Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

ANA brings back the Boeing 777 with THE Room and THE Suite

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

ANA is bringing back its flagship aircraft for all London flights from the end of October.

With Japan reopening, albeit at a snail’s pace, Japanese airline ANA has started to rebuild its international route network. As part of that, it will return to flying the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft exclusively to London, once daily from 30th October.

This is excellent news because in 2019 ANA installed fantastic new business class and first class seats. Both are impressively wide, with THE Room (pictured below), the business class seat, almost twice as wide as your average lie-flat seat.

ANA The Room London

Whilst we haven’t flown it, Rob did get to sit in it on the ground at a media event. It was so big that at one point he was sat side-by-side with someone else in the same seat and there was still space between them.

As we wrote last month, you can redeem Virgin Points on ANA for THE Room or THE Suite. It is one of the best Virgin redemptions out there – not only do you get an exceptional on board experience but it is also shockingly good value.

The only snag is that availability is often tight and you will have to be flexible with your dates.

Before you book, remember that Japan is not yet fully open to tourists. There is still a daily passenger cap in place, although it was reported yesterday that there is significant pressure to re-open more widely later this month.

Comments (33)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • RJ says:

    Wow. Thanks for this article Rhys!

    I had literally no idea that ANA had taken the 77W off LHR.

    Due to fly soon and there was absolutely no notification of a change from either ANA or Virgin! They’ve also changed the flight time, but thank god my connection still works!

    Very poor communication!!!

    RJ

    • Kwab says:

      “ I had literally no idea that ANA had taken the 77W off LHR.”

      Nobody will notify you!

      Check your booking carefully both on Virgin and ANA’s website. If you are getting a prompt to accept an equipment/schedule change but the link doesn’t take you anywhere, ANA have invariably cancelled your ticket.

      Currently, they seem to be cancelling F rewards using Virgin miles if there is any slight change on the flight be that flight code, seat configuration, departure time. The issue is so bad that there is even a new forum on FT about this.

      It almost feels as if the partnership with Virgin has a contract that they no longer want but the length of the contract means they have to see it out.

      • MinR says:

        The timing for my flight in November HND-LHR was changed but I wasn’t notified.

        I found out when I looked up my reservation on ANA. There was an option to either confirm or change my flight altogether. I naively chose to change my flight to the next day, and whilst the reservation changed successfully, no e-ticket was issued.

        I called ANA who said I needed to call Virgin to reissue the ticket. Eventually, I just asked to be moved to the same flight, which the agent was able to do. I’ve been able to pull up my res using the eticket # as well as the booking ref which tells me all is good for now.

  • NorskSaint says:

    Excellent timing, am just looking at flights to Japan with ANA and was wondering which city to connect through. For once LHR may have nabbed it….

  • meta says:

    Eva Air is interesting as they allow two stopovers on one award ticket so if you want to visit two countries in Asia in addition to Taiwan it’s a great option. They also fly direct to Bangkok from UK. Availability is generally also very good.

  • Steve says:

    Bear in mind it’s not just the passenger cap in place for Japan – you also have to join a tour organised by a travel agency (with all flights and hotels booked by them) which rules out using miles for flights, although the tour can be private and unguided. Plus they’ve suspended the visa waiver scheme so you have to get a visa.

    • meta says:

      That’s no longer the case from 7 September. You only need an agency to provide you with ERFS so you can apply for a visa. It has become a side business for many travel agencies here and the average rate is around 40000 yen. There are a few extra procedures to follow, but nothing too difficult.

      • Kwab says:

        Even that is likely to disappear very shortly according to the MFO.

        • meta says:

          Possibly. You’ll need to be triple vaccinated and those who aren’t will need a PCR test. Today in Japanese media they flaunted end of October so would align with ANA’s change of schedule. However, I am sceptical which countries will be included. I don’t think it will be the UK in this first wave.

  • Adam says:

    Looking to book ANA in December. If the passenger cap is still in place to enter Japan, does anyone know what the application process is and wheee to do it ?

  • AK says:

    Any signs of HSBC point transfer bonus?

  • Jonathan says:

    Anyone who’s thinking about collecting for ANA Mileage Club needs to be aware that they’ve got a very similar hard expiry policy that closely resembles Lufthansa’s Miles & More, Singapore Airline’s KrisFlyer, Emirates Skywards, and another one now EVA Air !

    Star Alliance must have some driving force behind these policies, since nearly every airline that has a loyalty program with this type of policy is a member of SA

  • Nick B says:

    Rhys. A big thank you for the ANA article. My flight timings had been changed without any notification. If I had not checked, they may have been cancelled. This is a VS redemption in ANA first in November. Would hate to have lost it especially as it looks like Japan may be opening up.

    • Kwab says:

      Check that you still have an E-ticket on ANA’s site. That is the crucial and deciding factor as to whether you can still board.

      • peckishpassport says:

        +1! Try and retrieve your reservation using the e-ticket number instead of booking ref.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.