I Just Booked ANA First Class to Japan for 61,000 Points — And You Can, Too

After chatting with my wife about where we should go for our next trip, she suggested returning to Japan. Even though we’ve already visited 6 times, we both knew we were ready to head back to our favorite country.

I immediately began looking for award availability on Japan’s 2 biggest carriers (which happens to be my favorite airlines): All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.

While finding premium cabin award space can be extremely difficult, with some patience, I found some award availability in ANA first class. Although I have flown ANA first class several times at this point, I will never turn down an opportunity to fly that incredible product again.

Here’s a look at how I found last-minute award availability and some tips and tricks to book ANA’s “The Suite” first class to Japan in 2025.

What Makes ANA First Class So Special

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is widely considered one of the world’s best airlines, known for its stellar service, onboard cuisine, and fantastic premium cabins. ANA’s “The Suite” first class cabin is featured on most of ANA’S Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and is arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, with just 8 seats in total. The spacious suites feature sliding doors, offering a great amount of privacy.

ANA is also known for its onboard dining, featuring gourmet dishes from Japanese and international cuisine, created by renowned chefs. First class passengers can choose from an extensive menu that includes fresh sushi and wagyu beef, among other exquisite dishes.

Cash prices for ANA first class tickets between the U.S. and Japan often cost $20,000 round-trip. For instance, the one-way first class ticket I booked using points from Chicago – O’Hare (ORD) to Tokyo – Haneda (HND) was priced at almost $15,000.

How To Redeem Virgin Atlantic Points For ANA Flights

Fortunately, there are many ways to fly to Japan using points and miles, and some are better than others.

ANA is a member of Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world. Star Alliance members include United Airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and Turkish Airlines, among many others.

However, ANA also has several non-alliance partnerships. One such partnership is with Virgin Atlantic, a member of the rival SkyTeam alliance. Thanks to this unique partnership, you can redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for ANA flights. In fact, using Flying Club points for travel on ANA is a sweet spot in award travel and is easily on our list of the best ways to redeem Flying Club points.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a zone-based award chart for flights on ANA. Here is the one-way award pricing for flights between the U.S. and Japan on ANA:

It’s important to remember that Virgin Atlantic levies carrier-imposed surcharges for ANA award tickets. Fortunately, ANA publishes exactly how much the fuel surcharges will be on its website.

From my home airport of O’Hare, I can book a one-way, nonstop first class award on ANA for 85,000 Flying Club points plus taxes and fees. This is considered one of the most valuable sweet spots in the world of points and miles.

In comparison, United MileagePlus charges an absurd 220,000 miles, plus taxes and fees for the exact same flight.

Although 85,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points sounds like a great redemption, it gets even better. Many credit card programs, like Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, often offer transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Recently, I took advantage of a 40% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. So, rather than transferring 85,000 Amex points to Virgin Atlantic, I transferred just 61,000 points in anticipation of flying ANA first class to Japan.

For this redemption, I scored 24 cents per point, which is substantially higher than our estimated value of 1.4 cents for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points or 2.2 cents for Amex Membership Rewards points. Since there was only 1 award seat available, I booked her a flight from Toronto and met her in Japan.

How To Find ANA First Class Award Availability

To make matters more complicated, you can’t search for ANA award flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points on Virgin Atlantic’s website. Instead, your best bet is to look for award space on ANA’s Star Alliance partners’ websites: United or Air Canada.

That said, ANA typically only releases 1 first class award seat per flight, and sometimes not even that. Still, award availability is out there. Generally speaking, searching for last-minute flights is an excellent way to find award space for ANA premium cabin awards, and this is exactly what I did.

The website Seats.aero has a very useful ANA first class award finder, which shows dates with first class award availability. Although the award availability may be there, it’s best to double-check it before transferring points.

Thanks to United’s user-friendly interface, I like to confirm award availability with United MileagePlus. For first class partner airline awards, you will want to look for the “O” fare class on its website.

Once I found the award space, I contacted Virgin Atlantic at 1-800-365-9500. The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club phone representative asked some basic questions about my itinerary and was incredibly knowledgeable about Flying Club redemptions.

He told me that ANA’s award space can be difficult to come by and that he would need to contact ANA to confirm award availability, which can be done very quickly. After contacting ANA, he told me that there was award availability and that the first class ticket could be booked for 85,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points plus taxes and fees.

I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card to pay the $165 taxes and fees for this award ticket. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is my go-to card for travel as it earns 2x points, and it offers extensive travel insurance and protections.

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A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

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A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

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Final Thoughts

Although award space for ANA first class can be difficult to find, it’s still out there. Fortunately, there are tools like Seats.aero that make looking for award availability simple.

While there are numerous ways to book ANA first class, there is no better program than Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. It costs just 72,500 points from the West Coast and 85,000 points from the East Coast to book ANA first class through Flying Club. By taking advantage of transfer bonuses from credit card rewards programs like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards, you may pay even fewer points.