be blacked out (never seen that before). I was looking out of TYO and KIX for anywhere (ORD/DFW/LAX/SFO/BOS/NYC) and while I see flights to those destinations available in other months I don't see any available in August. The Qantas award calendar that you have there shows (for business) the BA flights that connect through LHR, and for economy AA/BA operated flights along with a couple China ones (JAL codeshare but not JAL flights). If you pull up the calendar for every month from now until August there are at least some JAL flights listed (not for every given award day but for at least some of them). Where I am going with this is that it seems like there was JAL award availability at/near the 330 day window but they all went away and now there is nothing. Why it is relevant is that JAL flights come up as milesaaver for AA (great value) and also because there are direct routings. If August typically gets more awards released nearer the date (60 days out) then all well and good. But if other people who have made summer bookings have seen it essentially dry up completely (as it is now) and only have maybe 1 or 2 award tickets open up sporadically a week or so away from the travel date, then I'd probably look for cheap Jetstar or similar flights to China and get a return ticket from there.
1. <Had the year wrong, ignore this>
2. The economy seats on the 26th and 28th are JL operated (JL 68 to SEA, 8056 to ORD) and there's some premium economy mid-month (JL 6 to jfk or 62 to lax on Aug 17).
Last edited by madcard; Mar 5, 2019 at 12:44 pm Reason: I'm not a time traveller, I swear
Mar 5, 2019, 12:42 pm
#875
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
I'm definitely not an expert, but a couple possibilities?
1. The Olympics are in Tokyo July 24th - Aug 9th so I imagine everyone has snapped up available seats +/- a few weeks for vacationing afterwards.
2. The economy seats on the 26th and 28th are JL operated (JL 68 to SEA, 8056 to ORD) and there's some premium economy mid-month (JL 6 to jfk or 62 to lax on Aug 17).
1. The Olympics are in Tokyo July 24th - Aug 9th so I imagine everyone has snapped up available seats +/- a few weeks for vacationing afterwards.
2. The economy seats on the 26th and 28th are JL operated (JL 68 to SEA, 8056 to ORD) and there's some premium economy mid-month (JL 6 to jfk or 62 to lax on Aug 17).
Mar 5, 2019, 1:06 pm
#878
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
I think there is a Japanese holiday in early/mid August sometime. Obon? This likely affects availability in August.
Mar 5, 2019, 2:49 pm
#879
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: SPG Gold
Posts: 37
Looking for advice:
18Mar LAX-NRT booked in F for 1 pax
expertflyer shows F2 today (T-13 or T-12?) but seat map shows 3 empty seats (plus 2 X seats which could be holds?)
What are the chances of them opening up another award seat?
Thank you for the wiki and other advice - been really helpful trying to find ways to use my AA miles.
18Mar LAX-NRT booked in F for 1 pax
expertflyer shows F2 today (T-13 or T-12?) but seat map shows 3 empty seats (plus 2 X seats which could be holds?)
What are the chances of them opening up another award seat?
Thank you for the wiki and other advice - been really helpful trying to find ways to use my AA miles.
Mar 5, 2019, 9:06 pm
#880
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: Delta Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 308
Thanks flyingeph12 and skimthetrees!
Yeah, in that case JFK is the better bet, given the JFK-NRT and JFK-HND JL flights, and all the JFK-HKG flights on CX.
Why don't you like the 787? As far as I know it's just one fewer seat across, so the very middle is eliminated.
Does the fare have to be routing specific? I thought there just had to be a published fare between the origin and the destination (for example, as detailed here: https://onemileatatime.com/american-...routing-rules/). But yes, NRT-HKG is not an easy one to find. The closest I found was (what appeared to be) a married segment for HND-HKG-PEK, but the alas the agent could not see any availability. I also agree with you about the HND transfer. Overnight in Tokyo proper and transportation probably runs $200, so it seems a decent alternative is to just save 10k AA miles and end the trip in NRT, then buy a revenue ticket out on the same day (that's a total of $350 budget for just NRT-PEK!).
Will definitely look for CX as well. I really didn't expect NRT-PEK to be a problem once I found the trans-pacific segment. I guess I also have some curiosity for that window Apex Suites seat.
17 days! That's a lot of days to spend across the pond. Also surprised that you opted to spend more time on cruises given that you're based on FL and must have a lot of those close to home haha.
For award redemption co-terminals do not count at O/D level. So yes, you would need to cancel and rebook. Personally I would always pick the O/D that have more probability to see additional availability as time and again, give a bit of flexibility there often are workable dates, for us anyway. Then no fee to change. That is why for as much as prefer FLL, we almost always use MIA.
You would have some issues on the LGA-ORD-NRT-HKG-PEK, as JL has to publish a fare that allows such routing, i.e. incl HKG in the mix. On top of that, Good Luck in finding NRT-HKG. I haven't been succeeded each time I tried whenever we had too much time in Japan and wanted to go to HKG to kill time. N.E.V.E.R. once we have succeeded.
Will definitely look for CX as well. I really didn't expect NRT-PEK to be a problem once I found the trans-pacific segment. I guess I also have some curiosity for that window Apex Suites seat.
17 days! That's a lot of days to spend across the pond. Also surprised that you opted to spend more time on cruises given that you're based on FL and must have a lot of those close to home haha.
Mar 6, 2019, 9:18 am
#881
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
1) AA has an very annoying routing requirement in that, the cross ocean carrier must have a published fare for the routing in order the itinerary be booked as a Single award. Else the award would break and turn into 2 awards.
Go to the Help thread, just a few days ago someone has addressed this issue. AA is the ONLY US program that continues to practice this.
Read this and the related posts -
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30827566-post676.html
MPM is not the only criteria for AA award restriction. The above is much more annoying because it seriously limits the workable routes when seats are found, but then you would pay 2 awards.
2) The window "shade" of 787 is part of our pet peeves with 787. The body is much narrower, even JL eliminates the middle seat of the middle section. We have taken QR's 787 equipped with reversed herringbone seat (far better than CX's, and far better than JL's Skysuit). It is 1-2-1. Yet the seat feels cramp - much less space than QR's old 777-200 with 2-2-2.
I dont know what JL is thinking, at first they used 787 with recliner seats on their KIX routes - we accidentally suffered it once. Then when they introduced the new Skysuite, they made the middle section a 3 seaters! I think only TK's ancient seats still have such set up but then TK's window sides the seats are very spacious and very stretched out. No privacy but extremely comfortable. I would take the comfort any day over the privacy. That is why QR's old 777 2-2-2 to us and to many esp those tall people, is not a bad config even today.
Given us a choice we normally dont take JL because we dont like its config, not even the F (the fixed TV screen is too far for me, and the tray table below impeding my leg movement in sleep on my back position. However this is a trip to Japan, so there isn't much of a choice, esp given we have about twice AA miles than UA miles, which can also do some creative thing if booking a R/T (for a standing alone Excursion segment that is free).
Cruises!
We have done enough Caribbean cruises that unless they are extremely cheap and we are extremely bored, we tend not to take it.
The repositioning cruises are different than the FL Caribbeans cruises. You have a lot of Sea Days. Therefore it is not for everyone esp those who must visit a port every day. Also they tend to be minimum 13 days long often 14, 15, 16, or even longer. Many dont have the luxury to be away for so long. Though with internet, we have seen in recent years there are people who attend their work/business while on a long cruise. Internet speed and cost are a big factor for those people to choose the right ship / line. We dont have such need so we go for prices, lol.
We do a TATL cruise to EU every Spring, sometimes also in the Fall on the opposite direction. There are always a land trip post the Spring crossing (we went to Sicily last April), or a pre the Fall crossing. This wat we make the most use of our time and miles. These repositioning cruises tend to be very cheap and a great way to go long distance, with a few ports from landfall towards the disembarkation port. The premise is if one is subj to regular work schedule, then one could not take advantage of such.
I was looking at the same old same old TATL but the prices have not come down enough to my liking, then they went back up. The itineraries are all sailed at least 3 times each already... so I thought we would for once, not take a TATL cruise over... Then out of boredom I checked all lines repositioning cruises and found the gem - Tokyo to Vancouver 14 days on Celebrity Millenium, $449 ocean view cabin $135.xx taxes, for a <$600 per person to get on board (you still have the daily $13 to $14 gratuity per person plus any incidentals such as drinks etc) Ship is old, we sailed on her in 2005 on a full Panama crossing. But she has gone thru a complete renovation on all interiors from public areas to cabin decor, with brand new furniture and beddings. So she gets a total lift up. I like what I saw on the videos found on the net, and decided to take advantage of the cheap pricing.
One thing led to another, so now we have 2 back to back cruises. The first one is 8 days but costs $700 on Diamond Princess that is a circle of Japan. The second one is 14 days costs $600 that brings us back to Vancouver.
I redeemed the Avios ITM to OKA and we will have 4 days in Okinawa, alternate hotels to earn 1000 bonus points on the current Hyatt promo that the award stay also counts. The 2 Hyatt Regency we used on this trip - one at Naha and one at Tokyo, will go up from 12K to 15K on Mar 18. Our timing is good!
Go to the Help thread, just a few days ago someone has addressed this issue. AA is the ONLY US program that continues to practice this.
Read this and the related posts -
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30827566-post676.html
MPM is not the only criteria for AA award restriction. The above is much more annoying because it seriously limits the workable routes when seats are found, but then you would pay 2 awards.
2) The window "shade" of 787 is part of our pet peeves with 787. The body is much narrower, even JL eliminates the middle seat of the middle section. We have taken QR's 787 equipped with reversed herringbone seat (far better than CX's, and far better than JL's Skysuit). It is 1-2-1. Yet the seat feels cramp - much less space than QR's old 777-200 with 2-2-2.
I dont know what JL is thinking, at first they used 787 with recliner seats on their KIX routes - we accidentally suffered it once. Then when they introduced the new Skysuite, they made the middle section a 3 seaters! I think only TK's ancient seats still have such set up but then TK's window sides the seats are very spacious and very stretched out. No privacy but extremely comfortable. I would take the comfort any day over the privacy. That is why QR's old 777 2-2-2 to us and to many esp those tall people, is not a bad config even today.
Given us a choice we normally dont take JL because we dont like its config, not even the F (the fixed TV screen is too far for me, and the tray table below impeding my leg movement in sleep on my back position. However this is a trip to Japan, so there isn't much of a choice, esp given we have about twice AA miles than UA miles, which can also do some creative thing if booking a R/T (for a standing alone Excursion segment that is free).
Cruises!
We have done enough Caribbean cruises that unless they are extremely cheap and we are extremely bored, we tend not to take it.
The repositioning cruises are different than the FL Caribbeans cruises. You have a lot of Sea Days. Therefore it is not for everyone esp those who must visit a port every day. Also they tend to be minimum 13 days long often 14, 15, 16, or even longer. Many dont have the luxury to be away for so long. Though with internet, we have seen in recent years there are people who attend their work/business while on a long cruise. Internet speed and cost are a big factor for those people to choose the right ship / line. We dont have such need so we go for prices, lol.
We do a TATL cruise to EU every Spring, sometimes also in the Fall on the opposite direction. There are always a land trip post the Spring crossing (we went to Sicily last April), or a pre the Fall crossing. This wat we make the most use of our time and miles. These repositioning cruises tend to be very cheap and a great way to go long distance, with a few ports from landfall towards the disembarkation port. The premise is if one is subj to regular work schedule, then one could not take advantage of such.
I was looking at the same old same old TATL but the prices have not come down enough to my liking, then they went back up. The itineraries are all sailed at least 3 times each already... so I thought we would for once, not take a TATL cruise over... Then out of boredom I checked all lines repositioning cruises and found the gem - Tokyo to Vancouver 14 days on Celebrity Millenium, $449 ocean view cabin $135.xx taxes, for a <$600 per person to get on board (you still have the daily $13 to $14 gratuity per person plus any incidentals such as drinks etc) Ship is old, we sailed on her in 2005 on a full Panama crossing. But she has gone thru a complete renovation on all interiors from public areas to cabin decor, with brand new furniture and beddings. So she gets a total lift up. I like what I saw on the videos found on the net, and decided to take advantage of the cheap pricing.
One thing led to another, so now we have 2 back to back cruises. The first one is 8 days but costs $700 on Diamond Princess that is a circle of Japan. The second one is 14 days costs $600 that brings us back to Vancouver.
I redeemed the Avios ITM to OKA and we will have 4 days in Okinawa, alternate hotels to earn 1000 bonus points on the current Hyatt promo that the award stay also counts. The 2 Hyatt Regency we used on this trip - one at Naha and one at Tokyo, will go up from 12K to 15K on Mar 18. Our timing is good!
Last edited by Happy; Mar 6, 2019 at 9:23 am
Mar 7, 2019, 11:21 pm
#882
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 1
No JAL Aavailabilty
I am looking for a flight from ORD to NRT, and I was searching using BA website, literally NOTHING shows up from April to October...., is it possible that they are not releasing J awards to partners? Or is it more probable that they are sold out... HELP :'( I need to go to Asia late May / early June and would LOVE to experience JAL J...
Mar 8, 2019, 10:59 am
#883
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 6,433
I am looking for a flight from ORD to NRT, and I was searching using BA website, literally NOTHING shows up from April to October...., is it possible that they are not releasing J awards to partners? Or is it more probable that they are sold out... HELP :'( I need to go to Asia late May / early June and would LOVE to experience JAL J...
It's also been reported that JL will soon change its policy and start releasing seats at 360 days, while AA only goes 330 days out. This will make it things more difficult to book through AA, but I don't believe JL has changed yet. The change shouldn't affect close in availabilty.
Mar 8, 2019, 5:12 pm
#884
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: Delta Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 308
Something quite interesting happened today. For context, I currently have JFK-ORD-NRT on hold, and would like to add an additional NRT-PEK segment. NRT-PEK is available on AS and BA, but not QF. I've been calling in every day but none of the agents can see the space. Today I tried something different: I asked for NRT-PEK separately without mentioning my on-hold reservation, and to my surprise, it's wide open! However, the agent could not add it to the other reservation. It must be ticketed separately. She suggested this was a married segments issue.
I always thought married segments meant that segments would only be available when used as a larger connecting trip. It now appears that it applies in the opposite case as well.
So there appear to be two separate considerations - space and privacy. I'd guess that the JL suites, even on the 787s, are far more private at the windows than any reverse herringbone seat out there. But neither the suites nor the reverse herringbone seats are going to be as good as one of those old fashioned 2-2-2 configurations. Though I suppose privacy isn't quite the concern when you're traveling as a couple.
Seems like you get quite the value out of cruises! Using them for repositioning purposes is definitely not for everyone unfortunately, myself included. I also don't think I've ever spent that many days in one "facility". Glad you are enjoying them!
I always thought married segments meant that segments would only be available when used as a larger connecting trip. It now appears that it applies in the opposite case as well.
2) The window "shade" of 787 is part of our pet peeves with 787. The body is much narrower, even JL eliminates the middle seat of the middle section. We have taken QR's 787 equipped with reversed herringbone seat (far better than CX's, and far better than JL's Skysuit). It is 1-2-1. Yet the seat feels cramp - much less space than QR's old 777-200 with 2-2-2.
I dont know what JL is thinking, at first they used 787 with recliner seats on their KIX routes - we accidentally suffered it once. Then when they introduced the new Skysuite, they made the middle section a 3 seaters! I think only TK's ancient seats still have such set up but then TK's window sides the seats are very spacious and very stretched out. No privacy but extremely comfortable. I would take the comfort any day over the privacy. That is why QR's old 777 2-2-2 to us and to many esp those tall people, is not a bad config even today.
Given us a choice we normally dont take JL because we dont like its config, not even the F (the fixed TV screen is too far for me, and the tray table below impeding my leg movement in sleep on my back position. However this is a trip to Japan, so there isn't much of a choice, esp given we have about twice AA miles than UA miles, which can also do some creative thing if booking a R/T (for a standing alone Excursion segment that is free).
I dont know what JL is thinking, at first they used 787 with recliner seats on their KIX routes - we accidentally suffered it once. Then when they introduced the new Skysuite, they made the middle section a 3 seaters! I think only TK's ancient seats still have such set up but then TK's window sides the seats are very spacious and very stretched out. No privacy but extremely comfortable. I would take the comfort any day over the privacy. That is why QR's old 777 2-2-2 to us and to many esp those tall people, is not a bad config even today.
Given us a choice we normally dont take JL because we dont like its config, not even the F (the fixed TV screen is too far for me, and the tray table below impeding my leg movement in sleep on my back position. However this is a trip to Japan, so there isn't much of a choice, esp given we have about twice AA miles than UA miles, which can also do some creative thing if booking a R/T (for a standing alone Excursion segment that is free).
Seems like you get quite the value out of cruises! Using them for repositioning purposes is definitely not for everyone unfortunately, myself included. I also don't think I've ever spent that many days in one "facility". Glad you are enjoying them!
Mar 8, 2019, 11:56 pm
#885
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
Something quite interesting happened today. For context, I currently have JFK-ORD-NRT on hold, and would like to add an additional NRT-PEK segment. NRT-PEK is available on AS and BA, but not QF. I've been calling in every day but none of the agents can see the space. Today I tried something different: I asked for NRT-PEK separately without mentioning my on-hold reservation, and to my surprise, it's wide open! However, the agent could not add it to the other reservation. It must be ticketed separately. She suggested this was a married segments issue.
I always thought married segments meant that segments would only be available when used as a larger connecting trip. It now appears that it applies in the opposite case as well.
I always thought married segments meant that segments would only be available when used as a larger connecting trip. It now appears that it applies in the opposite case as well.
So there appear to be two separate considerations - space and privacy. I'd guess that the JL suites, even on the 787s, are far more private at the windows than any reverse herringbone seat out there. But neither the suites nor the reverse herringbone seats are going to be as good as one of those old fashioned 2-2-2 configurations. Though I suppose privacy isn't quite the concern when you're traveling as a couple.
While the window window is extremely private, the window aisle has absolutely no privacy at all. There is not any "barrier" between you and the aisle if you sit at the window aisle. I also feel the JL design is the ugliest among all airlines that have similar config (Iberia, Alitalia immediately come to mind.) JL seats furnishing looks very cheap all around. I feel the Iberia's seats look a whole lot nicer than JL's.
https://onemileatatime.com/review-ib...ss-class-a340/
Reverse herringbone has reasonable privacy for every seat because your seat is slender facing inward.
One thing seems clear is, the industry is enjoying a bloom in recent years, judged by the number of new ships will go into service this year and the next 3 years.