JALPak

It shouldn't matter to you when the inventory is loaded if you are redeeming with JMB. The waitlist would clear when this is loaded.

If you are asking about other program's redemption, please check with experts on the corresponding board on when your program sync up the inventory with JAL.

fanger

Thanks for your help.

5DMarkIIguy

Something's definitely off with JAL award recently. On 11/28, F cabin went out with 3 empty seats. I was hoping to get in on one using miles but the seats were never available. There wasn't even seats for sale the entire 2 weeks leading up to the flight. For a period of about 4 hours a week before, there were 2 seats available for cash purchase.
I kept checking constantly until about 1 hr before departure and they never release these seats. Business class also weren't full.

JALPak

If there's no seats for cash purchase, there definitely won't be seats available for award. I don't see that as odd. Could just be last minute cancelations.

CPH-Flyer

Unlike the US based airlines, JL does not necessarily believe in cramming the premium cabins full with upgraders and point flyers, and will fly empty seats rather than releasing them.

5DMarkIIguy

Do you know this for a fact or you're speculating? JAL has always released all of their F seats within the last 2 weeks. You can see 4F on a bunch of dates closing in. This is why I'm surprised they had 3 seats open and not available for sale.

CPH-Flyer

Admittedly depends on the route, Sydney and Jakarta usually see a lot of releases short notice. Whereas routes like London, Paris, and the US does see short notice releases, though to a less degree than filling the cabin.

There has at times been some peaks in availability, where it has happened as you described. And even further out. But they are far from the norm, and it has been a while since I have seen one.

5DMarkIIguy

Go and take a look within the next 2 weeks for any JAL flight to USA and back. Plenty of seats available up to the last seat. So much for not filling the cabin with mileage redemption.
JAL isn't close to emirates and emirates let a bunch of JAL mileage plan users to book on their flights using JAL "grocery coupon" Not sure why the push back from some of you.

musashino22

Based on my experience flying JL F using miles, they have always been good at releasing last minute and I was lucky to be a recipient back in September. I waitlisted and got a last minute upgrade a day before the flight. But then nobody knows if there is now a preference to JMB members who would use miles to upgrade to a higher class over than those who would just redeem.

Also, I have upgraded using miles quite a few times at the counter during check-in after the waitlist window closed and all requests have been cancelled by the system. JL made some of these nice little changes last year but then again this only applies to its own members.

So to answer your question, no one knows but then the only thing I can think of why these seats are not for sale even if they are available is because some VIP (e.g. JP Politician/Royal Family Member, Lady Gaga, Kei Nishikori, KDDI/AU Board, among others) has requested. I flew once with KDDI/AU top honcho and he was treated like royalty in F and even his staff in J would drop by his suite to discuss biz stuff - they also got to board and deplane first and everyone was told to wait.

CPH-Flyer

I should have looked at actual availability before replying. It is currently very generous, also to Europe. If this is one of the peaks, or it is the new black is an open question.

There has usually been a reasonable amount of last minute availability, but not to last seat availability. Let's see if what we have now continues, or it swings back to what has been normal so far. As I wrote it has been a while since we saw one of the peaks of availability.

gpeso8

Hoping JALPak or another expert can advise as to when JL typically starts clearing F awards off of the waitlist. I'm inside 30-days and no movement on a flight that is F6 per ExpertFlyer.

JALPak

Do you have status with JMB? Just give them a call and ask them for help. They could definitely contact the inventory control for you.

I don't usually wait list for flight award but for upgrade I had seen mine clear sometime as close as 1 day before flight but that's before the rule changes and I made the reservation 3 days before departure So there are still hope. Also I would check again 21 and 14 days out.

gpeso8

Thanks JALPak. I appreciate the reply. Unfortunately, I don't have status. I'm not at the 21-day mark so I will keep my fingers crossed. Mrs. Gpeso8 has a revenue F ticket on the flight so I would like to join if possible.

CPH-Flyer

At the moment JAL seems to release a lot of short notice F availability. But it is difficult to say if they will continue that trend.

ny911

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