Using ANA miles for international tickets

[Hiroshi]

Hello,
Trying to use my miles (which majority will reach expiration in March 2024, thanks to the CORONA special extension) to get a ticket to Europe.
Whatever the dates I check, ALL ANA direct flights are in "waiting for cancellation" status.
At certain specific dates, I can find some non direct flights, which longest route (starting from Japan) is not an ANA flight, but a partner airline ...

Anybody ever succeeded in getting an ANA direct flight to Europe or the US ??
If yes, how long did the "Waiting for Cancellation" last ?
and when (how many days before departure) did you receive confirmation of your ticket after "Waiting for Cancellation" ?

Thanks !

PS - Absolutely no problems with routes inside Japan

[Tkydon]

I think with ANA, you would end up on a Star Alliance Partner Flight, or even a Code Share...

[RetireJapan]

Hello,
Trying to use my miles (which majority will reach expiration in March 2024, thanks to the CORONA special extension) to get a ticket to Europe.
Whatever the dates I check, ALL ANA direct flights are in "waiting for cancellation" status.
At certain specific dates, I can find some non direct flights, which longest route (starting from Japan) is not an ANA flight, but a partner airline ...

Anybody ever succeeded in getting an ANA direct flight to Europe or the US ??
If yes, how long did the "Waiting for Cancellation" last ?
and when (how many days before departure) did you receive confirmation of your ticket after "Waiting for Cancellation" ?

Thanks !

PS - Absolutely no problems with routes inside Japan

It is very frustrating. I have not been able to book an award flight with ANA for a long time now. I tend to use ANA miles to book Lufthansa flights to Europe.

Four factors I think make a big difference:
1. the routes are still somewhat reduced compared to pre-2020
2. the awards are allocated by status, so unless you are a Diamond it is going to be tricky
3. you are not allowed to book one ways, so you need both the outbound and return flights to have award availability
4. the deadline for waitlists to clear is too early, so often your booking will be cancelled even if the outbound opens up as the return won't have had time to open
5. seats open up just a few days before the flight, which is useless due to the inability to book one ways

Basically my impression is that flights are full enough that ANA is selling enough seats and they don't want to let people have them for free with miles.

If you are taking a short trip it might work out, but anything longer than a week or so the system makes it very difficult.

[Hiroshi]

Great analysis, thanks.
Their promise to extend the miles validity after COVID was great, but then making it almost impossible to actually use the extended miles is frustrating (even if it makes sense in terms of business/margin management).

Replacing my ANA VISA by a Rakuten Card sounds like an increasingly attractive option.

[Adamakin86]

I think they come available around 350 days in advance. The higher tier members get them maybe 5 days earlier so they just book tickets just in case.

Another thing that people do is just book a return ticket on any dates for their destination way in advance and change the date everyday when the new dates are released. If you’ve already got the booking, it’s much quicker to just change a date when the new dates get released. If you have to fill in all the info, by the time you make the booking, it’s been taken. Things might calm down a little once the extended validity period comes to an end. Not much help to you at the moment though.

Good luck!

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I have given up using Air miles for international flights in my case from a JAL airmiles credit card. They won't cover air fuel surcharge and air passenger duty (a small fortune in the case if you are flying into Heathrow) These two now account for half the price of a ticket. I have just been using them for domestic flights, which they are still quite good value for.

[northSaver]

I have given up using Air miles for international flights in my case from a JAL airmiles credit card. They won't cover air fuel surcharge and air passenger duty (a small fortune in the case if you are flying into Heathrow) These two now account for half the price of a ticket. I have just been using them for domestic flights, which they are still quite good value for.

Yeah, you used to be able to get a return from Sapporo to London in economy (best long-haul economy class in the world by the way) for 46k miles plus about 50k yen fee. Now the lowest is 72k miles plus about 120k yen fee. Ridiculous!

I've noticed that Frankfurt is still 46k miles so that could be an option - get a cheap connecting flight from there. And Paris is 52k miles. As for the fee, Qatar was only 30k yen return to Manchester last year plus 90k JAL miles.

Domestically, Jetstar flights are a steal. Not as comfortable as JAL but who cares for an hour or so?

I've now got some Miles&Smiles (great name ) after flying Turkish to Manchester last month. I can use them on ANA flights but so far haven't been able to book anything to Osaka, only Tokyo.

[Never2Late]

Hi
The trick with using ANA air miles is to convert them in to ‘Sky Coins’ first.
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/guide/amc/skycoin/skycoin/
Once that’s done, just book any flight you want through the ANA app or website and you can use the Sky Coins to pay for it.
If I remember rightly, you have to use the Skycoins within a year.
Hope that helps

[RetireJapan]

Hi
The trick with using ANA air miles is to convert them in to ‘Sky Coins’ first.
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/guide/amc/skycoin/skycoin/
Once that’s done, just book any flight you want through the ANA app or website and you can use the Sky Coins to pay for it.
If I remember rightly, you have to use the Skycoins within a year.
Hope that helps

The only problem with that is that awards priced in miles can be much cheaper than the same tickets priced in yen. I like to use my miles for business class because it tends to not cost that much more than an economy award, but I would need 2-3 times as many miles to buy the same tickets with Sky Coins.

Might be a good option if your miles are expiring and you would not otherwise be able to use them I guess

[smalldog]

Agreed - skycoins are an extremely poor value way to spend airmiles - you are better off buying your daily items the ANA mileage mall when they do 10% discount offers and they buying your tickets with cash, than converting to skycoins at a 1:1 ratio.

Appreciate this is not a feasible solution for everyone but I find as long as I have Platinium or Diamond status in the year we can almost always get the business class award tickets I want (prob 90% success rate as Diamond; 70-85% as Plat). I believe the superflyers card only gives you “bronze” status in this queue for award tickets and there are so many superflyers that you need real luck that no one else wants the ticket. So if you really want biz class tickets better to target Plat each year, at least.

Maybe something to consider if you use the Shinkansen domestically eg Osaka-Tokyo regularly as the premium points to get these statuses need to be earned Jan-Dec (50k for Plat; 100k for Diamond) and add up quickly between Haneda and Itami. ANA know what they are doing competing with JR.