For the past few years, Japan Airlines has offered double daily service between New York-JFK and Tokyo Narita, most recently with the Boeing 777-300ER and the Boeing 787-8. The problem with Narita, besides dealing with Godzilla, was the prospect of an hour commute into the city after a 14 hour flight.
For those looking to shave off some time in getting to downtown, Japan Airlines has announced that beginning on April 1st, they will be dropping one flight from JFK-Narita and adding a flight to JFK-Haneda. This is great news, given Haneda’s proximity to downtown Tokyo, and the fact that Haneda is a great point to connect to Japan Airlines regional network, which numbers over 30 domestic destinations as well as numerous “near international” (e.g. Korea, China, Thailand) destinations. The flight will operate daily, and is set to leave JFK in the early afternoon, with a mid-afternoon arrival in Tokyo.
Japan Airline’s schedule for JFK-Haneda.
Beyond being closer to Tokyo, this new route will also operate with the 777-300ER, which means that Japan is effectively DOUBLING the number of first class seats they offer between NYC and Tokyo. This is a great opportunity for those with American Airlines or Alaska Airlines miles, with a first class one way redemption costing 80,000 American miles or 70,000 Alaska miles. If you ask any blogger worth their salt, they’ll say Japan Airlines First Class is definitely something to experience, right Dan?
(READ MORE: JAL First Class review ORD-NRT)
Personally, this is great news for me, as I am in the midst of planning a trip to Japan, and was looking at flying into Haneda (again, to avoid Godzilla) rather than Narita. With the points I’ll earn from the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select, I’ll be well on my way to a first class ticket!
New Yorkers, are you excited about JFK-Haneda, or does Narita serve you just fine?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
80k AA miles, right?
JAL first was nice, but I’ve been much more impressed with Cathay and Singapore.
62,500 American miles? or 80,000?
Thanks for pointing out, it is indeed 80,000. I’ve fixed above.
One free Roundtrip for anyone that caught the error, right?