Aug 4, 2015, 1:37 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
GUIDE to redeeming AA miles for Japan Air Lines awards:
For 2012-2015 posts, please see
ARCHIVE: AA Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)
For further information, see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
- JL awards are now shown show and can be booked on aa.com
- AwardNexus (free to FlyerTalk members for basic searches) will also reveal, and (for a fee) alert, on JL award seats
- AA awards on JL must be MileSAAver (AAnytime awards are only available on AA marketed and AA operated flights)
- There are no onerous fuel or carrier-imposed surcharges using AAdvantage miles for awards using JL
- JL initially releases awards to AAvantage members 330 days out at 10:00 am JST time (18:00 PDT, 17:00 PST). Note, JL award inventory is released to members of other FFPs 360 day out and updates award and revenue seat award availability once daily ~09:30-12:00 Pacific time
- JL may release 0-2 F and 0-4 J award seats initially; until taken they remain available up to three months from release
- No further seats are likely to be released until shortly (~14 days) prior to scheduled departure - but the last F seat will be retained for sale, not released into award inventory
- No stopovers are allowed on AA awards. Connections may be as long as 23:59.
- Only JAL Mileage Bank members can waitlist awards
- All awards for domestic Japan will default to Economy (including international F or J award with domestic segments); these can often be upgraded at reasonable cost at the ticket counter in the Japan connecting airport
- If JL & QF are showing availability, but AA can't see it, try calling the Australia AA center as it may be a point-of-sale issue
For 2012-2015 posts, please see
ARCHIVE: AA Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)
For further information, see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
AAdvantage Award on JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (2016-2023)
Apr 21, 2019, 9:18 pm
#1037
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Now the 1 business class I booked earlier was gone from BA site. I am pretty sure it's business class, because I actually booked it which costs 127500 (ORD to NRT/HND to SGN) plus $149.76. My card was charged and points were deducted from avios account. Mysteriously, although J seats are not available now, there are several coaches and PE pops up which were not there before. I also saw the same inventory on Qantas.
Apr 22, 2019, 6:29 am
#1038
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 78
Was able to upgrade from J to F.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Last edited by ahhlun; Apr 22, 2019 at 7:14 am
Apr 22, 2019, 8:50 am
#1039
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: HHonors Diamond, IHG Plat, Club Carlson Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 316
Was able to upgrade from J to F.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Apr 22, 2019, 4:55 pm
#1040
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Was able to upgrade from J to F.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Origin and destination is unchanged. Agent said I have to pay $75 per person because I am making a change so close to departure. Is that true?
I thought that I had read that an upgrade without origin and destination change is treated as upgrade.
Apr 22, 2019, 5:03 pm
#1041
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, Hilton
Posts: 159
Skimthetrees, thank you! I really appreciate that you actually took time to do research for me. Guys like you are what make this community great.
Apr 24, 2019, 2:52 pm
#1042
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Posts discussing issues with Marriott points being moved to Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank have been moved to the proper forum. Link.
Moderator
Moderator
Last edited by JDiver; Apr 24, 2019 at 2:59 pm
Apr 24, 2019, 6:34 pm
#1043
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 25
JAL award seats available on BA but AA said no
Hello All,
I recently found at least 10 different dates where BA shows availability for JAL flights. I called AA to book with points, and every single time AA told me those dates dont have any availability for the dates I asked for. I double checked those dates on Qantas as well. Why is AA not showing availability when other sites do? It has been a pain to use AA points for some thing these days!
Thank you in advance! Any input would be greatly appreciated!
I recently found at least 10 different dates where BA shows availability for JAL flights. I called AA to book with points, and every single time AA told me those dates dont have any availability for the dates I asked for. I double checked those dates on Qantas as well. Why is AA not showing availability when other sites do? It has been a pain to use AA points for some thing these days!
Thank you in advance! Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Apr 24, 2019, 7:12 pm
#1044
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: BA DL
Posts: 179
How far out? Ba/JL book 353 days out. I believe that AA will only show inventory 331 days out.
Apr 24, 2019, 7:40 pm
#1046
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
Check the JAL award thread on this board for recent info on "point of sale" limitations. I just booked JFK-NRT in F and NRT-SIN in J (for 2 pax in July) -- BA was showing availability for the segments separately and together, but AA could not book them together. Didn't end up mattering -- cost is 110k AA either way and we won't be checking bags -- but the issue may have been that the NRT-SIN flights were only available if Japan was set as the point of sale. Evidently I could have called the New Zealand AA desk to try to book the seats, but I didn't have a reason to worry about the hassle. (And if there's IROPS or something, I feel more than comfortable that I can take care of it with the EXP desk and/or JAL's F lounge agents at NRT.)
Apr 24, 2019, 7:57 pm
#1047
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 25
Check the JAL award thread on this board for recent info on "point of sale" limitations. I just booked JFK-NRT in F and NRT-SIN in J (for 2 pax in July) -- BA was showing availability for the segments separately and together, but AA could not book them together. Didn't end up mattering -- cost is 110k AA either way and we won't be checking bags -- but the issue may have been that the NRT-SIN flights were only available if Japan was set as the point of sale. Evidently I could have called the New Zealand AA desk to try to book the seats, but I didn't have a reason to worry about the hassle. (And if there's IROPS or something, I feel more than comfortable that I can take care of it with the EXP desk and/or JAL's F lounge agents at NRT.)
My flight is supposed to be LAX-NRT-PVG. It doesn’t involve New Zealand. I wonder if I should still try to call them?
Apr 24, 2019, 8:06 pm
#1048
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
thank you for the info! I would have bags to check, so i probably better off booking the whole trip together. It may work if I try to call AA New Zealand?
My flight is supposed to be LAX-NRT-PVG. It doesn’t involve New Zealand. I wonder if I should still try to call them?
Check out post 951 and some of the others. I mentioned NZ because that desk (which may route to agents located in Fiji or Trinidad...) seems to have better luck finding availability on partner airlines when regular agents can't. They can book stuff that doesn't involve NZ travle just like US based AAgents can. But you might also try the Japan number -- seems like that was a successful tactic based on what's in the thread linked above.
Apr 25, 2019, 1:10 am
#1049
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Hello All,
I recently found at least 10 different dates where BA shows availability for JAL flights. I called AA to book with points, and every single time AA told me those dates dont have any availability for the dates I asked for. I double checked those dates on Qantas as well. Why is AA not showing availability when other sites do? It has been a pain to use AA points for some thing these days!
Thank you in advance! Any input would be greatly appreciated!
I recently found at least 10 different dates where BA shows availability for JAL flights. I called AA to book with points, and every single time AA told me those dates dont have any availability for the dates I asked for. I double checked those dates on Qantas as well. Why is AA not showing availability when other sites do? It has been a pain to use AA points for some thing these days!
Thank you in advance! Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Check the JAL award thread on this board for recent info on "point of sale" limitations. I just booked JFK-NRT in F and NRT-SIN in J (for 2 pax in July) -- BA was showing availability for the segments separately and together, but AA could not book them together. Didn't end up mattering -- cost is 110k AA either way and we won't be checking bags -- but the issue may have been that the NRT-SIN flights were only available if Japan was set as the point of sale. Evidently I could have called the New Zealand AA desk to try to book the seats, but I didn't have a reason to worry about the hassle. (And if there's IROPS or something, I feel more than comfortable that I can take care of it with the EXP desk and/or JAL's F lounge agents at NRT.)
thank you for the info! I would have bags to check, so i probably better off booking the whole trip together. It may work if I try to call AA New Zealand?
My flight is supposed to be LAX-NRT-PVG. It doesn’t involve New Zealand. I wonder if I should still try to call them?
Just because the segments are not available together today does not mean that JAL will not make them available together at some later date so you can keep checking if you want to book the segments together via AA.
Apr 25, 2019, 1:14 am
#1050
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
This isn't Point of Sale, it is Married Segments. Actually more like divorced segments in this case. LAX-NRT is available by itself as is NRT-PVG but they are not available when married together. BA doesn't care because they charge per segment anyway and throw them together in one award. AA does care about married segments and you won't be able to book them together. QF did not show the married segments available together - this is how you can tell. I gather you checked the segment availability separately on QF? Also, BA does not use a POS of JP so if it's available on BA it's not a POS JP issue. Definitely Married (Divorced) Segments. You will not be able to book the segments together on AA unless the agent can bypass the married segment availability check. Calling Australia or NZ will not help with this issue. BA or AS can book this type of beast. AA, probably not.