ANA business class and first class are easily among the best in the world – especially on their new Boeing 777s decked out with “The Room” in business class and “The Suite” up in first. So go figure it's also become one of the hardest to actually book using miles, too.
Over the last few years, the Japanese carrier has gotten incredibly stingy. These days, finding any award availability – flights you can actually book with miles – for ANA premium cabins is virtually impossible unless you're looking just two weeks (or less) before departure … and that's if you can find any flights at all.
A new tool from ANA itself could help you find that needle in a haystack. The airline quietly rolled out a new “International Award Calendar” recently, letting users easily scroll through six months of ANA award availability to pinpoint those select few dates when business or first class seats are bookable – or plenty more in economy or premium economy.
This new award calendar lets you quickly filter for available flights between regions – for example, between Japan and North America – and by cabin, too. You may just need to log in with an ANA Mileage Club account in order to use it.
The shape- and color-coded calendar quickly displays where they may be open – or even “wide open” – availability. Using your mouse or cursor, you can scroll through each two-month period to see the full range of dates or click to see the next two-month span.
This is a powerful and (generally) accurate tool, but there are some big limitations:
- You'll only see availability for flights operated by ANA itself – not fellow Star Alliance carriers like United, Lufthansa, EVA Air, and others
- There's currently no way to filter the results by the number of passengers. So even if you're determined to book two seats, you might not see that reflected here
- ANA says this is all “based on the availability … last night,” which means the results on the calendar could be slightly out of date.
- It only displays availability over the next six months or so – not the full, 355-day booking window. Then again, given how much ANA award availability in business and first class skews last-minute these days, it's unlikely you're missing much
For example, this calendar indicates I could book ANA business class from New York City (JFK) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) on Jan. 21 and a flight back to the states from Tokyo-Narita (NRT) to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) on Jan. 23. Is just 24 hours in Tokyo my idea of a good time? Honestly, kind of … but beggars can't be choosers!
While you can click individual dates on this calendar to bring up an actual award search, ANA forces you to first select a flight departing from Japan first – not roundtrips beginning in the states. Still, I plugged those flights into a multi-city award search with ANA and, sure enough, there it was!
Even after an award rate increase last year, this is still a stellar deal at just 100,000 miles and roughly $350 in taxes and fees. ANA is an Amex transfer partner – and one of the best of them, if you ask us – so you can get the ANA miles you need by transferring points from cards like *amex platinum* or the *amex gold*. Just beware that it can take 48 hours or more for those points to hit your account, so any award space you find using this tool could disappear in the meantime.
Let's try one more: As of publication, ANA's new award calendar suggests I could book a roundtrip from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) in business class, departing Jan. 21 and returning Jan. 28. Yet again, it worked like a charm.
Read more: Where to Find ANA's New Business & First Class Cabins
How to Book
In theory, there are a handful of ways to book these ANA tickets using miles. ANA's part of the Star Alliance, so you should be able to book any flight to or from Japan you find using miles from United, Air Canada Aeroplan, and more – plus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, too.
In practice, your options are extremely limited these days as ANA has increasingly blocked more and more of those airline partners from booking much of anything, preserving what precious little award space there is for its own ANA Mileage Club members.
- Booking ANA First Class for as few as 72,500 points using Virgin Atlantic or business class from just 52,500 points each way are some of the best deals in the world of points and miles … especially if you pair it with a massive transfer bonus. But nowadays, you can't book business class through Virgin Atlantic within the final two weeks before departure – making that redemption more or less impossible.
- Air Canada Aeroplan is a decent option, especially since you can add a stopover in Tokyo for a few days before continuing onward in Asia for just 5,000 miles more. Nonstop flights to Tokyo from most U.S. cities will cost you 75,000 points each way … except the Seattle sweet spot, which clocks in at just 55,000 points each way. But these days, Aeroplan gets barely any of the availability you may see through ANA itself
- It's only a bit better using United MileagePlus, which charges 110,000 miles each way for ANA business class
That leaves us with ANA Mileage Club, where availability isn't great (at least in premium cabins) but is far better than what you'll find through any other Star Alliance program. With award rates that start at 100,000 miles roundtrip for a business class flight, it's tough to beat. But ANA miles present their own set of problems:
- While it's an Amex transfer partner, sending miles to ANA is painfully slow: It can take 48 hours or longer for the points to hit your account, which means that hard-to-find availability may disappear by the time a transfer clears.
- You have to book roundtrip when redeeming ANA miles – one-way flights aren't allowed. You can, however, book a multi-city flight, which makes it easier to stitch together what little award availability is out there.
- You can only book flights for yourself and family members. No booking flights for friends using your ANA miles, unfortunately.
Bottom Line
A brand-new tool could make it easier to find and book some of the best first and business class cabins in the sky.
ANA recently rolled out a new award calendar, giving you a six-month look at critical award inventory for booking flights to and from Japan using points. That doesn't solve the problem of scarce award availability … but it helps find what little is out there!