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Japan Airlines has released incredible First Class award space from the United States to Tokyo and beyond that you can book for only 62,500 American Airlines miles.
On the four routes on which Japan Airlines offers First Class to the United States, 1-4 First Class suites are available with miles on most flights for the next year.
- How good is Japan Airlines First Class?
- Where does Japan Airlines fly?
- How many miles do you need and why is this such a good deal?
- How can you search for and book the award space?
- How can you get American Airlines miles?
How good is Japan Airlines First Class?
Japan Airlines First Class is a world class flat bed enclosed in a suite.
I haven’t flown the product personally, but everything looks top notch and Asian airlines have the best service in my experience.
Where does Japan Airlines fly?
Japan Airlines flies its 777-300ER equipped with First Class between Tokyo and San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
The San Francisco route flies to Tokyo-Haneda. The others fly to Tokyo-Narita.
From either airport, you can connect throughout Asia. If you don’t live at one of the North American gateways, you can connect from your home airport on American Airlines, US Airways, or Alaska Airlines flights to the Japan Airlines award space for zero extra miles.
How Many Miles Does the Award Cost?
American Airlines hasn’t devalued its award chart in years–I think a devaluation is coming at the end of this year–so its award chart is a lot better than Delta’s or United’s. American charges only:
- 62,500 miles one way in First Class between the United States and Japan or Korea
- 67,500 miles one way in First Class between the United States and the rest of East and Southeast Asia
You cannot book this award space as part of a single award to India. That violates American Airlines routing rules, so your trip would be two awards: United States to Japan and Japan to India.
How Can You Search and Book the Award Space?
Search on ba.com. For the moment–very likely to change very soon–there is excellent award space for the next 11 months on the Japan Airlines flights to and from the United States in First Class.
For instance, San Francisco to Tokyo-Haneda has 1 to 4 First Class seats every day from August 9 to 14.
Los Angeles to Tokyo-Narita has 1 to 3 First Class seats every day from September 8 to 13.
Chicago to Tokyo-Narita has 1 or 3 First Class seats every day from October 4 to 10.
New York to Tokyo-Narita has 2 to 4 First Class seats every day from February 28 to March 3, 2016.
Note the date, cabin, and flight number of the award space you like. If necessary, pair it with American Airlines, US Airways, or Alaska Airlines award space you search on aa.com as part of a segment-by-segment searching strategy. Once you’ve found all your space, call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 to book the award by feeding the agent the date, cabin, and flight number of each flight. There is no longer a phone booking fee to book awards that cannot be booked at aa.com, so you’ll just pay the miles plus about $50 in taxes for a roundtrip to Japan.
Alternatively, instead of booking now, you can put the award space on hold for five days for free when you call American Airlines.
How Can You Get American Airlines Miles?
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Right now the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® comes with 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first three months. The card also comes with other awesome benefits like a 10% rebate on miles used for award bookings and a free checked bag on American Airlines flights. There is no annual fee for the first year, then $95.
Bottom Line
Book–or put on hold–Japan Airlines First Class award space to Asia today with your American Airlines miles. Japan Airlines First Class suites are world class, American Airlines’ chart to Asia is way underpriced, and 2-4 First Class award seats on most flights for the next year between the United States and Japan will not last.
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I’m sure you guys see so many deals that you can’t possibly take advantage of all of them. I would have loved to snag some of these but we’re all booked up for travel until next March 🙂
We’re looking to travel to SE Asia next autumn and with a bunch of AA miles stocked up this would be great. This would be great to have when I’m ready and when they open those seats up!
How did you get non-stop results on b/a? When I input the same dates and cities all I get are flights routed through LHR from the west coast! I can’t even find the points option to use miles on their site.
Do I need an account to search B/A flights?
Guess i’ll be spending my new year in Japan next Feb, thanks Scott.
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