Lack of [QF] Frequent flyer flights to Japan in jan 2019

[offshore171]

Flights to Japan in January have been packed to the rafters in recent years.

Combine school holidays with an explosion of interest in Japan from the skiers and there is insatiable demand every January. Even fully paid seats can be a challenge, let alone awards.

Even the large additional capacity that came online with ANA’s return to the Australian market was absorbed almost immediately.

Is the purpose of your trip to ski?

 

[UP4014]

Australia Japan is right at the top level demand wise, transpacific has been for a couple of decades but 2018/19 has seen Japan right on the heels of transpacific. Australians like California and now they are also liking Japan.

If you see a deal/seats you can live with then take it, won't be many 'giveaways' on this route for the next 12 to 18 months.

 

[smeacs]

It will be interesting to watch this route since even though demand has increased there seem to be a significant amount of sale fares which makes me wonder how much/ if any of the demand is driven by the sale fares.

Back in 2014 I think $1600 was about the going rate for ADL- CTS Y. but now there seems to be a sale every week.

I just got back from a trip to Myoko and I booked on about 22/12 to fly on 11/1 and got an QF award booking on JQ for 28,000 points + $189 ADL – OOL- NRT which kind a blew my mind. ( ie I can get to Japan for less than $200) The flight home was about $1200 AUD NRT –MEL –ADL on QF.

As far as I have been able to tell when looking online both JAL and ANA seem to be priced way out of the market

 

[biggabs]

QF have award space on CX eg BNE/xHKG/KIX or NGO or CTS but not to NRT however you would need more points than if on QF ex AU direct to Japan eg 50,000 plus taxes AUD234.71 one way. I did a multi city request on the QF site for these two sectors however asking for a third sector NRT/SYD or NRT/OOL was too much for the QF website as I kept getting "empty request" or "generic error" responses.

Getting home around 20 Jan I couldn't see any paid flights available on the JQ site as it was saying "sold out" which I think may be the case as there is availability to other cities eg NRT/OOL for JPY42,460.00 one way (approx AUD492.00) which is the base fare before any add-ons like checked baggage or bundles.

If you did a paid fare OOL/NRT/OOL for 08-20 Jan the base fare is AUD1,045.14 before any addons plus you would still need to position to OOL. Nothing available for purchase SYD/NRT/SYD on JQ. QF have fares BNE/NRT/BNE and I'm sure ex SYD or MEL for approx AUD1,251.00 which inlcudes bagage, points, SC etc so no extras to pay eg positioning flights. A paid JQ fare round trip would be a false economy.

Thanks very helpful. Checked today. Still no qff flights

 

[BrockF]

Thanks very helpful. Checked today. Still no qff flights

Just booked JAL reward flights for 4pax for 1st week of January.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Just booked JAL reward flights for 4pax for 1st week of January.

If you were using QF points were the taxes reasonable?

What website did you use to check award availability?

 

[BrockF]

If you were using QF points were the taxes reasonable?

What website did you use to check award availability?

Taxes were about $150 per pax. Just dumb lucked it in regard to searching but called up 330 days out, which I believe is when JAL release seats. Had the choice of a few days though.

 

[biggabs]

I have been tracking fares on all airlines - buying a reasonable price fare is not an issue.

Qantas have not released any ff flights - zero. They have not been absorbed as they have never been released.

Yes we going skiing in Japan/USA every year,

Thanks

Flights to Japan in January have been packed to the rafters in recent years.

Combine school holidays with an explosion of interest in Japan from the skiers and there is insatiable demand every January. Even fully paid seats can be a challenge, let alone awards.

Even the large additional capacity that came online with ANA’s return to the Australian market was absorbed almost immediately.

Is the purpose of your trip to ski?

ares

 

[rock86]

I have been tracking fares on all airlines - buying a reasonable price fare is not an issue.

Qantas have not released any ff flights - zero. They have not been absorbed as they have never been released.

Yes we going skiing in Japan/USA every year,

Thanks

ares

That is the point of his reply though, QF aren't going to be releasing award seats (or if they do it will be very very minimal) because they can fill the seats with paid customers on very busy routes/periods, who provide better margins.

 

[offshore171]

That is the point of his reply though, QF aren't going to be releasing award seats (or if they do it will be very very minimal) because they can fill the seats with paid customers on very busy routes/periods, who provide better margins.

Yep that was the point.

About this time last year we started looking to book flights for a Jan 2018 ski trip using QF points. Japan had basically no availability from Xmas to around Australia day, and I was online the day of release for seats for several days in a row. Note we didn't try the JAL option, which can only be done over the phone. It appears one of the above posters had some luck with that, so worth a try.

What I did find however, was good availability on EK using QF points, to pretty much anywhere in Europe. So we ended up skiing in Austria which was brilliant.

If you've got a decent swag of points, and seemingly nowhere to use them, this option could be worth a look. Fly in to Munich or Zurich and a 2 hour train ride can get you into one of several top ski resorts such as St Anton.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Yep that was the point.

About this time last year we started looking to book flights for a Jan 2018 ski trip using QF points. Japan had basically no availability from Xmas to around Australia day, and I was online the day of release for seats for several days in a row. Note we didn't try the JAL option, which can only be done over the phone. It appears one of the above posters had some luck with that, so worth a try.

What I did find however, was good availability on EK using QF points, to pretty much anywhere in Europe. So we ended up skiing in Austria which was brilliant.

If you've got a decent swag of points, and seemingly nowhere to use them, this option could be worth a look. Fly in to Munich or Zurich and a 2 hour train ride can get you into one of several top ski resorts such as St Anton.

Or if your heart is set on Japan, purchase a cheap return fare to HKG then use CX points to & from Japan ex HKG.

 

[Dannyism]

Hi, I want to ressurect this thread.

I can't see any availability for J awards with QF (using QF portal) or JL (using BA portal) in Feb or Mar. There are $ fares available which suggests to me that the planes are flying but neither airline is releasing award seats.

I'm looking at MEL-HND. There is some availability via HKG with CX so at least there is a backup plan. I would like to fly JL's 787 direct though.

edit: still seems as though there is no QF J availability though.

 

[Mattg]

Hi, I want to ressurect this thread.

I can't see any availability for J awards with QF (using QF portal) or JL (using BA portal) in Feb or Mar. There are $ fares available which suggests to me that the planes are flying but neither airline is releasing award seats.

I'm looking at MEL-HND. There is some availability via HKG with CX so at least there is a backup plan. I would like to fly JL's 787 direct though.

I just checked the BA website and I'm seeing 4x J awards on JL774 MEL-NRT on 1 and 3 February. Haven't bothered checking any other dates beyond this.

On the BA website, are you searching for MEL-NRT or MEL-HND? If it's the latter, that would explain why you're not seeing anything.

 

[Dannyism]

If it's the latter, that would explain why you're not seeing anything.

Oops. Thank you!

 

[Dannyism]

edit: still seems as though there is no QF J availability though.