skimthetrees

Either you just substantiated it because AA was not able to book it or you got a bad agent. If you HUCA a few times and get the same answer then QED.

Tilto007

I have the following reservation booked but with only 3 hours between LGA and travel over to JFK I am worried.Since this is a "legal" AA routing ,am I totally covered of I end up not catching the JAL flight??This is obviously not my preferred route of booking but this is all AA can offer me right now.4563 American Airlines Wi-Fi on-board.Operated by Republic Airlines as American Eagle
6:00 AM
MIA8:59 AM
LGA2h 59mE75First

•  

Stop: change airports in New York (LGA) 3 Japan Airlines Wi-Fi on-board12:05 PM
JFK3:25 PM
NRT
Arrives March 1814h 20m77WBusiness

• 8K
• 8H

Kevin Guo

I'm trying to book the following itinerary on business class:

JL876, from PVG to NRT at 8/13/19, 2:00PM - 6:00PM
JL010, from NRT to ORD at 8/14/19, 10:50AM - 8:50AM
AA122, from ORD to MSP at 8/14/19, 1:29PM to 2:59PM

JL876 and AA122 I see availability for on BA and AS, but JL010 I only see available on Qantas and JL. US AA agents can't see availability at all for JL010, but AA agents in Japan can see it. For some reason though, they still can't confirm the seat- I've tried two agents and it seems to be a problem on JL's end? Anybody have any idea what might be going on? Thanks!

Beeb

Is it high season for Japanese travelers to leave Japan in July/August? I'm trying to schedule a trip to Japan from NYC for July/August and there are plenty of outbound flights, but literally no inbound flights. I'm willing to land anywhere in the US and reposition myself if needed, but it looks like everything is blacked out? Is this usually the case?

SpammersAreScum

After reading about all the issues here and with married segment issues, I was pleasantly surprised at how painless my experience was.

I wanted to travel TPA-MNL early Mar and return SGN-TPA a little over 2 weeks later on Biz Saaver. Some exploring on BA followed by looking on AA for the domestic connections led to the following:

I called AA and simply told her the dates, DFW-NRT-MNL on JL, SGN-HKG-ORD on CX, TPA-DFW,ORD-TPA on AA, and the agent saw all the flights without my naming them. Other than some discussion of possible alternative domestic flights, it was all booked and done in no time.

babielovah

Thank you both for the replies! skimthetrees is correct. It should be a married segment issue. I initially checked the two flights separately on QF, they were only available separately. Today I was able to find one of the dates on QF as a together itinerary, then I called AA. AA was able to see it and booked for me. I had call around different countries before today, no luck anywhere. So from that, I think I can confirm it is a married segment problem. Hope this can help other people whoever is looking in future.

sunnivillesd

Hi

Sorry , if this was all answered somewhere in the original post , it was just too much data for me. and some of the terms are really confusing for me. The more I read , the more I worry I have taken on more than I can handle.
I have enough AA miles to book on JAL. I am reading as much as I can . I know I can't book JAL online with AA but should try to look up the flight information on British Airline and Alaska Airline . I can't book my flight until my tour package is confirm ( the date can change if the tour is not full so I can't do anything until this is set) . Supposedly the tour package date and line up won't be available until July this year for the next year of tours . It will be a two week vacation ( 1 week tour and extend that to 2nd week on my own).

I got several thing working against me . First is use my AA miles booking on JAL and second booking hotels in Tokyo then booking hotel that is on the official Tokyo Disney Resort hotels.

Please help me by giving me a few pointers ( crush course ) more like it. I am plan to travel to Japan in the may 2020. When should I start monitor the BA and the Alaska airline site ( I understand that might be before I confirmed and booked my tour ) . What other thing I should watch out for .

Thank you your help.

skimthetrees

AA and AS both have a 330 day availability window. BA is around 355 I think so you will see options far out on BA that you cannot book until the 330 day window opens for AA.

I would make QF one of your default search options. I would check all of QF, BA, and AS, BA and QF starting at 355 days out even though you cannot book then using AA you can track availability. AS is good for quick searches but sometimes caches award availability which can lead to availability being out of date by a few hours. QF I find to be most helpful because when you search for a trip starting in Japan it will check availability using a JP Point of Sale and JAL has been occasionally making extra seats available when using a JP Point of Sale and these seats can be booked through AA when using some Asian call centers and requesting them to check availability using a Point of Sale of Japan.

If you book at 330 days out you should have a pretty good shot at Y availability. Possibly some J if flexible on dates. I would look to book one-ways outbound at 330 days out and later book the return at 330 days. JL does open up more availability as time goes by if seat demand is not meeting their expectations.

sunnivillesd

Skimthetrees
Thank you for giving that quick course. Is this how is done now. I would have to call AA Asia call center to book this and that would probably give me a better chance. As for monitor QF, I will keep that in mind as it gets to that 355 days mark.

skimthetrees

IME, even when I called the Japan number I got re-routed to Malaysia and they were not able to see availability for POS Japan until I specifically asked them to search with a POS in Japan. If you are using QF to search availability for a flight starting in Japan you do not need to call an Asian call center unless the US line cannot find it, which you will usually be able to tell because BA and AS will not show the flight. For flights to Japan it is a bit more complicated. You can use KVS with the QF-Oneworld search method and set the POS to Japan to see if there is any extra availability for partners from POS JP. You cannot tell by checking JL directly because they may have extra availability only for their own members as well as extra availability for POS JP.

So,
From Japan I can tell whether or not I would need to call an Asian call center by checking QF against BA and AS.
To Japan I can only tell by checking KVS and setting POS JP.

sunnivillesd

Thank you for giving me more pointer on this. I understand I would need open account and get PIN from both the QF and the BA(even thought I am not using their mileage reward but for the research puporse. But who knows it might change a couple year down the road) and then I would need get a PAID memebership to the KVS site and then start monitoring .Once again. Thank you for your help.😁

skimthetrees

You are welcome. Right, signing up for accounts on QF and BA is free. KVS is a paid program. You do not necessarily need KVS. You can infer POS JP for flights from Japan without a KVS subscription as mentioned in previous posts. For certain specific situations of flights to Japan that have extra availability when using a POS of Japan KVS can clue you in that you can get this availability by booking with a POS of JP. I am not saying you need KVS. I have found it helpful but many people get by without it. If all you are looking for is Y availability and you start looking far out, you are going to find something with or without KVS.

I forgot to mention another useful tool that may be of interest to you. AwardNexus. You have to sign up and you can pay but I believe they have a free allotment of points to use for their searches for FlyerTalk members. AwardNexus can run automated award searches daily and email you the results.

sunnivillesd

Thank you for help and give alot of pointers. And as a newbie I had a Homer Duh moment last night. what i thought was enough points already turn out I only have enough for one way. But at least i discover early enough to really work the card and get enough miles before my tour package is confirmed. But this might work in my favor . I am not sure if I had mention this. I am stuck on Japan Airline is because they are the only one at my citys airport that fly straight to Japan non stop. otherwise i would have to drive 4hr to the next airport. Thank you so much

To everyone else who is monitor this thread. I am so sorry . I am a total complete newbie to any reward mile

IkeEsq

Thought I would provide my experiences trying to book flights to TYO from the US for next Spring. There are 5 of us leaving from the East Coast and we wanted to fly out on Saturday March 28. At least two of us need to fly together (my son) and we were hoping to be at least 3 and 2. I checked out flights about a month or so ago to determine what routes are available and with which aircraft. Our preference was flying JFK-HND as HND is closer to the city and that route uses the 777 with Sky Suite. Ideally flying two-three in Business and two or three in First.

On May 2, 330 days out, I checked flights and there was not a single business class seat from any US airport for Friday-Sunday March 27-29. In addition, the ORD-NRT route was the only one with two seats available in First on Saturday. There were also 2 seats in First on Friday and Sunday out of ORD and Sunday from SFO-HND. Other than that, there were a couple of seats in First on other flights, including JFK-HND on Saturday. AA domestic MileSAAver seats did not open up until May 4 (for Saturday March 28 departure), so I had to wait to book.

In order to see what my chance of getting additional seats later might be, I checked every Saturday and Sunday from JFK to NRT and HND in Premium Economy, Business, and First for the next 360 days on BA's website. There were only two Business class seats available (on a Sunday) for the entire next year and only occasional first class seats. There were no seats on most Saturdays including for the next two weeks.

Looking at the two weeks prior to March 28, there were only three days with any business class seats available from JFK, 7 to HND on a Monday, 3 to HND on another Monday, and 3 to NRT on a Tuesday. And there was no more than one seat in First on any of those flights.

If you want to fly on a weekend and the Wiki is true, then it seems like you need to book right around 330 days out and check all of the US gateways if you want more than one ticket. We ended up with two people on Sat from ORD and two on Sunday, and the final person JFK-HND on Saturday. Now I just have to hope some other seats open up and I can shift people around a bit.

247traveler

I did the same recently trying to book KIX-LAX which almost always had Business Class seats available. No availability for weeks on BA and Alaska which is rare. Only PE seats available. When I checked the JAL website, business seats were available but at insanely high redemption rates (even higher than First Class from NRT). I've queried on FT on this issue but response was that seats might have been snatched up already. It seems unlikely and Expert Flyer shows completely empty cabin on all the days. I suspect JAL has changed their award release protocol.