Originally Posted by
randomasian
I want to see Flight of Dreams which is basically attached to the airport so this is one situation where transportation is actually better if I fly. But for normal situations, I agree with you. The other time I visited Nagoya, I took the train from Shin-Osaka.
As an aside, are you crediting those flights to JL? I feel like there's a sweet spot where if someone from Japan can fly to Europe once a year and is willing to do a layover in London, they can just do around 2-3 additional domestic JAL class J flights a month to get OneWorld Emerald through British Airways. A similar flying pattern may not even make OW Sapphire with JL.
The appeal of crediting it to JAL, even if you don't make Emerald, is what was mentioned earlier -- make mid-tier status and get a qualifying Japanese credit card and you have Sapphire for life. I've played with the idea of mileage running to Emerald, especially with JAL's double qualifying points campaigns in recent years, but I don't fly long-haul regularly enough for it to be worth it to me. Most of my flying these days is domestic, so Sapphire is sufficient.