[nd97]

meta wrote:

nd97 wrote:

meta wrote:

@nd97 It’s not impossible to get five or more tickets on JAL, they usually dumped a lot of reward seats closer to departure. I just booked two J seats for end of March from London.

Not sure about the dumping lots of seats closer to departure – how did you catch the 2 Js at end of March? For a specific day or just looking out randomly for seats? I ask since F close in from London to Tokyo has just been non existent for over 10 weeks now – J may be different.

I didn’t advise JAL as OP needs 3 pax – I haven’t ever seen 3 Js or Fs released at once and OP was also looking for next year, so I assume at EOS which means booking likely 1 F seat at T-355 if it’s still available and not taken by someone with JMB 5 days earlier. Provided OP secures that then he still has 2 more seats to go, and he has to chance that on 2 Js opening up closer to departure which isn’t guaranteed – hence my reasoning.

I monitor almost daily as I travel to Japan often. They are also not always released at midnight, it can be at random times of the day. For this particular day 24th March there were 3 F tickets and 2 J tickets released at 4pm GMT and gone by 6pm. I haven’t seen more than 3 F from London, but from Paris and Helsinki there are often 5+ seats available.

Very interesting – what sort of T minus time was that opening on 24/03/26? I try to monitor at both midnight JST and midnight GMT to see what opens up but not a great deal it seems, even when ringing up. Do you just cycle random days for chance release closer in every single day at random times so constantly scouring?

[nd97]

meta wrote:

@nd97 It’s not impossible to get five or more tickets on JAL, they usually dumped a lot of reward seats closer to departure. I just booked two J seats for end of March from London.

Not sure about the dumping lots of seats closer to departure – how did you catch the 2 Js at end of March? For a specific day or just looking out randomly for seats? I ask since F close in from London to Tokyo has just been non existent for over 10 weeks now – J may be different.

I didn’t advise JAL as OP needs 3 pax – I haven’t ever seen 3 Js or Fs released at once and OP was also looking for next year, so I assume at EOS which means booking likely 1 F seat at T-355 if it’s still available and not taken by someone with JMB 5 days earlier. Provided OP secures that then he still has 2 more seats to go, and he has to chance that on 2 Js opening up closer to departure which isn’t guaranteed – hence my reasoning.

[nd97]

JonathanC wrote:

I’d personally go with JAL, and avoid BA !

Not the right way to go at all. OP has stated a few constraints:
1. 3 pax – OP (P1), wife (P2) and 10yo daughter (P3).
2. Usage of Avios +/- companion voucher

Although I am inclined to agree that JAL is much better here than BA in terms of picking a carrier, OP really is limited to BA unfortunately. JAL releases 1 first class and 2 business class seats on schedule open, at T-360 via their own mileage program. Despite it being OneWorld, you don’t get access to this until T-355 with BA. Moreover, the business class seats are no longer opened to partner airlines anymore on schedule open. So JAL releases 1F, 2J and a couple of economy seats I believe at T-360. You get lucky and nothing is taken by T-355, then BA can only offer the 1 first class seat and not business (since JAL does not open this to BA anymore as of several months ago – reason unknown), and the couple of economy seats. These can be redeemed with Avios but via JMB – virtually impossible to accrue points here in the UK unless you count their abysmal Bonvoy conversion rate of 3:1.

OP – JAL unfortunately will be pretty much impossible for you. I would do as jsto says and book BA at T-355. Other option is Qatar on schedule open as they go quite quick but with 3 pax – not much of an option as they strictly release 2 business seats at saver rate and then might trickle out a flexi seat which isn’t guaranteed.