Intra-Japan BA avios awards
 

Hello.

Some time ago I discovered I had some BA avios from when I travelled to Japan. Now I am based in Tokyo and discovered that the distance based award route of BA is actually very useful for Intra-Japan flights.

I have used my avios before in a Osaka - Tokyo flight (4.500) and plan to do the same with a Tokyo - Sapporo (4.500) flight very soon.

I was checking the route availability since I am starting to think about my next summer vacations and the good thing is that Tokyo - Okinawa (Naha) is available, however the website gives an error when I try Miyakojima or Ishigaki. Does that mean it is not possible to book that JAL route using BA avios or if I call them they could book me on that route?

Thank you and sorry for the (maybe) stupid question.

Hello -

I've had success this week booking flights for next summer on 'Japan Airlines operated by J-AIR' (IATA code XM) using the BA site (CTS-AXT, MYJ-FUK) but none of my routes are on other JAL subsidiaries.

Perhaps relatedly, this morning (I'm in Hong Kong) I called the BA Japan line (+81 3 3298 5238) and spoke to the English-speaking agent to try to see if there was additional availability on a Nagasaki-Haneda flight I wanted for August 2018 (there were only morning departures available and I wanted an evening flight, which I presume would exist on the schedule), but they claimed that there was no availability at all even when the BA site was showing three flights wide open. I wonder if this is merely the fact that not all the flights have been loaded into the schedule yet for domestic JL flights?

Good luck!

I booked a Tokyo-Osaka flight using Avios earlier this year. I was getting an error for almost two weeks. I kept trying and eventually it worked. I assumed it was a technical error.

How do you do it? I look for those routes (MYJ-FUK) and gives me the same error :/

There are all sorts of problems with booking JAL (and related) domestic flights with BA miles, especially online, not least the fact that there are often more flights per day than the BA site is capable of displaying. Apparently there is now an issue where the tax is sometimes zero, and this can't be processed online unless you add a £1 donation at the end of the process.

You ought to be able to book the Miyakojima to Ishigaki flight so if it doesn't work online then call them up and request that they waive the surcharge,

Also, bear in mind the JAL Explorer pass, which now has cheaper flights for certain destinations:

https://www.world.jal.com/world/en/j...lorer_pass/lp/

Whilst the rest of your comments are very informative I must just pick you up on this point since it isn't correct. You can book JL domestic reward flights more than two months in advance - I have done it myself before.

There used to be an issue where if you searched for reward flights more than two months ahead it wouldn't display any results, but actually you could get around this by choosing a date within two months and then once in the flight list screen just advance the date until you got to the one you wanted. That issue seems to be fixed now and you can search and get results for flights more than two months ahead - I have just tried to check it works.

Thank you for updating me! That is very good to hear. Am I still correct that you can't book domestic JAL flights with JAL miles in under two months?

For the OP, I will post this:

https://www.jal.co.jp/en/dom/fare/ru...owaribiki.html

It may not be the very best use of BA miles to book that island flight, depending!

Thanks _nate. Sorry I don't know about booking with JAL miles so can't advise either way on that.

There are a few old threads about this. If I recall correctly, Miyako-jima and Ishigaki are not served by JAL but one of its subsidiaries and you need to call to book those flights with Avios.

Unfortunately "This fare is eligible to the remote island residents in Okinawa, Kagoshima, Shimane and Hokkaido, and holding proper Remote-Island discount cards or certificates"

Thank you, I will try calling BA. I was also trying to determine how many avios were needed for a Tokyo - Miyakojima flight. 7.500 is a good deal to Naha but Miyako is far a way and it must be more than that. Anyway, there is this 50% bonus when purchasing avios right now, and that is why I was asking. Tokyo to Miyako direct flight is usually super expensive, so using BA for an award flights looks a very good deal.

As for the Japan Explorer pass, unfortunately it is for tourists (aka people with a tourist visa) and I am a resident in Japan therefore ineligible.

Sakitoku fares may also be a good value - especially if you're after some cheap TPs.

Haneda - Miyako direct flight is super expensive in Summer, even in Saitoku :/

And I realized Haneda - Miyako is in the 7.500 BA Avios route. Thats so cheap!

Do you guys have issues searching for JL awards online these few days? It returned zero results for all domestic and international routes no matter how I search

Looks like there is some kind of problem because it doesnt even show an easy Tokyo - Osaka award.