Best Ways To Book ANA First Class Using Points [Step-by-Step]

- UPDATED: May 10, 2021 |

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Airlines

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Whether you’re flying Singapore Airlines first class or Cathay Pacific first class, many Asian carriers have developed a reputation for world-class service. When you fly ANA, not only will you enjoy the privacy and comfort of your first class suite, but you’ll experience unbelievable service.

With several routes to the U.S., a competitive award chart, and plenty of partner booking options, let’s dive into ANA first class.

Table of contents

A Look Inside ANA First Class
- ANA’s New First Class
How to Fly ANA First Class Using Points
Great ANA First Class Redemptions
How to Earn Enough Miles for ANA First Class
When Should You Search for Award Space?
What Makes This a Great Redemption?
- First Class Service
- ANA Suite Lounge
Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

A Look Inside ANA First Class
- ANA’s New First Class
How to Fly ANA First Class Using Points
Great ANA First Class Redemptions
How to Earn Enough Miles for ANA First Class
When Should You Search for Award Space?
What Makes This a Great Redemption?
- First Class Service
- ANA Suite Lounge
Final Thoughts

A Look Inside ANA First Class

ANA A380 First Class Seat. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

ANA is widely considered to be one of the best airlines in the world, and their first class experience really drives that point home.

Departing from Tokyo (NRT only), you’ll step into luxury from the moment you enter the airport thanks to the ANA Suite Check-In in Terminal 1.

ANA’s concierge staff will help make the check-in process a quick and painless process. You can either check in at the counter, or wait comfortably on one of the check-in area sofas.

You will be taken care of when checking in to your ANA first class flight at Narita Airport in Terminal 1. Image Credit: ANA

Once you’re finished checking in, you’ll be off to security. While this is probably one of the least enjoyable experiences for most travelers, you’ll be whisked through priority security in no time.

At this point, you might rush to your gate — but hopefully you’ve left enough time to relax in the ANA Suite Lounge, which is available at both Narita and Haneda.

It’s here where ANA’s amazing service really starts to shine. During your stay, you can enjoy a great meal and refresh in one of the fully-stocked shower rooms. ANA really makes an effort to ensure the wait as well as the flight is an experience to remember!

Once onboard the ANA Boeing 777-300ER, you’ll see you a large rectangular first class suite waiting for you. Unlike some first class suites, these seats do not have doors that close you off from the rest of the cabin. But they provide more than enough privacy (especially the window seats).

Another difference you’ll notice is that the 2 middle seats also have tons of privacy. Even if you lower the divider, you still have to lean forward to talk to the person next to you.

ANA A380 First Class; Amenity Kit — ANA’s Samsonite amenity kits in first class make for a great souvenir. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

No first class experience wouldn’t be complete without pajamas and an amenity kit. ANA first class amenity kits are provided by Samsonite (departing from Tokyo) or Rimowa (departing to Tokyo) and have everything you need to refresh on a long flight.

ANA’s New First Class

ANA New 777 The Suite First Class Cabin. Image Credit: ANA

ANA is moving forward with their epic refurbishment of their 777-300ERs. Known for offering their “flagship” premium products, the new ANA 777-300ER will be arguably solidify its place in the best international first class products in the world. Here’s what new.

ANA’s new first class will consist of enclosed suites in a 1-2-1 configuration, each complete with sliding doors. Also, the seats are ridiculously sleek yet minimalist. The in-flight monitor will measure an astonishing 43 inches, which would make it the largest personal television on a commercial airline in the world. Also, it will be a 4K monitor, the first of its kind on an airline.

Arranged in 2 rows with a 1-2-1 configuration, the 8-suite cabin will present an epic “East Meets West” collaboration between architect Kengo Kuma and British design firm Acumen Design Associates. The biggest gripe of ANA’s first class “The Square” had long been the closed-off nature of the hard product, which can make talking to your seatmate difficult if you’re traveling together.

ANA New 777 The Suite First Class. Image Credit: ANA

ANA’s response to this is one of the most epic in the history of commercial aviation, and this will undoubtedly catapult the first class experience to a whole new level (not that it wasn’t already a top-tier product).

You can find the new ANA 777 First Class on:

Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – London-Heathrow (LHR) on NH 211/212
Tokyo-Haneda/Narita (HND/NRT) – New York City (JFK) starting in winter 2019
Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – Frankfurt (FRA) starting in winter 2019

How to Fly ANA First Class Using Points

ANA is a member of Star Alliance, which is the world’s largest airline alliance — so you’ll have plenty of options for booking ANA first class.

ANA Mileage Club

ANA Award Chart — ANA Mileage Club provides some great first class redemptions to Japan. Image Credit: ANA

The most straightforward way to book first class is through ANA’s own Mileage Club program. The entire booking process can be taken care of online. This might be the best way to book ANA business and first class, because ANA keeps a decent amount of award availability reserved for ANA Mileage Club members only.

Here are the steps to booking ANA first class:

Visit ANA’s website
Select “ANA Mileage Club”
Select “International” then “Award Reservation”
Log in to your account
Enter your desired route and dates
Select “First Class”
Select your flights

Hot Tip: Use our Transfer Partner Calculator to quickly determine how many miles you’ll get for transferring between programs.

There are a few important caveats to remember when booking with ANA Mileage Club. First, you can only book awards for yourself and your family members.

Second, ANA has low, regular, and high seasons for awards. Stick to the low and regular seasons for your award bookings to get the most bang for your buck.

The mileage cost of first class awards is actually the same for the low and regular seasons, so there are plenty of travel dates from which to choose.

ANA Waitlist — Make sure award space is available before you transfer miles to your ANA Mileage Club account. If you see the “Waitlist” label, think twice before transferring Amex Membership Rewards points. Image Credit: ANA

Third, ANA allows you to waitlist award bookings. This can be a nice feature, but there’s no guarantee you will move off the waitlist (especially on popular travel dates). For this reason, it’s important to check whether your selection is actually putting you on the waitlist.

Fortunately, it’s clear when you are waitlisting an award. Just make sure you confirm before moving forward!

Speaking of the waitlisted flight pictured above, you’ll notice the route is from Chicago to Sydney, Australia connecting in Tokyo.

ANA not only allows you to transit a third region on your way to a destination, but they allow you to book a stopover. This means you could visit Tokyo for a bit before continuing on to Australia.

If you need some more miles in your Mileage Club account, you can transfer Membership Rewards.

Membership Rewards generally take about 2 to 3 days to transfer. Keep this in mind before transferring, as award space isn’t guaranteed to be available if you wait.

Hot Tip: Check out other great ways to redeem with ANA Mileage Club.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

With the recent removal of Korean Air as a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, it’s now extremely difficult to find sweet spot awards to Asia.

Luckily, Virgin Atlantic is an amazing transfer partner of all major flexible award points. This is absolutely crucial for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club because they offer unbeatable first class award redemption rates on ANA to Japan.

The following chart is the ANA Award Chart using Virgin Points:

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club provides some stunning sweet spots to Japan on ANA. Image Credit: Virgin Atlantic

The above chart shows the round-trip cost in Virgin Points, though one-way trips are now allowed at half of the round-trip cost.

Here are some great example flights you can take:

New York City (JFK) – Tokyo (NRT/HND) nonstop round-trip for 120,000 Virgin Points + ~$300 in taxes and fees in ANA first class
Houston (IAH) – Tokyo (NRT) nonstop round-trip for 120,000 Virgin Points + ~$300 in taxes and fees in ANA first class
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Tokyo (NRT/HND) nonstop round-trip for 120,000 Virgin Points + ~$300 in taxes and fees in ANA first class
Los Angeles (LAX) – Tokyo (NRT/HND) nonstop round-trip for 110,000 Virgin Points + ~$300 in taxes and fees in ANA first class

These redemptions are already amazing, as ANA charges anywhere from 150,000-165,000 miles for round-trip first class trips and Virgin charges 110,000-120,000 miles.

To make things even better, Citi and American Express often run huge transfer bonuses of 25%-30% to top off your miles even more! If you line everything up correctly, you can fly from the West Coast to Japan in ANA first class round-trip for 85,000 points!

One significant drawback of Virgin Atlantic vs. ANA is that Virgin Atlantic will only be able to reserve award seats that are released to partners. Since ANA has access to much more award inventory, you’ll need to plan further in advance or be more flexible.

Here’s how to book ANA first class with Virgin Atlantic (do not transfer your points yet):

Visit United or Aeroplan.
Log into your Aeroplan or United account.
- For Aeroplan: Under “Use Your Miles” select “Travel.” Select your travel dates, cities, and business/first class.
- For United: Click round-trip, check “Book with miles,” and select your travel dates, cities, and first class.
Find your desired flight in ANA first class.
Call Virgin Atlantic at 1-800-365-9500 to hold your award booking for 24 hours.
Transfer your points.
- If transferring from Chase, you will not be able to transfer points to another person unless they share the same address as you.
- If transferring from Citi and the Virgin and Citi names don’t match, you will need to use “Points Sharing” to transfer to a Citi account with the same name as on the Virgin Atlantic account. You will then need to transfer from Citi to Virgin Atlantic.
- If transferring from American Express, the names must match the name on the Virgin Atlantic account.
- If transferring from Marriott, the names don’t need to match. Keep in mind that if this policy changes in the future, you can transfer up to 50,000 Marriott points to other accounts to get around this rule.
Call Virgin Atlantic at 1-800-365-9500 to confirm your booking once you have enough points and pay for taxes and fees.
Write down the ANA Record Locator and use it to select your seats.
- Navigate to ANA’s Manage Reservation Page. Enter your Record Locator and First/Last Name. If you have a middle name on your Virgin Atlantic account, you must type it after your first name without spaces.
  - For example: John Steven Doe will be First Name: JohnSteven and Last Name: Doe.
You will be prompted to log in with your ANA Number and Password.
Click “Service” on the right tab to select your seats and add meal preferences.

The last thing you need to know is about transfer times: Chase and Citi transfer instantly, AmEx takes 2-3 business days, and Marriott can take as long as AmEx. Make sure you know this when you’re planning award holds! If your award hold is lost, there’s no guarantee the seats will still be there if you try again.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Unlike when booking with ANA Mileage Club miles, to use Singapore KrisFlyer miles you have to call to book ANA flights.

Here’s what you need to know.

Visit Air Canada’s Aeroplan site
Log in to your Aeroplan account (you’ll need your account number)
Under “Use Your Miles” select “Travel”
Select your travel dates, cities, and class of service
Find your desired flight — make sure it’s ANA first class
Call Singapore Airlines to complete the booking (800-742-3333)
Write down the ANA Record Locator and use it to select your seats
- Navigate to ANA’s Manage Reservation Page. Enter your Record Locator and First/Last Name. If you have a middle name on your Virgin Atlantic account, you must type it after your first name without spaces.
  - John Steven Doe will be First Name: JohnSteven and Last Name: Doe
You will be prompted to log in with your ANA Number and Password
Click “Service” on the right hand tab to select your seats and add meal preferences

Booking through Singapore KrisFlyer allows you to book a one-way first class award on ANA if that’s all you need.

A big benefit to booking this way is that it allows you to leverage Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points since Singapore Airlines is a partner. Transfers to the KrisFlyer program generally take up to 24 hours; transfers from Citi generally take 1-2 days.

Hot Tip: Check out other great ways to redeem with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

Asiana Club

Asiana Airlines Award Chart — Asiana Club provides some great one-way booking options for ANA first class. Image Credit: Asiana

Asiana Club miles provides another great option for booking flights on ANA. Like Singapore Airlines, they also allow one-way bookings.

You must reserve and have your ticket issued 3 days prior to departure, which prevents snagging last-minute awards.

Search for availability using Aeroplan’s site (see above for the steps)
Call Asiana at 1-800-227-4262
- The U.S. call center is open between 8:30am-5:30pm PT (Monday-Friday)
Tell the phone representative you’d like to book an award with their Star Alliance partner ANA
Provide your travel dates and flight numbers
Once you confirm space, you will be prompted to give your credit card for any necessary taxes and fees

Other Options for Booking ANA Flights

You can also book through one of ANA’s other Star Alliance partners including Avianca LifeMiles, United MileagePlus, or Air Canada Aeroplan.

Great ANA First Class Redemptions

Each program we discussed above has its sweet spots:

Virgin Atlantic is the best way to fly round-trip if you see partner availability.
Asiana Club often provides solid one-way redemption options, but it doesn’t allow stopovers.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer might cost a few more miles, but you can book one-ways and stopovers.
ANA Mileage Club requires round-trip bookings, but offers some of the best redemption rates and allows stopovers. Most importantly, ANA has exclusive award availability compared to all other partners.

Here’s a quick comparison of some round-trip award redemptions with each program.

Departure	Destination	ANA Mileage Club	Virgin Atlantic Flying Club**	Asiana Club	Singapore KrisFlyer
Chicago (ORD)	Sydney	210,000 miles	N/A	240,000 miles	255,000 miles
New York City (JFK)	Tokyo	150,000 miles	120,000 miles	160,000 miles	200,000 miles
Washington, DC (IAD)	Bangkok	195,000 miles	N/A	180,000 miles	225,000 miles

**Virgin Atlantic is really only worth it to fly to Japan. It’s possible to book to places like Australia and Thailand, but you don’t get anywhere near the same value.

When booking with Asiana Club, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, or Singapore KrisFlyer, a one-way ticket will cost half the miles of the round-trip award.

How to Earn Enough Miles for ANA First Class

ANA miles can be transferred from American Express Membership Rewards at a rate of 1:1.

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Points can be transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Citi Thank You Rewards (all at a rate of 1:1).

You can also earn Marriott points and transfer those to ANA, Asiana, Virgin Atlantic, or Singapore Airlines at a transfer rate of 3:1. For every 60,000 Marriott points that you transfer, you’ll receive an extra 5,000-mile bonus.

Recommended Chase Cards (Personal)

Business Owner? See our article on Chase business credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards.

Recommended Amex Cards (Personal)

If you’re a business owner, refer to our article on Amex business credit cards that earn Membership Rewards.

When Should You Search for Award Space?

You can search and book ANA flights between 355 days and 96 hours from departure. Start your search early to give yourself the best chance of finding award space, and check regularly if you don’t see space initially.

What Makes This a Great Redemption?

ANA is one of the premier carriers operating out of Asia, so you’ll definitely want to give their first class a try. Here are some of the aspects of this experience you’re really going to enjoy.

First Class Service

If you’re accustomed to the service on U.S. carriers, you might be a bit overwhelmed. Don’t worry, there’s no trick here — ANA’s cabin crews really are that great!

From the moment you set foot onboard, they are ready to help you have a wonderful first class experience.

ANA Suite Lounge

Once you’re in the ANA Suite Lounge, staff will be there to offer you a hot (or cold) towel and a drink — champagne is a great choice. If that’s not a great way to start off a lounge visit, we don’t know what is!

If you need a shower after a long flight or a long day visiting Tokyo, you can enjoy a relaxing one here. There’s plenty of seating even during busy times, so you can definitely stretch out. If you need a quiet place to work, grab one of the workstations that include noise-canceling headphones.

Whether you’re enjoying a nice vacation or visiting the lounge for work, the ANA Suite Lounge will be a great experience.

Final Thoughts

Go ahead and add ANA first class to your list of flights you must try. If you need a one-way flight, Asiana Club and Singapore Airlines Krisflyer can get you what you need. If you need a round-trip, you’ll often find your best booking options are ANA’s own Mileage Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Additionally, ANA’s new first class is about to be added to their portfolio, so be sure to consider flying that product as it is sensational.

What are you waiting for? From the moment you arrive at the airport, the service will be amazing. Enjoy some champagne and before you know it, the journey will be as much fun as the destination!

The information regarding the Chase Freedom Unlimited® was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

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Featured Image Credit: Upgraded Points

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to book ANA first class?

Often, ANA’s Mileage Club program requires the fewest miles to book first class flights on ANA, but it requires round-trip bookings.

Asiana Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and other Star Alliance partners can also provide some great redemption options.

What credit cards can help me earn miles to fly ANA first class?

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and ANA Mileage Club are partners with American Express Membership Rewards.

You can also earn KrisFlyer miles through Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards.

What do I get when flying ANA first class?

First and foremost, world-class service. ANA is renowned for its amazing inflight service! Additionally, you can expect some great champagne and food in the ANA Suite Lounge and during your flight.

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About Spencer Howard

Always a fan of flying, it was only natural that Spencer was drawn to finding a way to improve the travel experience. Like many, he started this journey searching for cheap flights to take him around the world. This was fun for a while, but Spencer was intrigued by the idea of flying in business and first class! Throwing himself into what became an extensive research project, Spencer spent 3-4 hours per night learning everything he could about frequent flyer miles over the course of several months (he thinks this is normal).

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37 comments

Ben February 25, 2019
Great rundown!
But I just wanted to check with you. I’m sure you can book ANA flights directly with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. I was able to book first class tickets from Tokyo to Honolulu 4 weeks ago.
Reply
- Stephen Au February 25, 2019
  Hey Ben,
  Yes, it’s possible to book ANA First Class using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. However, the redemption rates are generally not favorable. You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic to book the same flight for much, much cheaper. Thanks for reading.
  Reply
  - Ben February 25, 2019
    Stephen, I totally understand and agrees..
    it just this step by step said..
    “”Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
    Unlike when booking with ANA Mileage Club miles, to use Singapore KrisFlyer miles you have to call to book ANA flights.
    Here’s what you need to know.
    Visit Air Canada’s Aeroplan site
    Log in to your Aeroplan account (you’ll need your account number)””
    which I think is incorrect, and I agree Virgin Atlantic is much better value for sure!
    Ben
    Reply
    - Stephen Au February 27, 2019
      Hey Ben,
      A lot of people don’t like the idea of calling to book award flights. They’d much rather prefer to do it online through a streamlined search engine, which Aeroplan has. This is why we included it as one of the best ways to book. Sure, Virgin Atlantic bookings on ANA flights is the best sweet spot. However, it can take a lot of time to complete bookings. Thanks for reading and your feedback.
      Reply
Nicholas March 1, 2019
Thanks for the info Stephen, is ANA partner availability ~330 days out and do you know how many F awards are released? I’m trying to rebook for next year and our son will be over 2 by then.
Reply
- Stephen Au March 19, 2019
  Nicholas,
  If you book when the schedule is first released, you’ll typically see 2 first class seats available. However, these are short-lived, so you must absolutely take advantage of it when the schedule is released. Otherwise, you’ll be lucky to find 1 seat. I recently flew ANA First Class from Tokyo to Los Angeles. The cabin was almost completely empty.. and yet there weren’t any last-minute award seats. ANA releases lots of business class seats close-in, but almost no first class seats close-in.
  Reply
Andrew March 20, 2019
Hi guys – great guide!
Couple of quick questions:
1. Can you add a domestic USA connecting leg for the same cost using Virgin miles?
2. Can you fly from and to different USA cities and it still count as a return flight?
Reply
- Stephen Au March 20, 2019
  Hey Andrew,
  Thanks for reading.
  1. You can’t add a connecting leg.
  2. Yes, you can return to a different city. Just remember you’ll have to pay based on each city. If departing from the West Coast and returning to the East Coast, you’ll have to pay half the round-trip cost for West Coast and half the round-trip cost for East Coast.
  Reply
Brenda April 15, 2019
Thanks for all the tips Steven! Our family of 3 (all adults) would like to travel to Japan on ANA with Chase reward points. Do you have any tips for getting 3 reward seats on one flight? Without having to travel in the winter?
Reply
- Stephen Au April 17, 2019
  Hey Brenda,
  Getting 3 reward seats in business or first is on ANA or Japan Airlines is tough but not impossible. Virgin Atlantic miles is the best and most cost effective choice in this case.
  With business class, you’ll want to plan far in advance to get 3 seats.
  With first class, you’ll almost always have no choice but to get last-minute availability if you want 3 seats.
  Thanks for reading!
  Reply
Patti May 2, 2019
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your super helpful post! I was wondering if you could help me. My boyfriend and I are planning to travel to Japan in August 2019, First Class ANA by transferring to Virgin Atlantic.
But when I log in on United’s site and check on various combinations of dates, all the First Class, they all say Not Available. Are they supposed to open up or are they all spoken for, for good? Should I just try my luck with ANA’s availability at this point?
Thank you!
Reply
- Stephen Au May 4, 2019
  Patti,
  Thanks for reading. Generally, if you want to book ANA First Class, you’ll want to plan anywhere from 8-11 months before departure. It’s really hard to get availability otherwise. For business class, ANA opens up a lot of space within 3-4 weeks of departure. ANA doesn’t open up much first class space before departure, as they would rather fly the seat empty.
  Reply
Mike May 22, 2019
I would like to add a datapoint that my AMEX MR -> VS Flying Club transfer on 5/18 was instant.
Reply
- Stephen Au May 22, 2019
  Hey Mike,
  Thanks for reading. We appreciate the additional data point.
  Reply
Bill June 5, 2019
Hey Stephen,
Great article & step by step guide. I’m not sure if anyone else is having this issue, but when I look for award availability on United’s website. I can almost always find an outbound 1st class flight, but I can never find a return 1st class from Narita/Haneda. I’m looking at Spring of 2020. I’ve looked 9,10, 11 months out & nothing is coming up.
Any ideas?
Reply
- Stephen Au June 7, 2019
  Hey Bill,
  Award availability is nearly impossible to predict in a general sense. However, we would suggest playing with your return city, as you might find first class availability back to the same country and it may be worth it to just pay cash for a short domestic flight to your home city. Thanks for reading!
  Reply
Rich C July 8, 2019
Is it possible to take advantage of the Virgin sweet spot from SFO with a stop over in Seoul? We would like to spend 5 days in Seoul and 3 in Tokyo. Sounds like it is impossible to score the 4 tickets I am looking for in business or first. When checking for award space on United.com am I looking for any award space or just saver awards?
Reply
- Stephen Au July 8, 2019
  Hi Rich,
  Thanks for reading. Using Virgin Atlantic will not allow you to book stopovers. Instead, you can only book that exact sweet spot directly to Japan. It’s possible with ANA Mileage Club. You’ll either want to check far in advance (11-12 months before departure) or close to departure (within 2 weeks). If you’re using ANA miles, you can check directly on ANA’s website because they will have better award availability than United.com. Otherwise, you’ll want to use United.com or Aeroplan.com.
  Reply
Chin V July 9, 2019
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the write-up. It’s a great summary article for beginners like me. I think I know what I need to do but need some advice about my situation. My wife and I have points all over the place with Chase UR, United, and Virgin Atlantic. I feel like my best option is to transfer from Chase to Virgin and book through Virgin. Would this be the way to go? Is there anything I can do about my United miles? I think I can only book ANA tickets with United miles but I can’t transfer it to Virgin. Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.
Reply
- Jarrod West July 16, 2019
  Hi Chin,
  Are you hoping to book an award ticket to fly ANA? If so, given the points you have at your disposal, transferring your Chase Ultimate Reward points to top off your Virgin Atlantic account would definitely be your most cost-effective option. Just be sure to find the award space you want to book first, because once you move your Chase points to Virgin Atlantic you cannot move them back!
  Thanks for reading!
  Reply
Bear July 16, 2019
Where/how can you search 355 days ahead? United will only show 330 days in advance, and Aeroplan just spins endlessly when I try to search there.
Reply
- Stephen Au July 16, 2019
  Bear, you’ll have to search using ANA Mileage Club to look that far ahead. One of the benefits of using ANA’s own mileage program is that you have access 25 days before United does. Aeroplan can glitch out if you look too far ahead.
  Reply
Mike August 2, 2019
Any experience with modifying your ANA via VS award flight?
For example: if I just want to change my departing city/date, will it cancel the entire original booking? And am I at risk of losing my return date?
Reply
- Andrew Kunesh August 9, 2019
  Hi Mike, you should be able to change just the departing city/date without canceling the return ticket. You will, however, need to do this over the phone with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Thanks!
  Reply
Luis M. Muniz August 11, 2019
Hi great guide,
I’m a beginner. I’ve looked online to see how many miles is for Premium Economy from NYC to Japan with Virgin Flying Club. Is this worthwhile considering the fuel surcharge? I appreciate any information.
Thanks
Reply
- Andrew Kunesh August 13, 2019
  Hey Luis, ANA (Virgin Atlantic’s partner to Japan) does not operate a Premium Economy cabin. However, you can book ANA’s economy, business, or first class cabins with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles. A round-trip from the U.S. to Japan has roughly $300 in fuel surcharges on a business class ticket. With this in mind, we think transferring miles to Virgin Atlantic for a business class award ticket on ANA is an excellent use of miles. Thanks!
  Reply
RP October 3, 2019
When searching on United for award space to book through Virgin, do these have to be saver-level fares?
Reply
- Stephen Au October 8, 2019
  Yes.
  Currently, United will only display partner award space if it’s at the saver-level. This may change in the future, but if an ANA flight is unavailable, it means there’s no space. If you see ANA award space, disregard the pricing. This is an available flight.
  Reply
Matt January 3, 2020
Hi Stephen,
I was able to find some business class reward seats for ANA on united.com (Business Saver Award), and confirmed that on ExpertFlyer. However when I called up Virgin Atlantic to hold them, they said ANA could not confirm the seats, meaning that Virgin was not able to lock in those seats for me. Does this happen often where award seats show available but ANA hasn’t actually released them? I’m assuming nothing to do but wait for them to be released or look at other dates?
Reply
- Stephen Au January 4, 2020
  Hi Matt,
  The way it works is that Virgin Atlantic must actually “request a booking” internally in their system. Their system communicates with ANA’s revenue management software, which then comes back with “yes/no” as a response to your award booking request. From time to time, this occurs where the availability does not match.
  In this case, you’ll want to consider other flight options or dates. Thanks for reading.
  Reply
Henry January 5, 2020
Hi Stephen
Thanks for all the great information. I am trying to book two first or business tickets to Bangkok from Houston in March but wish for 5 day stopover in Tokyo. I have about 350k points both with Chase and with capital one available to transfer. Do you have a recommendation? I am open to airlines as long as the flights are direct. Can you point me in the right direction?
Thanks much
Henry
Reply
- Stephen Au January 5, 2020
  Henry,
  Thanks for reading. One thing you can explore is using United miles to book flights on ANA. Another method is to use Capital One miles transferred to Air Canada Aeroplan to book flights to Tokyo. Neither of these programs will permit a free stopover. The only other option is to use Singapore KrisFlyer miles to book with a stopover, but the miles cost is significantly higher than using Aeroplan or United miles.
  Reply
Lisa S. February 19, 2020
Hi, I’m trying to flying to Tokyo from the east coast USA later this fall. I clicked on ‘book with miles’ under United and clicked on first class but i tried different dates, there are no available first class options. It says “Not available” under any of the date ranges I picked. Any suggestions or feedback? Thanks!
Reply
- Jarrod West February 21, 2020
  Hi Lisa,
  ANA First Class seats can be very hard to come by and can sometimes be booked up a year out. Availability comes and goes, though, so your best bet is to keep searching and trying different dates until you find some.
  Best of luck!
  Reply
Dragonal September 15, 2020
Hi Stephen,
Do you know if it’s possible to book ANA Business or First Class using Krisflyer for oneway redemption from Europe via Tokyo (with stopover) then onwards to Singapore?
Please advise, thank you.
Reply
- Stephen Au September 21, 2020
  Hi Dragonal,
  It is not possible to book a one-way redemption flight with a complimentary stopover included. Per KrisFlyer’s Terms & Conditions Section J.2.a, “Complimentary stopovers are not permitted for one-way awards.”
  If you want to book this, you’ll end up paying the sum of the price for each segment.
  Reply
DL July 3, 2022
DId the ANA availability completely dry up? I’ve been keeping an eye on JFK-TYO/TYO-JFK using the UA site – previously there would be days here and there that had availability but nowadays it seems like there is nothing at all.
Plus it seems United made a change to display EWR options even when entering JFK specifically… which is annoying
Reply

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