Always a fan of flying, Spencer wanted to find ways to upgrade his travel experience. Over the years, Spencer has been a guest speaker on multiple YouTube shows as well as podcasts on maximizing point...
Edited by: Kellie Jez
Kellie’s professional experience has led her to a deep passion for compliance, data reporting, and process improvement. Kellie’s learned the ins and outs of the points and miles world and leads UP’s c...
13 comments
John
April 06, 2018
Can I combine points from different cards into one account, say Amex and Citi? Also what’s the best way to bank these points into a one world partner account where I can use them to fly first class to Japan from NY on JAL. Will my Amex Plat card concierge service take care of this for me if I call them? Thanks again, love your posts.
Alex Miller
April 07, 2018
If there is a partner that both Amex and Citi transfer to, then yes – you can definitely transfer points to that partner from both Amex and Citi. There are partners that all of the transferrable programs are aligned with, such as Singapore Airlines so you could technically transfer in from all 4 (Chase, Citi, SPG, Amex).
SPG transfer to all of the OneWorld partners so that would be the best way to start banking points if you’re looking for maximum options.
Here’s info on their cards: /credit-cards/best-marriott-bonvoy-credit-cards/
Jason
November 10, 2019
“Japan Airlines has an amazing first class suite and a cabin crew that is second to none.”
My wife and I flew JAL First Class from San Francisco to Tokyo this past September. Unfortunately, the First Class suite was not amazing (unless you are comparing it to economy class) and the service was just average. Half of the stewardesses barely spoke English and none of them addressed me by name. I also took a Business Class flight on Singapore Airlines and the service was much better and they all addressed my by name.
The First Class suite on JAL is old and way inferior to ANA’s brand new First Class suite.
Tom
January 13, 2020
I’m trying to get a JAL flight using AA points. Conveniently this is now possible from the AA site. However, I also am trying to get a stopover in NRT on the way to PVG. Is this possible with points? I was able to put the flight together on the JAL website but AA site does not have the same options.
It’s tough to find out if this type of redemption is possible. Any way to do this? Thanks!
Stephen Au
January 13, 2020
Tom,
You cannot redeem AA miles and get a free stopover; it’s not allowed in their rules. You can only make connections. If you want to add that, you’ll need to pay separately for the 2nd segment using AA miles as well. Thanks for reading.
Jason
January 21, 2020
I’m on British Airways’ website and I literally can’t find any JAL flights that aren’t in economy for a flight from SFO to NRT in May. Am I too late to book travel for May in Jan?
Jarrod West
January 21, 2020
Hi Jason,
That is a possibility. Japan Airlines First Class space is very sought after so it can be hard to come by. I assume since you were searching on BA that you were hoping to book your ticket with AA miles, do you have any other miles you could use? Perhaps Alaska Airlines miles? If not, there are many other great booking options for your AA miles!
Tom
November 27, 2022
Oddly I do not see First Class options for Alaska Mileage Plan for JAL.
Meagan
January 09, 2023
Hi! Not sure if anyone is monitoring this but I have a similar issue as Tom. I’m on the AA site and wanting to redeem my AA miles for a Business/First class ticket to Japan on Japan Airlines and I’ve searched high and low, all months and different departure cities and they are only offering Economy or Premium Economy. No first class tickets are showing up. Has something changed?
Katie Seemann
January 17, 2023
Hi Meagan,
Finding business/first class award availability has been tough lately. I would keep looking because you never know when an award seat might pop up, but I would also suggest researching other ways to book your flight in case you can’t find availability through AA. Good luck!
Cera
January 21, 2023
I actually see plenty of first class options for Alaska Mileage for JAL (make sure you’re looking in the far right column, but note not all legs are first class, but a handful ARE first for the JAL option), there are some weeks/months I see them and a lot of others I don’t. However the problem I’m now running into is you can’t actually check out with these first class tickets. I’ve tried putting several different options (from Seattle, SFO, LAX > Tokyo both airports + Osaka both airports) and it’ll let you get all the way to the “PURCHASE” button then an alert will pop up that says “we cannot confirm seats on our partner airline flights”. I’ve spoken to both Alaska and Japan airlines about this, and both point fingers at each other. It’s really annoying actually that they are showing these first class tickets, but you can’t actually buy them.
Connie
July 08, 2023
Can you still redeem AA miles on JAL flights these days? I search and can not find any on Economy. Also it says to go to BA site and look but I thought you can now search on AA site. Is this article still accurate? It says updated Jun 2023 but is the info still accurate
Chris Hassan
July 08, 2023
Hi Connie,
Yes, you can still use AA miles to fly JAL. I just did a quick search and found wide open availbilty from BOS or JFK to NRT for only 35k miles in economy for the next 8 months.
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