Originally Posted by
Unimatrix One
JMB is great for high-revenue (paid J and full-fare Y) flyers and terrible for discount Y flyers. Terrible for Y flyers because discount fares don't get full mileage credit and because miles expire after 3 years. Great for paid J and full Y flyers because the limitation of benefits for discount flyers means much more award availability (i.e. fewer people competing for award seats) and because all the best bonus offers are targeted to the higher fare classes.
(Of course, YOU know all this, but I thought maybe others on this forum who are contemplating JMB might want to know...)
Yes, I agree. However, oneworld membership introduces some interesting quirks. The 20K JGC "loophole" for getting into AAdmirals Clubs might be interesting to some people, for example. (It looks like it's an easier hurdle than Qantas or British Airways equivalent methods.)
It's also worth pointing out that redeeming JMB miles has its own quirks. Taxes and "fuel surcharges" tend to make those "free" tickets expensive, but there have been some fantastic class upgrade awards (like the 10,000 miles class upgrade promotion each way Chicago-Tokyo). JALPAK is also unique: I don't know of any other frequent flyer program that lets you redeem miles for natto. JALPAK beats those magazine offers for expiring miles, IMHO.
JAL Mileage Bank miles expire for all but Diamond elite level (top tier). That's a tough restriction.
The JMB program (and ANA's program) probably makes the most business sense from the airline's perspective. The US airlines have gone way too far in giving out miles and status to too many people, and the resulting liabilities have become a burden on the airlines and significantly diluted benefits for the true high-revenue flyers.
They make business sense for Japan. I think the U.S. programs do make sense the U.S.
It will be interesting to see how oneworld award redemption on JAL affects award availability for JAL Mileage Bank members. It may not be too bad, though: JAL already had reciprocal redemption agreements with AAdvantage, BA Executive Club, and LAN at least. So I don't think the demand will change too much since JAL already had a good part of oneworld covered.