What is going on at Japan Airlines?! Earlier this year, a JAL pilot reported for duty at London Heathrow appearing intoxicated. He was reported by the bus driver (who drove the crew from their hotel to the airport), removed from the flight and immediately…
Since I'm "grounded" this week, I'm taking some time to plan my travel for 2019, and wanted to share the details of a trip I just finalized, which I can't wait for! We actually planned this trip many months ago, so it's the flights that were recently…
I just wrapped up a really fun review trip. I flew from San Francisco to Melbourne in Qantas’ 787 business class, from Melbourne to Singapore in Singapore’s 777 first class, from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Singapore’s A350 business class, and then…
Recently a Japan Airlines pilot arrived for work at London Heathrow to operate a flight to Tokyo with a blood alcohol level of 0.18, which was almost ten times over the allowed limit of 0.02 for pilots operating flights from the UK. Fortunately the hotel…
Airports spend a lot of time and money trying to attract new airlines, especially from regions without much service. For example, while airports like JFK and LAX don't have to do anything to attract airlines, airports like San Diego and Portland might…
Japan Airlines has been in the news over one of their pilots, who was caught trying to board a flight from London to Tokyo nearly 10x over the legal blood alcohol limit for pilots. Just this past week the pilot was sentenced to 10 months in jail in the…
A few weeks ago I shared the story of a Japan Airlines 777 pilot who was caught at London Heathrow Airport nearly 10x over the legal alcohol limit for pilots. The 42 year old first officer was supposed to operate a flight to Tokyo Haneda on October 28,…
In late September, Japan Airlines formally announced that they'll be launching flights to Seattle as of March 31, 2019. The airline will operate the route daily using a Boeing 787-8, with the following schedule: JL68 Tokyo Narita to Seattle departing…
This is pretty nuts. It's being reported that on Sunday, October 28, 2018, a Japan Airlines first officer was caught trying to board a plane nearly 10x over the legal alcohol limit for pilots. He was supposed to operate JL44 from London Heathrow to Tokyo…
For quite a while now there have been rumors of Japan Airlines adding flights to Seattle, and that has now finally been confirmed. Japan Airlines has announced that they'll begin flying between Tokyo Narita and Seattle as of March 31, 2019. The airline…
Japan Airlines is a phenomenal airline across all cabins. Most of their flights to the US are flown by the Boeing 777-300ER, featuring a beautiful first class cabin, and also Apex Suites in business class, which is one of my favorite business class products.…
Japan Airlines has just become the 11th airline to get a Skytrax 5-Star rating. 10 of the Skytrax 5-Star airlines are Asian (only Lufthansa isn't), and Japan Airlines also becomes the second Japanese airline to get the rating, after All Nippon Airways.…
Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is a lucrative frequent flyer program for travel on partner airlines thanks to their distance based award chart. They have reasonable award costs and also allow lots of stopovers, which is a nice combination for those looking…
Japan has an excellent national train network which is efficient, extremely punctual and comfortable to use. It can also be extremely expensive. While travelling between major cities like Tokyo and Osaka the train network may be a no-brainer (albeit…
Well this is rough. Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is a useful niche frequent flyer program. They partner with Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Barclays, and they have a pretty lucrative distance based award chart that's valid for travel…
For years there have been rumors of Miami getting a nonstop commercial flight to Asia. The airport has actively been soliciting such flights, and has offered airlines that would be willing to operate these routes all kinds of incentives. On the surface…
Yesterday Japan Airlines presented a "medium term management plan," which includes a PDF that has lots of interesting information in it. I'm always interested in airlines' expansion plans -- sometimes airlines are optimistic in their expansion goals,…
This is easily the biggest devaluation to Alaska Mileage Plan miles in nearly two years. Alaska Mileage Plan is no longer allowing redemptions on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Hainan within 72 hours of departure (though they continue to allow other…
There are plenty of airlines serving outrageously expensive champagne in first class. The airline offering the single most expensive champagne in first class is Japan Airlines, as they serve Salon Champagne. Over the years they've switched between vintages…
As I wrote about yesterday, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has made a terrible change to their program when it comes to redeeming miles on Emirates. Up until last week the best way to redeem miles for travel in Emirates first class was through Japan Airlines…
Well this isn't fun... Emirates has one of my favorite first class products in the world, and that's not even taking into consideration their brand new first class product, which looks spectacular. Up until last March, my favorite way to redeem for Emirates…
