If youโre hoping to try ANAโs awesome new First and Business Class products, hereโs some good news: ANA has eliminated fuel surcharges on flights to and from Japan, allowing you to enjoy the experience for much less.


ANAโs revised fuel surcharges
Before you celebrate, an important caveat to note: ANA has removed fuel surcharges for flights that start or end in Japan (technically they havenโt removed them; theyโve just made them JPY 100 (S$1.30) per leg)
However, if youโre merely transiting through Japan, youโll still encounter the surcharges. For example, this round-trip Business Class itinerary from SIN-HND-JFK still attracts S$589.60 of fuel surchargesโฆ
โฆwhile this round-trip Business Class itinerary from NRT-JFK only has a token 200 JPY (~S$2.60) of surcharges attached.
While thatโs slightly disappointing, it doesnโt mean this development is completely useless. It just means you need to be a bit clever about how you book your award flights.
Letโs say you wanted to try THE Room (random capitalization inherent from source), ANAโs phenomenal new Business Class. This product is available on all flights between Tokyo Haneda/Narita and New York.
Now, you could book a SIN-HND/NRT-JFK itinerary all on ANA, but then youโd have to pay 211,000 KrisFlyer miles round-trip, plus a S$589.60 of fuel surcharge, as we saw earlier.
Instead, why not fly SIN-HND/NRT on Singapore Airlines, then connect to ANA for HND/NRT-JFK? This would still cost the same 211,000 KrisFlyer miles, but with just S$2.60 of fuel surcharges (Singapore Airlines doesnโt levy fuel surcharges on any of its flights).
211,000 miles may sound a lot, but itโs just a small premium over the 198,000 miles youโd pay if you flew this whole route on Singapore Airlines metal. |
The Singapore Airlines website may not piece this itinerary together, so youโll basically need to do two separate searches:
- Find a Singapore Airlines flight from SIN-NRT/HND that has immediately confirmable space in Business Saver (you canโt use Advantage space for a Star Alliance award)
- Find an ANA flight from NRT/HND-JFK with Business Class space
- Call KrisFlyer customer service and feed them the flight numbers and timings; they should be able to put together the itinerary and charge it as a single award.
Fortunately, itโs now much easier to search for Star Alliance award flights thanks to Singapore Airlinesโ new search interface, which lets you rapidly browse through weeks of award space.
In the screenshot below, Iโve managed to find award space on NH10 that departs NRT on 1640 on 11 May.

I could, theoretically, connect to it from SQ638, which arrives in NRT at 0800. Yes, a 9 hour layover isnโt workable for most people so this isnโt the best of examples, but hopefully it shows you the underlying idea.
ANA offers good connectivity to North America
Even if youโre not specifically interested in ANAโs new cabin products, the removal of fuel surcharges can still benefit you if youโre hoping to fly to North America.
ANA serves many additional destinations that Singapore Airlines does not, such as Chicago, Mexico City, Vancouver and Washington D.C. You can follow the same steps to fly to these destinations surcharge free- find a Singapore Airlines flight to Tokyo, then pair it with an onwards ANA flight.
Previously, your best bet would have been to fly to any of Singapore Airlinesโ US gateways and purchase a separate connecting flight, or try and find a Star Alliance award featuring SQ and UA. Trust me, youโd much rather fly SQ/NH than SQ/UA.
Donโt forget the Miles&Smiles option
Iโve so far been referring to KrisFlyer miles prices, but letโs not forget that Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles has an incredible sweet spot for travel between Singapore and the USA- round-trip Business Class awards cost just 135,000 miles (First Class is 200,000 miles).
There is a fly in the ointment, though. Remember that fuel surcharges are only eliminated if you fly to/from Japan, not through Japan. However, Miles&Smiles (like all partner programs) only has restricted access to Singapore Airlines First/Business Class space. The whole thing falls apart if you canโt use Miles&Smiles to book the Singapore to Tokyo leg.
If memory serves me right, Singapore Airlines does operate its B787-10s between Singapore and Tokyo (at least before Covid-19), and partner programs may be able to access award space on this particular aircraft. Itโs a long shot though, and Iโd certainly confirm availability before transferring any points to Miles&Siles.
Turkish Airlines is a transfer partner of Citibank, so keep that in mind for the future.
Conclusion
ANAโs removal of fuel surcharges is great news, and opens up many additional ways of getting from Singapore to North America (not to mention trying their latest cabin products).
Itโs another thing to look forward to when travel once again becomes possible.
(HT: Straight to the Points)
this is great to know. Thanks Aaron.
Just have a question though. Would it work for A3? I canโt find a flight from SG transiting in Tokyo to London on A3, but I am able to find the 2 legs separately. Can I call A3 to get them to book the flights for me as a single booking with the SIN-NRT leg on SQ and the NRT-LHR leh on ANA thus removing the fuel surcharge?
i dont know if sin-tyo-lhr would constitute backtracking (or whether a3 has rules against backtracking in the first place).
you can try to ask them to book and see what happens. yes, thereโll be no fuel surcharge to speak of- aegean passes them on, but SQ and NH wouldnโt have them on those flights so thereโs nothing to pass on.