Booking ANA flights can be an incredible value, especially for travelers seeking premium experiences to Japan. To secure these sought-after award seats, you need to understand two key factors: (1) how airline alliance partners work and (2) the booking windows for different loyalty programs.
The ANA booking window starts 355 days out at exactly 9:00 am Japan standard time. The number of seats released will vary depending on route, class of service and time of year. However, for most days ANA will release 1 -2 seats in business and 1 seat in first class for flights between the United States and Japan.
To save time and effort, I use Roame to help me find ANA availability. Roame is a flight search engine for using credit card points and miles. With the Roame award travel search tool, you can search across 17 airline loyalty programs in real-time and for free, helping you identify ANA availability via partner airlines.
Roame searches the following airline loyalty programs:
- AeroMexico Rewards
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France Flying Blue
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- Delta Skymiles
- ETIHAD Guest
- Emirates Skywards
- Iberia Plus Avios
- JetBlue True Blue
- KLM Flying Blue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- SAS
- Free Spirit
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Virgin Australia Velocity
While Roame does not search ANA’s loyalty program directly, it shows ANA award availability through partner programs. This is where knowing alliances plays a factor. You can use Roame alerts to find ANA availability on an alliance partner such as United or Virgin Australia, and know when it’s time to book those deals.
ANA is a member of the Star Alliance, and its award booking window opens 355 days in advance. To search for and book ANA awards, Roame users typically have the best success by setting Roame alerts and finding them with the following programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, United MileagePlus, and Virgin Australia Velocity.
Booking ANA
ANA is part of Star Alliance, and its booking window opens at 355 days out. Roame users will find the best results by searching Air Canada Aeroplan, United MileagePlus, or Virgin Australia Velocity programs.
Booking ANA Awards via Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada Aeroplan is generally a better choice than United MileagePlus for booking ANA awards because:
- Its booking window aligns perfectly with ANA’s at 355 days out.
- It often offers better pricing on ANA redemptions.
However, over the past year there have been intermittent issues searching for ANA awards via Air Canada Aeroplan. Despite this, recent reports from Roame’s Facebook community indicate that successful bookings have been made through Aeroplan.
ANA availability has recently appeared on Air Canada Aeroplan again
When Aeroplan’s search functionality isn’t reliable, the ANA website is a solid backup. However, ANA requires you to search for round-trip awards rather than one-way options. For outbound flights from North America (the most common route), you can reverse the search to see the latest available outbound date when the booking window opens.
Before calling Aeroplan, ensure the availability you see on ANA is non-waitlisted. You can then provide this information to Aeroplan for booking over the phone.
Searching latest available outbound date on ANA's website
Finding NON-WAITLISTED availability for the Houston to to Tokyo leg
When ANA awards do appear on Air Canada Aeroplan, the search calendar initially displays availability only up to 355 days out. But a trick for looking for availability slightly beyond the initial results is to manually move ahead in the calendar to check further dates after the search populates.
Searching on the Air Canada Aeroplan website
Booking ANA Awards via Virgin Atlantic
Seasoned award travelers know that Virgin Atlantic offers a unique way to book ANA awards. However, it’s not as straightforward as other programs. While Roame searches Virgin Atlantic, ANA is one of their partners that does not show up online and requires finding award availability through another airline and then calling Virgin Atlantic to book (see our guide here).
This is another area where booking windows plays an important factor. Virgin Atlantic can only book ANA awards 330 days in advance, unlike Air Canada Aeroplan, which opens at 355 days. When ANA awards appear on Aeroplan at the 355-day mark, the likelihood of availability lasting an extra 25 days until Virgin's window opens is slim.
In addition, recently it appears that Virgin Atlantic is unable to book ANA awards within two weeks of departure, even if availability shows up on United MileagePlus. It remains to be seen whether this is a permanent development.
It’s important not to confuse Virgin Australia Velocity with Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Australia Velocity is an award program exclusive to Oceania residents and does not partner with U.S.-based miles or credit card programs.
However, unlike Virgin Atlantic, ANA awards do appear online via the Virgin Australia Velocity website. This can be a helpful tool to cross-reference ANA award availability for bookings with Air Canada Aeroplan or by phone with Virgin Atlantic.
Unlike Japan Airlines, ANA typically does not release additional award seats close to departure, except when, (1) someone cancels an existing award ticket or (2) there is a schedule change/plane swap where ANA releases a ton of award availability semi-annually when route schedules are announced. The last time the latter occurred was about 18 months ago when ANA changed ANA The Room/Suite from LAX to SFO and released a lot of award space.
Conclusion
ANA offers some of the best business and first class award redemptions, but finding availability requires strategy and tools like Roame to stay ahead. By understanding ANA’s alliances, booking windows, and partner program nuances, you can unlock incredible value and enjoy one of the most luxurious flying experiences available.
Start searching for ANA award flights with Roame today and make your next trip to Japan unforgettable!
