JAL Business class

[ohnonotmeagain]

I am very green when it comes to air fares and all the variants of ticket prices so I hope you can help 😀. After a recent 10hr flight, I realised I was too old for cattle class anymore ( long haul  anyway) and now I want to go to Japan, autumn 2023- LHR to Haneda or Narita. Actual flights not available yet.

Looking at flights on comparison sites,JAL  seem to do some much reduced flights  called business special as opposed to standard, semi flex and flex. Apart from they are non refundable, why are they only half the normal rates? Approx £3000 return as opposed to £5/6000.Am I missing something vital here?

I would welcome any input from you experienced/ frequent flyers,I am neither!

[CruiserBruce]

Business flights or Business fares?

 

I am only seeing First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy.

[Gardyloo]

I think this refers to fares only marketed in the UK.  The "special" fares for business class allow date changes with no fee but are not refundable, while "flex" fares offer more options.  

 

For the OP, it's best to wait until after the booking window has opened to look for fares.  Too many things are changing at present as Japan re-enters the travel and tourism world post-pandemic.  

 

In the meantime, I'd suggest that you try to get familiar with the ITA Matrix tool (now owned by Google) which is a very powerful search engine (and which stands behind some online booking services.)  Using ITA Matrix you can see quite a wide range of flight options, either for specific dates or for month-long searches.  Search flights || ITA Matrix by Google (itasoftware.com)

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Gardyloo said:

I think this refers to fares only marketed in the UK.  The "special" fares for business class allow date changes with no fee but are not refundable, while "flex" fares offer more options.  

 

For the OP, it's best to wait until after the booking window has opened to look for fares.  Too many things are changing at present as Japan re-enters the travel and tourism world post-pandemic.  

 

In the meantime, I'd suggest that you try to get familiar with the ITA Matrix tool (now owned by Google) which is a very powerful search engine (and which stands behind some online booking services.)  Using ITA Matrix you can see quite a wide range of flight options, either for specific dates or for month-long searches.  Search flights || ITA Matrix by Google (itasoftware.com)

 

This ^^ 

(No surprise; Gardyloo is among those who tend to "know" 🙂 )

 

As an additional check, and to make sure that you feel comfortable when/if you are actually getting ready to be ticketed, take a look at the seating plan.

Use seatguru.com to find that using your flight number.

 

Chances are you will only see one "type" of business class seat, even if there is a break in the business class sections.  (In some planes there are two sections, in others just one, but the seats should all be described the same way, etc., and have the same diagrams.)

 

And when you have a flight number, if you have any questions, you could post that flight number here to get someone else to confirm, etc.

You should be very comfortable on JAL Business class for a long-haul flight!

 

We are in a similar situation:  at our ages, our bodies just can't handle sitting up for a long flight.  Fortunately, we are able to use awards.  (And getting bonus points for opening affiliated charge cards jump starts the point count.  Depending upon when you need to get ticketed, perhaps you'd want to check into this?  We tend to use American Airlines linked cards, and use the AAdvantage points to get ticketed on partner airlines like JAL.)

 

GC

[Globaliser]

5 hours ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

Looking at flights on comparison sites,JAL  seem to do some much reduced flights  called business special as opposed to standard, semi flex and flex. Apart from they are non refundable, why are they only half the normal rates? Approx £3000 return as opposed to £5/6000.Am I missing something vital here?

 

Ignore the names. That's just marketing.

 

The different fares have different restrictions. Just as in economy, cheaper fares are generally more restrictive. Business class is no different.

 

If you go to JAL's website and price a ticket for a long way out, you'll get to see a chart showing the marketing names. If you click on "Business special", for example, you'll see the main rules. Then you can compare these rules with those for more expensive fares.

[ohnonotmeagain]

Thank you for your replies.

 

[Zach1213]

On 10/14/2022 at 1:32 PM, GeezerCouple said:

You should be very comfortable on JAL Business class for a long-haul flight!

 

Except that it will be like 150 degrees in the plane!

 

(JAL business class is a delight, but I find Japanese airlines (namely JAL and ANA) to be...well...fans of the furnace, if you will)