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Japan Airlines award tickets are highly sought after because they have a fantastic product
…from what I hear. I’ve never flown it. Geez rub it in. It’s like I have a monkey on my back! The only Japan Airlines experience I have is in the Narita first class lounge. It was ridics. Incredible Sushi.
I have an an award booking business and so I’m searching inventory all the time. Here’s a little trick I use that can save you TONNNNNNS of time.
Example: You want a 1st Class Ticket the week of April 22, 2017 from LAX to Tokyo.
You’re willing to route to the long haul leg of your itinerary. So you’re cool with anything from the states. This is how Miles and I get the best deals.
Step 1: Log in:
Step 2: Select International Award Ticket
If you don’t know the trick then you’ll search one way from where you actually want a ticket, Los Angeles
and get this
NAHTING available. But don’t be fooled. You’re a pro and you’re buds with Miles the Monkey 😉
Uggghhhhh how annoying and limiting!!!! You’d have to do this search over and over and over, changing cities and dates. It would take FOOOORRRREEEVVVEEERRR.
So do this instead, Step 4: Create a roundtrip originating in Japan and your return date when you’d like your ONE WAY.
Make sure you hit Award Reservation Calendar as well
Step 5: Run around the room cause BOOM, you gots alllllll the possibilities with one click
Step 6: Book your ticket. We can see that tix are avail on 19th from ORD and SFO
I loved the Japan Airlines lounge in Tokyo! I also have a first class award ticket booked at the old 67.5k AA rate from Asia 2, but that trip is getting moved around. Hopefully I’ll have a review by the end of the year or early next year. Butttttt, this is an easy way to find availability so you can experience that lounge and look like that dude reading a book in first class!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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