ANA First Class is regarded as one of the best in the business and it is a bucket list item for many miles & points enthusiasts. Since the pandemic, the airline has released a very limited number of first class seats (a single seat per aircraft on most occasions) either very early or very late. While last-minute seat releases are easy to book with partner airlines (e.g., LifeMiles or Aeroplan), only ANA Mileage Club members can book early release premium cabin seats 355 days ahead of time.
Transfer Amex MR points to ANA and plan your trip 355 days ahead of time
Those interested in trying this method must have miles in their ANA account to complete booking the first class award seats. While the initial Amex MR points transfer to ANA will take around 2-3 days, subsequent transfers will take about 1-2 days. I encourage interested readers to transfer 1000 MR points to ANA asap to make future transfers faster.
Use the ANA Japan website to book seats 1 day ahead compared to the U.S. ANA website
I recommend using the ANA Japan website (https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/) for this first class redemption. Some experts recommend using a VPN to make it appear as though you are booking flights from Japan to avoid any booking confirmation errors. I also recommend booking when it is 9AM in Japan, which is the time when ANA releases the award space for premium cabins.
After logging into the account, click on “flight awards” and then on “flight award reservations” (see the picture below), which will open another tab.
JFK to Tokyo has the best ANA First Class “The Suite” flights and it is extremely rare to see any availability on this route. Chicago to Tokyo route has the older suites (which are still very good) and offers the best availability. For the search parameters, one should choose the dates towards the end of the calendar availability and check the box to compare seat availability for +/- 3 days. NRT and HND are considered the same airport and are interchangeable.
If you are checking for two first class ANA award tickets, you are most likely going to see an error screen (see image below).
The only way to get the ANA system to show available first class awards is to check
The next screen shows possible seat availability, and one should carefully look to separate flights that can be wait-listed.
This is an incredible deal to fly one-way ANA first class for 85K Amex MR points per person and it is a simple process to book these seats once you have enough miles in the account.
What if you only find waitlisted ANA first class flights?
ANA’s waitlisted premium cabin flights are rarely worth the effort and never become available in any reliable manner. I encourage readers to keep trying the above method until you find non-waitlisted flights for both legs.
Changes to ANA Mileage Club Bookings
ANA mileage club allows unlimited changes to the award itinerary as long as the route remains the same. This makes it easy to keep an eye on the first class award space to open up for the desired date by setting an alarm to alert you when it is 9AM in Japan.
Issues with ANA Bookings
Once you complete the initial booking, the ANA system hard codes it in such a way that online changes to that booking are only permitted for 365 days. ANA Customer Service will be able to help with changes to a booking beyond the 365 day ticketing date (up to 385 days, based on some user reports). Reaching out to ANA agents over the phone (800-235-9262) can either take a minute or more than an hour (depending on your luck) and customer service is not available 24/7 (only 6AM to 6PM Pacific Standard Time).
ANA Mileage Club Miles Expiration & Cancellation Policy
If you are stuck with an itinerary that will never work for you, the entire booking can be cancelled for 3000 miles. ANA miles expire after 36 months (hard expiration date), but there are plenty of Star Alliance awards that can be booked with the ANA mileage club (https://awardcracker.com/ana-mileage-club-sweet-spots/).
Summary
I wanted to write about this ANA booking trick to grab an available first class seat for interested solo travelers. One of these days I am hopeful to book two first class seats for me and my wife.