enzian

I am doing preliminary research on JAL options from the US west coast to either Tokyo or Osaka for a future trip. I am thinking of booking one way in Business Class as a revenue ticket, as it appears the cost is reasonable and we will have cash award points to use. We do not have an actual trip planned so do not know which airport would be more convenient.

I have been to Japan before and know we will want to visit Osaka for sure. So Instarted with searching LAX to Osaka. All the flights listed had a connection through one of the Tokyo airports; no direct flights were offered at all.

Then I searched LAX to Tokyo, and direct flights were offered on both JAL and AA. There was also a flight with connection through---guess where--- Osaka. Flight JL69, direct from LAX to Osaka.

I went back to look at LAX to Osaka for different days and flight 69 would never show up.

The other off thing was that when I searched from SFO, all the flights offered started with a connecting flight on AA or a subsidiary down to LAX. No direct flights from SFO to Tokyo. Yet among the flights offered when I searched from LAX to Tokyo were flights that started with a flight on AA up to SFO to connect with Flight JL 1 direct from SFO to Tokyo.

Can anyone explain this? I thought that since I am looking at revenue tickets rather than award seats, all flight options should be available.

Thanks for your help.

JALPak

Where did you do the search? I had no problem pulling those flights from ar.jal.com

rustykettel

Are you searching for ITM instead of KIX or OSA for the airport code?


https://goo.gl/flights/gr86

enzian

I was using the JL website (US version) so ar.jal.com and entered "Tokyo" and " Osaka" instead of airport codes so it would show both airports in each location. So it was OSA and whatever stands for Tokyo (all airports).

JALPak

Either you missed the option or flight was full when you searched. JL069 was listed as the last option when I did a dummy search.

kaka

Im on some very slow connection and i dont have your dates. Try search on google flights as i see it works quite well recently. Mind you, the flight ure looking for is sfo-hnd

enzian

It is possible I did not scroll all the way down, but Insaw 16 flights at least. I assumed direct flights would be listed first.

I doubt they are sold out as I have been using dates in next April and May in my dummy booking search.

I'll keep trying and make sure I see all the flights offered.

Are the prices I am seeing---around $2400 US for one-way in Business Class---pretty typical or is that some kind of special price? Is it best to buy way in advance?

JALPak

I don't usually search for one-way but I have seen lower price based on round trip ticket, i.e. you divide the total by half.

BA6501

Perhaps it's a married segment issue?