ANA & JAL First Class Obligation Free Arbitrage Alternative

I’ve written prior to now about inflight responsibility free gross sales, which you’ll nonetheless discover on many worldwide airways.
It’s an attention-grabbing enterprise mannequin, as a result of it’s costly to basically fly a “retailer” around the globe, and the worth additionally sometimes isn’t that tremendous, regardless of tax financial savings. Nonetheless, you might have a captive viewers, so it appears to work for some airways in some markets.
On the subject of inflight responsibility free gross sales, I needed to cowl a noteworthy promotion that’s at the moment out there with two airways, as I don’t recall ever seeing something fairly to this degree.
ANA & JAL promoting Hibiki one centesimal anniversary whisky
All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airways (JAL) appear to have a promotion in the intervening time, whereby the 2 airways have an unique responsibility free merchandise that may solely be bought by firstclass passengers. Particularly, each airways are promoting the Hibiki one centesimal anniversary whisky in a commemorative field.
Every firstclass passenger is restricted to buying one bottle. ANA appears to be charging 50,000 JPY (~330 USD) for this, whereas JAL is charging 60,000 JPY (~395 USD). It seems that the airline is loading sufficient for every firstclass passenger to buy one, however even when there are extras, firstclass passengers are nonetheless restricted to buying only one.
There are threads in each the ANA and JAL discussion board on FlyerTalk about this, with folks sharing their experiences (right here’s an image of the acquisition somebody made).
I’m not an enormous whisky drinker, however this appears to be extremely uncommon, and isn’t even out there for buy with a overwhelming majority of shops, even in Japan.
That is an attention-grabbing method to responsibility free
I discover this promotion to be fascinating on a few ranges. For one, it’s uncommon to see sure responsibility free gadgets nearly being a perk of flying in sure cabins. It’s not simply that one thing random is being completely bought in a cabin, however many would contemplate the chance to purchase this to be a legit perk of flying within the cabin. I don’t need to recommend that it’s Birkin-esque by way of the shopping for course of, however it’s nonetheless artistic.
Some folks could take pleasure in selecting up a bottle of this to have at house, given how uncommon that is, to not point out the good presentation. Nonetheless, there’s fairly a bit of debate about how this might even be bought at a revenue, both on-line or in a liquor retailer.
For instance, on eBay I see folks making an attempt to promote the empty bottles of this for a whole bunch of {dollars}. In the meantime one of many few web sites that appears to be promoting a full bottle is charging $1,799.
So anyway, in case you do end up flying ANA or JAL in firstclass within the coming weeks (I’m undecided how lengthy this promotion lasts), that is one thing that may very well be price conserving in thoughts.

Backside line
In the event you’re flying ANA or JAL firstclass within the close to future, maintain a watch out for the Hibiki one centesimal anniversary whisky, which might completely be bought by firstclass passengers. I’m not a whisky drinker, but when I have been on an eligible flight, this could most likely be about as tempted as I’ve been to make an obligation free buy (properly, in my post-Good day Kitty period, no less than).
In the event you have been flying ANA or JAL firstclass, would you purchase a bottle of the Hibiki one centesimal anniversary whisky?