All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the only remaining airline that has the A380 on order but doesn’t yet have a single one of the aircraft in their fleet.
ANA will be taking delivery of their first of three Airbus A380s shortly, and the airline has unconventional plans with these planes, as ANA will only fly the A380 between Tokyo and Honolulu.
As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, the airline will be launching A380 service as of May 24, 2019, with the following schedule:
NH184 Tokyo Narita to Honolulu departing 8:20PM arriving 8:40AM
NH183 Honolulu to Tokyo Narita departing 11:30AM arriving 3:00PM (+1 day)
From May 24 through June 30, 2019, the flight will be operated by the A380 on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Then starting July 1, 2019, the flight will be operated by the A380 daily.
On top of that, as of July 1, 2019, the following additional frequency will be operated by the A380 on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays:
NH182 Tokyo Narita to Honolulu departing 9:35PM arriving 10:10AM
NH181 Honolulu to Tokyo Narita departing 12:45PM arriving 4:00PM (+1 day)
Anyway, we’ve known that this new flight would officially go on sale as of January 10, 2019, which is today.
So ANA’s new A380 service between Tokyo Narita and Honolulu is now on sale, for anyone who is interested in booking it.
For those looking to redeem miles, there’s also some good news. ANA has some first class award availability on the route, should you want to test out ANA’s A380 first class.
ANA A380 first class
As of now availability isn’t great, but I do see a fair number of seats, particularly in August and September. I imagine more dates will be released as the departure date approaches.
For example, here’s a Tokyo Narita to Honolulu flight using 85,000 United MileagePlus miles:
And here’s a Honolulu to Tokyo Narita flight using 66,000 Avianca LifeMiles:
Redeeming LifeMiles would definitely be my preference here, given the lower award costs.
As of now I’m not really seeing any business class award availability. I suspect that will change somewhat over time, though I also wouldn’t expect it to be very easy to snag business class awards, given that this is a very popular leisure route with a good amount of premium demand.
I can’t wait to review the ANA A380. Unfortunately I’ll be holding off a bit here, since I don’t see any first class award seats in the first two months of service. So I’ll hope more seats open closer to departure, or will look for some creative discounted first class fares.
The standard first class fare is $12,000+ roundtrip, which is a bit steep. 😉
Anyone book the ANA A380 yet? 🙂
Was anybody able to book more than One Award seat? Only see availability for one seat on A380s.
Anybody knows when the 3rd Honu will enter into service?
Was able to book this one with lifemiles with Thai first included in the deal. HNL-NRT-BKK-SYD for 80k miles and 92 usd in taxes. They even allowed me to buy half of the miles for 600. So the final numbers came to 40k miles and 692 usd ..... thank you lucky you are indeed the best one around.
I click "book" right on 3pm Japan time 10th January hoping to get a First Class seat in the inaugural flight, but keep getting a failing message. Then I call my country reservation line 15 minutes later and the agent told me it's already sold out. While in expertflyer tool i still see open seat, it may be reserved for someone I do not know.
The inaugural flights are basically impossible to book because most travel agents have access to the inventory. I finally gave up but managed to find one of these $3500 first class fares on July. The $3500 won't be available between July 11 and September 15. The dates are pretty strict but I consider it a very good deal.
Yes this $3500 first class promo cannot be used in conjunction from other destinations. It is...
The inaugural flights are basically impossible to book because most travel agents have access to the inventory. I finally gave up but managed to find one of these $3500 first class fares on July. The $3500 won't be available between July 11 and September 15. The dates are pretty strict but I consider it a very good deal.
Yes this $3500 first class promo cannot be used in conjunction from other destinations. It is a point to point fare. It is not changeable but refundable with a fee.
Thanks! Lucky, now we need some 140%/145% bonus for purchasing lifemiles from you! :D
on the ANA website, I can't find an economy cash fare for the inaugural flight, but can find it for the next day the A380 flies. Does anybody else have this problem?
@ Anonymous -- Unfortunately it seems the inaugural is already sold out, or at a minimum they're saving inventory or releasing it to a travel agency or something.
@Eddie, the $3400 roundtrip rate is a promo rate only valid for NRT departures until July 11th.
Why is departing from Tokyo instead of HNL so much cheaper? like only 3400 round trip
Can someone share how to book the inaugural flight? I can’t seem to even find it on ANA website. Thanks.
@Will, that inaugural flight sounds awesome! Imagine all of you are 'travelling back in time' lol
Just thinking about it, the last time a commercial A380 inaugural flight happened was back in December 2014! I thought about booking that flight but I have to be somewhere else that weekend. Enjoy!!!
I got a Business class seat on the inaugural flight for but I wasted practically all of my UA miles in the first week of 2019, lol. Booking this one and also at the last minute getting a business class seat on the inaugural flight on UA's 787-10 from EWR-LAX. Their 787-10 was actually decent but mostly cuz it was brand new and clean, and if anyone wants to know about the 787-10, it's basically...
I got a Business class seat on the inaugural flight for but I wasted practically all of my UA miles in the first week of 2019, lol. Booking this one and also at the last minute getting a business class seat on the inaugural flight on UA's 787-10 from EWR-LAX. Their 787-10 was actually decent but mostly cuz it was brand new and clean, and if anyone wants to know about the 787-10, it's basically the same as their 777-300ER in terms of both products, but slightly better.
62,000 Miles and More. I'm going to book the HNL -> NRT route. Just not sure when.
Virgin atlantic award chart says 90K RT on ANA in F on Japan-Hawaii!
Yup I booked my ANA A380 First Class seat for August using Lifemiles! I initially was going to use UA miles but saw the Lifemiles option much better. I have to be in Asia in late summer anyway so this worked out well!
When ANA released the sale date of the A380 first class seats, they mentioned that First class tickets originating from NRT will start at 350,000 JPY (a little bit less than...
Yup I booked my ANA A380 First Class seat for August using Lifemiles! I initially was going to use UA miles but saw the Lifemiles option much better. I have to be in Asia in late summer anyway so this worked out well!
When ANA released the sale date of the A380 first class seats, they mentioned that First class tickets originating from NRT will start at 350,000 JPY (a little bit less than $3500) roundtrip which is a great price. Not sure if that's a promo or not but I did find some dates as early as June for that price (ex: Jun 9-14 prices out at slightly less than $3500 from amextravel.) Looking forward to reading your review, Lucky!
I really hope they will fly this to JFK. An A380's capacity can easily replace those of the two 777-300ERs. There is a ton of demand between New York and Japan.
I tried to search flight originating from KUL. I don't see the promo price. I think it only apply for flight from Narita to Honolulu return.
Yeah you can find rt fares originating in NRT for just over 3000€. That's quite a bit of money, but it's not a bad price for 15 hours in ANA F. I imagine you can even lower the price if originating elsewhere in Asia
Try to do a search. There's A class fare (in addition to regular F class fare) which is a lot cheaper too (valid until July 12).
120k RT using ANA miles. I see available award seats in July.