ANA first class (even the old seats) is rated highly amongst the best first class seats in the world, with an excellent preboarding and in-flight experience consisting of a dedicated check-in line, extremely high-end drinks (e.g. Krug Grande Cuvee champagne ~ $250/bottle), caviar, and excellent quality food. It's hard to really describe just how incredible this offering is. I consider ANA first as a peak flight experience for anyone interested in points and miles.
Now, this flight typically runs for about $10,000 USD each direction going to/from Japan/San Francisco. Kind of an insane price to be paying for a flight, but that's what ANA prices this flight at.
I don't really have that type of cash lying around, but I know points pretty well and was able to find the elusive ANA seat for a total of just 40,833 points + $323 USD in taxes. Now, I'm not a fan of doing direct cents per point (CPP) calculations for biz class bookings, but I would say I definitely got good value out of points here.
This article will detail my booking experience, including how I found the flight, what points I used, how I booked it, and my post-flight booking plans.
How I Found The Elusive ANA First Class Seat
I had been planning a Japan trip for about a month now, but while I had locked down a seat on the new Japan Airlines A350 JFK to HND using just 60,000 AA miles + $5.60 USD in taxes, I hadn't been able to secure nearly anything as good for my return flight (darn). However, part of the game is booking and holding flights and using tools to help you actively monitor for flight openings as they come up. AA award bookings are especially good since they are fully refundable, even for partner airline bookings.
Using Roame, I had done two things: first, I set alerts on SkyView for the route, and second, I had just got into the habit of checking for route updates periodically throughout the day. SkyView is useful as an assistant to help provide an extra set of eyes, but definitely won't be able to catch everything.
On one of my daily checks on Roame, I stumbled upon the holy grail—seeing the number 121,000 for United Airlines indicates to me immediately that this ANA flight can also be booked on partner airlines.
My search for this flight using Roame; you can imagine my excitement when I saw this offering
I immediately searched up the flight on United Airlines and other Star Alliance carriers (e.g. Avianca LifeMiles) just to make sure it wasn't ghost availability. By doing so, I had a lot more confidence that this was a real flight that existed. Furthermore, since it was available on United Airlines and Avianca, that meant it was also available as a Virgin Atlantic partner booking.
For context, while paying 120k pts for a 10-11 hr first class flight is not necessarily the worst deal in the world, we're here to find the best possible deals. If you've read my prior posts, including this case study on partner bookings, you'll know that different airlines will price the same flight differently. And in this case, that idea also holds.
What Points Did I Use To Book This Flight?
Most airlines have established award charts or price bands that we can use to see/understand how the same flight costs across all the different options. In this case, HND to SFO in ANA first class is a ~5,160 mile flight going in a Pacific to North America-based zone.
- United Airlines: 121,000 miles
- Avianca Lifemiles: 120,000 miles
- Air Canada: 110,000 miles (price determined using award chart)
- ANA (round-trip booking required): 75,000 miles (price determined using award chart)
- Virgin Atlantic: 72,500 miles (price determined using award chart)
As you can see, for the same exact flight, award prices with points can differ wildly. Excluding taxes/fees, Virgin Atlantic is the cheapest way to book this flight (even cheaper & easier than ANA itself, which requires a roundtrip booking).
Please note: if you are more cash conscious, then it may make sense to use one of the other booking options, as the taxes/fees are much less than booking with Virgin Atlantic or ANA. However, I value 30,000+ points much higher than the $323 USD in fees I paid, so it made sense for me to use less points and more cash.
Alright, so it's clear the best way to book this flight is with Virgin Atlantic miles. So how did I get this booking down to ~40k points? Two words: transfer bonuses.
Harnessing Transfer Bonuses
Virgin Atlantic points are pretty easy to come by; in fact, they're transfer partners with basically every major card issuer out there (Chase, Capital One, American Express, Citi, Bilt). Furthermore, issuers typically like to run transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic, with bonuses typically running for about 20-30%. This meant that if you transferred 1,000 points to Virgin with a 30% transfer bonus, you'd actually get 1,300. That's pretty cool, especially in stretching the value of your points.
However, on January 1, 2024, the Bilt Mastercard® ran an incredibly unique promotion offering up to a 150% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic for cardholders. I was eligible for the 125% transfer bonus, so I speculatively transferred a total of ~25,333 Bilt points to Virgin Atlantic to accrue 57,000 Virgin points. Notably, Virgin points do not expire and I knew that I wanted to use these points for a future ANA biz/first class booking.
When I found the potential booking, while I was on the call with the agent (we'll get into this next), I transferred 16,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin to conclude and secure the booking. However, (as of 02/21/2024) if I had a Citi card, I could take advantage of the 30% transfer bonus to Virgin and only use 12,300 ThankYou points to make this trip come to life.
Active transfer bonuses are listed below :)
BRAND
Transfer Partner
Transfer Bonus Details
End Date
How Did I Book This Flight?
Notably, ANA award flights do not appear on the Virgin Atlantic website, no matter how nicely you ask it. You must call Virgin Atlantic. Thankfully, VS agents are quite good at their jobs and it's typically a very speedy process (my entire call from start to finish only took about 15 minutes, and I have no VS status).
Before calling, make sure you have the following information on hand to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible:
- Your Virgin Atlantic membership number
- The date of your flight
- Your departure and arrival airports
- Your flight number (e.g. NH 108)
- The passenger's name + date of birth
- Your credit card details
Here's a step-by-step process on how to call Virgin Atlantic to book the elusive ANA award:
- Give Virgin Atlantic a call at 1 (800) 862-8621 (feel free to verify this number directly on Virgin Atlantic's website)
- Let the agent know you want to do an ANA award booking and provide the agent with the flight information
- Wait for the agent to confirm award availability
- Transfer your points to Virgin Atlantic while on the call (I transferred 16,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points while on the call)
- Call Virgin Atlantic again at 1 (800) 862-8621 to pay for your booking
- Note the ANA Record Locator and navigate to ANA's reservation page to access and edit your booking
Please note: as of some new phone calls to Virgin Atlantic (latest February 20, 2024), it seems as though ANA awards cannot be held. Agents can confirm the award exists, but cannot hold it. I was unable to hold the award.
My process was super smooth. As expected, the agent priced the flight as 72,500 Virgin points + $323 USD in taxes. Knowing just how rare these awards are, I immediately booked with full intention of using the 24 hour full refund cancellation policy.
Post-Booking Analysis + Planning
For those of you up to date on ANA news, you may know that there are two types of ANA first class right now: the old "Square" seat and the new "The Suite" seat. While the food and preboarding experiences are about the same, the hard product (e.g. the seat) differs tremendously. Obviously, I'd love to fly in the new seat... but how can I tell if I'm on the new configuration or not?
To make this even more confusing, my flight is on a B777-300ER. So I can't even look at the plane type to know which ANA first class seat I'm in.
The easiest way to answer this question is by actually finding the business class map of the exact flight you're on. For me, I can see my flight details in my reservation (with no indication if I'm in the Square or the Suite).
I can then find that exact flight on ANA's booking website and see the seat map for a business class ticket. To be clear:
- IF the business class cabin only goes to 20 rows, then it's the new "Suite" configuration
- IF the business class cabin goes beyond 20 rows, then it's the old "Square" configuration
Sadness filled my soul when I saw 21 rows in business :(
Unfortunately, in my case, I am currently in the older "Square" configuration. However, there's still hope for an equipment swap... so I will keep my fingers crossed for the time being :D
Fungibility & Best Alternatives
A brief topic I like to discuss is the value of using points for business class vs paying cash for economy flights. If I were to use cash for this, the cheapest flight I could get with a carry on from Tokyo to San Francisco is via ZIPAIR Tokyo for approximately $400 one way—definitely not a bad deal by any means! However, at the same time, a points flight will run me about 30k pts one way + taxes. On Virgin, it would only cost me 13k pts one way in economy using my Bilt transfer points.
For me, I have a lot of points + I love to fly + I love to get great deals + I love to do unique experiences, so on a fungible CPP basis, I consider this a fantastic deal. However, if you are looking to save points, the Virgin one way (with transfer bonus) / ZIPAIR options are honestly not too bad as well
Conclusion
Points can have tremendous value, unlocking unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you may never be able to reasonably afford otherwise or to get you from point A to B in a comfortable fashion. ANA first class is considered one of the best ways to travel in the sky and for good reason, but is also one of the hardest award seats to book. However, with some effort, luck, and diligence, you can also score these incredible seats for a fraction of their price.
