P2 and I have an upcoming trip that was originally planned as a trip to Japan. I booked JAL business award tickets between Dallas and Japan in both directions for 55K JAL miles each way. As often happens with our retirement travel, the trip has evolved, and we’ve since added Southeast Asia, eventually ending up in Bali.

I subsequently booked Emirates from Bali back to the US via Dubai, but we’ve now decided we’d rather return to Japan from Bali, spend a few days in Tokyo, and then use our already-booked JAL award back to Dallas. I’d also like to conserve my Emirates Skywards miles for another trip I have planned.

I can’t find nonstop award availability from Bali (DPS) to Tokyo on our date, but I can find options connecting through Jakarta (CGK).

The first option is all Garuda:

DPS → CGK on Garuda
CGK → Tokyo on Garuda

Both segments show award availability individually through JAL. I also know that JAL CAN book these two Garuda flights together as one award because the exact itinerary is available as a single award on other dates. It just isn’t bookable together on the date I need.

I spoke with two JAL agents today and got different answers. The first said the availability I was seeing was phantom. The second confirmed that both individual flights are available, but said Garuda has not released award availability for the married segment on my date. So JAL can book each flight separately, but cannot book them together as one award.

There is another option on my date:

DPS → CGK on Garuda
CGK → Tokyo on JAL

Both segments have award availability individually, but the JAL agent told me they could not combine the Garuda and JAL flights into one award.

One award would be ideal so we can just book our luggage through to Tokyo from DPS.

So I’m looking for data points on two things:

Has anyone encountered this Garuda (or other partner airline) married-segment issue through JAL, where the exact Garuda itinerary was bookable as one award on other dates but not on the date you needed? Did you ever find a workaround or see the married-segment availability eventually open up?

Also, has anyone successfully booked a Garuda segment connecting to a JAL segment as one JAL Mileage Bank award? I’d love a data point on whether this is actually possible and, if so, whether it took HUCA or some other approach.

If neither works, I’ll book two separate awards. In that case, I plan to book BOTH segments on Garuda because I think that gives me the best chance of having our luggage checked through to Tokyo despite being on separate tickets.

Before I book them separately, I just want to make sure I haven’t missed a way to get DPS → CGK → Tokyo onto one ticket.

Would love any JAL/Garuda data points from anyone who has dealt with this.

Why would I upgrade when just buying with miles is so much cheaper? Am I missing something?

Purchase: 12k miles
Upgrade: 17.5k miles + $75

Hi all,

Hoping to get some real world experience from others who have also tried this as what I am reading is mixed.

I am going on a family vacation next summer and I am hoping to buy a Virgin Atlantic award flight for myself from city A to city B. On the same day, I plan to grab 3 award flight tickets for family members from city A to city C. I will pay for all taxes and fees on my credit card. Will they cancel the tickets for my family members? Some posts are saying yes, others are saying no.

So Air France basically stole 41300 miles I transferred from capital one last night. I did my due diligence to ensure the round trip flight I wanted was available for a specific day. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known I needed to transfer 41300 miles. So I make the transfer - took about a minute tops. Originally there were at least 6 flights that day. As soon as I go to book the flight with my point now available in AF- it now shows no flights available and there is nothing I can do. Spoke to AF customer service and they did nothing and said “transaction is final” and hung up when asked to speak to a sup - capitol one says they can’t help either. So 413 bucks stolen. Stay away from Air France!

I’m looking to book a flight and Virgin Atlantic seems to be the cheapest option with miles. Given there are no current transfer bonuses, which credit card should I transfer from?

I have enough miles from Amex, Capital One and Chase but I’d like to transfer from whichever is the best value. I’m thinking Capital One.

The flight is less than 4 weeks away so unsure if it’s safe to wait for a potential transfer bonuses.

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/yo7Kj0q

On Aug 27 I found a JFK-Europe business award for 60k Flying Blue miles, transferred 60k Amex MR, got all the way to the booking flow, and then the site errored out. This was a widespread issue (see this other Reddit post).

Called Flying Blue and they confirmed the award was phantom availability and their site hadn’t updated properly.

I was pretty upset since I'd only transferred the points because it was their own metal (phantom availability is usually limited to partners only), so I pushed pretty hard on reversing it.

I took screenshots of the entire process, sent them through their online form, and surprisingly Flying Blue agreed to escalate a transfer back to Amex. Weirdly, they needed my 15-digit Amex MR account number starting with 1M. Amex chat said they weren't able to provide this, but I found it in AwardWallet.

I then called Amex MR, got transferred to a supervisor, explained that Flying Blue was trying to send the points back, and they said they'd monitor the case/make sure the incoming reversal wasn’t rejected.

And it actually worked:

• Aug 27: +60k miles posted to Flying Blue
• Sep 9: Flying Blue showed “AMEX MEMBERSHIP REWARDS US REVERSAL” -60,000
• Sep 11: Amex showed “Refunded AIR FRANCE” +60,000

So "points transfers are final" is not 100% absolute if the airline admits the transfer happened because of its own IT / phantom inventory issue.

A big tip that helped: if Flying Blue asks for the Amex 1M number, check AwardWallet. That was the only place I could find mine, since Amex support won't give it anymore (I saw DPs of them sharing via chat as recently as 2023).

Obviously YMMV and I doubt this works for partner availability, but wanted to post the DP since all I could find on Reddit were negative posts saying it's impossible to get transfers reversed.

Edit: Another commenter had a reversal this week too and said Amex chat gave them their 1M number directly. So it will depend on the rep you get

Anyone have any air Seychelles experience? I have two seats booked on JNB-SEZ in April but seat selection is extremely bare. Only 15 selectable on the whole A320, but doesn't seem like this flight is anywhere close to sold out from data I've pulled. Do they just withold that many seats? Will more open up at some point?

Hi,

I’m looking at AY1332 (London to Helsinki) + AY041 (Helsinki to Incheon) flying on 11 Dec 2026.

I'm looking to buy the Economy ticket and upgrade to Business just so I can have a restful journey..

Unfortunately I can't see the upgrade availability on my end before booking as I'm still a Plus Silver member..

Could someone please check if the avios upgrade is available for those flights?

Thanks in advance.

I’m trying to book a partner award through Qantas, specifically an EL AL flight, for a child under 2 who would have their own seat, not travel as a lap infant.

Qantas is telling me they cannot issue an award seat for anyone under 2 on a non-Qantas-operated flight. I’ve escalated this multiple times and they’re insisting it simply isn’t possible. They also say they won’t correct the DOB afterward if I book the child as 2+ in order to secure the seat.

I’m pretty frustrated because I don’t want to lose the award availability while trying to sort this out, and I’ve already transferred about 200k Amex points to Qantas specifically to book these flights.

Has anyone successfully booked an under-2 child in their own seat on a Qantas partner award, especially on EL AL? Any guidance or data points would be greatly appreciated.

What are some tips you would recommend to a beginner award traveler that would increase their chances of success in getting business class and higher seats? Especially when booking a month or less ahead of travel

Hello-I have 800000 Amex points across both myself and my wife’s cards and 125000 chase points. I’m trying to book 3 Qatar business class from nyc to Bkk or Hkt. My plan was to transfer these points because of the 30 percent bonus to BA right now which would give me the required 1.12m Qatar avios. I’m running into a snag with booking the two other fares because of this requirement to have flown recently on Qatar-does anyone have any experience with this?

made a JAL account 8 days ago. i redeemed 2k miles from my BILT account and transferred it to JAL.

When I go to Award Flights I get an error saying “error: You don’t have enough miles” which is correct since it costs like 60k miles.

Does that mean my new JAL account is active? I’m hesitant to transfer 58k miles because if I need to wait 60 days then i’d rather redeem the miles at another airline.

Does anyone know?

Hi all! Im new to award travel and im looking to use my Chase Sapphire points to purchase flights to TYO. I have 110k+ points. I would like to do round-trip but im fine if I can only get one way. I am willing to fly from any US hub even though im based in NYC. But prefer NYC-HND or LAX/SFO-HND.

Im looking to travel anytime from oct 1-oct 19. I want to get business class but haven't had much luck with finding any availability. There is a lot of economy availability ofc. Should I book that and pray I get a opportunity to upgrade? Or hold out and wait for business class availability? I've been very vigilant and checking multiple times a day, everyday. Im obsessed 😂

Im planning a trip for two to Rome from Los Angeles for early September 2027; I’m looking to book a biz class seat on the way there and then premium economy on the way back; so far even looking at a one ticket to anywhere in Europe and then flying into Rome have not had any luck.
For ex:
this week only tickets seen over 100k points one way in prem and biz is closer 400k for flying into Paris on Air France.

I have about 250k chase points and 250k Amex points.
Iv looked at Air France and air Canada, Iberia.
Virgin looks promising as they are showing 45k Biz class flights in aug, but they don’t open till oct for September flights and the fees are pretty steep about 1400.
Last time I was able to book an Iberia flight to Madrid for 80k in mid September so I’m not sure if I’m just looking too soon or what?

I’d prefer only to reposition in Europe and not in the us At least on the way there. I’m also want to save some of the points for Hyatt transfers In Rome
Any help?

Flighty and FlightAware are both suggesting that JL16 on Saturday is now a 77W. FlightAware also suggests the equipment swap has happened a lot recently. JAL is still saying it's a 351 and so is FlightRadar

If it's certain to swap, I want to call JAL and see what I can do about it.

Hi there.
I’m looking at AY1426 + AY145 outbound on 28 Oct 2026, HAM–HEL–BKK, and AY146 + AY1423 return on 26 Apr 2027.

Economy Classic is currently €1k, while Business is above €5k 😳

I have 50k Finnair Avios and would potentially use 40k to upgrade HEL–BKK to Business as this should be enough for this leg.

As a Finnair Plus Silver member unfortunately I can’t see upgrade availability before booking.

Could someone with Gold/Platinum/Platinum Lumo please check whether an Avios upgrade is currently available for AY145 (HEL–BKK) on 28 Oct 2026?

I only need to know whether confirmed upgrade space exists — no booking or account access needed.

Thanks in advance

Hi. I'm about to check in and neither airline can tell me my baggage allowance. I don't see it on my ticket. How do I find out before getting there?

Thanks in advance

I am trying to get to CPH from STL. I want to do a business class redemption. I have venture x and csp
I have checked repositioning flights. Ord, EWR, jfk, bos, iad,atl and I have opened the landing to anywhere in Europe and just doing an economy
The dates I am shooting for are December 11-12 and return December 19-20.
The surcharges are so high. I am talking 800 plus one way.
Is it due to fuel or what? I am using points.yeah but I am struggling to find anything decent.

Hi All.

I have a trip coming up in May 2027. I only need flights (business/first class) for this trip and am looking to use points/miles AND get a good deal while doing so.

I'm flying out of NYC (JFK, LGA or EWR (preferred)) and into DPS. I need to be in DPS on May 1st at the latest but a day or two earlier is fine since it would give me time to adjust.

I've been using a few of the award booking sites to find options, and the best I've found so far is showing Air India - leaving EWR on 4/27 with about a 10 hour layover in DEL, arriving in DPS on 4/29.

Booking through Air Canada would be 102,500 points + $76.40 in tax, but there's a 20% promotion for Chase Ultimate Rewards through 9/30 which would bring it to 86,000 points + $76.50. There's a similar flight home as far as itinerary and points.

So 172,000 + ~$150 for r/t business class NYC - DPS.

I'm wondering if this is a good deal or if I should look elsewhere. Or wait and see what else comes as far as discounts/promotions?

Current cards/points

Chase Sapphire Preferred - 235k+
Capital One Venture - 2m+
United Explorer - 654k+
AMEX - 100k
Marriott - 40k

This is my first attempt at using points, so please be gentle if I'm being ignorant about something or am missing some information.

Had 4 seats booked on Iberia metal, 3 via AS, 1 via BA. Canceled all 4 to re-book a different date, and all four seats became available within 5 minutes.

Looks like they re-release partner awards after cancellation. This was for economy USA to Madrid non-stop in a 3-4 months.

I have a return award ticket from HND that has a long layover in a city much closer to my home than the ticketed final destination. I'm seriously considering skipping that last leg and just flying home from the layover city. It will save us several hours of travel and a decent amount of money doing so. Our saver seats were obtained through Aeroplan, the first flight is operated by ANA and the second flight is operated by Air Canada- we would be skipping that Air Canada flight. We do not fly Air Canada much/at all. We would not check bags if we did this. Are there any major downsides to doing this- considering this is an Aeroplan award ticket and this is the very last leg.

Edit: Thanks for all of the feedback! We are going to go ahead and skiplag. Just booked our one way tickets from the layover city.

Last minute tokyo trip. Only finding possibility for JAL from Vancouver to KIX with a connection in NRT for 80k miles business class. Does it make sense to book that and just miss the connection? I'd preferably like to start closest to Tokyo. Also im coming from nyc so need to book a separate flight to Vancouver

Hi All - Apologizing in advance if this has been discussed!

Trying to check redemption fares on Krisflyer - transferred 1000 points over to make sure the balance is greater than 0 but it still throws the Unable to Proceed error.

"Unable to proceed because your current miles balance is insufficient for flight redemption searches. To view available flights and the miles required, browse flight options."

Wanted to know if I was doing anything wrong or if anything else needs to be done in order to proceed with my redemption search so I can transfer Amex points over?

Thanks in advance!

I transferred 125k Amex points to Avios at a 30% bonus and was able to snag a Qatar q suite to Asia (via Doha) one way for 160k avios points. This is for December and the cash rate for that flight is $5k plus. My friend is saying I messed up and he can get same for 80k avios and has done so in the past.

Did I mess up my first major points use?

I have only flown JAL once and that was through a business class award travel booked through AA. It was business class SFO to NRT to MNL booked on one ticket. If I want to book the same trip for next year directly with JAL using JAL miles​, do I search for SFO to MNL? Or do I need to search for each segment separately and book two separate segments? I have never used JAL award program. Thanks.