✈️ How to fly to Japan in first class

Estimated read time: 2 minutes and 15 seconds

Good morning from Düsseldorf, Germany! 🇩🇪

Before I get too deep in this Weissbier and start slurring my typing (is that a thing?), let me tell you about an inspiring luxury award redemption from one of our very own Daily Drop readers.

Turning Avios into a $16,000 first-class seat

Some redemptions are impressive because they’re complicated.

This one is impressive because it’s simple – and extremely epic.

A Daily Drop Pro member (Kelly) followed our advice for getting to Tokyo and checked award space out of Chicago.

And they didn’t just find something good… they found Japan Airlines’ first freaking class for the first week of October 2026.

The cash price for that exact seat was $16,084, which is, to put it mildly, horrifying.

Instead, you could book this exact seat right now with Avios.

I just pulled up multiple dates for this same route in November of next year with availability for 123,750 Avios and $200 out of pocket.

Banks offer frequent transfer bonuses of 20-30% to Avios throughout the year.

If you’re lucky enough to snag one of those, you’re looking at around 95,000 points to book the same flight.

And what I love about this example is that it highlights two things that are very easy to forget:

1. Premium seats show up at the extremes

If you want premium cabin award space, your best odds are usually either:

• Way, way in advance (like a year out), or

• Very last minute (when airlines dump inventory close-in)

Kelly did the first one – and it paid off… clearly.

2. Avios are one of the most useful “everyday” currencies

A lot of people think of Avios as “British Airways points,” but this redemption is a reminder that Avios can unlock way more than that.

Because BA is in the oneworld alliance, Avios can be used on partners like Japan Airlines, plus other oneworld airlines (American, Alaska, Cathay, Qantas, etc.).

And this reader also called out another important fact: Avios are unusually flexible because you can freely move them between programs like British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Qatar, and Aer Lingus.

That matters because sometimes, Avios programs price the same flight differently.

This leads to the real cheat code: since every major bank transfers to at least one Avios program, it essentially means that every bank transfers to all of the Avios programs.

The key takeaways:

• Check far out OR close in for premium seats – the middle is where hope goes to die. ☠️

• Don’t sleep on Avios: they’re one of the easiest currencies to earn, and they have endless uses.

• Move Avios when pricing is better elsewhere (BA, Qatar, etc.) before you book.

Also, the screenshot message is literally Kelly thanking Daniel (our in-house redemption support wizard and points and miles genius) for the advice that helped them find it.

That kind of help (having a real human tell you where to look) is exactly why Daily Drop Pro can pay for itself with one good piece of advice like this one.

Anyway, $200 and some Avios for a $16,000 first-class seat is disgusting behavior.

Well done. 🫡

Another day, another great reader success story. To anyone who actually decided to open their email on New Year’s Eve, thank you. ❤️

Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you NEXT YEAR. 🎉

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