All ANA flights from New York to Tokyo to feature new premium cabins
All Nippon Airways confirmed to The Points Guy on December 17 that the revamped Boeing 777-300ER with new business and first class seat products will operate out of New York (JFK) to Tokyo (NRT and HND) twice a day starting January 1.
The news was first reported by One Mile at A Time.
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We're seeing good availability for the new business (The Room) and first class (The Suites) products from January through March 2020. Both are available on the New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND) and NRT routes and in reverse. When asked about a rollout for other U.S. cities served by ANA, such as Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), an ANA spokesperson told TPG, "we are still coordinating the rollout of our new seat product on other routes so please stay tuned."
ANA made waves earlier this summer when it launched new business and first-class products, called "The Room" and "The Suite." In The Room business class, you can expect alternating front-facing and rear-facing wide seats with a closing door to make it into a suite. The Suite features a fully enclosed suite with a 43-inch monitor with a 4K display. Both products have fully enclosed doors.
It's a much-needed improvement from the previous 777 product, which featured the impeccable service ANA is known, for but was severely lacking with an out-of-date entertainment system and old seat. ANA's first class was criticized for window seats that obscured most of the window views.
The first retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER with the updated premium cabin products already serves the Tokyo (HND) to London (LHR) route. That was first introduced on Aug. 2 on flights NH211 and NH212. ANA said it planned to bring the redesigned Boeing 777-300ER to the Tokyo/Haneda-Frankfurt in the winter schedule.
Related: ANA Will Fly Its New First and Business Class Suites to New York
The new business and first class products were first launched on the Tokyo-New York route on Nov. 8.
Cash prices between New York and Tokyo on ANA aren't cheap, with business class around $8,000 round-trip and first class a whopping $21,700.
That means you're going to want to use miles to get the best bang for your buck. American Express Membership Rewards is currently offering a targeted 30% transfer bonus when transferring points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. There are excellent Flying Club redemptions on Virgin Atlantic's Japan-based partner ANA.
A first-class round-trip award ticket from the U.S. to Japan starts at just 90,000 Flying Club miles from Honolulu (HNL) — which features ANA's new A380 — or 110,000 miles from the contiguous U.S. United charges 110,000 miles for a first-class one-way award from the U.S. to Japan, so you're getting a round-trip for around the price other programs charge for just half the trip. Keep in mind that some of the other Star Alliance programs may offer you better value, such as Avianca's LifeMiles.
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