As I not too long ago wrote about, we’re taking a winter ski journey to Niseko, Japan, staying at 4 completely different factors properties. I’ve already shared the return portion of the journey that I booked, the place I’ll be flying ANA’s A380 firstclass and Hawaiian’s 787 firstclass. Nevertheless, I didn’t finalize the outbound portion of the journey till final minute, for good motive.
Whereas the product evaluation may not be that unique, I feel most individuals will admire the amount of firstclass award seats that we managed to guide…
Reserving half a Japan Airways firstclass cabin with factors
Once I take my evaluation journeys and guide flights in worldwide firstclass, individuals generally make one in all two factors:
- “You’re touring alone, so this award availability isn’t helpful for individuals who journey as {couples} or households, because it’s exhausting to search out firstclass availability for a number of individuals”
- “You may have the flexibleness to journey every time, so firstclass awards aren’t helpful for individuals who should be someplace on a selected day”
I hear you, however I’ll counter the purpose by saying that we simply snagged 4 Japan Airways firstclass award seats on a single flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo (HND), on the precise date we wanted. And we paid simply 80,000 American AAdvantage miles plus $5.60 per particular person in taxes.
Let me present a little bit of background. We’re going snowboarding with associates, and naturally we have been completely pleased flying there individually, and simply assembly in Japan. Japan just isn’t precisely a straightforward vacation spot to redeem miles to. Our lodge reservations have been for particular dates, and with lodges in ski season needing to be canceled 60 days prematurely, we had little or no flexibility.
So we did what I normally advocate — we locked in enterprise class awards prematurely that we have been proud of (with AAdvantage miles, so there have been no redeposit charges), after which stored checking nearer to departure to see if something higher opened up.
Lengthy story brief, the persistence paid off, and 4 firstclass award seats opened up on the identical flight, round 4 days earlier than departure. My apologies to the opposite firstclass passenger. 😉
How did we discover 4 firstclass award seats on one flight?
Discovering the primary class award availability was straightforward. I’m a blogger, so in fact I simply referred to as up American, stated “hey, I’m a blogger, make these award seats accessible in your companion airline plz,” and some minutes later, I had a ticket.
I child, in fact, however it’s superb how usually individuals appear to suppose that occurs. 😉 I’ve entry to precisely the identical instruments as everybody else, I simply have some expertise, and am additionally actually persistent.
So, let me share how I approached the method of reserving these seats: Japan Airways is fairly constant about the way it releases firstclass award availability:
- It makes one firstclass award seat accessible as quickly because the schedule opens
- Because the departure date approaches, unsold seats are usually made accessible with miles; in my expertise, all however one to 3 firstclass seats will ultimately be launched as award seats, and the nearer to departure you might be, the extra seats are made accessible
To start out, I researched which Japan Airways flights on the day we wanted truly had a variety of firstclass seats on the market. Japan Airways’ 777s have eight firstclass seats, and if there’s not at the moment award availability, then there shall be at most seven seats on the market. That’s as a result of the airline all the time makes one firstclass award seat accessible when the schedule opens, so meaning one particular person has already snagged a seat (if all eight seats have been on the market, there would even be one award seat).
You’ll be able to see what number of seats can be found on the market both by a instrument like ExpertFlyer, or you should utilize simply use Google Flights, and see what number of firstclass tickets it’ll nonetheless promote you on a flight.
Simply for instance, under is a Google Flights search, to see which Japan Airways flights from San Francisco to Tokyo have seven firstclass seats left on the market.
After coming into the parameters (firstclass, nonstop, Japan Airways), I pulled up the calendar, and as you may see, fairly just a few days over the following couple of months have seven of the eight firstclass seats on the market.
From there, it’s only a operate of being persistent, and consistently checking award availability. Now, instruments like Seats.aero particularly have a Japan Airways firstclass award finder, which turns out to be useful. Right here’s the factor, although — these awards are tremendous aggressive to really guide, particularly with instruments like this, which show availability in such a straightforward manner. Seats.aero doesn’t replace in actual time, so there’s usually a little bit of a lag.
Whereas I regulate Seats.aero, usually I take advantage of it primarily to determine availability patterns, after which religiously examine aa.com for availability, realizing that it helps to have a leg up, and guide these seats as quickly as they develop into accessible.
I seen most availability from the US was solely being made accessible inside every week or so of departure. Beginning at that time, I’d examine aa.com availability on the route fairly often. I even saved the precise URL that carried out the seek for that date and route as a bookmark. So for the instances the place I used to be at my pc, I possibly clicked the hyperlink each half-hour or so.
It actually takes simply seconds, so I used to be collectively spending a couple of minutes per day wanting up availability. Certain sufficient, 4 days earlier than departure, the airline opened up precisely 4 firstclass award seats, so we booked them immediately. How superior!
Apparently, no further award seats ended up being made accessible, so this was a flight the place the airline held again three firstclass seats (which I discover is essentially the most seats that the airline gained’t open up as awards).
The flight in the end had just one different passenger in firstclass. Man, that’s not a very worthwhile firstclass cabin for the airline, for the reason that different passenger additionally presumably redeemed miles.
Backside line
We managed to snag 4 firstclass award seats on a single Japan Airways transpacific flight, which I assumed was a reasonably cool alternative. I’ve solely in any other case ever booked 4 firstclass award seats on a single lengthy haul flight with Lufthansa, so it was enjoyable to do this on one other airline.
It required a variety of persistence, however in the end nothing too loopy. It was a operate of figuring out the flights that had essentially the most firstclass seats on the market, after which checking availability religiously. I proceed to get enormous worth from American AAdvantage miles, and am so pleased that we have been capable of all journey collectively in consolation, in an unbelievable (however dated) firstclass.
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