Questions and Answers

Any help is appreciated. I cant find any flight options either using miles or buying outright.

I dont get this. How is it possible that our largest US carrier cant offer me a way to use their miles to get from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

JAL and Cathay must have a dozen non stops daily each between these cities

I am flying LAX to NRT on AA and then HKG to Australia on Qantas. Doing all of this since i missed that First class deal you all got on qantas from USA to Austalia. So will check out Tokyo for a few days and then head to Australia.

I dont understand how AA who is partners with JAL and Cathay cant offer me a way to get from NRT to HKG

And for that matter, why does AA let me go Qantas using AA miles from HKG to SYD but not from NRT. If i could go from NRT then i dont even need to fly to HKG

Very frustrating

It’s not up to AA to make space available. That’s done by the airline flying the plane. So for NRT-HKG it’s JAL and Cathay making space available. You don’t mention your timeframe but I just looked at several mid-week dates using the BA tool and they don’t show award space either. Now, you may see space on the JAL or CX websites but – as with all airlines – they may make some award seats available only to their own members.

If you’re going to actually be spending time in Tokyo (vs. flying in, re-checking your luggage and flying out) you could also check for award space from HND. It’s actually a lot closer to the city.

If you have any Star Alliance miles you might also check to see if ANA has award space.

[QUOTE=”Mikewarren1000, post: 64939, member: 5445″]Any help is appreciated. I cant find any flight options either using miles or [B]buying outright.[/B][/QUOTE]

What do you mean by buying outright? Using $$ or buying a ticket (using $$) through AA’s website? While AA has code-shares on many JAL and CX flights between NAR/HND and HKG, AA is probably limited by agreements with both carriers to only sell that segment when part of a flight to/from the US.

BTW, If you don’t mind 4+ hours in economy, Google Flights shows flights this summer for as low as $112. Not on CX or JAL, but still worth considering.

CX and JL awards dont show up on American’s site. CX awards show up if you search on BA, JL or QF’s websites. JL awards show up on BA, and AS. In either case you’d have to call AA once you find space. You’re also welcome to call AA directly and have them search.

You can also book cash tickets directly from CX or JL and credit to American.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 64940, member: 184″]It’s not up to AA to make space available. That’s done by the airline flying the plane. So for NRT-HKG it’s JAL and Cathay making space available. You don’t mention your timeframe but I just looked at several mid-week dates using the BA tool and they don’t show award space either. Now, you may see space on the JAL or CX websites but – as with all airlines – they may make some award seats available only to their own members.

If you’re going to actually be spending time in Tokyo (vs. flying in, re-checking your luggage and flying out) you could also check for award space from HND. It’s actually a lot closer to the city.

If you have any Star Alliance miles you might also check to see if ANA has award space.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the info and ideas..

It turns out AA web site doesnt show any flights for JAL or Cathay. Thats what the agent told me. He said he had to do it over the phone. For the entire week i needed there was nothing on JAL but he found 1 day that had a Cathay Business upgrade so i took it. They dont charge the phone fee since its not possible to book on the web site. Weird though you cant book JAL or Cathay on the AA site.

There’s a bunch of stuff you cant book on American’s site. They lag way behind UA/DL/AS in terms of showing partner availability online

And that can actually be a good thing when booking award tickets because people who aren’t aware of that don’t know to look on BA or elsewhere to find space, then call.