Tokyoite

Hi. Unfortunately JAL will not help you due to the lack of research leading to this mistake (blindly transferring SPG points to JAL).
Best course is to book on an alternative airline (JAL/Cathay/AA etc.) and use up the transferred miles.
Some questions to reflect on:
1. Who quoted you the $90 fuel surcharges? A blog somewhere? or JAL?
2. The Amadeus system change has been widely publicized on JAL website. This includes disruptions to award bookings. How did you miss it?

Not being an arse about your situation, but unfortunately, this is a risk of playing the points and miles game blindly without due diligence and research.
Many have been burned similarly, albeit because of different reasons:
-Award space dries up after you transfer points (very common)
-Cost of awards suddenly goes up after you transfer points (Alaska & EK for example)
-Awards get cancelled after you transfer points (Aeroplan & Swiss Air for example)

Learn from mistakes!

omghaxcode

Is this a valid routing with JAL on Emirates: IAH-DXB-MLE(destination)-DXB-MXP(stop)-JFK? I am trying to book Emirates F on this itinerary for 2 and want to be prepared for the call with valid routing. Additionally, I'm using Qantas to search for availability. If I can find each segment with availability, will I likely be able to marry the segments with JAL?

Tokyoite

yes. but dont take my word for it.
research on emirates/alaska site for dates with award availability, then call jal to quote you the miles and taxes.
have flight numbers ready to feed the agent..

rustang cobra

We were aware of the system upgrade, and have been accumulating SPG points for the past two years for our honeymoon. We put our points in prior to the system upgrade. Once the points were available in JAL Emirates flight availability dried up before the system upgrade cut off date. Once the upgrade was complete, we called back in at least 5 times over the next 3 weeks. It took them a few weeks to get full award availability back up which is when we found out about the surcharges . We were not made aware of fuel surcharge changes prior transferring points despite having told them over the course of several calls that I intend to transfer points from my SPG account. The reps say the fuel charge changes are entirely up to Emirates and there is nothing they can do. I'm going to attempt to work this up the chain to see if I can get my points refunded.

I'll report back with how it goes.

Tokyoite

Good luck. I can only empathise.
You have mentioned that you initially called in to book the EK flights (and were told that there was no availability).
That unfortunately exonerates JAL from any culpability towards this points transfer debacle.
JAL does not guarrantee award availability from partners.

To make JAL even consider to reverse the points transfer (if they would), you would need to prove that JAL caused the lack of bookable award space availability.
You would also need proof that the award space was available at the time you called, via other ways of confirming ( Dated screenshots of EK website or Alaska Website?). This still doesnt hold water, since JAL would simply refute that EK award availability to JAL is not the same as availability on EK site itself or other partners (Alaska etc.).

Finally, JAL will say that your transfer issue is with SPG, and you should check the T&C for SPG points transfers.
T&C for SPG points transfers stipulate that the transfers are final and irreversably once executed.
You agreed to that before clicking to execute.

Sorry I dont have anything positive to add, other than you find an alternative use for the JAL miles, such as use on other JAL partners (Cathay, Qantas, American, JAL itself) and move on from this.

Should you chase this further, then you would need to explain why you MUST fly with EK and not any other JAL partner. JAL might be sympathetic and open up F award space (if they fly F on your route), but thats it.

Bottom line is, you only have "promises" to use your SPG points/miles, but no "Contract", i.e. a ticket, to enforce JAL/SPG to do what you want.

Very sorry for your situation though.
Good luck in your escalation. Tell us how the wall looks like when you hit it.

omghaxcode

Other than CMB... what are the interesting starting points that won't charge YQ?

callmedtop

HKG, MNL stand out (but only J between MNL and DXB).

bmrisko

Before I call myself, has anyone experienced high surcharges on flights departing from MLE?

callmedtop

MLE has no surcharges (this was news to me, actually!). MLE-JFK roundtrip on ITA Matrix shows no YQ.

callmedtop

Can anyone share experiences around booking a one-way, and then adding a return trip a few months down the road (but still within the 1 year ticket validity)? Basically, I want to book DXB-USA-DXB but grab DXB-USA when award space opens, and then add the return a few months later (two separate trips).

Thanks!

Tokyoite

Mileage required is based on the distance traveled, and adding returns/legs increases mileage, leading to whole different ticket from the originally booked one. This is not AA or Alaska (Region based award charts)!

Two separate trips is two separate tickets!

Taking the longest route DXB - LAX as an example,
It is 8,339 miles long (See here), meaning 105,000 JMB miles will be required for a one way (8001-10000 miles bracket), and 155,000 miles will be required for a return (14001-20000 miles bracket) (See here).
Booking the outbound and return separately would cost 2 x 105,000 = 210,000 JMB miles, an additional 55k miles!

callmedtop

Let's say I want to fly 4/1/2019, and then return 3/1/2020 (hypothetically). Can I book in 5/2018 for DXB-USA-DXB on 4/1/2019 return 4/15/2019, and then closer to departure change the return to March 2020? I don't see why not, given that JAL allows date and time changes (but not routing or class of service changes). Any thoughts?

Tokyoite

First, see the rules here
You can ticket a return trip, and then change the outbound within the 1 year validity of the ticket (1 year from booking date, and then 1 year from date of first flight.)
So here is a nifty way of managing this hypothetical
So, if you book today (18th Jan 2018), the farthest you can book your return is actually 330 days out, so outbound 329 days out (giving you time to fly the outbound, and change the return immediately after you land). This assumes there is EK award availability on for the return!

Today is January 18, 2018 so that means that 329 days from today would be December 13, 2018. and 330 days out is the 14th.
Outbound December 13th, land on the same day in the US, and then change your return to 1 year from your outbound flight, meaning the farthest you can book your return is actually December 12th 2019. But, since JAL can only book awards 330 days out, you would need to book your return for October 2019, and then switch to December 2019 once you are within the 330 day window.

weird way of trying to outmaneuver the system, right?

callmedtop

Yes, this is exactly what I had in mind, written much more clearly. It is interesting (aka great!) that JAL allows you to change the return to one year from the outbound flight once travel has commenced (once the outbound is flown), rather than only 1 year from the ticketing date. I don't believe AA allows that, for example - though could be mistaken. I'd probably book the outbound 328 days prior to travel to allow for a couple days when I get home to make the change, though I hate waiting for longer after the booking window opens than necessary.

I understand that I am at risk that award availability may not be there for the return, but theoretically I can always just change to a random day and then hope that it opens up down the road.

So it sounds like this should work after all, with some maneuvering. The other option is just to pay for two one-ways for ~35% more miles (105k x2 = 210k versus 155k), but where is the fun in that!

callmedtop

Just spent some time on the phone with JAL and discovered the following:

MLE-DXB-JFK-DXB-SEZ: $896 in taxes
MLE-DXB-JFK-DXB-MLE: $1006 in taxes
MLE-DXB-JFK: $570 in taxes

I'm not sure where these numbers are coming from as ex-MLE should not have any YQ. I was thinking that when I added in SEZ it was breaking the "fare" and applying the standard taxes from US-SEZ, but tested that theory with the other two routings and appears that MLE taxes are being collected as well. Perhaps they are calculating on a per-segment basis (i.e. MLE-DXB taxes, DXB-JFK taxes)? Otherwise, I can't figure out how they're getting calculated.

Any thoughts?