invisible

My wife will have her first (and most likely last in this year) TPAC flight for her work from SIN to SFO. Due to policy and timings restrictions it most likely will be combination of SQ (SIN-TYO) and JAL (TYO-SFO, SFO-TYO-SIN) segments.

She does not have any mileage account with JAL/AA, she does have SQ's account but no status.

Considering that there will be quite rare such business trips (it is her verst work related flight ever after working for 3 years with the company) where does it make sense (if at all) to park JAL metal miles?

Thanks.

JY1024

I know this isn't specifically about crediting to JL, but the knowledgeable folks of the Japan Airlines forum will probably be able to chime in with some info about options for crediting miles. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

tth6133

Find the fare classes of all the flights and then use this web site http://www.wheretocredit.com/ to figure out the best program to credit her miles.

JALPak

If you don't fly often, pick a program where miles won't expire as long as you have activities, e.g. AA, BA, etc

zeo219

Though this is a question from long ago, I have a similar set of questions. My kids and I will be flying to Japan. We do sometimes fly American, but future flights for them will be rare on JAL, for me possibly a few more times. I thought I read somewhere that we can only early AA miles if it's a codeshare flight between JAL/AA? Our outbound flight in class I looks to be JAL only, I believe - JL69 (I don't see any AA references on it), but return, JL16, looks like it might be shared with AA?. If we choose to use our AA mileage # on the reservation, can we earn the same # of miles that we would have earned if we used a JMB# for the entire trip? or do we forfeit some miles by not using JMB?
Should I instead sign us all up for JMB, and have them share their miles with me as part of Family sharing? Or better to use AA? Thank you!

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

As JAL is a member of oneworld you can earn AA miles on both a JAL flight number and AA/JAL codeshare
the exact number of miles will depend on how it is ticketed and operated and the fare class ie I or j or d etc

The general advice is probably to use the scheme you will get most use of.
in your case it is probably AA as there are lots of earning opportunities in the US

Regards
Tbs

guv1976

JL flights bought under the JL flight number will earn AAdvantage miles based on distance and class of service/fare basis. JL flights bought under the AA codeshare flight number will earn AAdvantage miles based on the pre-tax fare.

I don't know how AA earnings compare to JMB earnings for the same flight. But the earnings rate is only half of the equation: the redemption rate also matters. For what routes/class of service do you hope to redeem your miles?

JALPak

You can credit the flights to AA even they are JL coded.

zeo219

For my kids, they would likely use the AA miles for domestic US flights. For me, there's a possibility that I might use JAL/AA miles for future flights back to Japan, hopefully in business class again.

guv1976

AAdvantage redemption rates on partner carriers are still fixed-rate. U.S.-Japan on JL metal is 60K one-way in Business; 80K one way in First, with no carrier surcharges. Not sure how JMB redemption rates compare on that route.

For domestic U S. flights, AA miles usually offer the best value. (There are a few exceptions, however, usually involving BA Avios on some AA nonstops.)

guv1976

AAdvantage earning rates on JL-coded flights here:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...n-airlines.jsp

(As noted previously, earnings on AA-coded flights will be based on pre-tax cost. If the fare is the same for both the AA-coded and JL-coded flights, then you have to do the calculations to determine which coding will yield the most AAdvantage miles.)

guv1976

The other possible consideration is earning oneworld status. Depending on how often you -- and your kids -- will be flying on oneworld carriers, you might be able to achieve oneworld elite status quicker by crediting your flights to Iberia Plus, rather than to AAdvantage or JMB. The question is: Which do you value more, getting AA miles, or getting oneworld status more quickly?

More on the Iberia Plus program here:

https://www.iberia.com/iberiaplus/what-are/

(The Business Class LAX-HND roundtrip alone would earn you 1,000 IB Plus elite points. For oneworld Ruby status -- which would get you some nice benefits when flying AA in Economy -- you need just 1,100 elite points earned in one yearly earning period (April 1-March 31).)

Lots to consider.

j.king

Is there a website like wheretocredit but instead of showing how many miles / avios can be earned comparing the earning potential towards oneworld status?

Where would I find the most detailed comparison of all oneworld programs to see how the respective programs status earning works in terms of earning periods, grace periods, soft landing policies, re-qualifying and other potential factors.

Is Iberia Plus currently the best program to earn oneworld status even for somebody who never flies on Iberia and does not travel to, from or within Europe often?

I am also at a loss as to what frequent flyer number to enter when I book oneworld flights. My few miles are scattered across various airlines now as I signed up everywhere and only earned my miles on the same airline I flew with. I have no status anywhere and don't really know where to start.

However I would have time to monitor the premium fare deals forum, fly for fun and do tier point runs and visit all kinds of places in the world. I am planning to travel a lot more in the coming years. Starting out however, it's a bit of a learning curve.

I'm based in Asia and would likely either fly within Asia, long haul via the Middle East or via Japan and return to Asia. Long haul I would only fly in business class whenever deals come up as I'm flexible, short intra-Asia flights where business is hardly worth it I'd fly in economy.

I never redeemed miles for flights as I was never able to accumulate many. Not being based in the US means no earning from credit cards.

CPH-Flyer

There isn't an overview like the one you ask for. It is very complex to fully understand what is best for a person.

There some fundamentals to assess; do I fly enough to get status with any airline, mainly economy or premium cabins, is there a dominant carrier at the home airport.

My main logic is that JAL's program is only really good if you can achieve Diamond (JGP) status, and mainly for residents of Japan. AA one really needs to fly AA or AA codeshare as the loyalty points earning on partners is quite poor, less so if you don't have status but still not great.

Splitting between multiple Oneworld programs is not good, unless you really fly enough to build meaningful balances in more than one program. Better to take a bit lower earning on some flights than ending up with multiple account balances that can't be used for redemptions.