ANA and JAL’s Time Sale Happens Every Month and It’s Perfect for Domestic Travel
Tokyo-Sapporo and Osaka are 6,600 yen! Is this also the reason for the shareholder special benefit ticket crash?
ANA and JAL’s domestic flight “Time Sales” are becoming more established. In JAL’s Time Sale held this February, fares started at 6,600 yen for routes such as Tokyo (Haneda) – Sapporo (Chitose) and Osaka (Itami), and 7,700 yen for Tokyo (Haneda) – Fukuoka and Okinawa (Naha). Considering baggage fees and payment charges, these fares can be even cheaper than LCCs (low-cost carriers). ANA offers almost the same price range.
Meanwhile, the value of “shareholder discount tickets,” which have long been a standard way to get cheap airfares, has plummeted in ticket shops. For shareholder discount tickets expiring at the end of May this year, both the buyback price and selling price have dropped to just a few hundred yen per ticket. The main advantage of these tickets was that they allowed passengers to buy tickets at half the regular fare even on the day of departure. However, due to a decrease in the number of available seats for reservations and the frequent Time Sales reducing their appeal, their value has significantly declined.
During these Time Sales, the reservation screens often become difficult to access right after the sale starts. There are also several points to be cautious about.
However, there are some differences when analyzing the implementation period of last year and the year before
ANA and JAL time sales started in earnest in 2011. The main sales periods and boarding periods for the year before last, last year, and this year are as follows.
[ANA]
◇ 2025: January (for flights from March to May), February (March-end to June)
◇ 2024: February (April to June), March (May to July), April (June to August), May (July to September), June (August to October), July (September to November), August (October to January), September (November to February), October (December to February), November (① January to March ② January to February), December (February to April)
◇ 2023: April (June), August (October), October (December), December (February to March)[JAL]
◇ 2025: January (February to March), February (April to May)
◇ 2024: February (① March ② April to May), April (May to June), May (July to September), June (October), July (August to September), August (October), September (October to November), October (December to early January), November (① Late December to January ② January to February)
◇ 2023: March (April), April (May), May (June), July (September), August (October), September (November), October (December), November (① January ② February)
The number of Time Sales was relatively low for both airlines the year before last, but since last year, they have been held almost monthly. The reason there were two sales in November is that one was timed to coincide with “Black Friday” at the end of the month.
JAL’s Time Sales typically have a sales period of two days, with travel periods divided by month. In contrast, ANA offers a longer sales period of about five days and a broader travel period compared to JAL.
The first of these Time Sales was the “JAL Smile Campaign,” which began on March 9, 2023, at midnight. The shockwave of the “All Domestic Routes One-Way for 6,600 Yen” deal was immense, causing JAL’s official website server to crash right after sales began. After rebuilding its system, JAL resumed sales on March 31.
Since then, JAL has introduced a virtual waiting room system, where customers are temporarily placed in an online queue before being guided in order. Thanks to this system, major issues have been avoided since.
