Questions and Answers

Hello – I have finally accumulated 202000 Ultimate points, 174000 Amex Points, 40000 Asia Miles and 30000 Singapore Airlines Miles. I am planning to go to either Tokyo or New Zealand from November 9 – November 28. I have looked thru BA , CX, or Singapore web site and couldn’t find a Business Class Seat. Is it too early to book the seat and that’s why they would not release yet? I would like to book the ticket before I book my hotels. Please help. Thank you for all of your help. Capri

It’s too early to book for 2019 but for 2018 it’s getting a little late.

In case you didn’t see Spencer’s terrific post on how to use Amex Membership Rewards to get to Australia and New Zealand, here’s the link: [URL]https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/06/22/best-ways-to-use-amex-membership-rewards-points-to-fly-to-australia-or-new-zealand-2018/[/URL]

And here’s his post using them to get to Asia:
[URL]https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/06/20/best-ways-to-use-amex-membership-rewards-points-asia/[/URL]

One thing to remember about the BA website is that you’re much better off searching segment-by-segment to find award seats. So go to the Wikipedia page for both Tokyo airports (Narita/NRT and Haneda/HND) and look to see which airlines fly between those airports and the US. For oneworld airlines like AA and JAL you can use BA points (though don’t forget you’ll have massive fuel surcharges). For Star Alliance airlines like ANA you can use the United site to search for space.

Hope that gives you a starting point and let us know if you have more questions.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 58854, member: 184″]It’s too early to book for 2019 but for 2018 it’s getting a little late.

In case you didn’t see Spencer’s terrific post on how to use Amex Membership Rewards to get to Australia and New Zealand, here’s the link: [URL]https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/06/22/best-ways-to-use-amex-membership-rewards-points-to-fly-to-australia-or-new-zealand-2018/[/URL]

And here’s his post using them to get to Asia:
[URL]https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/06/20/best-ways-to-use-amex-membership-rewards-points-asia/[/URL]

One thing to remember about the BA website is that you’re much better off searching segment-by-segment to find award seats. So go to the Wikipedia page for both Tokyo airports (Narita/NRT and Haneda/HND) and look to see which airlines fly between those airports and the US. For oneworld airlines like AA and JAL you can use BA points (though don’t forget you’ll have massive fuel surcharges). For Star Alliance airlines like ANA you can use the United site to search for space.

Hope that gives you a starting point and let us know if you have more questions.[/QUOTE]

Hi- the dates that I am taking off for my vacation are November 9, 18 – November 28, 18. Due to the type of work I do it is impossible to book anything one year ahead. I normally only take direct flight and last year when I redeem BA using Avios on JAL /Premium Economy the situation was not that bad. I live in San Francisco Bay Area. I spent the whole weekend looking for seats on JAL, SQ, CX, ANA, Quantas or Air New Zealand from airports like SFO, OAK or SJC and couldn’t find any. Is it that hopeless? I don’t mind paying surcharge…. I just want to redeem two tickets with Business and above. Also I am not a fan of UA or AAA. Thank you for the help again – Capri

Award seat inventory is always changing so all I can suggest is to keep looking. It might be worth a subscription to Expert Flyer so you can set seat alerts and don’t have to keep checking manually each day.

One more thought. Have you checked from LA and San Diego? I know you prefer non-stop flights but it might be worth buying a positioning flight if you can get the longhaul flight on points.

Like Mid-South says… could be worth a quick positioning flight to Los Angeles. Here is availability to Tokyo

[ATTACH=full]535[/ATTACH]

And Sydney

[ATTACH=full]536[/ATTACH]