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Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Theme Parks Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips.

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Old 29 Jul 18, 06:13 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Join Date: Sep 08
Location: Carfin, Motherwell
Using VA Airmiles to get to Tokyo

First of all you cannot book any of this directly via the web, you can check to see if there are some seats via web but you have to call the Virgin Flying Club (FC) people to do the booking. Or you could call FC and ask, they check and let you know.

You need 120,000 airmiles to get a reward First Class Seat, plus taxes / fees.

I found the FC to be generally great, but it became quite annoying to tell my “story” from scratch, of what was looking for, to a new person, every time I called, which might be a couple of times a day. Wish they could have typed it up and saved it somehow! Oh, these First World Problems lol.

One thing to remember is that ANA offer a premium economy if you book the tickets direct, but these are not part of the scheme with Virgin - only Economy, Business and First.

This is the place that gave me the idea:
godsavethepoints/2018...a-first-class/

A thing to be aware of is that there is a difference of a couple of weeks, between ANA and VA booking systems, and you want to try and snap up some seats as soon as they come out. This difference means that ANA release reward seats earlier than you can try and get them via Virgin - so had a rather tense couple of weeks wait for my return dates to become bookable via Virgin!

The basic approach I used was, go to United web site and see if they show reward availability.≈united/ual/en/gb/ and call FC if it shows anything.
Put in LHR as and HND as the to / from, pop in your dates, how many seats (will come back to seats numbers in a bit) and the class of seat you are looking for. Remember to tick SEARCH FOR REWARD and NON-STOP as they will show you the direct flights, which are ANA ones, rather than all possible flights through partner airlines etc.

What I did as was flexible on our dates, is not put a return date in.

When the results pop up should show a 19:00 flight (that is the daily one from Heathrow) and show seats available in 5 category:
Economy
Business Saver Reward
Business Every Day Reward
First Saver Reward
First Every Day Award

Do not know the difference but when I looked if it showed availability in Business say, it had it under both the possible Business schemes - never saw it on one without the other, same applies to first. If it shows them available, call FC and get them!

That the basic thing - the United shows you they are available, but you need to call FC to get them.

As i got them as soon as I could when they came out, I search one way each time - saw the First and Business seats we had on way out and grabbed them with a booking of only 3 days, back being via Economy flights, and when the return leg ones became available I grabbed them and paid £30 to change the booking, plus the extra points and taxes. This was as we are very flexible on dates can go, and for duration.

My 2 flights have cost just over £700 in taxes and fees.
There was no difference in taxes / fees to change from Business seats to First - just the points difference.

That is basically it - also there are 2 ANA flights a day from Frankfurt - more chance to bag seats - and you could make a nice break in Frankfurt around this ? Also saves on fees / taxes as flights not in the UK!

Number of seats, when I have looked they only released 1 First Class Seat and 1 Business Seat at the 11 month stage - and not in both directions. This is why my partner is in First on both legs of trip, and I am in Business on way out and Economy on way back - they have released no Business on way back yet. So am still checking 3 times a day (when get up, lunch and evening) to get “better” seats for me. I had a quick message exchange with the guy who runs God Save The Points and am quite hopeful that more reward seats will appear in the net few months, it is still nearly a year away. This is a bit of a ramble, sure other things will come to me.

Edited at 06:24 AM.
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Old 29 Jul 18, 06:20 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Oh I should add that when I looked and snapped up seats - there was only 1 First Class Seat and one Business Seat on way out released. On way back, only First and Economy - not seen any Business ones released for way back, or one dates the week or two after - Yet :-)
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Old 29 Jul 18, 06:40 PM  
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dopson
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Thanks Anthony for taking the time to type this up. Its useful for me and will be my starting point.

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Old 9 Jan 19, 08:37 AM  
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AntonyJ
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headforpoints/2019/0...ng-club-miles/
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Old 16 Apr 19, 11:53 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Just a FYI - with 28 days to go.

Partner still in First both ways
I have Business out and Economy back

Advise is that it is still possible I might get an upgrade in either direction, but Virgin says it needs to be done 48 hours before travel at latest - keeping those fingers crossed
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Old 25 Apr 19, 04:33 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Join Date: Sep 08
Location: Carfin, Motherwell
I just came back from Avengers movie to find alert email from Expert Flyer, called up Virgin just now and have a Business class seat for flight home!

So am in Business both legs and have a bed both legs of flight!

Cost was about 15,000 air miles and £8.xx in tax - sorry but a bit tired, but madly happy!
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