Related Posts
How many hours did you bill today? 😆 🤣

Additional Posts in All things points
How do you ask for points?
Best SPG + Marriott hotels in Beijing?
Amex Platinum or Chase Sapphire?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.







Rising Star
It's more luck than anything else. Based on how far different airline calendars go, ANA gets first dibs, then United, then Virgin (331 days). Air Canada can no longer book ANA. Obviously the problem here is that all seats are gone by the time Virgin can see them.
So now you are relying on cancelations (that may or may not go back into inventory) or ANA releasing more seats.
If you only need 1 seat, you're willing to reposition, and you're flexible on date (e.g. you'll go in the summer even though Japan sucks at that time, or typhoon season, or the dead of winter), it is doable.
Add in the recent year's discovery that VS can no longer book ANA biz T-14, so last minute bookings are out of the picture.
Set alerts and pray. That's all you can do, especially for 2 seats. If you want to guarantee biz to Japan, you need to book via ANA at open. Booking via United T-14 is also pretty good but costs a lot more points. You can also look at JAL which has its own booking strategy.