MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.
There is excellent award space in Japan Airlines First Class between San Francisco and Tokyo for most of the next 11 months. This is space you can cheaply book with American Airlines or US Airways miles, and you can use the space wherever you live in the United States to access anywhere in Asia.
Starting December 1, 2014, Japan Airlines (JAL) is changing the aircraft on its San Francisco to Tokyo-Haneda route to a 777-300ER, which features a fully flat Business Class bed and eight enclosed suites in First Class.
Award space is wide open on the route in First Class, with many days from December 1, 2014 through late June 2015 showing two available award seats in First Class.
- What is the award space picture?
- What are the connection options in San Francisco and at Haneda?
- How many miles will awards cost with US Airways, American Airlines, and British Airways miles?
- How does the JAL Suite look?
Award Space
Award space is excellent after the aircraft swap (12/1/14) until the end of the schedule (late June 2015) in both directions. I searched JAL award space on ba.com, which conveniently shows First and Business Class separately for each flight and tells how many seats are open in each cabin.
Inconveniently it doesn’t show a full calendar of award space at once, so you can go search your preferred days at ba.com like this.
The outbound flight leaves at 12:35 AM and arrives the next day at 5:00 AM.
The return leaves at 12:05 AM and arrives the day before at 5:45 PM.
Award Price
JAL is in oneworld, so you can use American Airlines, US Airways, or British Airways miles to book the space you see at ba.com. Depending on the miles you use, you’ll pay very different prices.
American Airlines would charge:
- 50,000 miles each way in Business Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Japan
- 62,500 miles each way in First Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Japan
- 55,000 miles each way in Business Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Southeast Asia, routing through Japan
- 67,500 miles each way in First Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Southeast Asia, routing through Japan
American Airlines awards would also feature $48.40 in taxes roundtrip for the direct flight and a little bit more if other flights were added.
US Airways would charge:
- 110,000 miles roundtrip in Business Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Japan
- 120,000 miles roundtrip in First Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Japan
- 120,000 miles roundtrip in Business Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Southeast Asia, routing through Japan
- 160,000 miles roundtrip in First Class from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Southeast Asia, routing through Japan
US Airways awards would also feature $98.40 in taxes and fees roundtrip for the direct flight and a little bit more if other flights were added. This is $50 more than an American Airlines award because US Airways collects a $50 award processing fee on international awards.
British Airways Avios are the worst way to book the JAL award space because British Airways collects fuel surcharges on JAL segments. A roundtrip in First Class to see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo would cost 150,000 Avios + $674 (and more Avios if you need to connect from your home to San Francisco.)
Connections in San Francisco and Tokyo
Even if you don’t live in San Francisco or don’t want to go to Tokyo, this award space can be useful because connections are plentiful in both airports.
As usual, because US Airways and American Airlines have region-based award charts, it will not cost extra miles to connect from your home airport to San Francisco. It may or may not cost extra miles to connect in Tokyo to somewhere else in Asia, depending on whether you leave Japan’s region on the appropriate award chart. (The award prices are given in the previous section.)
Tokyo-Haneda
Haneda is Tokyo’s “domestic” airport, so there are a ton of connection options within Japan but far fewer to the rest of Asia.
You can fly on this flight into Haneda, then take a 90 minute train to Tokyo-Narita for far more connection options because the two airports are co-terminal, but that sounds like a hassle to me. (This would not count as a stopover or open jaw.)
San Francisco
Unfortunately San Francisco is not a oneworld hub, but American and US Airways both serve it from all their hubs.
Plus if you are using American Airlines miles, but not US Airways miles, you can get to San Francisco on Alaska Airlines flights too.
The JAL Sky Suite
The JAL Sky Suite is a fully enclosed completely flat bed.
It is at the cutting edge of hard products in international First Class.
I haven’t flown JAL, so I can’t comment on the food or service, but reviews are positive, and I have always had great attention to detail from Asian carriers.
Booking the Awards
You cannot book JAL flights online with US Airways or American Airlines miles. You need to call the airline whose miles you want to use and feed the agent the date, flight number, and cabin of the flights you want to book (that you’ve found by searching ba.com and aa.com.)
- US Airways: 800-622-1015
- American Airlines: 800-882-8880
Recap
Japan Airlines is swapping a bigger aircraft onto its San Francisco to Tokyo-Haneda route starting on December 1, 2014. Award space is excellent in First Class for two passengers starting that day.
You can book the award space with American Airlines miles or US Airways miles. The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® is currently offering 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase. (Check out all the places you can go with just the card’s sign up bonus.)
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
what miles do us people in the back of the aircraft have to use.
American Airlines has the lowest award price to Japan in economy from Oct 1 – April 30: 25k miles each way
The rest of the year, US Airways is cheaper at 60k roundtrip
I am on the line with the Chairman’s Desk right now at USAirways and they are only seeing Business Class (U booking) available for any dates December through April. Has anyone found first class availability? Do we know for sure that First Class is bookable now for dates after December 1st or might we have to wait?
Hang up call back. If the problem persists, let me know what date you tried to book and which direction.
I’ve tried many times. Showing no first class. Tired daily from Dec1-April 15. Looking for first class
“The JAL Sky Suite is a fully enclosed completely flat bed.”
No, it isn’t.
Ok. The article lead me to believe we could book with USAir miles. Why can’t we?
Booked JL F to/from HND in March/April. Definitely bookable.
I currently have JL F booked roundtrip for SFO-LAX-NRT using AA miles. I’d like to switch my flight to SFO-HND but I’d like to do so without paying a change fee.
I’ve called a couple times already and the reps have said that the change fee would be assessed because I’m changing airports, even though NRT and HND are both in Tokyo. Any tips on how I can convince them to waive the change fee?
Co-terminals only matter for routing. Thus, you could change LAX-HND-HKG to LAX-NRT-HKG without a fee. However, changing the origin and/or destination (as you’re doing) will trigger the change fee.
If a schedule change comes up, you may be able to get a free change.
Using AA miles, are we able to book JAL Sky Suite from IAD/DCA to SFO to NRT? I thought AA routing rules made it so you had to travel transatlantic from East Coast to Asia.
NO, AA rules require traveling transpacific to East Asia and transatlantic to Indian Subcontinent and Middle East regardless of which coast you live on. Washington to SFO to HND (this flies to Haneda not Narita) is a valid AA routing.
Thanks, Scott! Would DCA-ORD-HKG be a valid AA route? I looked at the Great Circle Mapper and it looks like ORD-HKG would be transpacific, not transatlantic. Is that correct?
Yes, that is transpacific. Any flight from the US to Asia directly is fine.
Hi Scott,
Definitely a newbie question, but what’s the best airport to fly out from in the NYC area to get to Tokyo via AA? Thanks so much.
AA’s partner Japan Airlines has a direct flight from JFK to Tokyo-Narita
Hi Scott,
Not sure if you ever follow up on these older posts, but which Japan Airlines product do you recommend? First class or Business, if flying from Tokyo-Narita to JFK?
Thanks as usual.
Never personally flown either. It’s a small premium for First Class (only 12.5k miles more), so I’d fly that.
For some reason the JAL website has the following notice on its page:
“The JAL Group has set the fuel surcharge for flights departing Japan bound for North America as follows.
-For purchases made on or before September 30, 2014, there is a 50,000 yen fuel surcharge (for JAL Group portions per person)
(The fuel surcharge revision including the implementation date is subject to government approval.)”
Isn’t that a huge fee for such a booking? I know you mentioned it’s $98.40 for US Airways and $48.40 for AA…and $600 something for BA. I’m slightly confused by this. Could you please clarify?
Henry — disregard that. That’s only if using Japan Airlines miles, not AA or US, which both don’t impost fuel surcharges.
Great. That’s very helpful. Thank you.
Sorry to bother folks again, but I’m having trouble finding availability on the ba.com website. There’s no availability from Nov 30-Dec 4…which is the window I’m aiming for a flight back from Tokyo. When I go to the JAL website however, there are 5 seats out of 8 available. Is this something that I can just call AA and they’d be able to book? Or do I have to wait for them to release those seats?
What do you mean 5 out of 8 seats are available? Do you mean on the seat map? That’s completely irrelevant to whether those seats will ever be released as Saver award seats. You should keep checking regularly to see if the seats are released on ba.com. If they are, pounce. If they aren’t, there’s unfortunately nothing you can do.
Understood. I just called AA after finding two seats for JAL based on ba.com scouring and the agent said that she didn’t see any space available…and that the ba.com is only for Avios. Is this the case??? Then what’s the point of using the ba website?
Give me the date please. Don’t listen to the agent. Space should match up in all cases between what BA and what AA can book.
Thanks Scott. How do waitlists for airline bookings work? I’m trying to snatch up business class award seats but as of right now there are none available. Can I first book economy award seats and then asked to be put on the waitlist? When they release seats, do they automatically look to the waitlist before posting availability to the general public?
There are no waitlists like that that I know of. You just have to keep monitoring to see if biz space opens up to change your ticket.