NYC-Japan biz awards impossible at low level?
 

I've been trying to find an award ticket in October from NYC (or LAX, SFO, SEA) to Tokyo (Seoul also fine) in business class and it seems impossible to find for a reasonable amount of miles. I've checked Alaska, United, Air Canada, KLM, Delta, and on and on, and everything is pricing out from 175,000 miles and up. The last time I flew from Singapore to JFK was in Jan 2019 and paid 65k Alaska miles +$80 to fly on Japan Airlines.

I know its been 5 years, COVID, devaluations, etc but are these low level awards a thing of the past? Are most business class awards to Asia now 175,000 miles and more? Or should I be looking closer to the departure date? I'm just so shocked seeing these prices, so this post is also a mini rant.

You need to look closer to the departure date, and get yourself some AA miles:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...466df6d842.png

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1ba7402786.png


No guarantees, of course.

Yeah, haha no AA miles, I used them all up so it will be a while until I get them. But yep, this is next week and I mentioned that I'm looking to go in October.

So just wondering if now award availability at the saver level shows really close to the departure date. For example, here's an award ticket on United at 100k +$5.60, but this flight leaves in 2 days. Anything beyond early Sept is pricing out at 170k and up.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ebaea5b1ad.png

As I said, there are no guarantees, but historically, JL has been generous about opening up premium-cabin award space a week or two before departure date. But you cannot expect that to happen if you are traveling during peak demand periods.

.....

Is mid October peak-demand?

I have no idea.

You're hand-waving a lot of things away there. DL saver awards have basically become nonexistent. UA's gotten rid of their award chart. AA might as well not have one. It's a different world now than it was five years ago in a lot of ways.

yup i know that's exactly why i mentioned these things. but i'm specifically talking about awards to asia (which i haven't booked in 5 years).

Mid-October is 6 weeks away. You are thus too late for most awards that are released far in advance, and too early for true last minute award availabilty.

Double Edged Sword
 

If you fly out of BOS to AUH (AA points) it's wide open in OCT in BIZ from there check for flights to TYO or anywhere in Asia where you can catch a cheap reasonable flight to TYO. You can also fly into OSA/ITM (great city) and catch the bullet train to TYO.

or position flight out of SFO, LAX SJO, SEA, DFW



The game is still on... we just have to be more vigilant because the Airlines have become more savvy to the airline points player many airlines are now just releasing award flighs very close in or very far out with nothing in between, in other words the market has become more efficient, In part you can thank all the big airline point bloggers, they have been a blessng and a curse at the same time.
I recently picked up biz tickets BOS-BKK on JAL for 70k AA points one way..

PS: At least with AA points if you get a little creative you can make it to Asia with points.

Good luck everybody in your Quest

It isn't. But you're asking for a very specific travel pair and Japan is now a hyper-popular travel destination post COVID.

• Delta/Skymiles had never been a source for premium cabin awards. That's been true for 10+ years.
• ANA do consistently release premium cabin seat at 355 days out. But those do get booked immediately.
• Using United miles to book United is fully dynamic pricing. You need to use Lifemiles / Aeroplan (if you can find I space on United).
• JAL is your best bet. They do tend to release close in availability. 10 out of the next 14 days still have Business awards for NYC-TYO. Those are bookable with AA and AS miles.

This SAN-TYO itinerary is available in FIRST Class on October 14 for 80K AA miles. Not a great routing (SAN-SJC-LAX-TYO), but it is First Class on JL

The AS booking engine seems to be down at the moment, so I cannot tell if the award is also available with AS miles.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...65bbd4e8f2.png

Annoyingly I'm all out of AA miles and don't have enough time to earn them for this trip but good to know for the future re: AA.

Re: Alaska, I have enough miles, so I think its going to be my best bet to stalk the award search and book the flight 10-14 days out. I saw a JAL flight on AS for 60k miles + $19 in taxes from SEA-NRT on Sept. 2. I can book the flight last minute so its no problem for me. Thanks all for the help!

Lol. I got two tickets from HND to East Coast for our return. Just haven’t been able to get the outbound. We are completely flexible so will most likely be booking at 2 weeks out. Up until Sept 10 there are J and F awards from Nyc to Hnd for two people and retirement has many benefits, including being able to travel last minute.