cm007d

6 months is really short time to look ahead for that particular flight. JFK-tokyo route you can find almost no availability 300 days out let alone 180. ORD has a lot more availibility than JFK for some reason finding J and F isn't a problem. From the limited research I have done about if they will release more availability closer to the date of departure. I don't think thats the case. For the record I booked my flight earlier this year JFK-HND RT, had to do F since there was on availability for J even though I checked almost every day for as many days out as i could look.

cm007d

It depends on which airports you are looking for. ORD has a lot more availability than JFK for example. When I booked my flight earlier this year for mid jan 2020 , first day of availability didn't even have J at all, so had to go with F because thats all i could find. Also middle of the week was the only days that had availability, so like tues wed thurs is your best bet. My experience has only been booking for flight thru JFK so your experience may be different if you are flying from a different airport.

nlui

Availability is very route and season dependent, right now I'm seeing up to 4 seats in J for LAX-NRT for 10 days in September 2019. I'm not sure if ANA typically releases many last minute award seats. In the past I've searched for availability right when it opens, ~330 days for partners and ~355 directly on ANA.

rjruiz

Ideally would like to fly out of IAD.

roanjohn

Can you fly out of ORD and return to JFK? Does that count as a RT?

blitzen

Petdog

FWIW, consider booking what you can, even if it requires a positioning flight, then monitor/hope for seats freeing up on your preferred routes.

E.g., I wanted to fly JFK-TYO-JFK next May. The outbound F seats got scooped up before they were open to partners, so I booked ORD-NRT-JFK instead. As luck would have it, today I got an alert that a JFK-NRT award seat had opened up and I jumped on it. (Thanks expertflyer )

Lewis42

CosmicGirl

Unless things have changed since June they only release one seat per flight in F on the ex-EU flights. So your only option would be to book one in F and one in J, or fly on two separate flights. An additional seat may or may not be released on the same flight, but to my knowledge there aren't (m)any data points on this. If an extra one does show up you can upgrade the J ticket or move the second passenger onto the flight with the extra seat for Ł30.

As for the miles: officially you'd have to pay to transfer the miles from your father's account, as all the miles for one ticket need to come from the same account. If he were to have 95k he could book a J ticket with his miles for another passenger. You would have to call FC to ask if they'd be willing to combine them.

craigthemif

Exceptions are made when both account holders are travelling together.

"I just need to steal some miles from my father without paying to transfer them" is far less likely to be allowed.

manutd123

I feel really stuck in my return journey at the moment. I had Business return HND - LHR on 5 Nov and could only find HND - CDG in economy on 28 October.

I wanted to come back to Europe somehow in the week of 28 October and before 31 Oct, but the 12.5 hour economy flight feels daunting.

I can then catch a local European flight to uk.

I'm looking for business alternatives using my miles that week. Any advice appreciated.

mataushas

I booked ORD-HND-JFK ANA round trip using VS miles, but for the flight back one seat is in F and other in J. Does VS release ANA availability for F seat closer in? I'd like to upgrade my one business seat to first class. I haven't found a concrete data point. I'd probably subscribe to EF for a month if availability tends to open up a month before departure... my trip is in May 2020.

saaveraward

Definitely worth an EF subscription as it helped me secure an F seat. EF just alerted me today of a F seat that opened. They do dribble out there.

Surely the $9.99 a month is worth it over X months to secure that seat?

craigthemif

The European routes are known. Check them all...

But with a little thing called the Rugby World Cup ending for most European teams (and their supporters) the last week of October, you're simply not going to find much of anything...

Perhaps your best bet is very last minute upgrade if one of the European teams makes the finals and their supporters cancel flights to stay longer...

mataushas

It's may not be worth it for me if I am paying $10 a month until May, and then gotta pay another $75(?) for VS to change my seat. Yes, it's a small amount relative to cash ticket cost itself, but the idea of points travel for me is to minimize spending cash. I've checked flexible calendar in May a few times and there has not been a single F seat that opened up.

What flight did you get an F seat and how close to departure?