Introduction
If you’re looking to travel in luxury to Japan from Los Angeles or the west coast, Japan’s very own All Nippon Air (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) are my favorite options for getting incredible value with your business class award redemptions. In this post, we’ll discuss how to make the most of your hard-earned points and enjoy a comfortable journey to Japan.
While ANA is acclaimed as one of the best premium class products in the sky, JAL is not far behind. Both feature exceptional service, spacious premium class seating, and excellent value for your points with award redemptions. However, ANA business class award space does appear to be relatively more difficult to come by if you’re not booking right when they’re released (355 days for ANA, 360 days for JAL). That being said, some remaining award spaces do open up a couple days and a couple weeks before departure, so it’s worthwhile to check if you can fly on a whim. I’ll be focusing on JAL redemptions since that’s what I recently successfully booked.
Choosing your redemption option
JAL offers two different redemption options for business class flights: Mileage Bank (JMB) and Oneworld. Mileage Bank is JAL’s own loyalty program, while Oneworld is a global airline alliance that includes JAL and several other airlines. Both options allow you to redeem your points for JAL business class flights, but the redemption rates and availability will vary. For U.S.-based travelers, don’t even bother with the JAL credit card – it’s a terrible value. You’ll be much better served accumulating points from Oneworld partner airlines such as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. The Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select (50,000-60,000), CitiBusiness Aadvantage Platinum Select (65,000), and Aadvantage Aviator Red Mastercard (50,000-60,000) cards can net you significant sign-up point bonuses.
Side bar: with annual fees of ~$95-99 and $2,500-3,000 minimum spend thresholds to earn those sign up bonuses, you’re looking at a cash back value of at least 19% assuming you’re only redeeming for 1 cent per point. If you’re booking business class flights with these points, a very conservative redeemable value for these points is 2 cents per point, or a 38% return. This doesn’t even take into account the point multipliers that each credit card has for specific categories (groceries, travel, etc.).
With Alaska miles, it’s a cool 60,000 miles one-way from Los Angeles to Tokyo in business class. That’s less than the current (*03/2023) 70,000 mile sign-up bonus with the Alaska Mileage Plan card from Bank of America!
You’ll be able to achieve the same flight with 60,000 American miles, with the above multiple AAdvantage credit cards, so get collecting.
Booking your flight
To redeem your hard-earned American or Alaska miles for a business class flight to Japan, you’ll either go to British Airways or Alaska Air, respectively.
American Airlines miles
- Log in to your account at British Airways.
- Hover over “Book” in the top left corner and select “Book with Avios”.
- LAX – NRT were unavailable for the dates I quickly searched, but here’s one for SEA – NRT that looked available.
- Note the flight numbers, dates, and times of the desired and available flights.
- Make sure you have sufficient American Airline miles and call 1-800-882-8880. Feed the flight info through to the agent and let them know that it’s not bookable online so they’ll confirm the redemption for you. Make sure that they don’t charge you the $40 booking fee (this should be waived since you can’t book this on your own).
Alaska Airlines miles
- Log in to your account at alaskaair.com.
- Click on “Book” in the top left corner. The following screen looks like this with the appropriate checkboxes checked:
- Looks like LAX – NRT is as popular as ever, so if you’re flying from there, you may need to get creative by repositioning yourself to one of the other west coast hubs (SEA, SFO, etc.) for the trans-Pacific flight. Otherwise, keep checking for new dates! I cannot stress the importance of generally booking way in advance.
- Look for the business class one-way tickets that are 60k miles on JAL. There are other partner airlines like Korea Air for 52k miles but are typically routing you through Incheon (ICN).
- With Alaska Air miles, you can book directly on the website without calling a booking agent. So once you’ve confirmed the miles redemption, you’re all set!
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an elevated in-air experience to Japan from Los Angeles and the west coast, redeeming your points for JAL business class flights is an excellent option. By choosing the right redemption option, booking your flight in advance, and enjoying the JAL business class experience, you can make the most of your points and have an unforgettable journey to Japan.
