Tons of Japan Airlines First Class Award Space Open

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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.

Between Chicago or New York and Tokyo, two First Class suites are available with miles on most flights for the next six weeks.

• 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 on its 777-300ER is a world class flat bed enclosed in a suite.

The 777-300ER is the plane on Japan Airlines’ New York and Chicago routes, which have the great award space.

How Many Miles Does the Award Cost?

For awards booked by March 21, 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

These awards go up to 80,000 and 110,000 miles one way if booked March 22 or later.

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 six weeks on the Japan Airlines flights to and from the Chicago and New York in First Class.

These calendars are Award Nexus searching ba.com. “NRT-JFK” means there is award space that day for two people in First Class on the listed route.

Award space is pretty good on the New York route (above) and really good on the Chicago route (below.)

While the calendars show all days with at least two seats available, many days have more seats available like this day with four First Class seats available.

Note the date, cabin, and flight number of the award space you like. If necessary, pair it with American Airlines or Alaska Airlines domestic 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?

Right now the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® and CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World MasterCard® are each offering 50,000 bonus American Airlines miles after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. Don’t be thrown off by the word “Platinum.” Both cards have no annual fee the first 12 months, and then $95.

Get both cards and meet the $6,000 total spending requirement to have over 106,000 American Airlines miles.

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 six weeks between the Chicago/New York and Japan will not last.

Hat Tip View from the Wing