Necromancer

It’s a new year. Are you all staying with NH’s mileage program, or is anybody considering swapping?

I’m having my annual half-baked consternation again. I usually travel to the USA about 6 times a year.
- Stay with ANA, enjoy being Diamond again for the 4th year running. (Get treated nicely and some insurance against mishaps on NH metal but that’s about it), or
- Jump to JAL and get more reliable biz class bookings (my company has a deal with them). Or
- Jump to UA and get better award earning and availability, and some insurance against mishaps in the US.
- Jump to AC Aeroplan and prepare for my eventual return to Canada.

Honesty NH Diamond is/was really nice in terms of soft benefits but I feel like I should grow up and start banking miles and status towards more efficient hard benefits, if in fact they exist on other programs.

Thoughts?

TennisNoob

NH or JAL honestly no UA/AC.

kaka

i would say, get JGC as a canadian, then come back to ANA where you are used to (or start from there then to reconsider ANA vs JAL).
I mean, if you were to stop flying one day (just like the one day u'd b back in canada) you'd want to have your back covered.

my experience is that AA will get your reasonably covered without needing the actual AA status (unless you eant to earn/burn on N/A terms).

sodaisei

I have the same thoughts.

I am platinum thought, but since I got the Super Flyers card (and pretty much get the same benefits) I was thinking of switching to JAL to get their version of the Super Flyers Card ( JGC ?). What do you think?

On the other hand, I am saving NH miles so my parents can take a round the world trip in 2 or 3 years when they retire...

slinnils

I am with him

yeunganson

Not AC. Aeroplan is being ditched by Air Canada in 2020 to create their own milage program so any miles earned with Air Canada's Aeroplan would be devalued in 2020. (Aeroplan was Air Canada's mileage program when it was spinned off a decade ago to raise money)

I also held the Super Flyers Card once upon a time. Upon returning to Canada, Mitsui-Sumitomo to my surprise did not renew my credit card upon its expiry. I was paying the annual fee and paying on time (by bank transfer) in full each month and spending modestly. I do believe it cost them money as they FEDEX each statement to me to Canada - that was impressive.

I wrote to the CEO to appeal but no luck. They sent a rep to call me and apologized and kept repeating their policy - that they check my visa status, not just if I paid my bills. What I should have done is to have a bank account with Mitsui with some money and a brokerage account with a pile of stocks and the relationship manager maybe able to find some loophole to allow me to keep the card without the Japanese work permit (and thus expired Gaijin card).

sodaisei

WOW THIS SUCKS!

Actually now I am worried about this since in 2 or 3 years I might be sent out of Japan by my company. By that I will already have PR, but will live out of Japan, will that be enough to keep the Super Flyers? If not I might try what you said about have a bank account with Mitsui with some money and a brokerage account with a pile of stocks...

railroadtycoon

I think it's only an issue if it is renewal time and they send you a new card packet or some letter with the new card to your registered home address and it gets returned as undeliverable. Happened to one of my bank accounts before (forgot to change the address).
Any case, if you are a PR you still need to hold a Residence Card (which has your PR status on it) and it will have a Japanese address on it. I don't even think you can get a Residence Card that doesn't have a Japanese address on it.

yeunganson

In my case, the address is overseas and it was my work address so there is absolutely no situation that delivery was a problem. In fact, Mitsui sent me statement each month by Fedex. In the statement, there is even "oversea support" which allows me to buy Japanese rice (or any grocery items) with a 20% surcharge (provided I paid for shipping stuff). I imported some Japanese rice and some of my favorite cup-noodles - and it was packed very well. It was not cheap for the service but it remains one of the high-lights of the oversea support service the card had.

In my case, the explanation was that my work permit is not longer valid. My Gaijin card is going to expire and thus my Super Flyers card was not renewed. It was pretty upsetting at that time because I did a mileage run while I was in Japan to qualify for the Super Flyers Card. So I ended up having it for a total of 3 or 4 years and the card was not renewed. There was no doubt in my mind had I still worked in Japan, they would have renewed my card.

My Resona bank account was able to stay alive because the bank rep alerted me not to do anything (like change address) and only use online banking so it remains under the radar. By there rules, if Resona is able to confirm my Gaijin card expiry and no work permit, bank account will be shut down. It's pretty funny. There are rules and there are ways to go around the rules and the bank's staff (along with the manager of the branch) will try to help you navigate so in my case I get to keep the account and they do a wink wink and assume I am still in Japan. This is the same with my Docomo cellphone account.

The original poster is immigrating into Japan (holy cow). So they may do something different if you have a Permanent Residence card because those things don't expire. For me, Canada has too many good things going so I couldn't muster myself to stay in Japan.

railroadtycoon

I have the JCB version rather than the Mitsui version so procedures might be different. However for someone with valid documentation (PR or other status) I don't think it would be an issue.

sodaisei

Interesting. So in case I leave Japan for a long time I can keep my Super Flyers by changing my address before living to me mother in law house and get it delivered there...

Sorry I was deviating op original post.

Anyway, I already used Turkish some days ago and next month I have a trip to the USA and I'm stuck with ANA because my boss prefers it, so I guess this year I will continue with them... Maybe next year I can try to get JAL status and their credit card...