Wowza! Lots Of Business Class Award Space On ANA & United To Japan

February 8, 2023
Brian Soares

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February 8, 2023
Brian Soares

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like Creditcards.com and Bankrate.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any partner entities.

Award Availability On ANA & United To Japan

Well, now I have some more good news about flights to Japan. After we broke the news on tons of JAL award space over the summer we are doing it once again with United and ANA award space. This is a closer in booking option but we are seeing space the rest of February and into March a bit. The really cool thing is there is space showing out of many US hubs, not just the West Coast!

Table of Contents

Award Space Details

We're seeing availability out of the following US Airports on both United and ANA:

Chicago – ORD
Los Angeles – LAX
San Francisco – SFO,
Wahsington DC / Dulles – IAD
Newark / NYC – EWR
Houston – IAH

These screenshots are showing availability for two people, but in some cases, we're seeing up to 4 seats on some of the ANA flights.

For return flights, there appears to be more ANA availability than United.

United Polaris is a great business class product, but ANA is on a whole other level. Whether you fly in their old business class or their new business class (called “The Room”), you're in for a special treat. If you want to experience ANA's The Room, then focus your search on LAX and and ORD.

How To Search & Book

Our favorite websites to search for Star Alliance availability include United and Aeroplan.

You have lots of different options to choose from when booking. The cheapest way to book the ANA flights is via Virgin Atlantic, in what is perhaps the greatest award sweet spot out there. Virgin Atlantic charges just 45,000 points for ANA Business class from the US West Coast to Japan one-way, and 47,500 one-way from the East Coast or central US. Keep in mind that VS does pass on fuel surcharges, which have recently increased on ANA. This sweet spot is only available for flights on ANA, not United.

Here are some other great ways to book:

Aeroplan: 75,000 (one-way, no surcharges)
United: 72,800 for United flights, and between 88,000 and 92,000 for ANA flights (one-way, no surcharges)
LifeMiles: 90,000 (one-way, no surcharges)
ANA: 75,000 (round-trip only)
Turkish: 67,500 (one-way)

You can check out which points currencies transfer to each of these through our ToP transfer partner tool. When selecting which loyalty program to book through, also consider their stopover rules and whether you can take advantage of those.

Award Availability On ANA & United To Japan: ToP Thoughts

If you have the ability to take a close in trip then this is your ticket. Seeing this much award availability on ANA is a rarity so grab it if you can get it. If Polaris works out better for you, well that it quite the consolation prize too.

Get to booking!

Hat Tip to Dave W. for getting this ball rolling!