Japan Airlines Devalues 20% – 30%, Here’s Why They’re Still a Useful Program

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs.  They are a oneworld airline, so you can book flights on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and American using their miles. And they have partnerships outside of oneworld including Emirates.

They also have a reasonably priced distance-based award chart.  For instance I’ve loved booking Emirates first class awards New York – Dubai – Bangkok and back for just 155,000 miles. That was still a really nice value, I thought, even once they started adding fuel surcharges again to these awards late last year.

  • Emirates Skywards charges 285,000 miles plus fuel surcharges.

  • Alaska charges 360,000 miles without fuel surcharges.

One of the reasons I was more excited than many of you about the new Barclays transferrable points card is because Japan Airlines is a transfer partner, and JAL miles are tough to come by. I hated parting with my Starwood points.

Unfortunately JAL has announced a devaluation of their award chart effective November 20, so giving us about six months’ notice.

Bottom line is that short haul awards get cheaper regardless of class of service, long distance awards get more expensive, and the longest distance awards which were already priced too high stay the same.

Roughly speaking the sweet spot of long haul business and first class redemptions are going up 20% – 30%.

Here are the changes – including percentage changes – for business class awards.

Business Business
Distance Thru 11/19/18 Starting 11/20/18 % Change
1 – 1,000 32,000 24,000 -25%
1001 – 2,000 35,000 30,000 -14%
2001 – 4,000 42,000 42,000 0%
4001 – 6,000 60,000 60,000 0%
6001 – 8,000 63,000 80,000 27%
8001 – 10,000 65,000 85,000 31%
10001 – 12,000 80,000 100,000 25%
12001 – 14,000 85,000 110,000 29%
14001 – 20,000 100,000 130,000 30%
20001 – 25,000 125,000 145,000 16%
25001 – 29,000 160,000 160,000 0%
29001 – 34,000 190,000 190,000 0%
34001 – 50,000 210,000 210,000 0%

And here are the changes – including percentage changes – for first class awards.

First First
Distance Thru 11/19/18 Starting 11/20/18 % Change
1 – 1,000 55,000 36,000 -35%
1001 – 2,000 60,000 45,000 -25%
2001 – 4,000 65,000 65,000 0%
4001 – 6,000 90,000 90,000 0%
6001 – 8,000 100,000 120,000 20%
8001 – 10,000 105,000 135,000 29%
10001 – 12,000 115,000 145,000 26%
12001 – 14,000 135,000 165,000 22%
14001 – 20,000 155,000 190,000 23%
20001 – 25,000 200,000 220,000 10%
25001 – 29,000 250,000 250,000 0%
29001 – 34,000 290,000 290,000 0%
34001 – 50,000 330,000 330,000 0%

The thing is that the Japan Airlines award chart was already so good that even with these changes their redemption prices remain competitive.

One Mile at a Time writes, “I don’t want to say the JAL Mileage Bank program is now completely useless, but it’s certainly not the program it used to be.”

And it’s not the program that it used to be, six months from now many great awards will cost more. We’ve seen that around the world. There’s a strong incentive for these private currencies to inflate.

I disagree with Ben though when he says “as a transfer partner I don’t view the program to be especially useful anymore.”

  • That New York – Bangkok roundtrip in Emirates first is going to cost 190,000 miles roundtrip which isn’t cheap. But New York – Bangkok in Korean First costs 190,000 Korean Air SkyPass miles roundtrip too.

  • It’s still a lot less miles than Emirates and Alaska charge for the same flights.

  • United MileagePlus doesn’t add fuel surcharges to awards, but charges 240,000 miles roundtrip for first class US-Southeast Asia. That’s 50,000 miles or 26% more than the new Japan Airlines price for New York – Dubai – Bangkok roundtrip.

I don’t like to see these increases. I’m saddened by them. But I still see the Mileage Bank as a strategically useful program. Their first class award prices remain better than many competitors, and that doesn’t even get into short haul business awards which are less than US airlines generally charge for coach.

(HT: Dan’s Deals)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. You’re not wrong about the award prices, but I’d say given how hard their miles are to acquire it’s no longer worth the effort.

  2. I think United actually charges 280,000 miles round trip for first class on partners from the US to SE Asia.

  3. Still a great value from West Coast to Japan nonstop at 60k miles. Not everyone wants to fly to Asia via the Middle East (many of us don’t want to transit that region at all).

  4. I’m with @Tyler. If this was offset with adding Amex as a transfer partner or something similar, then this would not be purely negative.

  5. I’m assuming the distance chart reflects one way fares? Am I correct? Start doubling them and it’s a different ball game.

  6. @CoolHandLuke
    I believe that the distance chart reflects distance. So if you can find a round trip redemption that totals 13,998 miles (6999 miles each way) that would cost 110k miles.

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