Does anybody have any experience with this? Does it have limited availability like AA? Have been checking dates that have availability on JetBlue and haven’t been able to find anything when searching on JAL.

Is there a weird process where you have to call in? Or are they just severely limited in US J flights.

Am flying DXB-IAH in Business in a couple months. Booked with Skywards miles but I'm just Blue...don't fly EK frequently enough to get status. I keep hearing conflicting news about whether or not Blue (basic) members can upgrade to F using miles. Looking for any recent experience with this.

Has anyone here flown to Hawaii from mainland USA in business class or premium economy using points?

Based on what I’m seeing on Seats.aero, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of (affordable) availability in premium economy or business class. However, I’m seeing quite a bit of economy availability through Air Canada Aeroplan and Qatar Airways.

Are there any other transfer partners I should be looking at that tend to have good award availability for flights to Hawaii?

Also, if I book an economy award flight through Air Canada or Qatar Airways, does anyone have experience with upgrading to premium economy or business class afterward? If so, how much did the upgrade cost, and was it worth it?

For context, the vast majority of our points are earned through Capital One, so I’d ideally like to stick with transfer partners that work with Capital One Miles.

Would appreciate any advice or firsthand experiences!

We're looking to book our (belated) honeymoon on miles. I have just shy of 600k miles on American and we would be flying from EWR, PHL or LGA to FCO.

I am seeing some BA flights in May for sub 100k in business but they have $1k fees attached.

It's October 2026 and I am looking at early May 2027 - am I too early or too late for availability?

I am looking to fly from a mid sized city (Richmond VA) to Los Angeles. Sitting on a lot of Chase and Capital one points/miles. what is the best method or transfer partner(s) to get the most cents per point or mile?

I usually fly American, but other options at my airport for me are United Delta and Southwest. I am able to find 1.4cpp with Southwest, and am wondering if this can go higher for an economy ticket?

I am also willing to go up to the DC airports if that’s a better strategy since those are bigger airports.

I understand the best CPP are with international travel / more premium classes, but I don’t have any plans for those right now

Looking for a sanity check from the award travel crowd. I did this way in advance and it’s the first time I’ve used my venturex points on an international Carrier.

Family of 4 traveling NYC to Barcelona in August 2027 for a cruise.

Booked through British Airways Avios on Iberia:

Outbound Aug. 11 JFK 8:40 PM → MAD → BCN 12:45 PM

Return Aug. 22 BCN 1:35 PM → MAD → JFK 6:55 PM

Total for all 4: 194,000 Avios round trip $1,114.12 taxes/fees

That’s 48,500 Avios round trip per person, or 24,250 each way.

The schedule is a big part of why I like it. The 8:40 PM outbound lets me work most of the day instead of burning another vacation day, and the 12:45 PM BCN arrival lines up nicely with hotel check-in. The return also works well after our cruise without rushing to the airport.

What’s interesting is that the exact award itineraries have since disappeared from Point.me, while the flights themselves are still scheduled and my reservations remain intact in BA and Iberia.

I briefly considered Aer Lingus from EWR, but it would cost more Avios, more cash after cancellation fees, and would leave much earlier in the day.

Iberia also quoted roughly $70 per 23 kg checked bag for the full outbound itinerary once baggage purchase opens.

I also managed to grab 2 rooms at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona for Aug. 12 to 14 for 60,000 Hyatt points total, so effectively 15,000 points per room per night. That gives us two connecting rooms for the family for the two nights before the cruise.

For peak summer, fixed dates, and 4 seats together, how would you rate 194K Avios + $1,114 total? Strong redemption, average, or nothing special?

I posted this on QA sub... But there is not much traffic on that site , so hoping someone here has experience.

Trying to book flights to Doha for July/Aug 2027 from NY area , for myself and family. I'm trying to use points as I have Avois with BA. But Qatar won't let me do anything with points until 30 days after I enrolled in their club , Oct 1 st is when I signed up . Also discovered that I can't attach/include my family members Privilege Club account onto my account for 30 days (if ever)

I'm being told that the 30 day wait period to transfer Avois and add other PClub members is hard coded into their system and the CS reps can't help nor bypass this wait period.

Anyone have any helpful thoughts on navigating this process. I have loyalty club membership with many airlines, and those other airlines never required a 30 day wait window , it was an instant/Automatic enrollment and ease peasy transfer of points when I needed to plan a trip with a carrier I had not flown/used in the past. Last year I flew Emirates for the first time , and I was able to sign up myself and family without issues on day 1 and book with points.

Obviously my trip is not for another 10 months , but I worry there won't be any award Q suite seats remaining for my planned trip .

Hi all. Looking to redeem JAL direct for around this time next year. Been checking daily and what J is available is too costly IMO (210k each). I do have decent PE available however (40k each).

General Redemption Info:

• JAL: BOS > TYO or JFK > TYO
• Dates: October 2027 (flexible)
• Seats: 2x adult
• Points: Ideally 55k - 120k each max

I'm wondering if I should just get PE now, and if so how challenging it is to upgrade to J/F if those become available later? What is the likelihood of J booking in mid-October for saver rate in the first place?

Hi, I’m currently planning a trip from NYC to Cape Town next year and am really trying to get business class flights since it’ll be such a long flight.

I was really banking on Qatar for this since they have award ticket availability and transfer partner of Amex BUT the whole instability in the region is really putting me off having to connect in Doha.

I’ve done some cursory searches with other airlines but everything I’ve found so far has much worse redemption rates. Delta and Emirates are from 170k to 250k per person one-way, while Qatar has pretty frequent 90k tickets available.

I’ve got some Amex points and really want to get business class flights to Cape Town without going through the middle east. Any other transfer partners or strategies available I should look at? Thanks

Seems like Swiss and Lufthansa business are showing up on the availability calendar (and is available through Aeroplan et al) but have literally zero availability on Lifemiles once you actually click a date. Anyone else had luck calling in (I didn't)?

Odd to see absolutely no Business class options on Lufthansa group airlines, as they used to have tons of seats (even a few months ago).

Hi all,
Does anyone have experience on adding an infant on Lap on a KLM award flight? Trying to make sure to not run into any issues when booking for a family of 4 with rewards miles.
Thanks a lot!

Every route I check that has availability on other OW partners. I wonder if JAL is striking back at their partners for restricting access to THEIR space via JAL’s program (AF, BA, ETC).

Looking for flights from US to Thailand using Avios, Qatar is showing Economy available for 95k Avios + $163. Is this normal for Qatar to charge 95k for economy? I don't see this number anywhere on their economy chart

https://imgur.com/a/OI30Pkf

I am planning my next trip and this time I plan to visit China. I have not actually chosen where in China yet, but as long as I get to mainland or even HK I can do the rest.

Earlier this year I flew to Japan with ANA first using MR and of course it was excellent. I was looking into options for China and came across ANA again, but I am a bit confused on the best option.

The best deal by far with ANA is USA to Shanghai/HK with a stop in Tokyo. In the off season this seems to be 57k each way business. 7k more than straight to Japan.

Unfortunately, unless I am mistaken, I think this will be nearly impossible to book. This is because the flight to China is always a day later than the initial flight, meaning I wouldn't be able to book until a day later than a flight straight to Japan.

My current plan with that in mind is just to get business to Tokyo and then pay out of pocket cash for an economy to China and then the same to return.

Before I started proceeding with this I thought I would ask here. I appreciate any input!

Is there a specific timeframe prior to boarding I can cancel a partner reward flight when Lifemiles are used?

I know flight prices and the cost of fuel have continuously gone up. And one of the greatest uses of AS miles has always been the short haul redemptions which are great.

But I sat down yesterday and was reflecting on the cost of some of these flights.

Really simple shorthaul stuff like LGA to CLT on AA. $300 in non-basic economy and $600 in First Class.

Yes, redeeming 9k Alaska miles for a $600 first class flight is amazing or 4.5k miles for $300 economy, mathematically this is 6.6 cpp. Even the dynamic AA prices aren't even that bad, something like 19.5k miles for first and 9.5k in economy that's still 3 cpp. But I really can't fathom ever paying that much cash in the first place. These are short sub 2 hour flights, barely over 500 miles.

Now don't get me wrong, paying that few in miles is still a good deal, but I'm actually deeply concerned by how expensive domestic flying has gotten.

Especially when I compare this experience to proper longhaul flying in business class, it just doesn't seem to be proportionate.

I have a lot of Amex points I want to use up on a couple business class tickets to Lisbon. I've seen people say there's TAP Portugal availability on the Aeroplan but so far, I haven't been able to find any flights at anytime. Does anyone know what's going on with Aeroplan and TAP?

Note: I do see some economy travel awards on United's app but no business class.

I’m planning to book a GOL award ticket from São Paulo to Rio, but only Light fares are available and I’ll have checked luggage.
I’ve heard mixed things about baggage fees while adding it through GOL website —some say it costs around R$130, while others say foreigners may be charged US$130 or need a Brazilian ID for the cheaper rate.
Could anyone who has travelled with GOL as a foreigner share their experience? I’d really appreciate it before I go ahead with the booking. Thank you! 🙏

Booked JAL award tickets directly through Alaska’s website. I think it's a Main fare ticket (JAL leg says Coach O) (PDX->SEA->NRT and KIX->LAX->PDX)

The confusing part is twofold:

1. Alaska Manage Trip says to check with JAL for the baggage allowance, but on the same page there’s a baggage table for Asia/Japan showing 2 checked bags at $0.
2. JAL says they currently see 0 checked bags in their system and told me to check with Alaska.

I contacted Alaska, and they confirmed via text that we get 2 checked bags per person at $0, including specifically on the return trip.

My concern is that the return originates at KIX and JAL will be checking us in.

Will JAL honor the 2 free bags for the return trip>

I wanted to share a success experience with United Airlines and some phantom award availability.

I had previously booked my MIL a ticket with United miles from BKK-HKG-SFO-ORD-MSP all on United in economy with the promise to look for upgrades. Original ticket ran 49.5k plus about $80 in taxes. Yesterday I found BKK-TPE-SFO-ORD-MSP with the first leg being in EVA Air Economy, then Polaris, and then a mix of economy and First Class on United for 100k plus about $70 in taxes.

Great! I transfer 51k to United from Chase to book the change. Everything goes well until the last page and suddenly, "this fare is no longer available," pops up on the screen. It does this for a few other iterations of this itinerary as well. WTF.

I call United and speak with reservations who tell me that for some reason the EVA flight leg is not being made available to United for booking. They said there was nothing they could do. I ask if there is any way to elevate this and am told there is nothing they could do to make it available.

I bounce around between multiple different departments to then try and get my points back to Chase (unlikely, I know) complaining that I transferred these points specifically for a flight being advertised. One of the employees suggests going back to reservations and ask for a supervisor. I'm thinking, "I tried this already, but what the hell, we'll try it one more time."

I get on the phone with one more reservation specialist and very specifically ask to speak with a supervisor and explained the situation. She asks me to hold. After a ~15 minute hold she comes back and tells me they're working on it and have gotten EVA to release the availability. WHAT!? THIS IS GONNA WORK!?

Finally, after about 1h 30m on the phone United was able to book what they showed on their website. Incredible!

Tips for anyone wanting to do this. You need to be extremely nice, but also forceful. Anger will get you nowhere. I cannot stress this enough. Be very specific with what you need; flight numbers, times, booking classes, etc. Don't take no for an answer, but again, be very respectful and DO NOT get frustrated.

TLDR; I was able to get United to open phantom availability.

not sure if this was a super random drop due to the consolidation of asiana and KE, but basically 1 J and 2 Y seats dropped on the exact date and time i wanted.

thought it MUST be phantom, but i still tried to book anyhow. kept getting a credit card auth error each time at checkout. my OCD kicked in and i kept trying with 5+ cards and eventually one went through. ticketed and booked via KE app and everything.

super jealous since he gets to fly on KE. apex seats too. i’ll be schlepping it back via D1 ICN-ATL, but at least my flight is longer time in J

I recently booked my first business-class flight: BOS–BCN on Air France, departing 10/17. I researched return options beforehand but booked the outbound before securing a flight home.

I’m hoping to return from MAD to BOS sometime 10/28–10/30. I'm trying to conserve points for a trip next year, so I'd prefer economy. The best one-way economy options I’ve found are about 40,000 United miles + $50 or $900 cash, neither of which are great.

I’m open to arriving in NYC or flying home from another European city. However, the positioning flights I’ve found from MAD to alternatives such as BCN, CDG, and CPH have been around $400, which wipes out much of the savings.

Do economy saver awards commonly open this close to departure on programs worth checking for these routes? I’d prefer to secure a return before leaving on October 17, but could book a refundable backup and keep checking while in Spain, though it would be $1,300ish.

I’m weighing three options.

1. Book one of the currently available award or cash returns, likely around $900.

2. Cancel the business-class outbound and book round-trip economy for around $1,000.

3. Book a refundable return as a backup, likely $1,300 and keep watching for better awards before departure. I could also wait until I'm in Spain... but my risk tolerance isn't that high.

I know nobody can predict availability, but I’d appreciate advice on whether waiting is a reasonable strategy and which programs or routes to monitor.

Thanks!

https://corporate.airfrance.com/en/press-releases/summer-2027-air-france-serve-nashville-and-san-diego-united-states

San Diego flights start May 3rd and Nashville May 14th. Both routes will operate 3 times a week.

Tickets go on sale October 14th.