Award Flight Options NRT/HND-SAN for Early January
 

I'm looking at booking a return ticket Jan 2nd or 3rd, 2016 from Tokyo to San Diego. I went to book a direct flight from NRT-SAN on JAL with AA miles, but the availability disappeared. This was for an economy ticket. I wanted to see if anyone could give me their opinion or advice.

Routes available:

- HND-SFO (then SFO-SEA-SAN possibly on Alaska)

- NRT-KIX-LAX w/ JAL (the dates/times may not match up well with available flights)

- HND-SFO then a direct flight with Southwest on a separate ticket

- NRT-LAX (Singapore Air, but ~$150 in fees and 27k miles, then ~$100 for rental car and gas)

These are all economy as I could not find any higher class available. Should I just book HND-SFO-SAN and keep checking to see if NRT-SAN opens up? AA doesn't have a change fee for routes as long as the cities match up. Singapore airlines has better economy seat, but all the taxes and fees will add up.

Thoughts?

Are you asking about the schedule or inflight product, or about the difficulty of redeeming an award?

If the latter, you'll probably have better luck by asking in the forum of the respective FFP from which you wish to redeem an award.

In short, direct fights will be impossible for redemption in most airline just after new year added to that you are looking for weekend.
If I was you, I would search out any airline that can give you a ticket with stopovers here and there and just book it. Maybe if KIX have seats I would have change my holiday plans to get on the plane.
Forget about that route you want, is what airline can offer you best suits you and take it. Since you have a high post count, I am sure you know the game of redemption in high or blackout season...