AA DFW——>HND F Class
 

We are planning a trip to Japan and are curious as to the first class experience. We haven’t traveled internationally in years and realize that it’s not what it was.

The flight is DFW-HND , November 1 to 15th on a 787-9.

This will probably be our last international long haul trip, so we want to splurge.

We are also considering UA and JAL, but the cost is an extra 5k in price, we not sure if it’s worth the extra $$.

Thanks.

If you fly JAL the sweet spot is using AA miles for a award redemption in F. Unfortunately getting a F seat has to be done far in advance or last minute with miles. You mention cost so I assume you are using cash. JAL F is far superior to UA. The only downside is the JAL cabin is very warm no matter what you tell the flight crew your cabin will be approximately 80 deg F. If you are lucky 75-78 deg F. but not cooler

Do you mean business class? AA currently doesn't offer First class to Japan and is starting the process of removing First class all together from most of its planes.

As JJeffrey mentioned, sounds like you may be mixing class of services.

If 5K is the difference between AA J and JL F, this is your last international trip and you want to splurge, I'd take JL F without hesitation.
If 5k is the difference between AA J and JL J, I'd personally stick with AA and spend the 5k in Japan. AA isn't as good as JL, but I don't think it's 5k worse.
I wouldn't consider the UA option...I would not pay 5k to fly UA over AA, or prefer UA over JL at the same price.

Well put.

I agree with 2 and 3 wholeheartedly. #1 though... JL F isn't worth 5k USD over AA J. It's much better, but 5k USD will be so much better spent in Japan.

Sorry about that, yes I meant business class and yes we are considering paying cash. The more I look into this it seems F is a thing of the past.
As a side note we do have 500k AS credit card mile points that could be used for AA or JAL. We just aren’t sure of the award availability and lead time.

If we use the reward points can we be bumped at the last second for a paying pax or someone upgrading?

JL still consistently makes business and (some) first class award space available but most space typically doesn't show up until about 14 days before the flight.

No.

Do you know how far out AA release’s their availability for J?

No rhyme or reason to it with AA. There's no guarantee of availability 331 days out when bookings open. Inventory gets released or tightened any time between then and departure. If you want a pattern, look for JAL space starting 14 days before departure.

My last round-trip DFW-HND in JL F was around 73 both legs

If your schedule is flexible, close in might be a more fruitful approach.

You can easily search on the Alaska website with the calendar view for business and first class redemptions by month. Will save you a ton of time. Also just because something doesn’t show today doesn’t mean it wont show in a week..

JAL business class is 60,000 AA miles to / from -- 120, 000 total.

But snowball's chance in a very hot place you are going to find two seats on November 1 to Tokyo and two seats on November 15 from Tokyo. AA prices are 200,000 each seat, each way with the "dynamic" pricing.

JAL releases 350 days out or 10 days out. You have dates set that don't fall into either set of dates. JAL releases one ticket and you need two tickets.

If you have the wherewithal to pay cash, book JAL business class on the dates and times of your liking.

JAL and AA are the two airlines with direct flights via DFW.

I’ve flown JL J 3x (one way) and F 5x over the last 30 months. Never has the cabin approached 80 degrees. Only one time did I think it was warm, and that was in F and the FAs did turn the temperature down.

If you’ve got the stomach for it, the other play here is book two one ways on AA. Wait for schedule changes to change routings if needed. Watch for prices to drop between now and November. Starting 14 days out watch for JL space. Rebook as appropriate.