JAL are upgrading their service between Sydney and Tokyo to a 777-300ER from December 28th, which has a significantly better Business Class than the existing 777-200ER on the route, which is angled-flat. JAL’s 777-300ER also includes eight first class seats and the change makes JAL one of the handful of carriers left operating First Class into / out of Australia.
The best part is that there are many, many dates available with First Class availability during that time – the screenshot below shows a search for two seats. Incidentally, Business Class availability is non-existent.
JAL’s First Class product is very competitive and I’d love to check it out. This could be a great excuse for some skiing in Japan this winter…
Availability isn’t showing on Qantas.com for some reason so you’ll need to call them to book. You may be able to argue the point and avoid the booking fee given that it’s not showing online.
In terms of points, you’d be looking at 108,000 Qantas Points each way, 70,000 Asia Miles one way, or 120,000 Asia Miles return. If you’re looking to use the current US Airways ‘Buy Miles’ promotion you’d need 120,000 Dividend Miles, which surpasses the 100,000 limit you can buy with a bonus – but you could still buy up to 120,000 needed for somewhere around $2750 after currency conversions.
This is only a temporary change, unfortunately, with the service ending on March 28th (at this point). I guess if the increased capacity continues to be needed, then they might consider keeping it running.
Get in now if you’re interested, the availability won’t last long!
I received a press release from JAL in the last couple of weeks outlining their fleet plans and this was still documented as being the case there.
Has this worked for anyone before? I normally have to pay the usual 6.000 points to book tickets over the phone even if they don’t show on Wantas Website. I’ve argued with Qantas many times but they always charge me.
I’m not sure if anyone had any luck with USDM here, but I guess it’s better to call to make sure you can get the seats before commuting yourselves to buy USDM for this.
Otherwise, with Asia Miles, no problem at all. They can see the award seats wide open! My seat was confirmed immediately and ticketed the same day! So for those with tonnes of AMEX MR or Westpac altitude points, Asia miles is the way to go to grab these seats!
“Awards booked on Japan Airlines are valid for the next 90 days starting from the following day of the Award Ticket issuance. Reservations for domestic JAL Award Flights within Japan must be made no earlier than 0930 Japan time, two months prior to travel.”
Hmm…. First time in first class in my life!
But I noticed something while I was checking for availability on JAL’s own website. It looks like you only need 80000 JMB miles for rt in first class!!!! (Plus 61000 JPY fuel surcharge, that’s cheaper than what CX charged me!) That’s the cheapest first class redemption I’ve seen in any program! Is JAL throwing away these seats at ridiculously low price to their own members? Or was that one way only and I’m missing something? I’m not a JMB expert…..
BTW, does this mean JAL never wanted to sell these first class seats, but give out as a bonus during their fleet reshuffling? Does that mean all 8 first class seats are all for awards? Interesting……
However, what about purchasing SPG points? When SPG goes on sale, they offer 25% discount, which brings the cost down to $0.26/mile. When you transfer to JMB at 20000 points you get bonus 5000 points. This effectively reduce the cost down to $0.21/mile. Therefore, for first class SYD-NRT rt at 80000 miles, that equates to only USD$1680 rt in F(plus surcharges of course….) and $1260 in J, which is darn cheap!
Of course you need to have enough family members in your household to make this work as SPG only allows you to buy up to 20000 points/year……
On your last point, there aren’t limits with SPG on the number of points you can buy (I think) – just the 20,000 sweet spot for airline transfers which yields the 5,000 point bonus. So no point transferring 40,000 points, do it as two lots of 20k.
Thanks for the tip.
That’s because bastards like me have already grabbed it a year ago for ski trip 😛 (Hakuba, here I come!!!) The first class seats just suddenly popped up with the 777-300ER and I doubt they can sell much of it considering that most AUS-JPN passengers are leisure travelers.
I am tossing whether I should upgrade to first class now……