I had a first this morning: my Z award SFO-LAX-NRT (AA/JL) was ticketed and the e-ticket e-mail clearly states that the JAL segment is in coach. I checked my PNR (on both AA and JL) and it says First and gives us the expected seats. I called the EXP line and both agents say it's showing fine and one requested a ticket reprint so hopefully I'll have that in writing.

Has anyone seen this before? I'm only concerned because I know that it's the e-ticket that matters more than the PNR. If I show up at LAX and am told I'm in coach I don't have much of a leg to stand on if my ticket agrees with them!

Does anyone have other advice for anything I should do to make sure my e-ticket is correct? Luck favors the prepared.

Also, this is urgent as I travel in 328 days! :cool:

The reprint also says coach. Grr.

I would be concerned first on domestic leg, coach on international. EXP agents may not see this as a JAL flight.

The coach segment is the JAL segment LAX-NRT, so I am indeed concerned. I'm not sure what you mean by EXP agents may not see this as a JAL flight?

I had issues with a Cathay segment that I was assured was BIZ, but was coach and EXP agent said was First.
Can you select a seat on the JAL site and cross reference selected seat to a first/ biz seat?

I had a JAL award that said "coach" on AA but was in first. Call AA and get the JAL record locator and look it up on their site. It will say FIRST there and you can select your seats.

Yes, it says it's in the first class cabin and the seat selector shows the first class cabin.

Indeed it does. But what do I do if someone later tells me it's in coach? My ticket clearly says coach and there have been several stories of people getting screwed because their e-ticket didn't match their PNR.

Had this issue with both JL and CX - both times ticketed First, res showed up as Business and listed coach seats. Was incredibly annoying, but worked out fine.

I sense if you can pick first seats on JAL, you are good to go.

Well, it sounds like I'm not alone and it's likely a glitch in the e-ticket e-mail. Thanks for the comments!

I have a similar sitaution: my pnr properly records jal flights in z class but says they are "discount" while showing my aa positioning flights are in first. It sounds like this should be fine but I just wanted to double check!

Mine reads this way:

Japan Airlines JL 61
Los Angeles (LAX)
Travel Time : 11 h 35 m
Cabin Class : First
Seat : 2K , 2G
Tokyo (NRT)
Booking Code : Z
Plane Type : 773

Nothing about "discount" in my case.

It's an old issue that's been ongoing for years: awards in premium cabins on partner airlines, showing as Economy. Booking code (Z for F, and U for J, for most Oneworld airlines) should confirm the correct cabin.
There's a thread on it somewhere. I don't understand why AA hasn't been able to fix it for so long.
As others have said, provided you can verify with the partner airline that you are in F/J, and have confirmed seat in F/J cabin, there should be no problem.
Good idea to carry a printout from that airline's site too.

Happy Travels.

Sound advice. Thanks NDFan for putting my fears to rest!

I had a similar situation with a MH award ticket in business class. The PNR on their system said coach and when I looked the ticket up on the Saudia website, it didn't show the cabin class. I called MH who said it was correct, in business class, and assigned business class seats, which I could print on their PNR. The MH agent tried to tell me it was because I was using an iPad, but when I looked on my desktop in various browsers, I had the same result: it said coach. Another call to MH closer to travel and I was able to order Chef on Call. It worked out fine, but I was worried and I never did get any documentation, other than my seat assignments, that I had a business class ticket.