Yesterday Tiffany posted about how it’s nowpossible to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles on Japan Airlines. While the partnership between Alaska and Japan Airlines was first announced in May, we were told that reciprocal mileage redemptions would only be possible in late 2016.
Continue reading: 9 Reasons To Be Excited About Redeeming Alaska Miles On JAL
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
You wrote: "Most frequent flyer programs don’t allow free stopovers on awards, let alone on one-way award tickets."
True, but that should read "no longer allow" because they did in the past-----one main reason that airlines like American should re-impose the gateway and International hub stopovers after their anti-passenger style devaluation.
Hey Ben, I agree that the stopover ability in Tokyo on the way to India is reason to be excited, though I don't think you're correct when that "When you redeem Alaska miles on Cathay Pacific intra-Asia you can’t do a stopover in Hong Kong"...
I have a trip in March in Cathay Business Class using AS miles and have a 2 day stopover in HKG on the way to Tokyo...
Do we expect them to expand the available routings at some point (i.e. US to Australia and/or Africa)?
@Accountingyourpoints Actually, I have to agree with Ben since when I tried book a stopover on inter-Asia trip on Cathay using Alaska miles, the system wouldn't let me do it. The CS rep that was working with me was puzzled why it wouldn't go through but finally figured out that it was due to a stopover.
Your trip is not an inter-Asia award since it starts in US.
Just flew JL CDG-HND-CDG in First Class and was not overly impressed. While the in-flight service was excellent and the seat and bedding were comfortable, for food was bizarre to say the least (e.g. a bowl of radishes as an appetizer, and caviar with nori and sour rice) and the portions were quite small. Also, the ground services for first class customers at both CDG and HND were non-existent. I'll stick with CX in the future when traveling to Asia.
It seems that the award availability of J and F class from NYC to Tokyo is minimal.
I had three flights in JAL F last month: SFO-HND, CGK-NRT, NRT-LAX. Agree with Gregg, ground services are non-existent. Hard product is good, but not in the top 5 - no enclosed suite, no double bed, no shower. Just a pretty standard first class 1-2-1 seat.
Service on SFO-HND segment was great, probably because there was only one other passenger in F and the cabin crew could be really attentive. However, CGK-NRT-LAX flights were full in F, and service was not attentive or personalized at all.
Food is good, but also not to the level of top 5 F products. There is caviar, but the portion is tiny. Mains are forgettable.
In all, JAL F is a solid product, but definitely not "phenomenal" as Ben calls it.
@alcwj You can! Unlike Cathay Pacific, they show up when search for award flights.
@AcCountingYourPoints
Um, no, you didn't "miss" anything. You thought "why bother to actually read when instead I can post a know-it-all comment and waste other peoples' time". But I'm sure you "miss" things a lot ...
"Ahh scratch my previous comment… missed the “intra-Asia” part!"
"That covers a distance of 7,000 miles one-way, which is toughly the same distance as a roundtrip between New York and Delhi…."
Wow...get me on that 6 hour JFK-DEL flight! 😛
@Moe:
We call that a "round-trip". 😉
No, AS won't sell you a round-trip for the price of a one-way with stopover... it will price out as a round-trip. Thanks for playing, though. 😀
Just got back yesterday from a round trip on JAL JFK to NRT. Saved some miles so flew Economy one way and Premium Economy the other ($300 to upgrade to Economy Plus, which got refunded today through Chase Ritz Carlton card in a 3 minute phone call). Even in Economy and Premium Economy, JAL was incredibly impressive. Described my experience to someone there who flew United EWR to NRT, and she got extremely upset when we compared flights since United was so inferior to JAL.
The stop over intra Asia is really crazy. That means I can book a ticket from say Jakarta, to Tokyo, and use Tokyo as a stopover. Then I can 'continue' to Kuala Lumpur as my end-destination, and that's a 1-way with a stopover? If I lived in Jakarta, that would be a free round trip from Jakarta to Tokyo since Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta can be booked with an LCC for as low as $16 one way!
Agree with Greg: "food was bizarre". Flew JAL FC NRT-LAX in Sept, and the Western main course was "hamburg". No, not a hamburger in a bun, just a round sphere of cooked, but not exceptionally seasoned, ground beef sitting on the plate. Not very appetizing at all.
Seat and service were good, but certainly not SQ level. Yes we would fly JAL again, based on availability, but don't consider them to be 'aspirational'.
Have to give them credit for serving Salon Cuvee S though. 😉
@Bob, couldn't believe this and I actually managed to price out CGK - NRT 2 day stop NRT - KUL, first leg in F and back in J on (777 and 789 with the good J class) for only 30K + $47.... Availability wasn't great.. but its certainly legal/bookable.
Contrary to the theme of this post, Alaska MVP miles are not always better than AAdvantage miles when looking to book JAL longhaul, particularly in business class. I just researched JAL business class nonstop HND - SFO for next July. Both programs wanted 60k miles per business class seat, but Alaska wanted an additional $52 in fees per ticket while American only wanted $39 additional per ticket. Of course, MVP miles are generally more valuable than AA miles because of Alaska's greater range of international partners and their great stopover rules on one-way tix. But on this particular nonstop JAL flight, I gladly used my AA miles to get the JAL business class ticket.
"That covers a distance of 7,000 miles one-way, which is toughly the same distance as a roundtrip between New York and Delhi" - hope you meant to say one-way? A great opportunity nonetheless. Just purchased DEL-NRT-CGK in Biz + First at 30k. No more First is offered after March-end 2017 to CGK so if anyone wants to fly intra-Asia in JL F better fly before that!
Just the follow up - there is even crazier route! Tokyo to Delhi via Jakarta - It'll give NRT-CGK-XNRT-DEL and have two First Class rides plus one Business Class ride - all in 30k + USD 71, still considered as one way!
This all sounds amazing----if a little confusing. JAL is my all time favourite airline but now being an OAP can't afford it. Sept 2017 I will be flying from Ireland to Japan (preferably Osaka) and on to Bangkok and returning to Ireland (Via Japan would be ok) Was wondering if I could avail of this offer?
I was able to book several intra Asia awards like BKK-NRT-SGN on JAN 10. I now keep getting an error when I try to book similar flights. The system may not be allowing to book intra asia awards any more. Not sure if AS is just blocking my account to book intra asia.
The request was not successful. See the red message(s) below. Space on partner flights cannot be confirmed. Please change the dates, cities, or flights of your original request.
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To continue, shop again for other fare and flight options.If this problem continues, please call 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522) for other fare and flight options.
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