Options for flights to Japan from Melbourne for 4 people?

Flights & Airfares
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Hi all,

Planning for a trip for 4 people to Japan (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 infant on lap) with preferably JAL from Melbourne around September 2018.

Thinking of flying Premium Economy or above, so far here are the options I have:

  • Buy directly from JAL, around AU $5,400, premium economy return. Question then where should I credit the points etc. I have QFF but almost never used it.

  • Buy miles from AAdvantange. Haven’t worked it out yet, but based on recent promo, it is around $6k-7k for business class redemption (excl taxes).

  • Use my Velocity points to KrisFlyer, and redeem part of the cost. My Velocity is at 160k, and I know it’s not much, but I prefer to save it for SE Asia trip instead. Besides, we did MEL-SIN-HND last year and wouldn’t want to do it (esp with infant).

Based on these 3 options, it seems that the best bang for buck is to buy miles from AAdvantage and redeem it for business class fare, however I am not sure on the flexibility, and restrictions on this.

Or are there any other options that I’m missing?

Cheers,
TripleG

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Hi Triple G,

I have purchased AA miles for JAL business class tickets. It was much cheaper than paying with cash directly. The challenging bit is finding 3 award seats. If you book 11-12 months in advance, your chances should be much better. AA redemptions have minimal taxes involved (as with most US based airlines).

If you ring up AA and ask for seat availability around the dates you have in mind, they will tell you how many seats are available. You could then put those seats on around 5 days hold for you to organise getting the AA miles.

AA miles have periodic discounts or sales. Have a look at Buy Advantage miles.

Good luck.

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