How to find and book JAL’s new A350 first class

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):

1. On the top menu, select Explore… Qantas Frequent Flyer.
2. Select Show flights from North America, to Asia.
3. Click the drop-down box to switch from a 60 day view to a Full Year.
4. Click the “Airlines” drop-down box and filter to “Japan Airlines JL”.
5. Sort by “First”. The results in Green, if any, are what you want.
6. Optionally click the “Departs” drop-down to filter to departures only from DFW and JFK.
7. 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)

1. British Airways: 123,750 Avios + $ 232.20
2. Finnair: 125,000 Avios + $232
3. Cathay Pacific: 135,000 Asia Miles + $245
4. Qantas: 149,800 miles + $227.70 USD

Flying from New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND)

1. Finnair: 125,000 Avios + $232
2. Cathay Pacific: 135,000 Asia Miles + $245
3. British Airways: 144,250 Avios + $ 232.20
4. 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:

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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