KPT

Curious what draws you to each alliance, flying out of HND, NRT, KIX or wherever else you may be.

I'm currently with OW, only because of the crazy mileage accrual via American credit cards before I moved here. That said, JL J fares to the US ex-HND and ex-NRT are ridiculously low compared to NH/UA, and DL. Don't think I'm going to make an attempt to renew AA platinum status since I more or less always get to fly J to the states with fares this low.

My priority destinations are: SJC/SFO, BOS, LGA/JFK.

Taiwaned

I am based outside just outside Kobe.

My home is Vancouver.

Going back and forth from Vancouver, we are pretty loyal to AC and NH so we are Star Alliance primarily.

5khours

I use a combination.

Mostly *A and credit to UA. That lets me use the miles on TG, NH, UA and LH.

I also have a pretty big balance on Amex, but there are limits on how much you can use on NH and JL. Very good for SQ and a bunch of other airlines.

I've also bought a bunch of AS miles which are pretty handy on EK, CX, JAL, QF, etc.

Depends a lot on where you are going, but between Japan and NA I do about 80% of my flying on NH.

gnaget

Star worked great for me. I got matched to AA Plat Exec for one year and then AA Plat the second but did not fly OW once.

I was flying nested RTW tickets when based in Japan because I go to both Europe and the US. I tried to avoid round trip revenue tickets Japan-Europe because it is quite expensive. The pricing for RTW from Japan is pretty good. I wonder if it has been adjusted with the weaker yen.

How cheap is cheap on JL?

KPT

I've seen HND-SFO mid-week roundtrip for as little as 270K JPY. Not sure what booking class it was, but I think it was "I" -- non-refundable and all that badness. I think you only get this pricing if you book more than 3 weeks out.

I usually get my tickets in X with some fixed rate fare, and it's usually still 100K less than the competition (NH/UA) on that route.

evergrn

If you travel on the company's dime, then I presume you value nonstop over any price difference. JAL is the only airline that flies nonstop to all three of your primary destinations from TYO, but Star probably offers the most nonstops total to those 3 destinations combined. If you pay for your own travel, then you'll want more options including 1-stops through Korea, Canada, ORD, SEA, etc. If that's the case, then I have to think that it's Star and Sky (maybe Star > Sky) with 1W distant third.

Anyways, this is not a simple question, and the airlines' hard products (esp seats), FF program quality, and routes are always in flux as we know. You may have personal preferences, favorite airline, but again things are always in flux. I'm based in SEA. I'm going with Star (put all my miles in UA) and Alaska. For a SEA guy who travels almost exclusively SEA-TYO/HKG and US-domestic, 1W makes no sense. I contemplated joining DL for a few months, but I saw that their saver award availability is horrible. In fact, it's much easier to redeem DL seats using AS miles on my DL flights than using DL miles. UA is still has decent ff program imho. AS is a great program that one could consider even if you don't live in an AS city. Problem, though, is it may be a matter of time before AS partners become exclusively Sky (if DL gobbles them up) or almost all 1W (if relations w/ DL further sour and AS can stay independent).

Credit card is an important consideration, especially for me since I probably earn >1/3 of my miles from credit card. I can't speak to card options in Jpn. In the US, UA's Chase Explorer is way superior to AS's BofA card. DL is only AmEx which doesn't work for me. If you want Chase Sapphire, then UA and KE are the only trans-Pacific airlines that you can do 1:1 point transfer with.

KPT

I may be spending company money, but I still have budget limits
Every time I travel JL J or redeem award tickets, it means I'll be able to put money towards another trip. DL is an interesting option, as is UA ...but I have no easy way of getting miles on UA other than flying.

Very true. AA has been very good to me especially with IRROPS. I had no status on UA, so my experience was not that good. I imagine had I been at least a gold then things would have been better in that regard.

Japan's credit cards are more interesting in that regard. For NH, JL, and DL, you can retain mid-tier status indefinitely by simply having the requisite card. By virtue of getting the DL card, I got DL Gold Medallion. (Thread here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-thoughts.html)

For NH and JL you have to first make mid-tier status, then get the card. AA and UA have no options worth looking into.

I'll agree that DL miles are rubbish if you're looking for a full award ticket, but I think their upgrade chart looks very reasonable, if you're willing to pay for certain Y fares first. Of course it means fewer MQM, but if I'm already lifetime gold, then I just care about decent IRROPS handling. Plus I get SPG points too for stays, so at least there's that.

gnaget

That's a great price. Whenever I flew round trip to the US then I would book economy on UA and upgrade using systemwides. I never even shopped JAL/AA.

I would stick with OW if I were you.

A "full fare" economy on UA trip last year to upstate NY from TYO was $4300. The business fares were $7k I think so I couldn't justify that. So I used that money to buy an economy RTW ticket instead (like $100 more) where I upgraded all the longhaul legs (including Lufthansa) and M class (RTW booking class) on UA automatically upgrades into F.

KPT

A bit O/T, but I notice many here aren't crediting to the local carriers here. Is it because of IRROPS?

I'm inclined to believe being a UA elite when there are NH IRROPS is better than being NH elite, even if it was ticketed by NH. Same for AA and JL.
Am I wrong about that?