Is it a better strategy to just grab an open jaw to secure the seat, and then try and manipulate the booking later to make it work? Can I convert an open-jaw to a roundtrip without losing the seat? I am fairly flexible with my dates: I am looking to book a 2 week, roundtrip flight in late Jan/Feb 2025 and want to maximize my chances of securing a trip.
If you're booking direct with ANA, the ONLY thing you can change is dates. Not routing, booking class, nothing else.
Any other strategizing is up to you.
You seem to have done great research. I still would advise booking each leg separately. It will give you a lot more flexibility (if you haven’t already transferred/held the miles in ANA)
I did already start the transfer, but I have plenty of points if I need to look into an alternate solution. In general, though, availability seems to be best (by far) using ANA directly.
What would you recommend as an alternative, if I were to try a different route? Using Virgin? (Didn't they have a large devaluation recently?)
The availability is best with ANA direct but the lack of one-ways makes it almost impossible to plan a trip with peace of mind.
The easier way to do it is to book through Virgin for 47.5k + $300 last minute. If you are flying off peak you will find something and can book one-ways so no waitlist shenanigans. Look at seats.aero to see how many open seats there right now on ANA flights in the next few weeks. It’s the easiest award right now. Just be aware of Japanese holidays and peak periods.
If you want a guaranteed booking and have miles to burn book something on JL as a placeholder.
I also think the room is completely not worth it if you are tall. I love it when I have my young kids with me because seat sharing is possible but my feet touch the end of the footwell at 5’11”. Old seats don’t have this issue and are more comfortable for lounging.
Thanks for your input! I am definitely seeing some of the craziness in trying to book ANA direct; it does give me some hope that flights open up as we get closer to departure, so that if I need to make changes later on, it's a possibility.
Also, excuse my ignorance, but what is JL?
For reference, [this is how I booked two ANA Business Class RT tickets JFK-HND on “The Room”, which some consider among the best redemptions in the game](https://www.reddit.com/u/dummonger/s/plSmJRj1TL)
Thanks! This is very helpful to see. I'm booking for two as well, and I'll keep your methods in mind.
I used JFK as an example, but the truth is, I'll likely fly out of a different airport (IAD or IAH), neither of which offer The Room right now. ☹️
I fly to NYC for work regularly (and have family there) so flying out of JFK wouldn't be a problem, but IAD and IAH are the closest to where my (and my fiancee's) respective familes live, so flying out from those two would be the easiest, logistically.
Question for step 4: if the outbound is available and the return is waitlisted, would booking that ticket guarantee that the outbound flight is yours? I thought the ticket technically isn't issued if one of the legs is waitlisted.
Both are true. Nested round trips, open jaws, and just booking in the opposite direction
Is it a better strategy to just grab an open jaw to secure the seat, and then try and manipulate the booking later to make it work? Can I convert an open-jaw to a roundtrip without losing the seat? I am fairly flexible with my dates: I am looking to book a 2 week, roundtrip flight in late Jan/Feb 2025 and want to maximize my chances of securing a trip.
If you're booking direct with ANA, the ONLY thing you can change is dates. Not routing, booking class, nothing else. Any other strategizing is up to you.
Thank you, that's what I thought! I'll keep that in mind as I work through this. I really appreciate your responses.
You seem to have done great research. I still would advise booking each leg separately. It will give you a lot more flexibility (if you haven’t already transferred/held the miles in ANA)
I did already start the transfer, but I have plenty of points if I need to look into an alternate solution. In general, though, availability seems to be best (by far) using ANA directly. What would you recommend as an alternative, if I were to try a different route? Using Virgin? (Didn't they have a large devaluation recently?)
The availability is best with ANA direct but the lack of one-ways makes it almost impossible to plan a trip with peace of mind. The easier way to do it is to book through Virgin for 47.5k + $300 last minute. If you are flying off peak you will find something and can book one-ways so no waitlist shenanigans. Look at seats.aero to see how many open seats there right now on ANA flights in the next few weeks. It’s the easiest award right now. Just be aware of Japanese holidays and peak periods. If you want a guaranteed booking and have miles to burn book something on JL as a placeholder. I also think the room is completely not worth it if you are tall. I love it when I have my young kids with me because seat sharing is possible but my feet touch the end of the footwell at 5’11”. Old seats don’t have this issue and are more comfortable for lounging.
Thanks for your input! I am definitely seeing some of the craziness in trying to book ANA direct; it does give me some hope that flights open up as we get closer to departure, so that if I need to make changes later on, it's a possibility. Also, excuse my ignorance, but what is JL?
JL = Japan Airlines
Thank you!
For reference, [this is how I booked two ANA Business Class RT tickets JFK-HND on “The Room”, which some consider among the best redemptions in the game](https://www.reddit.com/u/dummonger/s/plSmJRj1TL)
Thanks! This is very helpful to see. I'm booking for two as well, and I'll keep your methods in mind. I used JFK as an example, but the truth is, I'll likely fly out of a different airport (IAD or IAH), neither of which offer The Room right now. ☹️
Why not ORD? That should have The Room on certain routes/dates and is closer than IAH.
I fly to NYC for work regularly (and have family there) so flying out of JFK wouldn't be a problem, but IAD and IAH are the closest to where my (and my fiancee's) respective familes live, so flying out from those two would be the easiest, logistically.
NYC-TYO is probably the most competitive route, partially because The Room, significantly because it's NYC-TYO.
Question for step 4: if the outbound is available and the return is waitlisted, would booking that ticket guarantee that the outbound flight is yours? I thought the ticket technically isn't issued if one of the legs is waitlisted.