How To Redeem Miles For Japan Airlines A350 First & Business Class

Seconded about CX being the best chance to book. I had specific dates I needed for March 2025 and was able to secure them through CX when they dropped at 12 am JST, although I was only able to find J availability. I agree that something odd might be going on with F bookings, as I literally refreshed within seconds of release for my dates, and both times F was already gone, though I'll also mention that desktop site did seem terribly glitchy at the time. I'm definitely going to try to change one of my bookings to F via AA though if I see it close-in.

Totally agree that it’s a little ridiculous seats are snapped up within minutes. I tried grabbing seats the minute things opened, for my honeymoon. And while I saw the seats and filled in passenger info, when I tried to progress to payments the page errored out. Searched again and everything was gone. This was all within a minute of release on multiple days. Either funny business or our community is catching on and booking early.

besides Cathay Asia miles, a honorable mention should be given to Finnair Avios. Finnair also has award calendar opening up at 360 days (vs BA at 355 days) similar to Cathay. I was able to book JAL A350-1000 on JFK-HND next year, one seat in First 135k Asia miles & one seat in Business 94.5k Finnair Avios (=73k Chase when there's 30% bonus).

Completely unrelated to this article but this is something that many avid travelers may like especially those who like elite status.

https://upgradedpoints.com/news/gha-discovery-status-match/

This is an article worth reading if you want elite status with GHA.

A couple of things to note in your thread:
The A351 will not ply the Tokyo London route until January 2, 2025.

I managed to snag two one ways on JAL in First Class for travel next September using AA miles at 80K each leg. Total cost paid was $49 plus some cents for the taxes. One F seat showed up about 330 and the other 329 days out. Since then, I’ve been checking seat availability periodically out of curiosity. I’ve noticed that Business Class seats tend to be released consistently 1-5 days before departure, with First Class seats occasionally becoming available as well.

Last minute business class availability is showing up for JAL on Seats.Aero for Alaska. I know they don't have the transfer partners, but I feel like focusing on Cathay and AA only in this article leaves out the potential for scoring a last-minute award through other channels. That being said I am looking at other routes, so I don't know if it also applies to the a350.

Also 1:1 transfer with CapitalOne!

"Through Cathay Pacific, you can expect to pay 135,000 miles for first class or 89,000 miles for business class, with carrier imposed surcharges being added to the total. While this isn’t the world’s greatest bargain, it is the best realistic option for booking these seats."

Cathay also charges significant change and cancellation fees on award tickets. Those same fees are much less if awards are redeemed via Qatar or Finnair (especially Qatar), both of which also open their award booking schedules 360 days out.

Good luck to me trying to get 4 last minute J tickets back this summer 🙂

Is that true across the board, or only on partner flights? I had a redemption with Asia Miles (for CX flights) earlier this year. Needed to change the date - called them up and it was done in a few minutes with no penalties or additional charges.

I’m not sure it’s necessarily funny business. JAL mileage bank is a very popular program in Japan and it’s not beyond belief that one of the 37m people in Tokyo tries to snag the first class seat when it becomes available a year out.

Beware of Alaska and JAL redemptions. I just went from syd to hnd and back and Alaska showed 9 prem economy seats every day which could not be booked.

American had 2-3 first class seats available in both directions on multiple days which were bookable but Alaska never showed this space on even one day. Sad.

Hi Lucky…

JAL partners with Marriott Bonvoy Points, so in theory that is a transferable points currency. This is what I normally do.

Also, you are forgetting to mention probably one of the easiest ways to do F is to use JAL Miles to upgrade from Business to First. I have done this several times and for the most part as long as there is A inventory available there is Upgrade inventory. Now that is not 100% the case but for the most part I have been able to confirm this many times. I have flown the product twice (but cancel one ticket in the past and also rebooked one of the flights I booked).

I managed to snag a HND-JFK F flight through AA a couple of months after the schedule opened. It must’ve been a cancellation but it was quite fortuitous as it was right around the date I needed. I was kind of just checking for sh*ts and giggles but was thrilled when it popped up.

I was able to snag DFW-HND in the A350-1000 first class just as a fluke. A random seat opened up and it aligned with the week that I was planning on going anyways, so immediately booked it as soon as I got the Seats.Aero alert.

For some reason I had to book ORD-DFW-HND, as it was the only option available. Fast forward to the ORD-DFW, and the flight gets delayed by 3.5 hrs for maintenance. My connection in DFW is 2.5 hrs. Sh*t....

Fortunately they were able to rebook me onto ORD-IND-JFK-HND, and I caught the JL3 redeye from New York to Tokyo in the A350-1000 First Class.

Hello Serge, greatly appreciate your insight. Is the points upgrade applicable to a CX award booking?

No. It would have to be a JL booking.

been wanting to fly the new JAL A350-1000 in F and found seats via Alaska until May and since then not a single seat. it must mean alaska is just not getting any seats anymore. this on top of other devaluation and lack of partner connectivity is making me dump alaska for AA

I booked 2 business class tickets using Cathay Asia miles 360 days out as soon as they opened. I was watching for a few days and had to act fast as daily the 2 seats seemed to disappear quickly each day.. That said, Amex had a 10% bonus on Cathay Asia miles going. The fees are a little high, but not relative to the points needed and the quality of the JAL product. Looking forward to our trip in Oct-25!

I’ve consistently had success with booking 2 JL F with AA miles 10-7 days before departure on LHR routes.

Hey, at what time did the seats open at? Midnight EST? Thanks!

Seems it’s additional 45K JMB miles (USA). Is it only available on day of departure at the airport check in counter?

Hi ben,
Can you explain how to redeem the business class seats via Qantas frequent flyer program.

Thank you for your assistance,
Alex seeto