anc-ord772

Seven months later and departure is this Sunday. We didn’t know it at booking, but we ended up needing to fly from SFO, so inadvertently nailed that.

Three weeks out from the return and we are scheduled on two different NRT-LAX flights 55 minutes apart. No space has opened up in the 7 months on either flight, or two seats ex HND. Really glad I at least got near perfect dates on the initial booking.

When folks say last minute availability might open up, how last minute? Still watching via EF, although we’re fine flying separately.

Nick Abel

OK, so I just put on hold the following:

6/25/20, ORD -> HND, 2 seats in F (wife and daughter). Returning to ORD on 7/9 in Y. Cost each way was averaged for a total of 92.5k/per person
6/25/20, Same flight, 1 in J (for me). Returning on 7/9 in J. Total of 95k of course.

Started my search with Juicy Miles, but it quickly became apparent this was going to get complicated with3 people and likely mean separate bookings and likely mixed cabins on at lesat one. I switched to ANA's site for multi-city/mixed cabin capabilities, but there was too much phantom availability for ANA members only. Messed with Aeroplan as well, but United.com worked best since the search results explicitly state how many award seats are available in each class on each day. Did run into one instance of phantom F availability (my return leg -- settled for J), but it was otherwise the most efficient way to search.

BTW, the first agent I spoke with was clueless (a first for me with Virgin). She flat-out told me ANA wouldn't allow outbounds to HND from ORD -- only to NRT -- but that the return could go from HND. I clarified that this wasn't an availability thing, but a policy, and she continued insisting it was ANA policy. I was totally unprepared for that since my notebook full of possible flights were all directed to HND, so she offered to do some searches for me. Unfortunately, she'd only do them for all 3 passengers. When I told her she'd likely have to split us into 2 and 1 and search that way, she said it wasn't possible to make separate bookings. After she searched 3 days of outbounds and found no availability for 3 people in F, J, or Y (big surprise), I told her I'd go home and do some searching and then call back. She offered her agent number so I could be connected directly to her, but I politely declined :-) I called back a couple hours later (with some NRT possibilities just in case I was badly misinformed), and that agent was super efficient and quickly booked the two separate itineraries to HND, including one mixed cabin trip.

Interesting side note: He offered to hold JUST my outbound at 47.5k miles when I was unsure about the return since I'd seen F space on United.com. I wasn't aware that was even possible (RT only), but he seemed to know his stuff and quoted my both the 47.5 and the taxes/fees for just the outbound. I went ahead and had him hold a J return, but I thought that was interesting.

saaveraward

I thought, perhaps incorrectly, ANA was not a carrier that opened up more availability to its members than partners.

Is this procedure correct: Set up an EF alert and then manually confirm through UA?

Second question: I know I have to book a RT, but how flexible is that? If I fly from the US to TYO, MUST my return be to the US?

Sorry for the rudimentary questions.

gengar

NH does hold back inventory for own-program members. EF alert and manually confirm though a partner (such as UA) is the correct procedure for checking partner availability.

blitzen

saaveraward

Thank you for the confirmation. I'm looking for a TYO-JFK flight in F with the new product about 6 months out. There are several flights available which VS does not have access to. Is there a time frame where they may release a seat to partners, like LH does T-14?

Oddly enough, every JFK-TYO flight I see at NH is available to VS, but in the opposite direction, none of those available to NH are bookable on VS

I booked NRT-ORD in the interim. Maybe I could get lucky and the new F will be on that route...

saaveraward

Duplicate post

nlui

Hello everyone,

Reposting from the ANA section:

Thanks to this forum and other sites we've been able to book LAX-NRT, HND-LAX in F for our family of three (wife and infant under two) which is probably our best redemption. We're looking to book right when partner availability opens up ~330 days out. We welcomed another boy into our family and want to visit Japan again in March/April 2021; hopefully we'll see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. This past March we caught the beginning of the season. But our oldest son will be two by that time so the booking will be for three passengers and one infant under two. I searched the forums but couldn't find a definitive answer if VS can book three ANA award seats in F? Of course we're open to flying J but at that point it might be better to stick with ANA mileage club miles and utilize the 95k partner booking to see more cities, e.g., LAX-ICN-TPE-NRT-LAX. TPE-NRT is roughly ~$100/pp in economy at that time.

Thanks for your help!

craigthemif

3 F seats? Not going to happen. 2 usually takes some luck and 1 is the most likely to be seen.

Don't forget that the new F configuration is only 8 seats. Simply no way 3 of them will be available using miles at T- a year.

CPH-Flyer

The old F configuration was 8 seats as well.

saaveraward

That was actually rather painless. Set a bunch of EF alerts. One seat opened up TYO-JFK. Checked United and it was a go. Outbound I needed dried up, but then was re-released following day.

Called VS, paid the change fee and got JFK-TYO-JFK in new F

nlui

Maybe I got lucky when I did my search in March 2018 but the LAX-NRT/HND-LAX route had alot of availability in the March/April 2019 for two.

There is a thread in the ANA section of flyertalk ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/all-n...l#post29723978 ) that has a site that researches the number of available award seats: uridayo.com/entry/award-avaialblity

It shows 3 ANA's F award seats (for Mileage Club members) but was wondering if VS can book those as well.

rjruiz

Is it just me or has it become increasingly difficult to find F award availability for 2 people even though it shows seats are wide open? I have tried looking 3 month, 6 month and even the farthest out at 350 days through EF and nothing. Perhaps I should refine my search for just 1 person??

blitzen

F seats go fast. 3/6 month out were probably snapped up month ago and 350 days out will be the 2020 Olympics so they will be gone the moment they are released online.

rjruiz

Argh, wasn't even thinking about that. Well I checked even 350 days out around end of July - August and still zip both first and biz.