Table of Contents
Points Miles and Bling (blog) contains referral or affiliate links. The blog receives a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your continued support. Credit Card issuers are not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details, current product information, and Terms and Conditions, click the link included.
At Points Travel Festival (and yes, 2027 tickets are now on sale) last week, I spoke about “When Waiting Wins: Mastering Last Minute Award Space”. This is the primary way I book awards, since I usually can’t confirm plans one year in advance. As usual, I headed off to Asia in March without a return flight and had plans to snag either ANA first class or Japan Airlines first class. This is the first time it hasn’t worked out exactly as I anticipated and is a good reminder to always have a backup flight.
Act I: Tracking NH and JL F Space
I planned to return from Tokyo early April and was open to any dates April 3-6. My primary objective is to fly ANA’s “new” 2020 first class, “The Suite,” with Japan Airlines as more of an afterthought.
About six months in advance, so in October 2025, I began tracking last-minute ANA first class space across the Pacific ex-Tokyo and created my usual excel sheet to try to pinpoint a pattern. By February, I had a good sense of when seats might open on which routes based on how many were still for sale.
ANA First Class “The Suite”
On February 27, I departed for Asia and, well, a few things in the world started happening right after that severely impacted flights.
Act II: Book First Class, Any
For the first two weeks of March, virtually no ANA or Japan Airlines business or first class seats were opening ex-Tokyo. The most likely cause is that airlines were cancelling flights through the Middle East and rebooking passengers through or around Asia. That trend continued through the end of March, with most U.S.-bound flights showing F3 or less.
Checking the ANA app diligently, I found a single first class seat on Toyko Narita – Honoulu. It was on ANA’s Flying Honu A380, which features similar seats to “The Suite” and cost 60,000 miles. The departure date was earlier than I wanted, but that’s all that was available. Two days after landing in Honolulu, I found first class seats on Hawaiian Airlines to Seattle on their Boeing 787 with lie-flat seats so grabbed that for 40,000 Atmos Rewards points.
ANA A380 Flying Honu
With flights out of Asia secured, I turned my attention to getting home from Seattle to Ottawa. Despite my best attempts, there was just no saver award space on Air Canada or United (Ottawa has limited U.S. connectivity). I considered taking a bus to Vancouver, but ruled that out when I remembered I’d have a checked bag this time with all my Japan shopping.
Act III: Sometimes It Doesn’t Work Out
About 10 days before departure, after I booked ANA and Hawaiian, I got a seat.aero alert for Lufthansa business class award space on Tokyo – Munich – Toronto for 87,500 Aeroplan points + $180 CAD. This is an easy back-up option, but I preferred Montreal, so I called in to Aeroplan and booked HND – MUC – VIE – YUL instead.
About 7 days before departure, ANA business on the Tokyo – Chicago route opened up, but there were two problems: the final flight back to Ottawa was prohibitively expensive with no award space and ANA planned to operate the route on an old 777 with their old business class. I opted to pass on this.
LH Allegris Business Suite is my favourite J hard product ever
As departure approached, I found saver space on WestJet from Seattle to Calgary to Ottawa for 17,500 Delta SkyMiles in economy. But while weighing my options, I noticed that Lufthansa had scheduled an Allegris-equipped aircraft for my Tokyo–Munich flight. That tipped the scales in Lufthansa’s favour: while I’d love to fly ANA’s A380 first class, spending 10+ hours flying WestJet economy was too much of a buzzkill.
Takeaway
Believe it or not, this is my first trip in years where I booked the entire one-way journey as a single award without even a separate positioning flight. It was refreshingly nice: my checked bags in Tokyo went straight to Montreal, and I didn’t have to worry about missing a single self-booked connection!
Sometimes the simple option is the best option, but more importantly: always book a back-up flight if you’re banking on last minute award space. Anything can happen, from a war to airlines going on strike, so it’s a relief to know you definitely have a flight no matter what. After my first class plans on ANA and Japan Airlines did not work out, my last-minute booked Lufthansa backup flights came in handy.
