Redeem Avios with JAL – Singapore Tokyo

[oureas]

Hi team,
I’m trying to redeem Avios for flights between Singapore and Tokyo. But no matter what day I select for travel on the BA website, I see no options for flights – though I know there are flights with JAL as I can see them on the JAL website. Any idea what that issue is or how to book my Singapore to Japan flights? Happy to fly into another Japanese airport if that would solve the situation.
Thanks,
James

[Jon]

What dates are you wanting to fly, and in what cabin? A quick search for SIN-TYO on the BA web site just now for some random dates in June / July / Aug showed me plenty of availability in both Economy and Business – mostly via KL with Malaysia Airlines and JAL, one or two direct with JAL. Pricing seems to vary quite a bit, but eg JL712 9th Aug in business (on a 767…) is 62k Avios + £160 whereas going via KUL with MH is 74.5k Avios + £61.

[oureas]

I’m trying to book for Easter next year which has just become available. But I’ve tried dates across June / July / August, as well as Jan and Feb next year and I see nothing.
I’ve specifically tried 9 August (as you mentioned that you saw availablity) and I still get a result that says nothing is available. I’ve tried both on my laptop and via the BA app.
Very odd…

[oureas]

I’ve also tried Singapore to London, and Singapore to Sydney on the 9th of August. That is giving me options with BA and Doha/Qantas respectively. So I’m not going completely bonkers.

[Jon]

How strange… The only thing I can think of is to try clearing your browser cache and cookies etc, although if you’ve tried both web site and app, that may not be the issue. Or – do you use a VPN? Possibly that’s caching old data, so you could try switching it off, or switching to a different server (I use NordVPN, which is mostly great, but utterly painful on the occasions it isn’t 😉 I fairly regularly have to change server). Couldn’t be some sort of country restriction, could it? Are you in Singapore now? Try using a VPN to make it look like you’re in the UK, perhaps (though I’d be surprised if that were it – why would BA limit visibility on a given route for specific countries?! – but who knows…). Good luck!

[SamG]

Have you tried different airport codes? TYO HND NRT. Iirc JAL do both from Singapore

[JABS]

Did you get it sorted? Flights showing every day on mine from March 22nd until 31st. Though Saturday (22) and Sunday (23) have very little available.

[oureas]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. A few more details and responses to your questions:
– I am based in Singapore (recently moved here with a stash of Avios I want to use).
– yes, I’ve experimented with different airport codes, ie. TYO, HND, NRT. But had no luck with that.
– the search criteria I’m generally using is a one way, economy ticket for 1 adult. Though I’ve also tried return to see if that changes anything.
– I’m looking for flights for Easter next year. But at the moment I’m just trying to resolve the issue of not seeing any availability. So have experimented with a range of dates between now and Easter 2024, including the ones mentioned about.
– I’m usually not on a VPN.
– I’ve tried on my mobile (on our corporate wifi, at home on wifi and on 4G). I’ve also tried on my personal laptop at home. And also on my work laptop both at home and in the office. None of these show any flights available between Singapore and Tokyo.

The ONLY thing I’ve had partial success with is using a VPN (it took me until the weekend to find the time to set this up). That DOES show flights between SIN and TYO, but only indirect flight options. I tried across a variety of dates, but coudn’t see anything direct. Any further suggestions are welcome! Call the BA call center?

I’m somewhat resigned that I’ll be booking with cash for this flight as no matter what I try, I can’t find anything direct – even paying cash.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Froggee]

Hi.

Long time listener, first time caller.

Have you tried phoning the Executive Club, explaining the issue and asking if they might be so kind as to book the flight for you?

It’s somewhat old school, I know!

And don’t let them charge you an off line booking fee given your functionality ain’t, erm, functional.

[meta]

It’s very likely the schedule for beyond 26 March 2024 has not been released. It’s the same with many airlines. We are too spoiled by BA, ME3 and Virgin in that regard.

[SamG]

Look up availability on aa.com and try calling perhaps. Sounds very weird, unless RFS changes have messed something up perhaps but I lived in Singapore and booked many flights with Avios and never had any issue

[Michael C]

Funnily, I’ve been looking at HKG-Tokyo/Osaka for next Easter, and also zero.
In fact, even going back months, saw nothing on JAL, and Cathay seemed to have
been loaded 8 months in advance (to the day): when I went back that far, there
were seats every day.

However, now thinking of changing to Shanghai-Japan, and there is plenty of JAL
availability.

[Roker]

Today I booked Singapore > Tokyo for 7 March on JAL, Avios + cash. There seems to be plenty of availability around then in Economy and Business, there has been for a couple of weeks. JAL availability is usually good on BA.com in my experience. Just before Covid we flew Tokyo > Okinawa return for a very reasonable Avios + cash rate.

[oureas]

Just to follow up on this… I never could find availability via BA.com for my flights between Singapore and Japan. But I followed SamG’s tip and used AA.com to search for availability and found what I wanted. I then called BA on the Exec Club line and they were very helpful with booking it over the phone.

The only thing that surprised me was that AA.com showed me the additional taxes as being very low – around 35 GBP. But when booking via BA it was much higher – around 110 GBP. I checked a cash ticket on JAL.com and the taxes I had to pay BA were about the same as what was quoted on the JAL.com website (after the FX conversion of course).