How to fly Lie-Flat Business Class to Japan on Points

The Worst-Kept Secret in Award Travel - Lie flat business to Japan.

Flights between the Continental United States and Asia are long, 10-12 hours is common. Fortunately, there are ways to make the flight a lot more bearable. International business and first class seats are not the slightly larger leather seats that you walk past on your flight between Denver and Spokane, they turn into a bed, yes, fully lie flat. You get better food, complimentary drinks including champagne, and in most cases, airport lounge access that even includes showers.

 It takes planning, flexibility, and luck to make it happen on a budget. Trust me, it's worth it, but it might ruin you.

The business class meal on JAL is fabulous.

Even the old style business class seat is great on the Japan Airlines 777.

This is one of those redemptions that is getting harder and harder. You either need to be mega flexible, or have the right type of points, but with some patience, planning, and a touch of luck, it's possible to book a one-way ticket that would normally sell for $4000+ for approximately the cost of one credit card welcome bonus.

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank (JMB)

Japan Airlines releases award seats to themselves first. On the JMB homepage, scroll down and click "JAL Award Ticket" - then in the middle column at the top, choose "JAL International Award Ticket"

This brings you to an old-school search page. (Japan still uses fax machines so this is relatively modern by their standards)

The result shows business class availability for this Seattle to Narita flight for just 55k JMB miles and taxes/fuel surcharges to the tune of around $200 per person.

You'll need to book a separate positioning flight if you live elsewhere that doesn't have direct flights via JAL. You can do this with any airline, just be aware of schedule changes. I recently booked a return flight about 300 days out, and United changed my departure from San Francisco to an hour before my scheduled JAL flight lands, so I had to change to a flight that works with my schedule.

JAL allows you to cancel your award ticket for a 3100 JPY fee.

One thing to note is that JMB miles expire 3 years after they are EARNED. Most other airlines have more generous expiration policies that extends their expiration with qualifying activity. I keep my British Airways points active just by transferring 1000 points from a credit card. Or, in the case of United, Delta, Southwest, and Alaska Airlines, the points never expire.

How to get JMB Miles

JMB Miles can be transferred from CapitalOne or Bilt. For most of you, CapitalOne points are probably easier to come by. 1000 CapitalOne points = 750 JMB Miles.

This means that a welcome bonus for the Capital One Venture can easily get you a one-way lie-flat ticket from Seattle to Tokyo Narita or from San Francisco to Tokyo Haneda. ($4000 spend earns a 75k point welcome bonus and you earn 2x points per dollar spent on every purchase)

Here's my CapitalOne referral link:
https://i.capitalone.com/GQ049Sj0U

Get the Venture first, if you want more points, go ahead and get the Venture X  - This is the only way you can double dip on the bonuses since the Venture card bonus isn't available if you already have a Venture X, but you can currently get a Venture X bonus if you already have the Venture.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) - 

Much like JMB, the website looks like it was designed by a fax machine user. You need to have an account and be logged in to even be able to search. It is worth learning how to use this system though, as this is the most reliable way to find seats in an ANA premium cabin because ANA releases award seats to themselves.

Do what I forgot to in this screenshot and check the +/- 3 day checkbox.

52500 miles and 27500 Japanese Yen. ($176 at time of writing) - However, this is a waitlisted ticket. 

The two ways to "guarantee" getting the seat are:

1. Make the booking 355 days out, within minutes of the calendar open, which happens at 4pm Pacific Standard Time.

2. Make the booking 14 days out.

Here's a ticket 14 days out that's not waitlisted, it's a Christmas miracle! (Other than the layover in Vancouver...) -- However this highlights that ANA miles can be used for partner flights... Air Canada Jazz. ♫

Earning ANA Miles

The best way to acquire ANA miles is by transferring from American Express Membership Rewards, which can be transferred 1:1 in increments of 1000 points.

You can earn American Express points by holding an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points. This includes the personal and business versions of the Platinum, Gold,  and green Green cards, the Blue Business Plus, and the no-longer-available Everyday and Everyday Preferred cards.

Here is my referral link for the Amex cards. Don't accept the offer if you aren't offered at minimum, 130k for the Platinum or 90k for the Gold. (There's no hard pull if you don't accept the offer on these variable links)

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards (Formerly Mileage Plan)

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are pretty much one and the same, so Alaska gives you great availability on Hawaiian Airlines trans-pacific flights. I've seen SEA-NRT (Tokyo Narita) for 75k, though the standard pricing is 150k for a one-way business class ticket.

They are also partners with Japan Airlines, good luck booking a business class seat far in advance though, since JMB via CapitalOne/Bilt transfers probably snagged them up 30 days before Alaska's calendar could touch them and most of the ones that survived the JMB points users were taken up by the British Airways points users.

Alaska Atmos points shine when you're booking closer in. Here's what I found by booking about 3 months out. (This is a rare find)

Using the flexible dates and  choosing "Partner Business" in the dropdown gives you a 30-day calendar view. If the +$ is not $6 ($5.60 TSA Fee, rounded) or $19, it's probably going to be with a layover that's over a day, you don't want that. $19 would be the fee including a partner airline booking fee ($12.50 partner award booking fee, plus $5.60 TSA fee, rounded) -- $24 or $12 is your red flag (With super long layovers, the TSA fee gets charged twice) 

The $12.50 partner airline fee is charged for airlines such as American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, British Airways, etc. It is NOT charged for Hawaiian Airlines, as Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines are essentially the same thing.

How to earn lots of Alaska Atmos Rewards points:
(None of these are referral links, usually the referral program for these gives worse offers)

1. BofA Alaska Atmos Ascent  85k bonus for $4k spend and $95 annual fee.

2. BofA Alaska Atmos Summit 80k bonus after spending $4k and a $395 annual fee, also includes a 25k Global Companion Award and a host of other benefits that may be worth it to you.  

Here's the comparison page between the two Alaska personal cards.

3. Barclays Hawaiian 60k after spending $2500 and a $99 annual fee. (Use any 6 digit code in the Promo Code field, for example, 123456) --- Note that sometimes this offer is elevated, I've seen 70k and 80k.

4. Barclay's Hawaiian Business, 50k after spending $4k, $99 annual fee. Sometimes this offer is elevated.

5. BofA Alaska Business, 60k after spending $4k, $95 annual fee. Sometimes this offer is elevated.

American Airlines AAdvantage

This is the most cost effective way to book a lie flat business seat, though availability can be tough to find.

I've had pretty decent luck with American Airlines AAdvantage program when booking flights between the west coast and Japan. Their flexible calendar search makes it easy to find saver awards when they exist and the generous cancellation and hold policies let you hold an upgraded ticket before cancelling the economy ticket you already have.

In the past, it was possible to just go to the end of the calendar and find saver or partner business class tickets, but now it's much harder. Like Alaska, you need luck and flexibility.

I usually just search for one-way fares, this gives you way more flexibility.

The long layovers aren't so bad when you're traveling on a Oneworld International Business Class ticket though, you'll have access to decent lounges at most major airports. (On our last ticket from Japan to Spokane, we were able to enjoy access to the Oneworld Business Lounge at LAX and the Alaska Lounge at SEA thanks to the Oneworld partnership lounge access policies.)

Private shower suite at the Oneworld Business Lounge, LAX.

Another trick to American Airlines redemptions is called "Hidden City" ticketing. Search for a smaller city and you might have other luck. Japan Airlines seems to play these games with partner airlines to get folks to visit cities other than Tokyo.

A search to Tokyo NRT on the same day does not show this 60k fare. JAL wants Americans to visit places other than Tokyo. This can work for other places in Japan such as Nagoya, Sapporo, Nagasaki, and more.

Yatai, the pop-up restaurants that Fukuoka is famous for, are popular among Japanese and Korean tourists and eating and drinking at these tiny restaurants is a delightful way to socialize with people from other cultures.

There are rare instances where you'll find business class seats on a saver American Airlines fare. This was actually how we first flew to Japan and it was excellent. So don't worry if the 60-95k ticket you happen to find that works isn't on your preferred airline, in business class, they are all wonderful. (Air India and British Airways might be a bit suboptimal, even in business class, but you won't risk finding any of these if you're just trying to go to Japan.)

You can earn American Airlines miles with the Citi American Airlines Mastercards.

Here's an offer for 80k after spending just $1000. The first year annual fee is also waived. At the top of the page, put in a string of six zeroes (000000) for the promo code. Note that this is sometimes de-elevated and I've seen offers as low as 50k, don't apply for that one, just be patient.

Here's an offer for 65k after spending $4000 on the business version. I wouldn't recommend this link as it's often elevated to 75k or more.

Here's the Citi Strata Elite that gives you 100k Thankyou points for spending $6k in 3mo. The annual fee is high, but the benefits might be worth it. This card opens up the ability to transfer Citi TY points at a 1:1 rate to American Airlines.

There are other higher end American Airlines cards with elevated annual fees and benefits that could be worth it. I have seen 90k offers on the midrange card and 100k on the higher end card. Like the Strata Elite, their benefits might be worth it to you if you're a frequent traveler.

Air France Flying Blue

This is just a bonus for you, I managed to book a flight from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Osaka, Japan on Vietnam Airlines for a decent price using Air France points transferred from CapitalOne and Chase. It was only a 5 hour flight, but what clued me in was just searching for flights between SGN and KIX, seeing which airlines flew it, and then cross referencing the partners of said airlines. I settled on Vietnam Airlines, which partners with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM, and others, which are harder to get miles for. I settled on Air France because they had great pricing on that route.

It's worth having an Air France account, sometimes their pricing is insanely bad, sometimes it's good.

The manager of the Ritz Carlton Osaka thought I was unhinged when I showed up wearing shorts 

on the morning of February first, but that may have contributed to them letting us check in six hours early. The direct flight on the Vietnam Airlines 787 was comfortable in business class.

Transfer points to Air France from most transferable credit card reward programs.

Other options

Similarly, you can access JAL awards through British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Finnair, and more. The availability varies and you need to make accounts for each airline, but they are transfer partners of various credit card points currencies so they just might work for you.

ANA awards can be reached through Air Canada's Aeroplan, United Mileageplan, and other Star Alliance Programs.

It costs nothing but time to make accounts with various airlines and poke around at award ticketing looking for sweet spots, so get on it!

Just buy it with cash? Sure, but it's gonna cost you $4k for a traditional airline, but if all you want is the seat that turns into a bed, look into Zipair. They'll nickel and dime you for carrying luggage and serving you food/drink...and the tickets are not at all flexible, but this subsidiary of Japan Airlines sells you the seat for less than half that of a traditional airline.