Tip: How to Book Amazing Business Class to Tokyo+Bangkok from NYC for $1,300

[Updated March 13th, 2023] As of March 13th, 2023, Alaska Airlines had devaluated Japan Airlines business class award redemption for flights between East/Midwest US and Japan from 60k (65k with stopover) to 80k miles.

You can visit both Tokyo and Bangkok, or maybe other Asia city on the lie-flat business class seats of one of the best airlines, Japan Airlines™ (JAL), for less than $1,300 to flight to both places from JFK, or maybe other major cities where JAL flights from in US. Thanks to Alaska Airlines™ buy mile promotion, and free stopover policy for one-way award tickets. We will show you how to book these business class flights for cheap!

Normally I wouldn’t advise on buying all the mileages for award ticket seats. However, Alaska Airlines mileage program, Mileage Plan™, sometimes runs buy mile promotion with 60% bonus miles. So, if you can find the award seats for the dates you want to travel, those buy mile promotions are your opportunity to do so. Comparing with other mileage program, Mileage Plan™ miles are harder to earn, as there is no other credit card points can be transferred to Mileage Plan™ miles, except the Alaska Airline™ co-branded credit card. Hence these promotions become more attractive than other airlines’ buy mile promotions.

The best feature of Alaska Mileage Plan™ is that it allows stopover for one-way award redemptions. With partners like Japan Airlines™, the redemption fee and tax is low. It is a very attractive option, if you travel from US to Asia, or vise versa.

With this example, I built a JFK to Tokyo, and then a week later, from Tokyo to Bangkok all direct business class flight itinerary, for end of the Summer 2023 trip. It costs 65,000 miles + $46.50.

Assuming you have zero Alaska Mileage Plan™ miles, with the 60% buy promotion, you would pay $1,212.06 for all of miles you need, with 600 miles extra:

There, you get to visit both cities flying one of the best business class products for less than $1,300.

Like most of other airlines, finding premier award seats is the real challenge. Luckily, JAL does release good amount of seats to its partner Mileage Plan™. However, they go fast! Also, to build a itinerary with stopover is more challenging, because now you need to find not one, but two award seats. Let me show you how to book these business class flights in the following simple to follow steps:

1. Use Alaska Airline™ Website, and find the available seats first

Unlike some of other airlines, you are allowed to search award availabilities without having any mile first. The search engine provides a convenient calendar view to show all the available dates of the month.

Please note that award seating availabilities can be limited for the city you want to visit. Try to search against your final destination, and then look at the airlines and the connecting city offered. You will be able to stopover and visit that connecting city.

2. Search One Leg at a Time, with Direct Flight

For example, if you would like to stopover Tokyo, search for JFK to Tokyo first. Once you find the seat on the date you like, search the flight for the second leg, and find the available date. You should only find the direct flight for each leg. With connections, it’s less likely you would be able to use that flight to build your multi-city trip.

3. Search with Multi-city option

Once you know the dates for the both flights, you can then use “Multi-city” option to build the whole itinerary with stopover. Be warned, I do see a lot of times, even though you see both flights are available during individual search, it might not show availability once you put them together as multi-city search. I haven’t tried it yet, but in this case, you might be able to call Alaska Mileage Plan™ to ask agent to book for you.

4. Be Mindful of Mixed Cabin

Lots of times you will see two-shaded blue seats next to the fees in the search results. Those mean that the cabin classes are mixed. Be careful if they are mixed cabin. Make sure to click on the icon to see the details. Sometimes the premier seats are actually in the very short leg, and the long-haul flight is economy. Alaska Mileage Plan™ charges you the same amount of miles, regardless of mixed cabin or not. It makes those flights with long-haul economy connecting flights very bad trade-off for your miles!

5. Purchase all the Required Miles and Book that luxury business class flights!

Once you can find the seats for sure with multi-city search, quickly buy the miles you need. Make sure you have the Mileage Plan account first. If not, sign up for free at Alaska Airlines™ web site. Alaska Airlines uses Points.com to process miles. You can either got to points.com to purchase, or go from Mileage Plan™ buy miles page. The miles should show up in your account relatively fast, if not instantly. You might need to logout and log back in to see the miles. Once they show up in your account, make your reservation! However, I have seen in rare cases, the miles did not show up in the account for up to 24 or 48 hours. This would be the risk you need to be aware, as the award seats might be disappeared by that time.

Keep in mind that because the miles process is done by Points.com™, the purchase will not be categorized as airline purchases. You will not be getting extra points/miles for that category by using your credit card, such as American Express™ Platinum, or Citi™ Prestige. The best card to get extra credit card points would be Capital One™ Venture X or Citi™ Double Cash, for 2X points.

Conclusion

It is extremely good bargain, if can be flexible about your travel dates, to visit Asia cities flying Japan Airlines™ business class seats with Alaska Mileage Plan™. Planning a head of time gives you more chances to snag those great seats. JAL releases reward seats up to 360 days in advance. Normally if you plan so far ahead, you have more time to work your schedule to fit your vacation dates. The best part is that Alaska Mileage Plan™ does not charge fee to cancel flights, and redeposit your miles. So, go ahead, and check off that bucket list item by following the steps above to show you how to book the business class flights to your dream Asia cities.

Now the real challenge is the availability of the business class award seats. Sometimes JAL can be stringy about releasing them to partner airlines.

Once you have the flights booked, use our tips to maximize savings on hotel bookings!

Currently the 60% bonus buy miles promotion runs until Feb. 20th, 2023.

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Vincent Robison

I have strong passion of traveling, and finding great travel deals. I was born and grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. However, I had lived in New York for most of my life, and travelled all over the world.