skimthetrees

This only works for some methods but the one that helps with JAL Point of Sale issues is the "Awards/QF-OneWorld" method which uses the QF search engine to search awards. In KVS when you select the Awards/QF-OneWorld method there is a POS (Point of Sale) field available to change. The KVS POS default is Auto-OW I believe but you can change the search Point of Sale to many countries including JP (Japan) and US. I have seen availability using JP Point of Sale that was not available with a US point of sale. The default QF search seems to use the POS of the flight origin. It looks like you need the KVS Diamond Membership to get access to the QF search method.

You probably can get away without having KVS if you are searching for awards originating in Japan but KVS provides a definitive confirmation of JAL POS issues. I say you can probably get by without it for awards originating in Japan because the default Qantas website search seems to use the POS of the flight origin so if you find a JAL award originating in Japan available on the Qantas website search but you do not see the same award available on BA or AS the odds are 99.9% that this is a point of sale issue and you can get the award by calling AA Japan and specifically requesting them to search for the award using a POS in Japan. Without KVS you will have a hole for flights originating in the US. When doing a spot check a couple of months ago I have seen an extra award seat available once from the US to Japan (I have not checked often from the US so this might happen a bit) when using a POS in Japan and the QF website will not show this award because it searches US originating flights with a US POS. Using KVS QF search with POS JP will show those awards if available.

TravelLawyer

@skimthetrees thanks for your thorough response. That completely makes sense. Maybe it would be worth the price to pay the short version just to see where I need to call.

skimthetrees

You mean the 2 month subscription? Yeah, that should give you a chance to see how much value you could get out of it.

sethMCOflyer

Looks like JAL flights are now available for award booking on AA.com, is this new or am I just late to the party?

JonNYC

Started a few hours ago:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31292079-post209.html

wyogold

Not really (at least not consistently)

Example: KVS shows 3 x F on ORD-NRT on 7/21, none are shown on AA.com

Not sure what this is about, but at least for now its safe.

saltytheseagull

I know it's not nice to say, but I'm sad about this...everything is becoming too easy to book.

wyogold

Indeed, having figured out everything and having had to walk uphill both ways to school, I'm comfortable with the system the way it is - I know how to work it. If everything becomes bookable to anyone on aa.com, those F awards are going to be much more difficult to come by (80K for JAL vs 170/200K for AA, not very comparable)

TravelLawyer

They couldn't have waited until AFTER I booked my return flight from NRT? Gaaah.

skimthetrees

Showing on AA now.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the 2020 Olympics? Maybe AA was fearing being overwhelmed by the the call volume constantly checking availability if they didn't get JAL availability online?

wyogold

Its not showing for me still, logged in or not. Not sure what's going on?

skimthetrees

Don't know. It's showing for me whether logged in or not. Simple search from the home page, 3 First awards ORD-NRT on 7/21.

wyogold

I figured it out - the default option to only show AA flights was toggled, when I toggled to partner airlines I could see the JAL flights. Maybe a bit of a saving grace that they don't show with the default search options enabled?

TravelLawyer

skimthetrees

There are still some hidden seats out there for those booking in the right country.