Program/Software to use to see if an award is released?
 

I am planning on booking JAL award from tokyo to either sfo or LAX

Is there a way to find out if they released available seats on Aug 8?

I know tomorrow is 330 days out but i don't think JAL releases its seats right away?

If there is a software that can track it down for me?

thanks!

KVS and ExpertFlyer are both good tools for looking for and monitoring availability.

Are they worth it?
 

I just looked at the KVS tool. It costs money to join. Also, expertflyer costs, doesn't it? But the ANA tool is free. Doesn't that provide the same information?

Both are well worth the money.

While expertflyer costs, and you can add me to the list of those who say it's worth it, there's a five-day cancellation privilege (if you've never subscribed before) that gives you a five-day free trial. Using this isn't cheating; their representative here on FT has been quite open about this option for anyone who isn't sure.

The ANA tool is free, but they recently started requiring people to have some miles in their ANA account to access it directly - not just to have an account, which is free like most other FF programs. A back door to the tool is still open and doesn't check this, but it's anyone's guess how much longer it will be. If you want specifics on getting into the ANA tool that way, it's been discussed in the forums (fora?) of most Star Alliance member airlines.

ExpertFlyer and KVS both have their pros & cons and are worth looking into. You'll find plenty of debates on here as to which is better. Personally, I subscribe to both.

As it pertains to your question of JAL availability - KVS would be better as ExpertFlyer does not support award availability for them. As others will be quick to point out all of their sources are free to obtain and check yourself - KVS just simplies the process. For me, it is worth the price for the time it saves me fumbling around the other sites.

Award Nexus is a new one that is just starting out but looks very promising.

^^

Why not look on JAL's website? I can see seats to LAX in Business and Premium Economy on Aug 8th.

More important might be which FF prg you are using to score the seats.

Its generally not reliable. Many airlines release more seats for their FFP's than to others.

There are many cases of preferential access to own members, but it is not a general case. It is more often the case that awards available to one airline's own program members are also available to partner programs.

In particular, my experience with JL is that the JL web site award availability matches what is available to other partners (I am referring to immediately available award seats, not the waitlist availability).

Awardnexus is a go
 

I've been using awardnexus to uncover CX seats from JFK and it's been consistently useful. Easy interface, accurate data, and it's free -- can't ask for anything more, really. Give it a try.

That's good to know for JL. For Star Alliance, my experience is more like UA Fan's: airlines will frequently have seats in their own award buckets but none in the alliance buckets.

That was one reason the ANA tool is (was?) so valuable. It showed the O and I fare buckets (I believe those are the buckets...) whereas most airline sites just show their own equivalent of XC/XF (again, those are the UA buckets...not sure how standard they are).