Bungus

Hi I'm trying to book a business class reward ticket BKK-HND or NRT on JAL with my skyward miles.

Impossible to find availability. The different people on the phone have searched and searched, and one girl said she couldn't find any seats for the entire month of November in any travel class. She sent a request to the back office who responded the client should choose another date!

Does anyone have any experience on this? Does JAL release seats two months ahead as do Japanese hotels?

Should I try from another airport SGN, SIN etc...

Thanks for any help

subject2load

Hi there, I don't have any personal experience or specific knowledge to offer re your own needs - but when wanting to book a couple of domestic sectors on JAL recently, I was put off by the long-winded process involved in even applying for a reward ticket via Skywards miles, let alone actually securing one. In the event, I decided to use Avios points through my BAEC membership instead (and then whilst travelling internally in Japan found my OW Emerald status to be useful, and 'well-respected' by JAL personnel), and it was a very simple thing to search & book online.

Whilst I accept there will be complications in managing award inventory across different carriers, I do feel that - in this day & age - the idea of requesting space in writing / by phone and then waiting sometimes days for responses is positively antiquated from a technology perspective. It strikes me that part of the 'deal' in say, Emirates and JAL agreeing to be partners, should be a mutual desire to get their respective systems talking to each other (and thereby to their respective customers too).

Others may have greater insight on this sort of stuff.

Bungus

I agree. I'm not a big fan of Flying Blue but I do have to say it is extremely easy booking reward flights directly online with partner airlines, so I am very disappointed with Skywards on this one

edy4eva

Did you verify availability through JL MB first? My only experience is from a couple years back, agent was able to locate and confirm availability and quote taxes.

AF 001

I had the same issue, tried to get an award with KE or JAL to US, actually I made a lot of drama as there was no availability at all. Manchester called me back after three days and they told me that they checked troughout the whole year and there is no award availability except some one-ways which did not fit with a matching return. The whole story and the way it was handled was the reason to use all my collected miles for awards and upgrades troughout my family to stop flying with EK after being a Gold member for 8 years... So far I did not regret as things became worse with all the great "enhancements" in the meantime.

Bungus

AF001 (I've only done BA001) unfortunately you seem to confirm what I am currently experiencing. The only way to use Skyward miles seems to be to purchase very expensive economy tickets and upgrade. The problem is that Qatar, Etihad and even EK manage to do specials that cost less. So very disappointing. Tried to get economy tickets to Manchester and that was impossible also, so not sure what to do with them and we have given up flying EK. FB is a great programme but AF flights from France are so expensive and service is appalling, although their First class ground service is very good.