ANA's new SFO-HND flight bookable starting January 27th

As I had covered a few months ago, both JAL and ANA are shifting many of their existing Narita-U.S. routes to Haneda, which is the far more convenient option for those disembarking in Japan.  The shifts will all be occur on March 29, 2020, and both carriers opened their booking window for the Haneda flights in late November 2019.  However, ANA's SFO-HND flight has been the only route that has not yet been open for booking.  But ANA has now confirmed the SFO-HND flight schedule and will open booking on January 27th.  The new flight will operate on the following schedule starting on March 29th on a four cabin 777-300ER:

NH108 Haneda to San Francisco departing 10:55PM arriving 4:25PM [Tue, Fri, Sun]
NH107 San Francisco to Haneda departing 1:45AM arriving 5:00AM (+1 day) [Mon, Wed, Sat]


It's interesting how ANA is going only 3x weekly for their SFO-HND route while keeping their daily SFO-NRT route.  ANA was granted 6 daily Haneda-U.S. slots, so they're apparently under-utilizing the slots given that they're only flying SFO-HND 3x weekly instead of daily.  I'm only speculating, but this may be due to limited aircraft availability instead of limited demand as Japan is expecting a massive flood of tourists come the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic games.


Booking ANA's new SFO-HND flight

As the booking window for ANA's SFO-HND flight will open on January 27th, I would expect a massive flood of award availability, including for ANA's awesome premium cabins.  So this would definitely be a great opportunity to book flights to Japan from the Bay Area.  The following are the best redemption options for booking ANA business class for the SFO-HND route:

1.  ANA Mileage Club: 75k-90k miles (depending on the season) + ~$267 fees (roundtrip only)
2.  Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 90k miles + ~$267 fees (roundtrip nonstop only)
3.  Avianca Lifemiles: 75k miles one-way

And if you fancy ANA first class, it's just 110k miles roundtrip with Virgin Atlantic!  Virgin Atlantic is a 1:1 transfer partner with Chase UR, Amex MR, and Citi TYP, making their miles easy to accumulate.  In addition, they occasionally run 30% transfer bonuses with Amex MR and Citi TYP, though there isn't a transfer bonus at the moment.

Redeem Virgin Atlantic miles for ANA first class

Bottom line

Starting on March 29th, ANA's new SFO-HND route will represent the 7th nonstop flight between Bay Area airports and Tokyo.  United currently flies both SFO-NRT and SFO-HND, JAL flies SFO-HND and will be adding SFO-NRT, ANA flies SFO-NRT and will be adding SFO-HND, and ANA will be switching their daily SJC-NRT flight to SJC-HND.  It's always good to see more options and availability for flying between the Bay Area and Tokyo, and I expect a slew of both economy and premium class award availability to open up for ANA's SFO-HND route when the booking window opens in 3 days.  Do you plan on flying ANA's new SFO-HND route?


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