JAL award availability

Old Sep 25, 2015, 1:13 am
  #61  
 
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^^^ I've noticed the same pattern with flights to and from SYD. Last minute award seats seem to be non existent whereas in the past they would release unsold seats 1 month-14 days before the date of the flight.
zarzuela is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2015, 9:48 am
  #62  
 
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Hi all. I agree with the past couple posts - no award availability for F seats on JAL09/10 for anything current or going out 4-5 months. I used to be able to book 2 weeks out all the time.

I always book via AA, but I notice my Amex is giving me 25% bonus to Avios right now. Last day is today. Should I transfer points to BA ?

Advice would be appreciated
bennyblanco is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2015, 10:22 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by bennyblanco
Hi all. I agree with the past couple posts - no award availability for F seats on JAL09/10 for anything current or going out 4-5 months. I used to be able to book 2 weeks out all the time.

I always book via AA, but I notice my Amex is giving me 25% bonus to Avios right now. Last day is today. Should I transfer points to BA ?

Advice would be appreciated
Are you flying economy? I personally wouldn't unless there was availability. If you have no AA miles then you could prospectively transfer your miles. The added fees are also going to be higher with avios.

Business I think is 55k with AA and 90k + fees with avios. So the discount wouldn't be worth it.
Astrophsx is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2015, 11:15 am
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by Astrophsx
Are you flying economy? I personally wouldn't unless there was availability. If you have no AA miles then you could prospectively transfer your miles. The added fees are also going to be higher with avios.

Business I think is 55k with AA and 90k + fees with avios. So the discount wouldn't be worth it.


Look for a F-class seat. OK.. so I guess not really worth it due to the fees BA charges.

Anyone have any insight on the JAL lack of F-class award seats lately?
bennyblanco is offline  
Old Oct 2, 2015, 9:31 pm
  #65  
 
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For the record, I called JAL earlier today to ask why the award availability was so tight. The answer I got was "we are recording record profits.. we are very busy.. good for us, bad for you"

So uhhh.. I guess JAL is pretty busy these days? I guess so? I looked at flights 09/10 from ORD -> NRT and F class seats are pretty much sold out every day. Very strange. I guess if you can't buy a seat, you aren't getting one with points.

<cry>
bennyblanco is offline  
Old Oct 2, 2015, 11:30 pm
  #66  
 
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Originally Posted by bennyblanco
For the record, I called JAL earlier today to ask why the award availability was so tight. The answer I got was "we are recording record profits.. we are very busy.. good for us, bad for you"

So uhhh.. I guess JAL is pretty busy these days? I guess so? I looked at flights 09/10 from ORD -> NRT and F class seats are pretty much sold out every day. Very strange. I guess if you can't buy a seat, you aren't getting one with points.

<cry>
This is actually the best answer we could possibly get. It means if they expand capacity, or if sales have a down period, lots of seats will become available again. I had been a bit worried we were seeing fewer seats because JAL had been cutting back on releasing them.

If JAL's able to sell them all, I'm happy to hear they're doing so well.
Bttc is offline  
Old Oct 3, 2015, 9:47 am
  #67  
 
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Sorry for a relative noob question here. I booked two tix in J using Avios for ITM-TPE. I booked a few weeks ago - flight is in about ten days. Haven't been able to figure out how to select seats. I'm not a total moron - I've booked F award tix on EY and EK and J on CX through American and Alaska and I've been able to find the proper record locator to pick seats. Am I missing something or is this not possible?
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Old Oct 7, 2015, 7:39 pm
  #68  
 
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Are there any routes from U.S. to Tokyo that has 4 J award seat availability other than San Diego? Thought I read that 4 J seats gets released from SFO-HND, but only see 2 J seats daily.

If there aren't, any thoughts about 3 adults and 1 toddler in 2 F and 2 J seats on JAL? Never been in JAL Business Class and wonder if it's actually too separated/private to take care of the toddler.

Thanks for any info.
TravelBug1314 is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2015, 7:58 am
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by TravelBug1314
Are there any routes from U.S. to Tokyo that has 4 J award seat availability other than San Diego?
Have you tried DFW-NRT? Scheduled to begin next month...
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Old Oct 8, 2015, 9:27 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by Parachute07
Sorry for a relative noob question here. I booked two tix in J using Avios for ITM-TPE. I booked a few weeks ago - flight is in about ten days. Haven't been able to figure out how to select seats. I'm not a total moron - I've booked F award tix on EY and EK and J on CX through American and Alaska and I've been able to find the proper record locator to pick seats. Am I missing something or is this not possible?
You need to call BAEC and ask for the record locator with JL. With that information, you can go to JAL's website and assign your own seats.
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Old Oct 8, 2015, 4:22 pm
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by wolf539
Have you tried DFW-NRT? Scheduled to begin next month...
Thanks for the suggestion. I did note that new route. However, it looks like it's only 2 J award seats per flight. I will pay attention and see if it changes down the line.
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Old Oct 18, 2015, 7:49 pm
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by TravelBug1314
Thanks for the suggestion. I did note that new route. However, it looks like it's only 2 J award seats per flight. I will pay attention and see if it changes down the line.
I've seen 4 out of ORD.
grandgourmand is offline  
Old Oct 19, 2015, 1:05 pm
  #73  
 
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SFO-HND has 4 J award seats released, although two or more of them tend to get snapped up pretty much immediately, I've found. The remaining 2 will often stick around for a few days. (I've been tracking daily new J/F availability of SFO-HND-SFO going back a few weeks.)
chrisremo is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2015, 4:04 pm
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by grandgourmand
I've seen 4 out of ORD.
Originally Posted by chrisremo
SFO-HND has 4 J award seats released, although two or more of them tend to get snapped up pretty much immediately, I've found. The remaining 2 will often stick around for a few days. (I've been tracking daily new J/F availability of SFO-HND-SFO going back a few weeks.)
Thank you both for the suggestions. Will keep an eye out for those routes.

Incidently, I've tried looking right at 6pm PST on JAL website, but just don't see the 4 J seats in the recent past. Likely snapped up right away?
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Old Oct 21, 2015, 4:17 pm
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by TravelBug1314
Thank you both for the suggestions. Will keep an eye out for those routes.

Incidently, I've tried looking right at 6pm PST on JAL website, but just don't see the 4 J seats in the recent past. Likely snapped up right away?
Perhaps they release 4 only in certain instances? Recently, 4 J were released for September 12, 2016 SFO-HND and September 14, 2016 HND-SFO. (At least, those are the specific instances I'm aware of; I imagine I've missed some.)

The first of those only has 3 remaining now; the second still has all 4.
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