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Right now Japan Airlines (JAL) has some good Business Class fares on offer on their Vancouver – Hong Kong and Vancouver – Seoul routes. While the fares may not be stunning they appear to be quite a bit better than a lot of the other fares out there right now and JAL Business Class isn’t a bad product.
Pricing
Vancouver – Hong Kong: From $2,106 Return
Vancouver – Seoul: From $2,176 Return
Routes
YVR-NRT-HKG-NRT-YVR
YVR-NRT-ICN-NRT-VYR
Rules
Travel dates: 6 January – 31 March 2016
Booking: Must book by 5 January 2016
Minimum Stay Requirements:
Maximum Stay Requirements:
Stopovers: No stopovers allowed
Example flight/routings (click to enlarge)
Hong Kong
Seoul
Availability
Although the fares are only valid for the first three months of the year, the availability on both routes is pretty good.
Hong Kong
Seoul
Searching Availability
I used the ITA Matrix search to find these flights (hints on using the search engine are here and here).
The search parameters to use are as follows (using Hong Kong or Seoul as your destination and changing the date rage as appropriate):
Booking JAL Business Class
For one reason or another I couldn’t find these fares using the JAL webpage but they’re definitely available for booking – you just have to look a bit harder!
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong flights are probably best booked using Orbitz as that’s where I had the least trouble finding them:
Seoul
I confess that at one point I started to suspect that the Seoul flights may have been phantom fares that ITA Matrix had thrown up….but they’re not. Expedia is where you’ll find them with the least amount of trouble:
JAL Business Class
JAL flies their Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner on the Vancouver – Tokyo route but, despite this being one of the newest planes around, JAL has chosen to install an older business class seat on the aircraft serving this route.
JAL’s 787-800 vary from route to route with some having the new JAL Sky Suite installed:
But others, like the 787’s flying the Vancouver – Tokyo route, have JAL’s less impressive “Shell Flat Neo” which is a more angle-flat than lie-flat seat:
It’s still not a bad seat at all…it’s just not as good as the Sky Suites.
If you’re not sure which seats you’ll get, ExpertFlyer.com confirms that the seats on this route are not the Sky Suites:
For reference, if you even need to check which routes are offering the JAL Sky Suites, you can always check at this JAL webpage.
On the Boeing 767’s that run the Tokyo – Hong Kong you’ll find JAL Business Class recliner seats in a 2-2-2 cabin layout and on the 737’s that operate on the shorter Tokyo-Seoul route you’ll find the same.
Earning Miles
JAL is a member of the OneWorld alliance so you can earn miles in programs like American Airline’s AAdvantage and the British Airways Executive Club.
American Airlines AAdvantage
From 1 January 2016 JAL Business Class flights will accrue AAdvantage redeemable miles (RDM) equivalent to 125% of distance flown and Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) at 1.5 x distance flown.
Vancouver – Hong Kong (13,031 miles traveled) = 16,289 RDM & 19,547 EQM
Vancouver – Seoul (10,913 miles traveled) = 13,641 RDM & 16,370 EQM
British Airways Executive Club
The British Airways Executive Club miles/tier points are best calculated using the Avios Flight Calculator.
Vancouver – Hong Kong = 16,220 Avios & 360 Tier Points
Vancouver – Seoul = 13,552 Avios & 360 Tier Points
Bottom Line
These may not be spectacular fares but they are definitely good for this route, this close in and for this time of year. The 787 seats may not be the latest Sky Suites but they’re orders of magnitude better then sitting at the back of the plane – and that’s always worth remembering.
It easy to get fixated on booking only the latest cabin products on the various airlines – and that’s completely understandable – but, when deciding whether a fare is good or not, another consideration should always be what the other fares look like. In this case JAL have the best prices and the best flight routings/times, and that counts for a lot.
Featured Image: Kentaro Iemoto via Flickr
