JAL Mileage Bank - Need advice for an upcoming trip with JAL :)

I am flying on JL 405 on September 1st from Narita to Paris. My ticket is full fare economy which is so expensive: 768.500JPY (8119USD); it’s provided by my company. My question is shall I upgrade it to business class using mileage especially that JAL is having a special campaign for upgrades(to Europe 20.000miles for round trip) or shall I wait and see if I am going to be upgraded when I check in? as for now I have a premium class seat. Your advice is highly appreciated.
Thank you in advance :)

I am flying on JL 405 on September 1st from Narita to Paris. My ticket is full fare economy which is so expensive: 768.500JPY (8119USD); it’s provided by my company. My question is shall I upgrade it to business class using mileage especially that JAL is having a special campaign for upgrades(to Europe 20.000miles for round trip) or shall I wait and see if I am going to be upgraded when I check in? as for now I have a premium class seat. Your advice is highly appreciated.
Thank you in advance :)

I would use miles as JAL is not known for operational upgrades.

I am flying on JL 405 on September 1st from Narita to Paris. My ticket is full fare economy which is so expensive: 768.500JPY (8119USD); it’s provided by my company.


I have never imagined someone would buy a normal (unrestricted) fare, unless of course a traveller needs the the absolute flexibility. For that amount of money, you can get a discount business class ticket.

For a random Sept 1-Sept 6 NRT-CDG-NRT return trip on Business class, I see the following fares on JAL's web site.

Business Web Saver Weekend Stay 28 (weekend stay required) ￥348,400
(Note: this fare requires 28 day advance purchase, which for Sept 1 is today.)

Business Web Saver 14 ￥560,400

Business Web Saver ￥740,400

Also, JAL has at this moment offering something called "Business Web Saver 14 WITH", and if you are travelling with someone else the fare is ￥350,000 each:)

(The prices vary depending your departure/arrival date.)

I have never imagined someone would buy a normal (unrestricted) fare, unless of course a traveller needs the the absolute flexibility. For that amount of money, you can get a discount business class ticket.

For a random Sept 1-Sept 6 NRT-CDG-NRT return trip on Business class, I see the following fares on JAL's web site.

Business Web Saver Weekend Stay 28 (weekend stay required) ￥348,400
(Note: this fare requires 28 day advance purchase, which for Sept 1 is today.)

Business Web Saver 14 ￥560,400

Business Web Saver ￥740,400

Also, JAL has at this moment offering something called "Business Web Saver 14 WITH", and if you are travelling with someone else the fare is ￥350,000 each:)

(The prices vary depending your departure/arrival date.)

Thanks Kojiro.

The ticket is expensive as I will be returning back on March 30/2010. Company rules have changed lately and we have to fly economy. So JAL or ANA dont have discount fares for a saty of more than 6 months.

Thanks Kojiro.

The ticket is expensive as I will be returning back on March 30/2010. Company rules have changed lately and we have to fly economy. So JAL or ANA dont have discount fares for a saty of more than 6 months.

I suspect it might be cheaper to buy two one-way tickets compare to a full fare Y roundtrip :p

I think it would be cheaper if you bought a cheap fare.....and throw away the returns...

You could save the company 400000+ yen

I think it would be cheaper if you bought a cheap fare.....and throw away the returns...

You could save the company 400000+ yen

Hey. Thats right but its not me who decide. They already made the reservation. the only thing i was asked was: do you like to fly Air France, JAL or ANA? I said JAL

No one actually answered my question........:confused:

Tokyolyon, use the miles. JAL doesn't upgrade people very often.
(how rare is it? I've seen Japanese JAL boards on Mixi of people discussing the number of upgrades they've gotten in their life and most are in the low single digits)

The mile deal is a good bargain since someone else bought the original ticket.

Enjoy your flight :)

Hey. Thats right but its not me who decide. They already made the reservation. the only thing i was asked was: do you like to fly Air France, JAL or ANA? I said JAL

No one actually answered my question........:confused:

I think it would be cheaper if you bought a cheap fare.....and throw away the returns...

You could save the company 400000+ yen

More importantly:

I have an American expat buddy in Tokyo who was surprised to get a $1,000 US income tax bill. He didn't expect any tax because his income was within the allowed foreign income exclusion (about $85,000). Turns out that he got a Y class ticket to the US from his company as part of his compensation package. The ticket counted as income for US tax purposes and pushed his total income $3,000 over the exclusion amount, so he owed one-third of the value as tax. Needless to say, he fired his accountants shortly after that.

I would use miles as JAL is not known for operational upgrades.

Just a data point perhaps, but I got upgraded to C on a Y award ticket the last time I flew JL from KIX to HKG, before that I think there might have been one or two other instances.
.

1) JAL does not upgrade people often. As a Diamond member of JAL, I only got 1 operational upgrade in the past 3 years while I got two digits operational upgrades on UA, and not seldom on TG and SQ.

2) If you stay until March in Paris and prefer to fly JAL, then I would like to suggest you to buy OneWorld round the world Business class. You can fly for example

NRT-JFK(JAL)-CDG(AA)-NRT'JAL)
I prefer to fly NRT-JFK(JAL)-LHR(BA)-CDG(BA)-NRT(JAL) for the service.

This fare is eligible for upgrade as well.

FYI.

Yes yes yes. I just got off JL C @ AMS earlier this week and found it good as heaven besides the fact that you dont have a flat bed. managed to knock some 7 hrs of sleep on a midday flight which is always good. The fact that they serve "snack" means you can also have substantial food after 1st meal rather than sandwiches and co that BA and the likes serve during flight. and I got bulkhead without prebooking. with the nice crew life could not be better (well, it could, look towards the front cabin, or to join some clubs:D:D)

also, although there wasnt the same type of amnety (or did i miss the chapstick?), the eye refresher was real good and fool proof! The Elemis eye cream I had from the earlier award trip on BA was still intact while i have already used 2 of those stuff on the flight! and I still have 2 more here :P

for 20000 miles, jump for it! (and check out the JAL Caddie service, i didnt even need to lug my luggage around the airport and whereever i was before hitting Narita!)

for 20000 miles, jump for it! (and check out the JAL Caddie service, i didnt even need to lug my luggage around the airport and whereever i was before hitting Narita!)

Link here...
JAL Caddlie Service (http://www.jal.co.jp/cms/jaljet/en/html/jaljet_3.html)

But the service will sadly be terminated on September 30, 2009. So tokyolyon can only use it on his outbound flight.

Link here...
JAL Caddlie Service (http://www.jal.co.jp/cms/jaljet/en/html/jaljet_3.html)

But the service will sadly be terminated on September 30, 2009. So tokyolyon can only use it on his outbound flight.

Use it whilst it lasts. although I dont know how hard it was to make the reservations. my friend who is japanese sorted it all out for me :p for an extra 500 yen they check it in for you as well.