amerikkujin

I am looking to fly SFO-HND business class on a partner award sometime in early April 2013. In theory, that should be opening up within a few days (330 days out). But when I look at the JMB availability calendar, there are no award seats available on business class past 1/20/13. This doesn't change from day to day, even as a new day becomes available, yet new Economy and Premium Economy awards open up on these days as expected. Are the business awards really getting booked up that fast such that there are none available after 1/20, or is it that JAL just hasn't released them yet? If it's the latter, when should I expect these awards to get released, if it's not 330 days out?

Thank you!

JALPak

Welcome to the JAL forum and FT, amerikkujin!

While I don't keep track of when business class award seats open up on SFO-HND route myself, I am pretty sure more awards will be open up in the future unless you are planning to travel during the peak of the peak seasons or blackout dates. SFO isn't a route that's particularly performing well anyway. Just keep checking I guess Or maybe others who have experience redeeming SFO award this far in advance can chime in

minhaoxue

I thought after BK, JL was supposed to be leaner by cutting non performing routes. If SFO is not performing, why don't they cut it instead of burring money for prestige.

JALPak

Well enough for them to keep it alive apparently

siliconflyer

Hope they do not stop this. I love the service on this flight and am taking it next weekend. Will be 4x this year. However the arrival time at HND is a deterrent for many. Not a whole lot of Ground transport at thaat time (2300 hrs).

minhaoxue

Could the SFO route be a candidate for a future 787 route? As the current 777 they use does not have a F class, the 787 could fit in nicely with an efficient aircraft.

JALPak

Yes, if the premium demand isn't there to support a 777

SQ Flyer Talker

I just recently on both legs JL2/1 & I can telling you guys both flights are fully packed with J & Y passengers. JL used to have 744 on this route, then it changed to a 773ER when it still serving NRT, once they changed to serving to HND instead, another downsized from 773ER to a 772, now you can imagine how many capacity / seats loss.

When I was on this route in J Class back in Oct 2007 on a 744, it was very impressive, when those cabin crew pull out the trolley with the huge Panasonic Rice-Cooker served with hot steamed rice, I would say "wow", never experienced in any J Class from CX, NH, SQ, nor UA.

But certainly not this journey, when I open up the Menu (both legs), it's no longer serving 2 main meals, instead, only 1 main meal + another light meal / snack, still I don't think that's bother me that much, but what's really annoying was I was the last J Class passenger to be served in both legs, sitting in 4E, the middle seat in the last row of the 1st section of the J Class before door 2, & on the other leg sitting in 10K, the last row before the Premium Economy, again with ran out meals. For the flight which departed at SFO close to 19:00, I would expect a dinner will be immediately to be served 30 mins or 1 hour after took-off, unfortunately, that's not the case, it started serving 3 hours after departure, which is almost 22:00 in West Coast time, & what they were telling me both the Japs meal & the Western choice were ran out, then I would say how could this happen, what they can offer is gave me a couple pack of peanuts, plus offering me those light meals like little burger / sandwiches / curry rice (a small portion), by the time they were taking in & out of those plate, it's like 6 hours after the departure of SFO (01:00 West Coast time), I told the crew that now almost more than half of the journey already gone, I really need to sleep, not to mentioned that I didn't fill up my stomach in the JL Lounge in SFO, which nowadays there was nothing to fill up when they used to have at least the famous JL Instant Noodle. When I asked the cabin crew which they were changing the practice from serving out from a trolley now they have to take those tray & plate 1 by 1, wasn't it time consuming? They said it was force to be served in that manner. When I asked her again this flight was packed, was it due to the summer peak season travel, she said not, it's been packed ever since they switched it from 773ER to 772, plus serving to HND that many local Japs would prefer to go to HND to fly out to North America, so the chances of getting an award seat would be slim, my (paid ticket) waiting list on the SFO=>HND segment was only confirmed 1 day before my flight departure.

JALPak

The rice is still freshly steamed just not by the Panasonic rice cooker as that's too heavy. The flight is full doesn't mean yield is there, JL wouldn't have to heavily discount the C award redemption on SFO-HND route unless it wasn't performing. I hope things have improved by now because from my reliable source, this was definitely underperforming about a year ago