Japan Airlines to begin MEL-NRT flights

[Kangol]

Will the MEL F lounge be open that late?

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Out of interest, does anyone know how to preselect seats in Y?

 

[Timtammi]

Just bumping up a slightly old thread as I just booked some award seats on the NRT-MEL flights for next year and thought others might be interested in my experience. There are 5 of us travelling and so I wanted 5 return J seats MEL-NRT-MEL for September/October next year. Not an easy feat as you all know! MEL-NRT 4 of us are travelling on one date and the 5th travelling a week later. I managed to snag 4 x J seats MEL-BNE-NRT with all of us on the same flights so was pretty happy with that. Then I waited a week, and booked the 5th person on the same flights, just one week later.

We had already decided we wanted to try the new NRT-MEL JL flight for the way home. Given that JL release seats 330 days out that meant holding our nerve and watching the available QF flights get snapped up for our dates once they came available. I stalked the BA site for JL availability and could see that every day at 10am Tokyo time 4 seats in business would open up on JL773. It seemed the same for every day, I never saw less released so now it was just a case of trying to get them!

For the trip back 3 of us wanted to come back on a Saturday and the other 2 on the next day, the Sunday. I knew that QF agents sometimes have trouble finding the JL award seats so I was ready to prompt them to look elsewhere. Guessing at a reasonably long wait time we called QF about 50 minutes before the seats were to be released. Seemed about right, we were told wait times would be 35-55 minutes. The agent came on the line a bit too soon (about 35 minutes before seats were available) and we explained what we wanted and she was able to see the seats that I could for the day before we wanted to travel. She promised to call back on or as close to possible the hour (12pm AEDT) when the seats should show up. To be honest, I didn't really expect her to call and had already rung back to get in the queue again when she did call, at about 12.05. Managed to grab the 3 seats, happy days!

On the next day we did the exact same thing, wait times were shorter, so we hung up and waited about 15 minutes and rang in again, This time the agent came on the line at just after 12 and again we were able to get 2 x J seats no problem,


I couldn't fault the customer service we received it was absolutely first class and we are very happy with the outcome! I understand that JL is moving to Amadeus any day now so these awards should be able to be bookable online at qantas.com although that might make them harder to get! I should also add that both agents we spoke to had no problems "seeing" the JL inventory and did know where to look.

 

[Melburnian1]

It will be very interesting in time to see the BITRE percentage of seats occupied on these new JL flights NRT - MEL - NRT. It's complicated because QF also operate on the route nonstop, and JL have other flights but with some arithmetic one ought be able to fairly closely estimate the seat occupancy percentages each way. There is quite a lag before each month's information is published.

This will not disclose anything about average fares, total revenue and hence yields per seat but I suspect JL, being as well regarded as it is and also having had an introductory offer will find that a high percentage of the available seats on this new route are occupied.

 

[Himeno]

I understand that JL is moving to Amadeus any day now

They should be changing over later this week. (Thursday).
I have a JL domestic flight that morning.

 

[lakeman]

I couldn't fault the customer service we received it was absolutely first class and we are very happy with the outcome! I understand that JL is moving to Amadeus any day now so these awards should be able to be bookable online at qantas.com although that might make them harder to get! I should also add that both agents we spoke to had no problems "seeing" the JL inventory and did know where to look.

Hi Timtammi, could you post the cost in points and fees for future reference?
Cheers Lakeman

 

[junbugging]

For reference purposes, I just booked NRT-MEL-CBR (JL-QF) in J for 40,000 AA miles + AUD83.50. I had to ask to have the AUD60 assistance fee waived, but that wasn't really a problem. Ticketed within an hour.

 

[lakeman]

For reference purposes, I just booked NRT-MEL-CBR (JL-QF) in J for 40,000 AA miles + AUD83.50. I had to ask to have the AUD60 assistance fee waived, but that wasn't really a problem. Ticketed within an hour.

So that would be 973 + 83 under the current aa promotion !
Well done

 

[Timtammi]

It was 78000 qff points ea, booking fee proactively waived, fees around
$90aud each.
Much better on the fees than the QF flights on the way up!

 

[defurax]

So it looks like JL is removing premium economy on the MEL-NRT route from 7 March 2019 by flying a 788 config without PE cabin. That sucks, I enjoyed the one stop itineraries to BOS, DFW, ORD and other US cities via NRT. The JL flight from SYD arrives in NRT too late for most connecting flights to the US.
It was good while it lasted...

 

[Himeno]

So it looks like JL is removing premium economy on the MEL-NRT route from 7 March 2019 by flying a 788 config without PE cabin. That sucks, I enjoyed the one stop itineraries to BOS, DFW, ORD and other US cities via NRT. The JL flight from SYD arrives in NRT too late for most connecting flights to the US.
It was good while it lasted...

JAL has only confirmed what seating config is operating flights through to end OCT. Anything showing in the timetable past that isn't confirmed and is subject to change.
Next March would have only recently had flights loaded in the GDS. It is likely that aircraft type loaded at this point is a placeholder.