-
Hi
I have 140 000 avios with 200 000 Marriott points in case I need to boost this. I’m looking to go to Japan in April or May 2025 and would like to maximize the redemption in whatever way possible. It looks like I needed to have booked a year in advance to get Business class availability with BA (at least one of the ways and perhaps Premium economy the other way). It’s proving really difficult using the BA website to find availability even indirect, perhaps via Doha. had a very tiny bit of success on the Qatar website but only on the mobile version for some reason and only after transferring points – and these come up as multi carrier (Qatar and Japan airlines with a long overnight in Qatar).
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how best to use these points, and advice on the most feasible ways to get to Japan and back?
ThanksYou’ve left it really late to be booking Japan, especially if you want to go in April (Easter/cherry blossom season).
Have you linked your BA and QR accounts? You shouldn’t have to transfer avios if you’ve done this.
You might be able to mix & match airlines, or maybe do U.K. Doha in economy then on to Japan in business to make your avios go further (or a cash booking to DOH).
I do have two biz seats to/from Japan booked with a voucher which I’ll to release at some point. Dates are 20/4-5/5. I can give you the heads-up before I cancel them (won’t happen soon though, still waiting for BA to change the schedule slightly to give me the chance to cancel the flight for free) and I’m not even sure those seats will become immediately available, but worth a try?
Have you looked at Iberia availability for MAD-NRT? We missed out on our preferred dates for April 2025 from LHR, but found dates that worked on Iberia from MAD. We did book around 355 days in advance, but it might be worth checking even now.
I’d be shocked if you get rewards seats in April at this very late stage
I wouldn’t be shocked. Look at routes JAL fly (eg Paris, Germany etc) and search as you would a regular BA flight. Just prepare to be a bit flexible with routes!
FWIW, I was after a return, in business, for two, some time in January or February. I couldn’t book it the usual year out as I was expecting to get a puppy at some point – circumstances mean that won’t be happening as soon as I’d hoped, hence the late opportunity for a trip.
There was, of course, nothing available when I checked in late October. I signed up with SeatSpy to save some of the drudgery – using their free trial – and it paid dividends a couple of days later when 2 seats back from Tokyo appeared one afternoon for early February. I nabbed them using my companion voucher.
Getting outbound flights was more of a faff, as I now had a fixed return date – I didn’t want to spend weeks in Japan, but I wanted at least 6 whole days out there. Nothing showed up (other than the odd economy or PE seat coming and going), and in the end I read elsewhere that there’s often availability on JAL via Frankfurt. I checked, and as luck would have it there were two seats in late January – which I grabbed! I couldn’t tack them on to my existing companion voucher (as they’re not on BA metal), but I had enough Avios to cover it.
Sod’s law dictated that a week later two seats popped up one morning on the same date on BA. But faced with having to cancel the JAL flights and hope that in the meantime they didn’t go – I decided to stick with what I had. The flight time to NRT from Frankfurt on JAL is better too, taking off in the evening and landing in the afternoon… should be better than the jetlag-tastic BA 7 flight I normally take. Plus, it means I get to try a new airline, and JAL’s seats look better than the old Club World on BA.
The seats I could have switched to, on BA, went within an hour of appearing. Clearly there are plenty of people hovering, waiting to hoover up any cancelled redemption seats!
In short – you *will* probably find seats pop up (search for TYO rather than just HND or NRT), but it’ll be at a random time and you’ve got to be quick. Seatspy is useful and it’s well worth taking a free trial.
I do miss the days of the 777 with 14 First seats, mind you – smaller 787s really limit redemption opportunities!
Good luck with this!
Many thanks for the advice. Lots of things to try out. @vinz – if you could give the heads when you’re about to switch your flights, that would be great….those dates fit perfectly. But appreciate the stars would need to align for it to work!
I’ve seen a flight with JAL from London to Tokyo but it looks to be out 90k avios, whereas finair looks to be about 10k cheaper, though involves changing. Is this the norm? Do the points needed differ between the different airlines?
I’ve seen a flight with JAL from London to Tokyo but it looks to be out 90k avios, whereas finair looks to be about 10k cheaper, though involves changing. Is this the norm? Do the points needed differ between the different airlines?
I paid 110k to fly on BA and 80500 on Finnair, so yes.
and JAL’s seats look better than the old Club World on BA.
Understatement of the year!
There seems to be constant availability in J via Frankfurt on JAL. Don’t book it as a connection via London as it will cost more cash and it will sometimes not show availability at all. JAL will check in luggage on the way back, but BA or another airline won’t on the inbound.
There is also Finnair Helsinki to Nagoya and Osaka as well as to both Narita and Haneda (you need to search separately as it won’t always show if you just put TYO) There is also Qatar to Osaka.
I booked my tickets back for April two weeks ago on Qatar from Osaka, so it’s not too late unless you want to use a 241 BAPP voucher.
You could also look Helsinki to ICN and JAL from there or BA to Hong Kong and then JAL or CX to Japan. Singapore is also an option, but longer trip to Japan.
There seems to be constant availability in J via Frankfurt on JAL. Don’t book it as a connection via London as it will cost more cash and it will sometimes not show availability at all. JAL will check in luggage on the way back, but BA or another airline won’t on the inbound.
There is also Finnair Helsinki to Nagoya and Osaka as well as to both Narita and Haneda (you need to search separately as it won’t always show if you just put TYO) There is also Qatar to Osaka.
I booked my tickets back for April two weeks ago on Qatar from Osaka, so it’s not too late unless you want to use a 241 BAPP voucher.
You could also look Helsinki to ICN and JAL from there or BA to Hong Kong and then JAL or CX to Japan. Singapore is also an option, but longer trip to Japan.
This is great advice.
Be flexible, and consider a few options.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
