obsidiansti

I've been following all of the recent JAL news and have a less than secure feeling regarding an award reservation I am making next week. I have no other carrier options besides JAL. I'll be booking a trip using BA miles for August. Should I be concerned with all of the oneworld defection/ bankruptcy issues or is it safe to say it will be honored regardless?

Thanks

Rpcfly

You bring up a very good point, especially since the deal with the skyteam alliance seems like a foregone conclusion.

I would assume that all of the bookings that take place on award tickets before the changeover have got to be honored under the oneworld alliance contract language...... but you just never know.

I'm hoping to redeem some more AA miles myself for another TPAC trip in F before the spring.

JALPak

I would worry about JAL canceling your route more than them not honoring a partner airlines award. An issued ticket should be honored no matter which alliance JAL belongs to. The only difference should be you lose your OW elite benefits if JAL has switched alliance by the time you fly, i.e. priority check in, boarding, baggage, lounge access, etc.

And who knows, BA might remain as JAL's partner even if JAL switches to Skyteam (JAL is a partner of AF right now). But if you are really worry about it, you can wait till Jan 20. Supposing ETIC will make a decision by that date and it will be clearer about JAL restructuring plan by then.

obsidiansti

I'm not worried about the status as I have status on all three alliances. I just want to make sure that once I make that reservation that it sticks. I won't be able to make changes to my hotel reservations after 1/14 so any flight adjustments will drastically affect my travel. Thanks for the input so far and I will appreciate anything else anyone has to offer.

brunos

If BA issues the ticket on a JL flight, then the ticket is issued and JL has accepted it. You should have no risk. If JL switches alliances, it will take quite some tie to undo the current membership in OW. A similar situation arose with CO leaving ST and it took a year for the switch. But issued tickets are issued tickets, whether paid or award.

As JALPack mentions, the bigger risk is JAL cancelling the flight or going bankrupt which will bring in some disruption. I guess that BA will allways recredit your miles if you ask them, as this is a standard feature. But one can never be sure.
IMO booking for august is taking quite some risk. But if you have no other option and check with BA that you can recredit miles....

susiesan

I have J award tickets issued by AA to fly in late Feb. to PNH on CX and return from BKK on JL. I was told by AA that if the alliance changed my JL segment is still good, If JL went bankrupt then AA would get me home on another airline, probably CX. My tickets are in J and AA said we'd still be in J. Of course they can say anything. Since we'd be coming home, if there were no J seats availalble we'd have to take coach since we'd need to get home and be at AA's mercy.

bobbybrown

I have my dad's JAL award ticket (through AA) on Jan 19, the date when JAL plans to bankrupt. It's part of Austin-Seoul flight and NRT-ICN is through JL. Since they have 10 days to prepare bankrupt, I hope my dad does not encounter any issue, although it is usually the bankrupt day when all the panic happens.

JALPak

And he will be watching NHK news onboard reporting the airlines he's flying is now bankrupt

headinclouds

Another person whose AA issued award tix are making me anxious. I have HKG-NRT-ORD on 22 & 23 Jan. I hope bankrupt does not mean stop operations...

MaHa

I think your dad will be alright. That is the day that the holding company Japan Airlines International goes bankrupt, however it probably will not be the day that airplanes are grounded... if the airplanes are ever grounded.

If anything, if JAL planes are grounded, they probably will have the passengers put on Korean Air flights. JAL and Korean Air have almost codeshares on almost all flights between Japan and South Korea.

hclee01

I have purchased a pair of J class ticket using credit card for routing SIN-NRT-SIN via JAL website. I was supposed to travel in Dec, but due to unforeseen circumstances, my travel companion and I were not able to travel as planned. The J class ticket is a one-year ticket and flexible in changing dates.

Right now with the situation, should I cancel the ticket and pay a admin fee of SGD75 per ticket and hopefully get a refund within the next 1 to 2 month or hold on to the ticket and travel in mid-year?

I am just afraid that I may not be able to travel in May should they decide to ground all JAL flights after Jan 19. Any experience on this?

virmaior

the key component is AA's relationship with JAL and other airlines that could get him to ICN

JAL's relationship with Korean does not affect how he would be able to use an AA-issued award ticket.

that being said, the terms of the bankruptcy say that flights will continue as normal.

bobbybrown

Thanks for saying so. JAL went bankrupt as they planned 10 days back but my dad's flight was not canceled; he went back home safely. Now I don't worry at all about my parents' upcoming GMP-HND springbreak roundtrip, on JAL using AA miles.

mosburger

Is there still a chance to use CX Asia Miles for JAL flights ICN/GMP - NRT/HND or is this option gone already? Travel time would be in the spring of this year, 2010.

JALPak

Not gone yet. JAL is still part of OW.