Using JAL points on EK

Old Jul 31, 2017, 8:38 pm
  #226  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Boston, MA
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My experience booking EK J award using JAL

Long time reader but not very active on this forum. However, I've benefitted greatly from this site and its contributors so I thought I'd post about my experience.

Earlier tonight, I was able to book 2 tickets in J, JFK-DXB(stopover)-BKK(destination)-DXB(layover)-MXP(stopover)-JFK. Can confirm 100k miles per person. Tax was about $123 per person.

Just an FYI, I tried booking for myself and my fiance. I had transferred 80k SPG points each to my JMB and my fiancees's JMB account. When I tried to book two tickets using 2 JMB accounts, they had to call my fiancee to confirm her info and the itinerary and they also needed two CC's (one under each name) to pay for the taxes. It was no big deal but it would probably be best to call with your SO by your side if you are in a similar situation.

Otherwise, the JMB agent was very competent and pleasant. I will say that there seems to be phantom availability on Quantas and EF. JMB agent was only able to see one flight a day for a particular route despite several routes that come up as available on Quantas and EF.

In the end, no big deal. I was able to more or less book a decent itinerary and obviously it is an amazing value.

Also re: changes and cancellations. Cancellations can be made right up until departure. The fees were about $30 per person. Changes can be made 2 days prior to departure. No change fees but you do have to pay the difference in taxes, if any.
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Old Aug 1, 2017, 2:01 am
  #227  
 
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Originally Posted by csong825
Long time reader but not very active on this forum. However, I've benefitted greatly from this site and its contributors so I thought I'd post about my experience.

Earlier tonight, I was able to book 2 tickets in J, JFK-DXB(stopover)-BKK(destination)-DXB(layover)-MXP(stopover)-JFK. Can confirm 100k miles per person. Tax was about $123 per person.

Just an FYI, I tried booking for myself and my fiance. I had transferred 80k SPG points each to my JMB and my fiancees's JMB account. When I tried to book two tickets using 2 JMB accounts, they had to call my fiancee to confirm her info and the itinerary and they also needed two CC's (one under each name) to pay for the taxes. It was no big deal but it would probably be best to call with your SO by your side if you are in a similar situation.

Otherwise, the JMB agent was very competent and pleasant. I will say that there seems to be phantom availability on Quantas and EF. JMB agent was only able to see one flight a day for a particular route despite several routes that come up as available on Quantas and EF.

In the end, no big deal. I was able to more or less book a decent itinerary and obviously it is an amazing value.

Also re: changes and cancellations. Cancellations can be made right up until departure. The fees were about $30 per person. Changes can be made 2 days prior to departure. No change fees but you do have to pay the difference in taxes, if any.
That's awesome, congrats! And thanks for the detailed refresh-datapoint

Totally off-topic, but a routing like that might make for a fascinating study in lifestyle-creep: does the shower (or having access to it) on the last MXP-JFK feel as special (given that it would be the 5th one) as the first JFK-DXB does if one has never flown EK F before? or does ennui set in really quickly?
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Old Aug 7, 2017, 7:27 am
  #228  
 
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Originally Posted by ukinny2000
That's awesome, congrats! And thanks for the detailed refresh-datapoint

Totally off-topic, but a routing like that might make for a fascinating study in lifestyle-creep: does the shower (or having access to it) on the last MXP-JFK feel as special (given that it would be the 5th one) as the first JFK-DXB does if one has never flown EK F before? or does ennui set in really quickly?
business class, so no shower access!
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Old Aug 11, 2017, 3:48 am
  #229  
 
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Originally Posted by csong825
Long time reader but not very active on this forum. However, I've benefitted greatly from this site and its contributors so I thought I'd post about my experience.

Earlier tonight, I was able to book 2 tickets in J, JFK-DXB(stopover)-BKK(destination)-DXB(layover)-MXP(stopover)-JFK. Can confirm 100k miles per person. Tax was about $123 per person.

Just an FYI, I tried booking for myself and my fiance. I had transferred 80k SPG points each to my JMB and my fiancees's JMB account. When I tried to book two tickets using 2 JMB accounts, they had to call my fiancee to confirm her info and the itinerary and they also needed two CC's (one under each name) to pay for the taxes. It was no big deal but it would probably be best to call with your SO by your side if you are in a similar situation.

Otherwise, the JMB agent was very competent and pleasant. I will say that there seems to be phantom availability on Quantas and EF. JMB agent was only able to see one flight a day for a particular route despite several routes that come up as available on Quantas and EF.

In the end, no big deal. I was able to more or less book a decent itinerary and obviously it is an amazing value.

Also re: changes and cancellations. Cancellations can be made right up until departure. The fees were about $30 per person. Changes can be made 2 days prior to departure. No change fees but you do have to pay the difference in taxes, if any.
If you would have booked both tickets out of just one JAL account, will they then also make such a fuss about it? Lets assume I wanna book 2x J and 2x F on a flight using two accounts, I then only have to verify my own account and the other account or will they call all 4 pax then?

Since the award chart is distance based, would they allow a routing like FRA-DXB(stop)-JNB // HKG-DXB-FRA on one ticket? Can I mix any EK routes together in whatever fashion I want?
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Old Aug 11, 2017, 6:02 pm
  #230  
 
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Originally Posted by flo_147
Since the award chart is distance based, would they allow a routing like FRA-DXB(stop)-JNB // HKG-DXB-FRA on one ticket? Can I mix any EK routes together in whatever fashion I want?
You can certainly do that, but they will include JNB-HKG distance in the calculation so you may not want to anymore.
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Old Aug 12, 2017, 5:40 am
  #231  
 
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Originally Posted by stargold
You can certainly do that, but they will include JNB-HKG distance in the calculation so you may not want to anymore.
That makes sense man Then it's better to switch over to OW carriers.
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Old Aug 14, 2017, 5:12 am
  #232  
 
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How strict is JAL btw when you wanna redeem yr miles for a friend? Do the allow that? Do they make you send in a lot of paper work then?
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Old Aug 14, 2017, 5:25 am
  #233  
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Originally Posted by flo_147
How strict is JAL btw when you wanna redeem yr miles for a friend? Do the allow that? Do they make you send in a lot of paper work then?
You are violating JMB T&C if you redeem for a friend. FTers who assist you with such redemption will be violating FT T&C.

http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#deceptive

Supporting, encouraging or promoting illegal activity or fraud upon an individual or company is prohibited.
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Old Aug 14, 2017, 5:49 am
  #234  
 
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Originally Posted by JALPak
You are violating JMB T&C if you redeem for a friend. FTers who assist you with such redemption will be violating FT T&C.

http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#deceptive
Maybe you did misunderstand something. I am not asking anybody to help me book something here. I am just asking if my spouse wanna use her miles for my own ticket, if that would be ok and if so how does the process of redeeming it look like? Do they call her then to verify it or is it like using her United miles for my flights?

Edit:

Ok I found it in the t&c:

"Awards may be used by only the Member and the following individuals designated by the Member ("Designated Users"):
Member's spouse, Member's parents, Member's grandparents, Member's siblings, Member's siblings' spouses, Member's children, Member's children's spouses, Member's grandchildren, Member's grandchildren's spouses, Member's spouse's parents, Member's spouse's grandparents, Member's spouse's siblings, spouse of Member's brothers and sisters-in-law.
When a Designated User intends to use an award, JAL may request the Designated User to submit official documents verifying his/her relationship with the Member."


So basically I can use her miles for my own travel. But can I actually use her miles to get her, two of our friends and myself (4 persons) award tickets on the same flight?
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Old Aug 14, 2017, 9:22 am
  #235  
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Originally Posted by flo_147
Maybe you did misunderstand something. I am not asking anybody to help me book something here. I am just asking if my spouse wanna use her miles for my own ticket, if that would be ok and if so how does the process of redeeming it look like? Do they call her then to verify it or is it like using her United miles for my flights?

Edit:

Ok I found it in the t&c:

"Awards may be used by only the Member and the following individuals designated by the Member ("Designated Users"):
Member's spouse, Member's parents, Member's grandparents, Member's siblings, Member's siblings' spouses, Member's children, Member's children's spouses, Member's grandchildren, Member's grandchildren's spouses, Member's spouse's parents, Member's spouse's grandparents, Member's spouse's siblings, spouse of Member's brothers and sisters-in-law.
When a Designated User intends to use an award, JAL may request the Designated User to submit official documents verifying his/her relationship with the Member."


So basically I can use her miles for my own travel. But can I actually use her miles to get her, two of our friends and myself (4 persons) award tickets on the same flight?
Originally Posted by flo_147
How strict is JAL btw when you wanna redeem yr miles for a friend? Do the allow that? Do they make you send in a lot of paper work then?
Originally Posted by JALPak
You are violating JMB T&C if you redeem for a friend.
You were asking for redeeming for FRIENDS and I said no already.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:08 am
  #236  
 
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I would advise you to create a JAL account for each of the friends, and create similar account on Marriott for each of the friends, bunching them up as a family account with the same address, then do a Marriot-to-Marriott transfer, before transfering points from their respective Marriot accounts to their respective SPG accounts, and then transfer those SPG points to their respective JAL accounts.

But if I indeed advised you so, it might not be good advice, so i wont advise you to do so.
@JALPak,
If I am in violation of anything, please tell me and I will retract the advice.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 4:54 am
  #237  
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@Tokyoite, not sure what kind of family account you were referring to. But Marriott limits annual transfer of 50,000 points to another account. With 3:1 transfer rate to SPG, you are only transferring ~17,000 JMB miles to his friend, which won't give you much redemption options.

I would advice against using any false information such as address in your Marriott profile. You can transfer Marriott points to anyone you like.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 8:07 am
  #238  
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Originally Posted by flo_147
How strict is JAL btw when you wanna redeem yr miles for a friend? Do the allow that? Do they make you send in a lot of paper work then?
my partner and i hv cross-redeemed for each other but we never were requested to prove anything. Im not sure if it would be legal to ask such questions in some juristrictions either. Nonetheless we travelled tgt
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 8:10 am
  #239  
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I hv requested upgrades for my gf on JAL awards using my miles in the jal lounge too.
They claim it wasnt possible to upgrade an award ticket but boy they were wrong since there is exactly a section for that. They received a stern lecture after i took out my laptop.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 4:03 pm
  #240  
 
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Originally Posted by flo_147
How strict is JAL btw when you wanna redeem yr miles for a friend? Do the allow that? Do they make you send in a lot of paper work then?
Very strict! I had to jump through hoops to get them to let me book for my fianc for our honeymoon, i.e. travel AFTER he was my husband. And I was lucky since others on this thread did not have the same experience.

I agree with the advice of others here to move the points between Marriott/SPG accounts first and then transfer to JAL. If I had known that before, I would have done that.
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