Sandeep1

Agreed! Would much rather fly on Qatar Q suites for 85k to Doha.

Smiley90

I'd much rather visit Japan than Doha, but that's just me...

Sandeep1

You can fly anywhere from Doha

Smiley90

I'd rather fly 14 hours direct to Japan than fly 13 hours to Doha and then another what, 10 hours to Japan from there? (Is US-DOH-Japan even allowed, I thought it had to be transpac?)

Sandeep1

Why does it have to be Japan? I'll fly to Doha and then the Maldives for 85k. Other options as well. The world is a big place that extends far beyond Japan (and I love Japan).

Smiley90

Because the comparison (and this thread) was about JL F... And I could go to Japan/Asia many times. I'm not sure I'd say the same about Dubai/Maldives and many others. QR to Africa is where it's at.

Sandeep1

QR to Africa is indeed great but I believe that's 120k through Alaska. Will redeem via AA for 75k (though this opportunity may be short lived).

eponymous_coward

SFO-NRT in NH J is 92k UA miles. It would be 100k Aeroplan miles to fly NH F. I get that NH has newer hardware in J/F... if you get a plane with that newer hardware (it's unobtainium out of SEA, and frankly I'd rather have a JL Apex Suite than NH's seat out of SEA).

If you'd like some comedy value, price DL DeltaOne out of SEA on SEA-HND using SkyPesos sometime.

AS has fairly few value redemptions left on the list where they offer clearly better value than some other program (for instance QR J to DOH is cheaper on AA than AS). CX premium cabins are also mostly made out of unobtainium, that leaves you, what, unicorn QF J/F seats? Oddballs like DE to FRA in J or FJ J? Maybe SQ given that SQ's phone agents are a horror show (but lately AS's agents aren't much better?).

Frankly you might as well spend the miles and move towards transferrable point systems unless you're locked into AS for whatever reason (SEA-based, Alaska-based, collecting bunches of miles flying paid BA F/J, whatever).

TravelingZoomer

100k AS miles is only 8 round trip cross country flights in economy for a 100k. Try booking partner F through UA/AA on 8 round trip fares at the lowest bucket for econ (DL laughs at the mere entertainment).

Flying for Fun

Off topic:

Yes, two awards US-DOH, DOH-TYO. You can redeem on QR from DOH to ME, Europe, Asia, Indian Subcontinent, AU/NZ, however not to from Africa.

On Topic:

100K AS miles seems inline with other NA FF redemptions that don't use Pesos for a currency. An AA F redemption to TYO is 110K AS miles, unicorn worthy but I have a herd of them collected over the years and recently saw availability.

I am surprised how many are suprised that AS redemptions on JL have increased. While 70K to 100K is a ~43% increase, it hasn't increased in the last 8 years, a time where the outsized value continued to grow. With rising costs, does anyone think for a minute JL F/J JFK-TYO-DEL for 70K is sustainable?

Would people feel better if JL awards increaded 5K each an every year since 2016 and redemptions were now 110K, up from 105K last year? Setting aside FF currencies, as many like to compare them on par, AA redemptions on JL, CX & QF require more miles. Where is the appreciation for all those years of "sweet spot" redemptions? The key has always been to earn and burn rather than be burned by a devaluation for all the years of earning.

AS miles are incredibly easy to amass by, wait for it, flying. Since the introduction of MVPG100K and choice benefits, a 100K requalifying will earn an additional 25K miles from the Elite Bonus for flying plus another 50K miles as a choice benefit, if chosen. 100K EQM/RDM + 150K Elite Bonus + 50K MVPG75K bonus + 50K choice benefit = 350K miles minimum at requalification. Essentially, AS is giving you a free JL F ticket with the MVPG75K & choice benefit.

I finished up last year at ~157K and with a little credit card spend earnd over 500,000 miles on about $8500 in spend. I don't fly Y long-haul anymore, only PE or J so my EQM cpm is higher but also less AS RDM runs because of the insanity of their fares. I was typically at ~125K EQM in Mileage Plan before oneworld and the tie-up with AA. That earned ~ 331K RDM.

Not surprisingly, for me at least, JL redemptions cost more. Are they excessively more? I don't think so. They are just playing catch-up. I suspect CX will be next followed by QF. Once redemptions are more in tune with other FF programs perhaps availability between the programs will be consistent.

James

knit-in

I don't have a problem paying 100k for JL F, particularly if I can fly onwards to other Asian destinations, but my problem is that I can't find any availability in F (or J, for that matter) to/from JFK in the next few months. Used to be one of the more hassle-free redemptions in the 70k/ 60k era.

Cinnabom

I haven�t found any ORD J availability lately. Am
I just missing something? Seems like there�s plenty of seats from the west coast but nothing in the Midwest. I know it�s golden week, but even then I was still finding 5-7 seats in J from SFO at t-14.

Sandeep1

Ran into the same problems. Only thing I can think of is more daily flights from the west coast, only 1 daily from Chicago.

TravelingZoomer

More or less, from the west coast there is both more capacity and more routes (PDX SEA SFO LAX SAN), meaning you�re likely only competing for O/D traffic. Chicago is both the only city JAL serves in that region and only 1x daily.

mosfet

Frustratingly I was short a couple thousand miles for a J award TYO - JFK for 5/11, purchased the difference then the availability disappeared�

Anyone know if closer to the date tickets open up again or is it very unlikely?

furthermore - can see F space on the 12th on AA but not showing on AS? Any tips?

thank you !