Ben, at One Mile at a Time, describes Japan Airline’s new first class as “Unbelievably Good!!!” And, yes, three exclamation points were apparently required. Ben has flown nearly all commercial first class products that can be flown, and he says that JAL’s new first class has raised the bar: “The only other first class hard product that’s comparable is Emirates’ ‘Game Changer’ 777 first class, but I think Emirates may have been outdone.” That’s incredibly high praise! Ben loved the seats, the groundbreaking technology (including speakers built into the headrests so that you don’t have to wear headphones to watch movies), the catering, and the wonderful service.
OK, now that you’re drooling over the idea of flying JAL’s new first class, I’ll show you how it’s possible to find and book it with miles…
Where to find JAL’s new first class
JAL’s new first class is currently available only on their A350-1000 aircraft. Using FlightConnections, I filtered to Japan Airlines and to the Airbus A350-1000. Note that using two filters at once like this requires the premium version of FlightConnections (here’s our FlightConnections affiliate link).
As you can see above, there are only two routes that feature the new first class:
- Tokyo (HND) to/from New York (JFK)
- Tokyo (HND) to/from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW).
How to find award availability
The best way to find award availability on JAL first class is with the Pro version of Seats.Aero. With the free version of the tool you can see awards only for the next couple of months, but with the paid version, you can see farther out and apply more filters. The following instructions require the Pro version of Seats.Aero (here’s our affiliate link):
- On the top menu, select Explore… Qantas Frequent Flyer.
- Select Show flights from North America, to Asia.
- Click the drop-down box to switch from a 60 day view to a Full Year.
- Click the “Airlines” drop-down box and filter to “Japan Airlines JL”.
- Sort by “First”. The results in Green, if any, are what you want.
- Optionally click the “Departs” drop-down to filter to departures only from DFW and JFK.
- To find return flights, repeat all of the above, but change the “Show flights” section to from Asia, to North America. And change the airport filters (if any) from “Departs” to “Arrives”.
The image above shows my results when searching for JAL first class from DFW or JFK to Tokyo (HND). Each of the rows in which the green box under “First” shows 149,800 pts indicates that first class award space is available. When you find a flight of interest, click the information box on the far right of that row in order to force a refresh (to make sure the award is still available) and to see more details.
You may notice that all of the available awards are almost a year in the future. That’s no accident. You can’t book these awards that far out with programs from American or Alaskan Airlines. As soon as these awards become bookable to those airlines, the awards are snapped up immediately. The only way to ensure booking these awards is to use another mileage currency, like Qantas, to book more than 11 months in advance. Later in this post I’ll cover other programs that can be used for these nearly-year-out awards.
Double check the aircraft
As I write this, it appears that JAL flies both the A350-1000 and a 777 aircraft between Tokyo and JFK. When you find an award from or to JFK, I recommend searching for the flight on Google Flights to see which aircraft is planned for that flight:
Which miles to use
If you miraculously find award availability within the next 11 months, then your best bet, by far, is to book with American Airlines miles. AA would charge only 80,000 miles one-way for first class between North America and Japan. In the real world, though, you’re much more likely to find awards available more than 11 months away and those awards are not bookable with AA miles. Instead, the best points to use depend upon the distance flown and so the answer varies based on whether you would be flying between Tokyo and Dallas or JFK. Here are the prices I found using points easily transferred from various transferable points programs:
Flying from Dallas (DFW) and Tokyo (HND)
- British Airways: 123,750 Avios + $ 232.20
- Finnair: 125,000 Avios + $232
- Cathay Pacific: 135,000 Asia Miles + $245
- Qantas: 149,800 miles + $227.70 USD
Flying from New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND)
- Finnair: 125,000 Avios + $232
- Cathay Pacific: 135,000 Asia Miles + $245
- British Airways: 144,250 Avios + $ 232.20
- Qantas: 149,800 miles + $227.70 USD
Change/Cancelation Fees
Beyond the cost in miles to book a flight, another important consideration is the cost to change or cancel your booking:
- British Airways: $55 to change or cancel
- Cathay Pacific:
- Change fee: $50 or 7,500 miles if done online / $90 or 13,500 miles if done over the phone
- Cancellation fee: $120 or 17,000 miles
- Finnair: $50 to change or cancel
- Qantas:
- Change fee: 5,000 points
- Cancellation fee: 6,000 points
How to get the miles
The following table shows the transferable points programs that can transfer to each of the above programs:
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Citi Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Capital One Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Wells Fargo Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (1 - 2 days) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | ||
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 via BA (Unknown) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
It’s also a good idea to check for current transfer bonuses: Current point transfer bonuses.
Watch our for equipment swaps
It’s very common for airlines to change which particular jets will fly a particular route. So, if you book now for a flight nearly 12 months in the future, there’s unfortunately a chance that you won’t actually get to fly the new first class after all.
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More unobtainium seats just like ANA biz then. Are people really willing to spend a year trying to get availability plus another year after they booked their golden ticket? Just book an economy ticket and actually travel vs sitting at home.
This is the way.
As a note, JAL typically releases only one first class award seat per flight. If you’re a solo flyer . . . like Ben . . . fine. There can be exceptions. But, they really are exceptions and cannot be relied upon for planning purposes.
Thanks for commenting. Greg is normally pretty good at responding to questions but hadn’t done so on mine. He must be having a nice time somewhere.
The one seat only pretty much sucks. While I do travel solo at times I rarely vacation in Asia alone. Only one first class seat doesn’t do my wife and I much good.
Generally yes but also I think it may be more than we expect, because they always release one F at a time and never two – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t release another F seat later. but most people don’t want to book one at a time so we don’t get those data points.
Not seeing the ability to search finair for first class flights, not sure how you got those numbers for through finair.
Yes i was about to make the same comment. Can’t search for first class with Finnair
Yes you would have to call to book. I used their award chart to figure out the points price and a business class award to figure our taxes
Yea call will have to try, chat doesn’t work they just say only business class.
I did call and unfortunately Finnair can only book economy and business class , they get 2 seats of each and that’s it
Oh bummer
Is there a way to tell how many seats are available in the Qantas search?
The sure way: JL releases exactly 1 first class seat 360 days out; CX Asia miles has a booking window also opening up 360 days out, just set your alarm and grab it. 2nd best choice: BA window opens 355 days out.
Get you CX and BA miles ready on transfer bonus offers.
Availability over affordability.
The above is applicable to JL business class too. At least 2 seats released 360 days out, sometimes BA can see up to 4.
I consider these among the best use cases for CX and BA miles.