I think one of the best things about this video is that you put the current specific routes that use “ the room” business class. This is so important for people to know
im glad that you enjoyed that part. I know it helped me SIGNIFICANTLY to know those routes when I was searching. So I wanted to make sure that all of you got the same help.
@@ChaseYokoyama yea, you did a great job. If you haven’t seen his channel yet…I also like flip flop traveler. In his description in each video, he lists the breakdown of what the flight or hotel cost him etc. I understand that all varies by day, season travelled, etc, but it’s helpful to have the “index” for comparison sake. Josh Cahill is good too. Can’t stand people like non stop Dan, and the like, who just assume people poop out points, and that everyone has just an unlimited supply of credit card miles/points. Happy travels. Keep up the good informative blogs. You have a new subscriber.
@@1bluensx thank you so much! 🤙🏽 i actually have not checked out those 2 channels before. I will take a look. And by Dan, you are referring to Nonstop Dan? Happy travels to you too and I appreciate you subscribing 🙏🏽
Love this breakdown. I’m thinking I’ll try to book this last minute on my way home from Asia. I’ve noticed that most business class seats have way more availability a couple days before the flight
Look up the model of the aircraft. The new business seats are only available on 77W or 777-300ER. 788 or 789 would be using the old business seats. It would be cheaper to book ana flights using ana miles on their website and occasionally using Singaporean miles or Air Canada miles or would also be cheaper so wouldn’t hurt to look around before converting the credit card points.
I would call Virgin first before I would transfer the points, just in case. Great video! Oh. One more thing. on United's advanced search you can search by alliance partners and once you do a flexible dates search, on the calendar, you can choose just the 777s under aircrafts, to make the searching quicker.
This is a great video. I didn’t even know it was possible to book an ANA flight from virgin since they aren’t from the same alliance. Thank you for this video!
Chase, first time on your channel and I was blown away with how detailed and thorough you were with sharing all of this wealth of information. Thank you, thank you and thank you! Of course, I liked and subscribed.
Thank you, great tips on getting to Japan on business class. Assumping I want to visit for 2 weeks, can you offer suggestions on how to get back? Is paying nearly a full fair to get back is the only option? Since the return trip will be less than 30 days, price will not be flexible and probably much higher. Recommendations?
thats a good question. Personally 2 times in the past I didnt book a flight back until I was already in Japan. i know it's case by case but both of those times I was able to find a return flight back home with at least a couple options to choose from. Worst case scenario you dont find an award flight so you have to book a flight with cash. Of course this is risky and doesnt really give you a peace of mind. You could book an economy seat back as a placeholder and then change it to flight credit (depending on the airline) once you find an award flight while you are on your trip. This option isn't as feasible because you can't always "refund" every ticket. And even if you could, maybe you don't want flight credit in that airline.
I would advise calling Virgin first so they can check before transferring points. I did this process before, and many times even they didnt see availability. So once they are certain of availability, transfer points then book, otherwise youll have points sitting in Virgin 😅
One problem if you look for a flight 355 days ahead is you won’t be able to book a return flight Also I just tried searching on ANA it’s much easier than United You can search for availability per day by just clicking the next arrow. Also it’ll say “The Room” clearly over the flight number
I've never seen one. These flights are freaking unicorns. If you do manage to find one good luck on the return flight. Then factor in that you're looking for 2 because most likely you're not flying alone.
Great content, it's definitely better for someone with high flexibility. Two very important things I think you should mention: One, ANA offers VERY limited premium class seats for redemption, the windows of opportunity closes quickly, often within 1-2 hours. There are countless people with ANA points that are struggling to find redemption. Flexibility here is key. Another important thing to note is that you cannot use points for redemption within 96 hours of scheduled departure, this is true as of 3/15/2024, at least for ANA flights to Tokyo.
Thank you for the helpful tips. I actually didn't know about the 96 hour limitation until you guys let me know 🙏🏽 . flexibility really is the secret weapon
I’m in SoCal, so I would ideally fly out of SFO but I saw a flight on Thursday (3/14) out of ORD open for award booking, departing on Tuesday (3/19). I booked it for me and my husband and spent $1000 on flights just to reposition to ORD, it’s even in the opposite direction from Japan 🥲 I just saw a flight out of SFO open up tonight (3/16) for departure on (3/19). I would’ve saved ~$700 had I waited those few extra days for the SFO flight. Oh well, the security & peace of mind was worth booking out of ORD 🤷🏼♀️ I was booking for my honeymoon! I also didn’t realize until Thursday, 3/14 that the flight has to be nonstop so this whole time I was looking at layovers. I thought that would’ve cost me my entire honeymoon trip! Your depth in this video on all the information helped a lot and saved me in the long run! The $580 in taxes & $1000 on repositioning is still cheaper than $16k flight for 2! I’ll keep telling myself that 😵💫🥴
Congratulations Tiana and I hope you have an amazing honeymoon! 🥂 I'm sorry to hear that availability opened up after booking the flight. Next time you could also cancel the original award booking for a fee (i think it was $50 the last time I did it). Just make sure u confirm that you cancel your award booking and make the other award booking first before actually cancelling the flight. I believe you can cancel up to 24 hours before departure to receive all of your points back. But don't worry about what could've happened! You two will enjoy an amazing and longer flight in the room! I'm so happy for you and please comment back again with your thoughts of how it went! 🙏🏽. im so jealous that you get to go to Japan. Have a fun and safe trip.
thank you for the insightful video!! I tried to look up ANA flights from ORD TO tokyo for next 2 weeks on united but nothing shows up for ANA. is that usual? or am I doing something wrong
I appreciate you for watching. 🙏🏽 not sure if I understand your question but I will do my best to answer it. Virgin only allows you to make this type of reservation over the phone. You can not do this online.
@@ChaseYokoyama sorry about that. It made sense on my head but typing it came out different 😅😅😅 booking the award trip by phone over online. You answered it. 🙂
These videos you’ve had of “the room” have been awesome! This was a great way to get to see how it is all done. Would definitely love to fly in that business seat. Definitely relate to your videos about travel rewards the most as Japan is the only place I want to go. Would love to go back with that seat. Keep up the great videos!
Thank you so much as always, Chase! This is the most comprehensive video I’ve seen for how to book these seats. Until now, I’ve had to watch a handful of different videos, all containing a different piece of this puzzle to be able to put together the full process, but you laid it all out from A to Z in a single video. Amazing. Btw I’m still looking forward to making this work for my trip home this year 🥳 will let you know how it goes 🥸
yayyy im glad that you enjoyed it! I plan on doing more videos like this to other destinations as well but i hope you can use something like this to get back to the West Coast.
the award charts / pricing will be different but you can use Virgin points to book Aeromexico, Air France-KLM, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Delta, ITA Airways flights
Is this a guaranteed seat, or would you have to be on the standby list and wait until 2 weeks before knowing if you get the seat? Does this mean, the travel date must be very flexible?
Is there a faster way or 3rd party website that allows you to search availability quicker? I've done the day by day method and it just takes sooooooo long. It would be great just to see all availability from any airport with available days.
I am a total newbie at this points thing with flying. With a goal to fly to Asia sometime next year, I had recently signed up with Aeroplan (Air Canada) and Roame . Not sure if you are familiar with those sites. I had also opened and now charge EVERYTHING on a Chase Sapphire card to rack up flight points. So based on your step by step demo on this video, there's no need to even get on Aeroplan and convert my Chase points? Just open an account with Virgin, even though I don't plan to fly with Virgin? Also, according to your description, it states that you had used Chase points. I am wondering why you didn't use their Chase Travel program. Any knowledge about that program? Any special perks going through Chase?
Yes, you would just have to open a Virgin account even though you don't plan on flying with them. I transferred my Chase points to Virgin because there was a transfer bonus going on at that time and the virgin deal was great. It would have been better than purchasing the flight through the Chase travel portal.
@@ChaseYokoyama Thank you! My huge gratitude to you for putting out this information. I am sure that it was a lot of work for you to put out such a detailed video.
Great video man. Only video that goes step by step. It’s kind of scary having to book your flight only 1-14 days out. But if I’m able to pay 190k points for a business class round trip for my wife and I with virgin. That sounds great compared to the 595k points that united wants to charge us.
wait so if United shows as 200,000 points (one way), if i call Virgin Atlantic number, they will give that 200k (400k round trip) for only 90k points? Is this correct?
I believe they should still match. I just checked a flight from ORD - NRT on November 5th, 2024, NH 11 and it is "The Room". But you can also check on here onemileatatime.com/guides/all-nippon-airways-new-777-routes/
How do we know that Virgin Atlantic will also have that availability? Is there a way to verify? Sometimes partners will release space on one but not the other.
During my conversations with a few Virgin representatives while going through these processes, they mentioned that if there's award availability for ANA on United, you're almost guaranteed to be able to book it through Virgin.
Fantastic video. I really wish I knew about using positioning flights in the past instead of booking with points directly from my home airport. Def would've gotten so much more value last year for one of my trips that way
Gotta be 100% for this unicorn booking. Like book this flight first and plan everything else around it. I wonder if you can book this directly on the Aeroplan site with Aeroplan points. I can book economy with points on the flight with the "Room" but no business seats ever seem to pop up.
Personally I did not want to fly back home in the same seat for this trip. Also at the time that I booked there were no available business class seats coming back. It's because a lot of business class availability opens up within 7 - 10 days before the travel date. And at the time of booking the departing flight I was outside of that window.
Hey! Thanks for the great guide. I'm looking at flights and all the flights I've found that have "the room" have only economy space in them. Does this mean everyone has already booked up the flight for the business class for that flight, or is this just how it shows on United's website? Thanks!
Yes, it means that there is currently no more availability for business class seats on that flight for the moment. The airlines typically restrict the number of seats that can be booked with points so that they can get more cash customers first. However when the flight is coming up (within 2 weeks or so) then the airlines will start to free up the remaining seats to be purchased with points. Because a filled seat is better than an empty seat. My recommendation is to try checking again when the flight is in the near future.
One thing to have in mind: Award flights have to be at least 96 hours before boarding (I just tried to book one for 3 days later and this popped up). So technically it's 4 days - 14 days.
I can't find any flights from JFK on the United website using the reward miles for ANA only United flights are being shown. If I click on paying for the flight using money from the drop down menu it then shows ANA flight. Looking for JFK or SFO to HND on 9/15/2024 returning on 10/8/2024. What else can I do to find a flight I can use my miles on ?
It's a PITA but you can set up reminders to check that flight every now and then. Since its kinda far out you probably dont have to check very often. I bet more seats would open up within 2 weeks of 9/15/24. What miles do you have to use? Virgin?
Well, United only goes out to 4/16/25 from today 5/14/24 but Aeroplan goes to 5/3/25 so can search up to 355 days out but days I find ANA on United there’s nothing on Aeroplan. So how to search for those days closer to 355 out?
it was before I transferred points. what happened was I left my computer on for half a day or so with the United portal up showing the business class availability. Then without refreshing the browser and without transferring my points I gave Virgin a call. thats when they said that there was no availability. Then i went to my computer and refreshed the page and sure enough the seat was gone. It was user error on my part. But goes to show that you have to book it sooner than later or else it might be gone.
I don't get the benefit of using VS- unless there happens to be a bonus going on, which isn't that common. Otherwise, booking directly from the ANA site, one can book an RT ticket for 85k, which would be 42.5k one way. I'm assuming most people going to Japan are coming back again. I do love your videos, tho! Thanks!
ANA requires a roundtrip booking for award tickets. I think the issue is the return trip. ANA will most lightly show a waitlist status on the return trip, especially if the return date is more than 2 weeks out. My understanding is ANA will not complete the reservation if one of the trip is on a waitlist. That is that I have read on a few sites.
Michael summarized it pretty well. You can book something called "dummy" flights. I would recommend searching that on Google if you want to look more into it
Couldnt you just call Virgin Atlantic and request for a one way non stop flight to any japan airports in business or first class? Then transfer the needed amount over instead of going through chase or google flights? Things in consideration: You have chase points and know the points you have.
Also it looks like virgin Atlantic raised their points cost recently. Last time I checked last year it was only 90,000 round trip from the states to Japan. Although that could’ve just been the point cost directly on ANA’s website. I do get them confused 😅
Either way all these loyalty programs constantly are increasing their prices 🤷🏽♂️ so i wouldn't be surprised if they raised them since the last time that you checked.
I love this concept but I’m also against it. I’m able to book a round trip economy flight from New York to Tokyo to Singapore back to New York for only 135K Amex points. However, flying business one way does seem like it’s worth it…. Idk tho… visit 4 countries in economy vs visiting 1 country but in business class.
and that's where personal preference comes into play. 👍🏽 it depends what you value more. Either way you are WINNING 🔥 🏆 by not paying cash for either of those flights.
Agreed. These guys are top notch. Avoid Brian Jung and John Liang. I do like Daniel Braun for more surface-level analysis, but the three you mentioned are the best for those deep dives.
@@nullable Max is doable. Brian Jung is a joke! John Liang give me a break. Chase, you hear your audience, be different and show your audience the real deal.
I take it you've never flown "the room" and also are someone who's not that interested in variations of business class seats. That's cool. But for those of us who are into these sorts of things, knowing how to book an $8000 seat for 37k points is tremendously helpful.
@@marksDC2LA I get the value of transferring points to land an expensive business-class seat. I don't understand back-tracking to Chicago or memorizing flight numbers just to get this one particular business option with ANA, especially when they could switch-out plane types at the last moment for maintenance reasons, etc..
Personally I wanted to enjoy this specific experience. Is it practical for most people? probably not. But I was able to enjoy it and make a video about it to help other people out. So for me thats what made it so important to fly in "the room".
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 87 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs โชคปรีชา"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YN6e7HVnekw/mqdefault.jpg)
I think one of the best things about this video is that you put the current specific routes that use “ the room” business class. This is so important for people to know
im glad that you enjoyed that part. I know it helped me SIGNIFICANTLY to know those routes when I was searching. So I wanted to make sure that all of you got the same help.
@@ChaseYokoyama yea, you did a great job. If you haven’t seen his channel yet…I also like flip flop traveler. In his description in each video, he lists the breakdown of what the flight or hotel cost him etc. I understand that all varies by day, season travelled, etc, but it’s helpful to have the “index” for comparison sake. Josh Cahill is good too. Can’t stand people like non stop Dan, and the like, who just assume people poop out points, and that everyone has just an unlimited supply of credit card miles/points. Happy travels. Keep up the good informative blogs. You have a new subscriber.
@@1bluensx thank you so much! 🤙🏽 i actually have not checked out those 2 channels before. I will take a look. And by Dan, you are referring to Nonstop Dan? Happy travels to you too and I appreciate you subscribing 🙏🏽
Love this breakdown. I’m thinking I’ll try to book this last minute on my way home from Asia. I’ve noticed that most business class seats have way more availability a couple days before the flight
exactly 👏🏽 its way easier to book last minute like that
Look up the model of the aircraft. The new business seats are only available on 77W or 777-300ER. 788 or 789 would be using the old business seats. It would be cheaper to book ana flights using ana miles on their website and occasionally using Singaporean miles or Air Canada miles or would also be cheaper so wouldn’t hurt to look around before converting the credit card points.
Dude, I followed your instructions to the T and after a week I scored a Room ORD to HND next week for some blossoms viewing!
thats siiiick! 👏🏽 congratulations because thats a huge dub. i hope you enjoy the cherry blossoms. they are so beautiful in person 🌸
I would call Virgin first before I would transfer the points, just in case. Great video! Oh. One more thing. on United's advanced search you can search by alliance partners and once you do a flexible dates search, on the calendar, you can choose just the 777s under aircrafts, to make the searching quicker.
I appreciate the tips Melissa 👏🏽
This is a great video. I didn’t even know it was possible to book an ANA flight from virgin since they aren’t from the same alliance. Thank you for this video!
Im glad to help!
I am just going to thank you in advance since this comment seems promising as im only 5 mins in 🤣
@@bigstick8699 hahahah youre welcome in advance!
Chase, first time on your channel and I was blown away with how detailed and thorough you were with sharing all of this wealth of information. Thank you, thank you and thank you! Of course, I liked and subscribed.
Awesome! Thank you so much. Welcome 🤙🏽
Thank you, great tips on getting to Japan on business class. Assumping I want to visit for 2 weeks, can you offer suggestions on how to get back? Is paying nearly a full fair to get back is the only option? Since the return trip will be less than 30 days, price will not be flexible and probably much higher. Recommendations?
thats a good question. Personally 2 times in the past I didnt book a flight back until I was already in Japan. i know it's case by case but both of those times I was able to find a return flight back home with at least a couple options to choose from. Worst case scenario you dont find an award flight so you have to book a flight with cash. Of course this is risky and doesnt really give you a peace of mind. You could book an economy seat back as a placeholder and then change it to flight credit (depending on the airline) once you find an award flight while you are on your trip. This option isn't as feasible because you can't always "refund" every ticket. And even if you could, maybe you don't want flight credit in that airline.
I would advise calling Virgin first so they can check before transferring points. I did this process before, and many times even they didnt see availability. So once they are certain of availability, transfer points then book, otherwise youll have points sitting in Virgin 😅
that is what happened to me as well... sad... I'm just sitting on 155k virgin points now
yup thats a good tip!
hahah well you can go to Japan a bunch of times now 😂
Thanks for being straight forward and transparent. Solid vid!
no problem. thank you for watching!
this is honestly goated free content 🔥 I hope your views blow up
thank you! 🤙🏽 just hoping to help people experience these types of things
One problem if you look for a flight 355 days ahead is you won’t be able to book a return flight
Also I just tried searching on ANA it’s much easier than United
You can search for availability per day by just clicking the next arrow. Also it’ll say “The Room” clearly over the flight number
Personally I like United's UI better and it feels smoother. But either way will get the job done 👍🏽
I've never seen one. These flights are freaking unicorns. If you do manage to find one good luck on the return flight. Then factor in that you're looking for 2 because most likely you're not flying alone.
What a great redemption! Thanks for the info + video!
my pleasure jimmy!
Great content, it's definitely better for someone with high flexibility. Two very important things I think you should mention: One, ANA offers VERY limited premium class seats for redemption, the windows of opportunity closes quickly, often within 1-2 hours. There are countless people with ANA points that are struggling to find redemption. Flexibility here is key. Another important thing to note is that you cannot use points for redemption within 96 hours of scheduled departure, this is true as of 3/15/2024, at least for ANA flights to Tokyo.
Thank you for the helpful tips. I actually didn't know about the 96 hour limitation until you guys let me know 🙏🏽 . flexibility really is the secret weapon
I’m in SoCal, so I would ideally fly out of SFO but I saw a flight on Thursday (3/14) out of ORD open for award booking, departing on Tuesday (3/19). I booked it for me and my husband and spent $1000 on flights just to reposition to ORD, it’s even in the opposite direction from Japan 🥲 I just saw a flight out of SFO open up tonight (3/16) for departure on (3/19). I would’ve saved ~$700 had I waited those few extra days for the SFO flight. Oh well, the security & peace of mind was worth booking out of ORD 🤷🏼♀️ I was booking for my honeymoon!
I also didn’t realize until Thursday, 3/14 that the flight has to be nonstop so this whole time I was looking at layovers. I thought that would’ve cost me my entire honeymoon trip! Your depth in this video on all the information helped a lot and saved me in the long run! The $580 in taxes & $1000 on repositioning is still cheaper than $16k flight for 2! I’ll keep telling myself that 😵💫🥴
Hoping I can catch a flight to SFO on my way home in the room!! 🤞🏼
Congratulations Tiana and I hope you have an amazing honeymoon! 🥂 I'm sorry to hear that availability opened up after booking the flight. Next time you could also cancel the original award booking for a fee (i think it was $50 the last time I did it). Just make sure u confirm that you cancel your award booking and make the other award booking first before actually cancelling the flight. I believe you can cancel up to 24 hours before departure to receive all of your points back.
But don't worry about what could've happened! You two will enjoy an amazing and longer flight in the room! I'm so happy for you and please comment back again with your thoughts of how it went! 🙏🏽. im so jealous that you get to go to Japan. Have a fun and safe trip.
Would you use the United portal for LHR as well to find an Ana flight?
thank you for the insightful video!!
I tried to look up ANA flights from ORD TO tokyo for next 2 weeks on united but nothing shows up for ANA. is that usual? or am I doing something wrong
Thank you for this well detailed video. I am just curious. Why call the complete the reservation than doing it online?
I appreciate you for watching. 🙏🏽 not sure if I understand your question but I will do my best to answer it. Virgin only allows you to make this type of reservation over the phone. You can not do this online.
@@ChaseYokoyama sorry about that. It made sense on my head but typing it came out different 😅😅😅 booking the award trip by phone over online. You answered it. 🙂
@@oshi_86 lol perfect
great guide!! so much work i can’t imagine how much time you put into researching.
thank you! 🤙🏽
These videos you’ve had of “the room” have been awesome! This was a great way to get to see how it is all done. Would definitely love to fly in that business seat. Definitely relate to your videos about travel rewards the most as Japan is the only place I want to go. Would love to go back with that seat. Keep up the great videos!
Awesome! Thank you! 👏🏽 well now you know how to get there in style and for not a lot of money.
Thank you so much as always, Chase! This is the most comprehensive video I’ve seen for how to book these seats. Until now, I’ve had to watch a handful of different videos, all containing a different piece of this puzzle to be able to put together the full process, but you laid it all out from A to Z in a single video. Amazing.
Btw I’m still looking forward to making this work for my trip home this year 🥳 will let you know how it goes 🥸
yayyy im glad that you enjoyed it! I plan on doing more videos like this to other destinations as well but i hope you can use something like this to get back to the West Coast.
Can you use this Virgin Atlantic method for any other airlines?
the award charts / pricing will be different but you can use Virgin points to book Aeromexico, Air France-KLM, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Delta, ITA Airways flights
Do they release 5 seats in one of those 2 timeframes?
Usually they release around 1 seat per day. However odds of finding 5 seats on the same flight are pretty low.
Is this a guaranteed seat, or would you have to be on the standby list and wait until 2 weeks before knowing if you get the seat? Does this mean, the travel date must be very flexible?
it would be a guaranteed seat. 👍🏽 and yes it helps to have flexible travel dates.
Is there a faster way or 3rd party website that allows you to search availability quicker? I've done the day by day method and it just takes sooooooo long. It would be great just to see all availability from any airport with available days.
Maybe new to you, but I flew it pre-covid.
Loved the product. Hope other carriers take note.
I am a total newbie at this points thing with flying. With a goal to fly to Asia sometime next year, I had recently signed up with Aeroplan (Air Canada) and Roame . Not sure if you are familiar with those sites. I had also opened and now charge EVERYTHING on a Chase Sapphire card to rack up flight points. So based on your step by step demo on this video, there's no need to even get on Aeroplan and convert my Chase points? Just open an account with Virgin, even though I don't plan to fly with Virgin? Also, according to your description, it states that you had used Chase points. I am wondering why you didn't use their Chase Travel program. Any knowledge about that program? Any special perks going through Chase?
Yes, you would just have to open a Virgin account even though you don't plan on flying with them. I transferred my Chase points to Virgin because there was a transfer bonus going on at that time and the virgin deal was great. It would have been better than purchasing the flight through the Chase travel portal.
@@ChaseYokoyama Thank you! My huge gratitude to you for putting out this information. I am sure that it was a lot of work for you to put out such a detailed video.
Great video man. Only video that goes step by step.
It’s kind of scary having to book your flight only 1-14 days out. But if I’m able to pay 190k points for a business class round trip for my wife and I with virgin. That sounds great compared to the 595k points that united wants to charge us.
Im glad that it helped! I understand that its not always the most practical to wait that last minute
Hi Chase, can i book SFO-NRT(the room), and HND-SFO(regular lie-flat) with Virgin for 90k points still?
unfortunately now its 105,000 roundtrip. which is still a good deal
Great tutorial Chase! Thanks for the info!👍
You bet! 🤙🏽
wait so if United shows as 200,000 points (one way), if i call Virgin Atlantic number, they will give that 200k (400k round trip) for only 90k points? Is this correct?
yup thats correct! and just to clarify its 400k United points vs 90k Virgin Miles.
Any update on currect routes for ana the room? current numbers from ORD dont match
I believe they should still match. I just checked a flight from ORD - NRT on November 5th, 2024, NH 11 and it is "The Room".
But you can also check on here onemileatatime.com/guides/all-nippon-airways-new-777-routes/
Doesn't capital one also transfer to virgin Atlantic??
They do. Just used them to book a delta flight using Cap One
ya they do! 😅 my mistake. maybe its payback for them not pre approving me for the VX
I got approved first try but I had a pre-existing relationship of years and at the time I had only applied for one card in the last 48 months
@@travel.life.dreams oh ya, they were probably salivating over that application
So it's almost impoosible to book a round trip and you have to search by one ways?
i wouldnt say impossible but yes booking 2 one ways is easier
are there not any "room" seats from the US to Japan? On the video only shows from Japan to the US and London...
🙄it’s both ways genius. How do you think they return back?
These seats are available from both directions.
Valid question the way chase presented the info
How can I transfer points from my Aeroplan account to Virgin? I'm not sure if they allow transfers between the two.
Unfortunately you can not transfer points from Aeroplan to Virgin.
Can I combine my United points with my ANA points?
you can't combine the points but generally, you can book United awards for flights on ANA.
How do we know that Virgin Atlantic will also have that availability? Is there a way to verify? Sometimes partners will release space on one but not the other.
During my conversations with a few Virgin representatives while going through these processes, they mentioned that if there's award availability for ANA on United, you're almost guaranteed to be able to book it through Virgin.
Fantastic video. I really wish I knew about using positioning flights in the past instead of booking with points directly from my home airport. Def would've gotten so much more value last year for one of my trips that way
ahh damn its all good! now you know!
@@ChaseYokoyama definitely!
Gotta be 100% for this unicorn booking. Like book this flight first and plan everything else around it. I wonder if you can book this directly on the Aeroplan site with Aeroplan points. I can book economy with points on the flight with the "Room" but no business seats ever seem to pop up.
there are only one seat per day open. Am I correct?
yes
May I ask why you only book one way flight?
Personally I did not want to fly back home in the same seat for this trip. Also at the time that I booked there were no available business class seats coming back. It's because a lot of business class availability opens up within 7 - 10 days before the travel date. And at the time of booking the departing flight I was outside of that window.
Need more videos on award flights from Honolulu please! Aloha 🤙
I'll work on it
Hey! Thanks for the great guide. I'm looking at flights and all the flights I've found that have "the room" have only economy space in them. Does this mean everyone has already booked up the flight for the business class for that flight, or is this just how it shows on United's website? Thanks!
Yes, it means that there is currently no more availability for business class seats on that flight for the moment. The airlines typically restrict the number of seats that can be booked with points so that they can get more cash customers first. However when the flight is coming up (within 2 weeks or so) then the airlines will start to free up the remaining seats to be purchased with points. Because a filled seat is better than an empty seat. My recommendation is to try checking again when the flight is in the near future.
One thing to have in mind: Award flights have to be at least 96 hours before boarding (I just tried to book one for 3 days later and this popped up). So technically it's 4 days - 14 days.
Virgin told me that I have book before 48 hours from departure
ahhh thank you that is good to know 👏🏽
so could it be 48 - 96 hours before?
@@ChaseYokoyama yeah!
That said, this video is brilliant and I learned a lot! I haven’t done my ANA the room trip yet, but I’m excited to this summer!
@@kimberlychin1996 i wish you luck! it was a great experience for sure
I thought you can transfer from capital one to virgin too? You video excluded C1
Yes, you can! I should have included C1 as well
I can't find any flights from JFK on the United website using the reward miles for ANA only United flights are being shown. If I click on paying for the flight using money from the drop down menu it then shows ANA flight. Looking for JFK or SFO to HND on 9/15/2024 returning on 10/8/2024. What else can I do to find a flight I can use my miles on ?
It's a PITA but you can set up reminders to check that flight every now and then. Since its kinda far out you probably dont have to check very often. I bet more seats would open up within 2 weeks of 9/15/24. What miles do you have to use? Virgin?
I did this from nyc and it was 47k points and 300 dollars
much better than paying the thousands of dollars otherwise
Nice content Chase!
Appreciate it!
Great information and really helpful for me
Glad it was helpful!
Well, United only goes out to 4/16/25 from today 5/14/24 but Aeroplan goes to 5/3/25 so can search up to 355 days out but days I find ANA on United there’s nothing on Aeroplan. So how to search for those days closer to 355 out?
you can try look at ANA's website to view up to 354 days out.
Did it happened you found the flight and transfer the points and when you called the rep said it is not available???
it was before I transferred points. what happened was I left my computer on for half a day or so with the United portal up showing the business class availability. Then without refreshing the browser and without transferring my points I gave Virgin a call. thats when they said that there was no availability. Then i went to my computer and refreshed the page and sure enough the seat was gone. It was user error on my part. But goes to show that you have to book it sooner than later or else it might be gone.
Always call before transferring.
Is aeorplan Ana partners?
Yes. They are both a part of the Star Alliance Network
I don't get the benefit of using VS- unless there happens to be a bonus going on, which isn't that common. Otherwise, booking directly from the ANA site, one can book an RT ticket for 85k, which would be 42.5k one way. I'm assuming most people going to Japan are coming back again. I do love your videos, tho! Thanks!
ANA requires a roundtrip booking for award tickets. I think the issue is the return trip. ANA will most lightly show a waitlist status on the return trip, especially if the return date is more than 2 weeks out. My understanding is ANA will not complete the reservation if one of the trip is on a waitlist. That is that I have read on a few sites.
Michael summarized it pretty well. You can book something called "dummy" flights. I would recommend searching that on Google if you want to look more into it
Couldnt you just call Virgin Atlantic and request for a one way non stop flight to any japan airports in business or first class? Then transfer the needed amount over instead of going through chase or google flights? Things in consideration: You have chase points and know the points you have.
You need to tell them exactly what flight you want to book. They will not look for availability for you.
ah ok helpful
Also it looks like virgin Atlantic raised their points cost recently. Last time I checked last year it was only 90,000 round trip from the states to Japan. Although that could’ve just been the point cost directly on ANA’s website. I do get them confused 😅
Either way all these loyalty programs constantly are increasing their prices 🤷🏽♂️ so i wouldn't be surprised if they raised them since the last time that you checked.
can you do this for korea? that’s where i’m trying to go next and it’s a pretty popular places to go!
sure can!
Thanks!
wow thank you so much for the SUPER THANKS!!!!! 🙏🏽 I really appreciate the donation John. I hope the video was helpful for you
Citi has a 30% Virgin bonus going right now
👀
I love this concept but I’m also against it. I’m able to book a round trip economy flight from New York to Tokyo to Singapore back to New York for only 135K Amex points. However, flying business one way does seem like it’s worth it…. Idk tho… visit 4 countries in economy vs visiting 1 country but in business class.
and that's where personal preference comes into play. 👍🏽 it depends what you value more. Either way you are WINNING 🔥 🏆 by not paying cash for either of those flights.
Chase, Sebby, Resse is all you need to watch, the rest is all a waste of time.
Max with miles isn't bad also
Agreed. These guys are top notch. Avoid Brian Jung and John Liang. I do like Daniel Braun for more surface-level analysis, but the three you mentioned are the best for those deep dives.
Agree. And Max too. The big four ;)
@@nullable Max is doable. Brian Jung is a joke! John Liang give me a break. Chase, you hear your audience, be different and show your audience the real deal.
Plus frequent mile guys, doctor of credit, and maybe 2 more of these travel/points bloggers, that is all you need.
Really? I don't see anything on VA website that remotely resemble any ANA flights.
They don't show ANA flights on VA website. you have to use other sources such as United or ANA website.
W video
Nothing from Us to japan
Unfortunately availability comes and goes
@@ChaseYokoyama in your opinion for CSR where do deals come on often Virgin atlantic or Aeroplan? Looking for Flights from Us to Japan or Singapore?
Why is it so important to get "the room"? It's just a seat on a plane.
I take it you've never flown "the room" and also are someone who's not that interested in variations of business class seats. That's cool. But for those of us who are into these sorts of things, knowing how to book an $8000 seat for 37k points is tremendously helpful.
@@marksDC2LA I get the value of transferring points to land an expensive business-class seat. I don't understand back-tracking to Chicago or memorizing flight numbers just to get this one particular business option with ANA, especially when they could switch-out plane types at the last moment for maintenance reasons, etc..
@@mattdecker6791 Very true statement. It does happen from time to time.
Personally I wanted to enjoy this specific experience. Is it practical for most people? probably not. But I was able to enjoy it and make a video about it to help other people out. So for me thats what made it so important to fly in "the room".
I guess you can't appreciate the finer things in life.
Fire video bro. Definitely gonna try this at least once 🫡
thank you Ivan! 🤙🏽 ya you gotta send it in this room one day!
only one way tokyo _> sfo? or round trip also (paying double of course)
hmm not sure if I got your questions correctly but yes you can go one way back from tokyo to SFO using the same method.