Hi JMB Forum,
ANA defector here. No status for me anymore, I live in Japan, want to fly on a quality airline to the USA every year, and ANA's cost cutting, especially their underhanded checked baggage policy changes over the past two years and the loathsome 10-across Y on the 777-300ER is driving me away from them (although their service is still very nice, in fairness).
A couple of questions:
-What are the best airports to transfer at in the US? Specifically, which, if any, allow for transfers between intra-US flights on AA/B6 and international flights without requiring another TSA lovefest? I do know I'll go through security again after arrival immigration regardless of airport, but I've avoided it before on the way back to Japan at airports like SEA and IAD in the past. I know from experience JFK is NOT one of these, at least for JL-AA-JL. I prefer not to transfer in the western US to avoid transcontinental flights on AA.
-I have a NRT-BOS-DCA-DFW-NRT itinerary coming up and would like any advice for transferring at BOS/DFW. I assume I have to exit terminals to transfer to/from JAL at BOS, but it looks like it may be easier at DFW.
-I'm guessing JL keeps large numbers of seats under OLCI/airport control, based on the seat maps I'm looking at for my flights. Is this true? I'm counting on OLCI to get me out of middle seats :/
-It's unlikely I will have a shot at any kind of status on JL, but possibly may fly to the US three times this year. Thus I will try to purchase tickets directly from JL wherever possible and may qualify for bottom-tier elite.
-I have the JMB WAON and might want to re-open my UFJ bank account so I can apply for a JL credit card. Is this worth doing for non-Japanese citizens or will my application just get denied? If worthwhile, what's the best card to apply for for those with no past Japanese bank issued credit cards? (Apologies if this is more appropriate for another thread, will ask elsewhere if needed)
-Anyway, my experience with JL over the last year has been positive and I'm looking forward to flying with them again. I'm not asking for much, just decent in-flight service and more room in Y than NH.
It's funny that when I first came to Japan in 2003, JAL was the behemoth airline of Japan and ANA was the quirky upstart. Now it seems the roles are reversed, at least somewhat, outside of JAL still having no idea how to speak English
