One of the airlines I find most difficult to find good award seats on is Japan Airlines. Admittedly I’ve only flown them a few times – all on redemption tickets, though in all cases I’ve mainly booked because I found a rare award seat available on a date that I needed. Recently I’ve been monitoring award space more on the airline, and wanted to share some trends on award space that I’ve found recently, especially on Europe-Asia (which this blog has a big focus on).
Japan Airlines features an attractive product in all cabin classes, and that’s especially true of their newest A350s. The airline has spectacular catering, and seating is very good as well. Even if you end up flying an older plane, Japan Airlines still has a comfortable premium product across their fleet.
For the purposes of this post I’ll be sticking to premium economy, business class, and first class redemptions, though many of these principles apply to economy class redemptions as well.
Why redeem miles on Japan Airlines?
Japan Airlines is one of the most attractive options when it comes to flying between Asia and Europe/U.S.. The airline offers a brilliant soft product, including memory foam mattress toppers in first and business class, amazing catering, and lounge access for premium economy passengers.
While the airline’s 777s and 787s are comfortable, the airline is most well-known for their flagship A350s, which operate on five key longhaul routes – to London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas Fort Worth. Unlike other airlines introducing brand-new cabin products, Japan Airlines hasn’t introduced their flagship A350s to any new routes beyond the ones mentioned above. So there’s a particular appeal to getting a Japan Airlines A350 seat on a longhaul flight, especially if you’re flying in a premium cabin.
Japan Airlines’ A350 business class is known as one of the best in the world
Which mileage currencies can I redeem Japan Airlines seats on?
Japan Airlines is part of the Oneworld alliance, which means that you can earn and redeem miles on Oneworld carriers when flying Japan Airlines. There aren’t any particularly easily ways to earn miles with JAL Mileage Bank outside of the U.S. or Japan, so I’d suggest shooting for a partner award, either on American Airlines AAdvantage or otherwise.
Here are some of the currencies I’d most prefer using when redeeming Japan Airlines award seats:
- American Airlines AAdvantage (I find these to be best value)
- British Airways/Qatar Airways Avios
- Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Book close out
Japan Airlines award space opens up significantly closer to departure (around a month to two weeks out), especially in first class.
If you’ve got specific dates where you need to be somewhere, I’d suggest keeping an eye out on Japan Airlines award space if you have a refundable itinerary (with points on another airline), or if you’ve got a very small cancellation fee on your ticket.
I moved some of my travel plans around to fly Japan Airlines when I saw a premium economy award seat
Know which routes have most award space
Here’s some knowledge that I’ve gained entirely through trial and error. Here are the routes I’ve found the most Japan Airlines premium cabin award space on.
In terms of the routes the airline’s flagship A350 runs, I’ve found the most award space on these routes:
- between Tokyo and Paris (by far, especially in first class – wowee!)
- between Tokyo and Los Angeles
Here are some of the other routes where I’ve seen the most award space:
- between Tokyo and Helsinki
- between Tokyo and Chicago
I can barely ever find any award space on the Tokyo to London, or Tokyo to New York segment. That’s perhaps unsurprising, given how high-yield these routes are, and presumably there’s a lot of demand.
In my opinion, the Tokyo-Paris route is your best bet for flying Japan Airlines, especially on the A350
While the airline occasionally has award space to Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., I would not try and book a flight from a second country in Asia to Europe or the U.S. through Japan, unless I was feeling very lucky. I’m on airlines’ award booking tools more often than most people, and have never found a Japan Airlines through-itinerary from southeast Asia to Europe/U.S. in Japan Airlines’ first or business class (or premium economy, for that matter) since COVID-19. The exception perhaps is Seoul-Gimpo, though even then I find award space to be sparse.
Instead, I’d focus on flying out of various cities in Japan, whether that be Haneda, Sapporo-Chitose, Osaka-Itami, Fukuoka, Nagoya, etc..
Unless I had a track record of winning multiple lotteries, I’d stick to trying to fly out of Haneda or another Japanese city
Use married segment logic
Japan Airlines is one of the airlines that uses married segment logic. This means that award space is opened up on an itinerary, without being opened up on each of the individual segments. For example, my Haneda to London itinerary involved an award seat from Haneda to Paris, though when I searched up a Haneda to Paris award seat, that flight didn’t come up.
Japan Airlines is known to more readily release seats on married segment itineraries than on direct, point-to-point itineraries. There are two ways to make an itinerary married-segment:
- Find a Japan Airlines flight from another city (typically in Japan, as that’s where the married segment itineraries are most prevalent), and fly that to/from Haneda before or after your longhaul flight
- Find a Oneworld connecting partner that flies out of the outstation you’re flying to on Japan Airlines – for example, British Airways, American Airlines, etc.
A worked example of married segment logic. When searching from Sapporo Chitose to Paris, a business class award seat shows up on Japan Airlines. But the seat doesn’t show up when just searching from Tokyo to Paris
My advice would be to take advantage of married segment itineraries by choosing a route with typically wide open award space. For example, many of Japan Airlines’ domestic routes are very easily redeemable with miles. The same goes for many of British Airways’ shorthaul routes – award space just tends to be wide open on those routes. So I’d either fly from a secondary Japanese city to my European/U.S. destination (especially Paris or New York), or I’d position to a different city in Europe or the U.S..
My British Airways flight didn’t suck as much, as I knew I was flying it after a Japan Airlines segment I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to book
Conclusion
Japan Airlines award space is not the easiest to redeem for, though it is sure exciting when you get to fly them. While the effort required to find award space might not be worth it for everyone, it sure is part of the fun, at least for me.
Download the HeyMax app on iOS or Android, or sign up here
