cm007d

I figured as much , I guess i would have to find an alternate route to go from NRT to BKK if i wanted

Nathandelabrum

Just a few questions regarding booking flights to Tokyo using Virgin air miles. I'm hoping to book 2 tickets (probably business class) from LHR-NRT in October of next year using my Virgin miles. Similar to others, I've been looking as far ahead as I can for next year using the united.com search tool, and there seems to be decent availability in August next year, hopefully this bodes well for October! It does look as though however that availability in business for the direct flight from LHR on ANA is basically non existent, so can I still use my miles to get to Tokyo via a connection, perhaps through Bangkok? I wasn't sure if the miles could only be redeemed on ANA flights only? Also, is availability I see on united.com a fairly accurate representation of what Virgin agents will be able to find for me? Before I call to book in a couple of months I want to know exactly which flights I want to make the whole booking process as smooth as possible. Cheers everyone 👍

SilverChris

NH awards can only include NH segments. You can't mix it with other *A flights because VS isn't part of *A.

VS should see the same NH award space as UA - in theory. Sometimes, there's a bit of a discrepancy, but it should be a reasonable indication.

Nathandelabrum

I see. I envisage this is going to be more difficult than I imagined because as far as I can see, there's no availability at all for the next year for 2 people to fly business class on the non stop ANA route from LHR - NRT. There seems to be much better availability from US airports on the direct routes than flying from London. Being from the UK, will Virgin Atlantic have access to flights say from JFK - NRT? Then my wife and myself could grab a flight to New York and travel on to Tokyo from there.

SlimpyJones

Don't ANA fly LHR-HND, not NRT?

Nathandelabrum

I'm not entirely sure; I've just checked LHR to both Tokyo airports and I can't find any non stops for 2 people on ANA in either business or first within the next year. If I'm doing something wrong please advise me, but I can't find anything. Very frustrating.

SlimpyJones

Ah okay - to be fair I have done the very same recently and my results were slim, only 2 dates that had J availability for two LHR-HND for the whole year.

salsarocks

I am so frustrated. I have used United's and ANA's search tool to find 2 award business seats to Tokyo from Europe and I did not find anything at all for the whole of 2018 (until September 18) from ANY European airport! Is this how it is supposed to be? If that's the case, then it's the poorest award seat availability I have ever seen!
Am I doing something wrong?

Nathandelabrum

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, I've run into the exact same problem. I don't know the idiosyncrasies of how ANA's reward flights work; perhaps they release reward seats differently from flights in Europe and suddenly a few will pop up in the future? I'm speculating really. It just seems so strange to have absolutely no availability from Europe for an entire year!

blitzen

How about First seats? When I checked (only a few times month back) it seemed that business was hard to get but first available.

Nathandelabrum

I can't see availability in either class at all (on the direct ANA route)

Incidentally, does anyone know how much taxes are in GBP per person to fly in F from the US to NRT?

blitzen

Not sure if this helps but in May 338USD from JFK to HND for 2 people
Using 1.25USD per GBP (it was around that number) it should be GBP135pP not sure if NRT has different taxes than HND but it should give you a ballpark figure

Nathandelabrum

Wow, is it any wonder this is a popular redemption, that's incredible value.

Hoping now to fly LHR-IAD on VS, spend a few days in D.C. then fly on from D.C. to Tokyo. Fingers crossed!

blitzen

Good luck! Hopefully you will be able to enjoy ANA First

salsarocks

Just adding context with some more facts.. I have been checking their website right at the time that they were releasing the seats for next year's 356th day and my oh my, 2 business seats were never made available for that day from any European airport! There was only one business seat available from the beginning! What kind of wrong policy are they following and why doesn't someone advise them?

At least all other major European airlines release by default 2 business class award seats a year in advance. What's wrong with these chaps? I'm just fuming and seriously thinking of giving up and sticking to JAL.