Dec 6, 2016, 7:53 pm
Last edit by: DoubleWidesFly
Wiki for using AS (Alaska) miles on JL (Japan Airlines)
All awards for domestic Japan will default to Economy (including international F or J award with domestic segments)
However, these can often be upgraded at reasonable cost at the ticket counter in the Japan connecting airport
Award Chart If not listed it's not available - EXCEPTION: Hawaii-Asia awards are bookable, not yet on the chart, at the same prices as Continental U.S.-Asia
(as of March 2017, Premium Economy is no longer available)
(As of October 2019, stopovers are no longer allowed on intra Asia awards)
Class of Service One-way Round-trip
U.S./Canada to Asia
Coach 35,000 70,000
Premium 40,000 80,000
Business 60,000 120,000
First 70,000 140,000
U.S./Canada to Southeast Asia
Coach 40,000 80,000
Premium 45,000 90,000
Business 65,000 130,000
First 75,000 150,000
Intra Asia
Coach 15,000 30,000
Premium 17,500 35,000
Business 25,000 50,000
First 30,000 60,000
International gateways
All AS valid destinations from Tokyo (HND/NRT), Osaka (KIX) or Nagoya (NGO).
PUS, GMP, ICN, DLC, PVG, SHA, PEK, TSA, TPE, KHH, CAN, HKG, MNL, HAN, SGN, BKK, SIN, KUL, CGK, DEL, HNL, KOA, YVR, SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN, ORD, DFW, BOS, JFK
USA
Boston - BOS
Chicago - ORD
Dallas - DFW
Honolulu - HNL
Kona -KOA
Los Angeles - LAX
New York - JFK
San Diego - SAN
San Francisco - SFO
Seattle - SEA
Canada
Vancouver - YVR
Asia
Delhi - DEL
Tokyo - HND & NRT
Osaka - KIX
Nagoya - NGO
Busan - PUS
Seoul - Gimpo GMP
Seoul - Incheon ICN
Southeast Asia or listed as SE based on how awards are pricing
Bangkok - BKK
Beijing - PEK
Dalian - DLC
Guangzhou - CAN
Hanoi - HAN
Ho Chi Minh City - SGN
Hong Kong - HKG
Jakarta - CGK
Kaohsiung - KHH
Kuala Lumpur - KUL
Manila - MNL
Shanghai - Hongqiao - SHA
Shanghai - Pudong - PVG
Singapore - SIN
Taipei - TPE
Taipei - Songshan - TSA
Tianjin - TSN (only from Nagoya, not very useful....)
All awards for domestic Japan will default to Economy (including international F or J award with domestic segments)
However, these can often be upgraded at reasonable cost at the ticket counter in the Japan connecting airport
Award Chart If not listed it's not available - EXCEPTION: Hawaii-Asia awards are bookable, not yet on the chart, at the same prices as Continental U.S.-Asia
(as of March 2017, Premium Economy is no longer available)
(As of October 2019, stopovers are no longer allowed on intra Asia awards)
Class of Service One-way Round-trip
U.S./Canada to Asia
Coach 35,000 70,000
Business 60,000 120,000
First 70,000 140,000
U.S./Canada to Southeast Asia
Coach 40,000 80,000
Business 65,000 130,000
First 75,000 150,000
Intra Asia
Coach 15,000 30,000
Business 25,000 50,000
First 30,000 60,000
International gateways
All AS valid destinations from Tokyo (HND/NRT), Osaka (KIX) or Nagoya (NGO).
PUS, GMP, ICN, DLC, PVG, SHA, PEK, TSA, TPE, KHH, CAN, HKG, MNL, HAN, SGN, BKK, SIN, KUL, CGK, DEL, HNL, KOA, YVR, SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN, ORD, DFW, BOS, JFK
USA
Boston - BOS
Chicago - ORD
Dallas - DFW
Honolulu - HNL
Kona -KOA
Los Angeles - LAX
New York - JFK
San Diego - SAN
San Francisco - SFO
Seattle - SEA
Canada
Vancouver - YVR
Asia
Delhi - DEL
Tokyo - HND & NRT
Osaka - KIX
Nagoya - NGO
Busan - PUS
Seoul - Gimpo GMP
Seoul - Incheon ICN
Southeast Asia or listed as SE based on how awards are pricing
Bangkok - BKK
Beijing - PEK
Dalian - DLC
Guangzhou - CAN
Hanoi - HAN
Ho Chi Minh City - SGN
Hong Kong - HKG
Jakarta - CGK
Kaohsiung - KHH
Kuala Lumpur - KUL
Manila - MNL
Shanghai - Hongqiao - SHA
Shanghai - Pudong - PVG
Singapore - SIN
Taipei - TPE
Taipei - Songshan - TSA
Tianjin - TSN (only from Nagoya, not very useful....)
Definitive "Booking Japan Airlines (JL) Using AS Miles" Thread - 2019 and Earlier
Nov 27, 2018, 1:20 pm
#496
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Coffee Shop Buy 10 Get 1 Free
Posts: 295
AS no longer guarantees a lap infant on partner awards. As per their website you will need to redeem for a seat for the infant.
Lap infant ticketing: We are no longer able to guarantee that lap infants will be accepted with your international partner award ticket.
Until further notice, Mileage Plan members will need to book seats for infants at the standard mileage rate on international partner award bookings. For travel wholly within the US, or wholly on Alaska Airlines, standard lap infant policies apply.
James
Lap infant ticketing: We are no longer able to guarantee that lap infants will be accepted with your international partner award ticket.
Until further notice, Mileage Plan members will need to book seats for infants at the standard mileage rate on international partner award bookings. For travel wholly within the US, or wholly on Alaska Airlines, standard lap infant policies apply.
James
Nov 27, 2018, 6:35 pm
#497
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
AS no longer guarantees a lap infant on partner awards. As per their website you will need to redeem for a seat for the infant.
Lap infant ticketing: We are no longer able to guarantee that lap infants will be accepted with your international partner award ticket.
Until further notice, Mileage Plan members will need to book seats for infants at the standard mileage rate on international partner award bookings. For travel wholly within the US, or wholly on Alaska Airlines, standard lap infant policies apply.
James
Lap infant ticketing: We are no longer able to guarantee that lap infants will be accepted with your international partner award ticket.
Until further notice, Mileage Plan members will need to book seats for infants at the standard mileage rate on international partner award bookings. For travel wholly within the US, or wholly on Alaska Airlines, standard lap infant policies apply.
James
Recently a friend told me AS is now being run by marketing folk and not those that know a single thing about running an airline. Now it all makes even more sense. Marketing/sales playbook, cant fix it, discontinue it. This reminds me of when JL Premium economy was taken away because AS had too many issues with bookings.
Nov 28, 2018, 9:15 am
#498
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Coffee Shop Buy 10 Get 1 Free
Posts: 295
Lap infants has been a long standing issue. AS cannot add lap children to awards since they have inability to issue long haul tickets. They direct everyone to the airline to do it. It made sense to me.
Recently a friend told me AS is now being run by marketing folk and not those that know a single thing about running an airline. Now it all makes even more sense. Marketing/sales playbook, cant fix it, discontinue it. This reminds me of when JL Premium economy was taken away because AS had too many issues with bookings.
Recently a friend told me AS is now being run by marketing folk and not those that know a single thing about running an airline. Now it all makes even more sense. Marketing/sales playbook, cant fix it, discontinue it. This reminds me of when JL Premium economy was taken away because AS had too many issues with bookings.
This "you're on your own" is new- so was there an actual policy change somewhere or is this just the same thing as always with a new warning label? I asked on twitter and just got a canned "we are only given the inventory that is given to us by partner airlines" response which didn't even come close to answering my question. I only use my AS miles for international business awards so basically have 0 reason to collect AS miles now for the next year and a half if thats the case. Booked infant on Aeroplan award, TK flight and was a quick 5 min phone call to get him added. Haven't tried with DL or UA award yet but anecdotal evidence suggests no different than what Aeroplan did with my TK segments
Nov 28, 2018, 9:28 am
#499
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,035
So. If you collect miles, it is instant and get enough miles in no time? U can book award 330 days from now, it means kids that are 1.1 years old would need a ticket 11 months in the future.
Nov 28, 2018, 10:31 am
#500
Join Date: Dec 2008
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 669
I always knew it was a PITA to get lap infants issued. I recently had him added to our AF operated, ticketed by AS award ticket. Took me 3hrs 57min worth of phone calls, but AF finally did it at the 10% J fare rate as advertised by AF. Trip is coming up so hope it worked....I guess getting stuck in Paris isn't the worst thing
This "you're on your own" is new- so was there an actual policy change somewhere or is this just the same thing as always with a new warning label? I asked on twitter and just got a canned "we are only given the inventory that is given to us by partner airlines" response which didn't even come close to answering my question. I only use my AS miles for international business awards so basically have 0 reason to collect AS miles now for the next year and a half if thats the case. Booked infant on Aeroplan award, TK flight and was a quick 5 min phone call to get him added. Haven't tried with DL or UA award yet but anecdotal evidence suggests no different than what Aeroplan did with my TK segments
This "you're on your own" is new- so was there an actual policy change somewhere or is this just the same thing as always with a new warning label? I asked on twitter and just got a canned "we are only given the inventory that is given to us by partner airlines" response which didn't even come close to answering my question. I only use my AS miles for international business awards so basically have 0 reason to collect AS miles now for the next year and a half if thats the case. Booked infant on Aeroplan award, TK flight and was a quick 5 min phone call to get him added. Haven't tried with DL or UA award yet but anecdotal evidence suggests no different than what Aeroplan did with my TK segments
Nov 28, 2018, 1:30 pm
#501
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Coffee Shop Buy 10 Get 1 Free
Posts: 295
EDIT: Mods, if you want to move this to the partner awards with infants thread might be more beneficial since this went OT in relation to JL bookings Partner Awards With Lap Child
Nov 28, 2018, 1:44 pm
#502
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: British Columbia
Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold
Posts: 7,263
Yup. Best do that infant booking on a Sat am when you have nothing else scheduled and maybe a xanax or two to keep your cool. Brew a full pot of coffee, you'll need it. But now sounds like don't even bother, again can't see to tell if this "new" policy is actually new or just reiterated in different language but enough for me to stay away for a while
EDIT: Mods, if you want to move this to the partner awards with infants thread might be more beneficial since this went OT in relation to JL bookings Partner Awards With Lap Child
EDIT: Mods, if you want to move this to the partner awards with infants thread might be more beneficial since this went OT in relation to JL bookings Partner Awards With Lap Child
Back to your regularly scheduled Definitive Booking JL thread. Thank you for reading this important public announcement.
James
Nov 28, 2018, 5:44 pm
#503
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Additonal information on the infant ticket issue:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/infant...-award-alaska/
https://thepointsguy.com/news/infant...-award-alaska/
I called Mileage Plan to see if I could get further information. The agent said a bulletin had been published and found it for me. It states there were tax problems occurring, which caused “disruption” so until further notice, all lap infants will require a standard award ticket at the same pricing for all international partner award tickets. If you call the operating carrier and they see your Alaska-issued ticket, they’ve been informed to have you call Alaska and book a standard mileage ticket for your baby.
Dec 1, 2018, 6:11 am
#504
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: SAT
Programs: AA EXP BA Gold, TK Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, AS 100K, QR PLT, SAS Gold, IHG Spire, AMR
Posts: 5,898
I am seeing a ton of phantom availability on AS for JL lately. The agents can see the space in direct access, but then it can't be booked. Does anybody have similar experiences? This is for TYO-SIN
Dec 1, 2018, 4:31 pm
#505
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
This is for the same exact route although mine was the other direction SIN-TYO. I am assuming you are trying to add this to an existing reservation? That is where the AS IT bugs come into play. If you were booking a separate reservation it most likely would go through.
To briefly summarize: if there really is availability AS should be able to book it but their system has a bug with adding this route (and I would not be surprised if there were others) to an existing reservation. You need to dot your "I"'s and cross your "T"'s but if you can prove to them it is not phantom availability you can ask the agent to use the manual booking system (needs supervisor approval) to book this into your existing reservation. That is what I did in my experience, described in post 447. Let us know how it goes.
My experiences lead me to believe the AS website is pretty accurate showing JL availability with the main issue being that they cache availability information so there can be phantom space but if you are not looking close in or end of schedule then the caching issue usually is not a factor and you can confirm it by checking with BA and QF. If BA, QF, and AS website all show availability it is there and at least bookable manually by AS but you have to have a strong case to get the supervisor to agree to a manual booking.
I hope this is not a precursor to AS adopting the new JAL changes to their own program of no stopovers in Japan.
ETA: I just noticed in post 447 I describe my route as BKK-TYO but it was actually SIN-TYO, reverse direction of yours. I corrected post 447.
Last edited by skimthetrees; Dec 1, 2018 at 4:38 pm
Dec 1, 2018, 4:45 pm
#506
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Pacific Wonderland
Programs: ʙᴏɴᴠo̱ʏ Au, IHG Au, HH Dia, Nexus, Pilot FlyingJ Preferred
Posts: 5,336
The new JMB changes are even worse than merely no stopovers. They no longer allow any transit via Japan on a single award. A trip from say US-Japan-CCC requires two awards.
Dec 2, 2018, 2:49 pm
#508
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: BA Executive Club, AS Airlines Mileage Plan
Posts: 981
Yes, read my rant in Post 447 of this thread.
This is for the same exact route although mine was the other direction SIN-TYO. I am assuming you are trying to add this to an existing reservation? That is where the AS IT bugs come into play. If you were booking a separate reservation it most likely would go through.
To briefly summarize: if there really is availability AS should be able to book it but their system has a bug with adding this route (and I would not be surprised if there were others) to an existing reservation. You need to dot your "I"'s and cross your "T"'s but if you can prove to them it is not phantom availability you can ask the agent to use the manual booking system (needs supervisor approval) to book this into your existing reservation. That is what I did in my experience, described in post 447. Let us know how it goes.
My experiences lead me to believe the AS website is pretty accurate showing JL availability with the main issue being that they cache availability information so there can be phantom space but if you are not looking close in or end of schedule then the caching issue usually is not a factor and you can confirm it by checking with BA and QF. If BA, QF, and AS website all show availability it is there and at least bookable manually by AS but you have to have a strong case to get the supervisor to agree to a manual booking.
I hope this is not a precursor to AS adopting the new JAL changes to their own program of no stopovers in Japan.
ETA: I just noticed in post 447 I describe my route as BKK-TYO but it was actually SIN-TYO, reverse direction of yours. I corrected post 447.
This is for the same exact route although mine was the other direction SIN-TYO. I am assuming you are trying to add this to an existing reservation? That is where the AS IT bugs come into play. If you were booking a separate reservation it most likely would go through.
To briefly summarize: if there really is availability AS should be able to book it but their system has a bug with adding this route (and I would not be surprised if there were others) to an existing reservation. You need to dot your "I"'s and cross your "T"'s but if you can prove to them it is not phantom availability you can ask the agent to use the manual booking system (needs supervisor approval) to book this into your existing reservation. That is what I did in my experience, described in post 447. Let us know how it goes.
My experiences lead me to believe the AS website is pretty accurate showing JL availability with the main issue being that they cache availability information so there can be phantom space but if you are not looking close in or end of schedule then the caching issue usually is not a factor and you can confirm it by checking with BA and QF. If BA, QF, and AS website all show availability it is there and at least bookable manually by AS but you have to have a strong case to get the supervisor to agree to a manual booking.
I hope this is not a precursor to AS adopting the new JAL changes to their own program of no stopovers in Japan.
ETA: I just noticed in post 447 I describe my route as BKK-TYO but it was actually SIN-TYO, reverse direction of yours. I corrected post 447.
i cannot confirm the availability using BA, as they only show routes using BA metal..I.e., SEA to LHR to NRT, all on BA. So I would not be able to use this trick suggested above if, when I try to book the flight we want, it won’t allow me to do it online
Dec 2, 2018, 10:02 pm
#509
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
is this phantom availability a problem with direct routes between US west coast airports and Japan? I have been following release of seats to NRT in business class at the end of the schedule ( around 325 days out) and see new seats every day, especially SEA to NRT.
i cannot confirm the availability using BA, as they only show routes using BA metal..I.e., SEA to LHR to NRT, all on BA. So I would not be able to use this trick suggested above if, when I try to book the flight we want, it won’t allow me to do it online
There are two issues with the route I was trying to book, SIN-TYO. My main problem was AS was not able to confirm J availability on SIN-TYO when attempting change SIN-HND (Y) (stop), HND-SFO (J) to SIN-HND (stop) HND-SFO all in J. The phantom availability issue is because AS caches some JL availability data and it may be out of date when you go to make a reservation (although I suspect at end of schedule they are not caching because I have booked seats and seen them disappear immediately afterwards near end of schedule).
I do not know if the caching happens on US to Japan routes but I believe even if there is some caching, at least the US flights near end of schedule are not cached (because I have seen their availability change in real-time). No worries if BA is not showing SEA-NRT, you can check QF which does show it. If all you are booking is a US-Japan route near end of schedule then I do not think caching will be an issue for you and neither will the segment combining issue.
The word is definitely out about SEA-NRT. Most Business availability gets taken within a couple of weeks of schedule open so get it early.
The caching issue bites both ways. It can show availability when there is none and it may not show availability when there is some. Boo! Hiss!
Dec 3, 2018, 7:23 am
#510
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: BA Executive Club, AS Airlines Mileage Plan
Posts: 981
Very helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you.