nomorecoach

This may be in the wrong forum, but I'm hoping if any of the JAL experts know why JAL hasn't released partner award seats (economy and/or business) for the Haneda-Gimpo route, at least that's what it appears like. I checked on AA and the route doesn't even exist. Alaska, Cathay, and BA only show economy. Does anyone know why that is? Has business class been removed? I thought JAL resumed normal operations for this route: JAL | Changes on the East Asia Route Network for Departure between January 1 and March 25, 2023. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

SuperEWR

In general, Haneda-Gimpo is a business heavy route given both of those are the close in airports for their respective cities. JAL is likely hoping to sell those seats close in to business travelers for high cash fares. Then, depending on time of year, there may be heavy tourism demand, particularly into Japan. If you look at the link below, in 2022 Nov YTD, Korea had by far the largest number of visitors into Japan at 315k. The next largest is Taiwan at 99k and the US is at 84k. Similarly, if you look at the outbound stats, Korea has the second highest number of visits for Japanese travel, after the US. For most airlines, releasing award seats to partners is probably the least preferred way to fill a seat, as cash fares both from your own bookings and partner bookings are preferred to award bookings, and if you do fill a seat with an award ticket, it's better if it's a member of your own loyalty program.

https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-da...stats/inbound/

NW-A332

Last year business seats were available on this route through the end of the schedule, then in July or August 2022 everything disappeared. I've been watching on Alaska and Cathay Pacific's sites because I want seats in June 2023. Once my dates became available to book about 10 months out, there was no more availability in any class. Then within that last few months, the rest of 2023 became available but only in economy.

nomorecoach

Thank you very much for this very useful information. I really appreciate it. I guess it still doesn't explain why AA is not showing this route as being valid on their website. Perhaps I need to call them.

I believe this route only resumed in June 2022 on a limited basis (not all three flights were in service until now). I will keep on checking for availability. Thank you very much for sharing your datapoint.

shallowdrift

Not quite the same thing but may be of relevance - domestic JL partner redemptions were not showing up online at all for me for a very long time but were bookable by phone.

nomorecoach

Thank you. Which partner?

shallowdrift

This was BA

nomorecoach

Thank you. I called Cathay but they are saying award seats are still not available. I tried searching AA and BA online and still nothing. Does anyone know if anything has changed?

NW-A332

I checked this morning and finally the flight I need between HND and GMP has business class seats open. I've been checking every day since last summer. My flight is in about a month from now.

nomorecoach

Great to hear!