In our Award Success series, I’d like to feature another award I issued with ANA Mileage Club, this time a one-way Economy Class ticket on ANA-operated flights, issued under a promotional cabin at a very low rate.
For this trip, I needed a flight from Beijing to Osaka, and for some reason revenue fares were all $500 unless you flew via Korea or Hong Kong, where it was still $350, so this 5k ANA Miles Promo (+$90 Taxes) was great.
ANA Mileage Club often runs regional campaigns for award redemptions at preferred rates, almost always in Economy Class, and this time it was 50% off for flights from China to Japan.
I searched around a bit and got three options:
ANA Beijing-Tokyo-Osaka 5,000 miles Air China Beijing-Osaka 10,000 miles ANA Beijing-Osaka Waitlisted 5,000 miles (narrowbody aircraft)
My preference would have been the direct afternoon flight on ANA even if it was a narrowbody. I waitlisted it, and it eventually cleared, but only on October 2nd, and the promotional campaign ended on September 30th.
When I got the email with the waitlist confirmation, it created an error on the website, and after calling, I was told this is because it was initially priced lower, but this rate is no longer available, and it would now be 10,000 miles plus the penalty to cancel the first ticket via Tokyo. Bunch of rubbish!
In the end, I decided to keep the flight I had booked under the promotional campaign for 5000 miles:
5,000 ANA Miles plus 14,150 Yen ($89) taxes/fees is extremely reasonable for this itinerary especially given the alternative options on paid tickets.
There was initially a 4-hour transfer time in between, but I was lucky, and there was nobody else in line at the improvised Immigration upon arrival at Haneda Terminal 2, where ANA seems to dump most of their international arrivals these days.
I was through in 4 minutes and approached the transfer counter, where an agent confirmed me on the next ANA flight to Osaka-Itami 45 minutes later. I even had 20 minutes lounge time.
It seems like these standbys are only allowed on ANA’s own ticket stock nowadays, as I covered a few days ago:
ANA All Nippon Airways No Longer Allows Standby On Partner Issued Award Tickets
So this redemption via ANA Mileage Club had another unintended benefit to it as rebooking was done in a breeze. I wasn’t aware of the new supposed rule until a week later when I tried to standby on my UA award-issued ticket.
Conclusion
ANA Mileage Club came to the rescue again when I was looking for an award to fly from Beijing to Osaka this month. I booked this ticket in September when ANA had a promotion running that offered 50% off awards between China and Japan.
I was stunned by the low award fare and instantly booked a 5,000-mile ticket from Beijing via Tokyo to Osaka. Later on, ANA also cleared the waitlist for a direct flight to Osaka, but by that time the campaign was no longer available, and the price would be double. No thanks, especially not on a narrowbody aircraft.
Taxes and fees on this redemption were roughly $90, so all in all, an excellent promotion for an international flight that would have otherwise been very expensive.