New priority boarding procedure from Sep 2 2019
 

Considering the service inside the plane isn't much different from Y aside from the seat, the addition of other perks at the airport for PY is nice.

It is quite crazy how many status passengers JAL has. Looking at the amount of F tagged luggage on any flight is a bit surprising.

Flew HND-ITM the other day, half the plane must have been Diamond / JGC Premier...

My record is priority boarding with 124 passengers on an E01 787 to Gimpo. They announced the number, to let non priority passengers know that the huge groups were not general boarding. And I guess to let the people at the back of these huge groups know that they were not being cheated out of their status perk.

If a few of those also brought a "he/she" is flying with me" there would not be any left for general boarding.

I suppose on paper. When in PY, I'd rather just wait until Y is almost entirely boarded, skip waiting in line for the scanners and skip getting jostled by the entire Y cabin moving aft.

Definitely know the feeling. Priority luggage tagging and your bag still arrives behind another 50 bags...hilarious at HND/NRT.
I usually just sit down next to the belt and check train schedules, not even bothering to check the first 10 bags or so...Wait for a few rounds of luggage before looking for mine on the belt.

For boarding, I usually decide while in the lounge if I want to board early (and thus queue at the gate), or board last, all depending on the distance from lounge to departure gate.
If it is nearby (the 112-114 gates at HND), then I board last. (Flights to Europe, and the JFK/SFO flights typically get these gates).
If it is farther out (the 141-148 gates at HND), then I board last = leave lounge 15 minutes after the boarding started lounge announcement.

It helped a lot after Emerald got a separate line, it means I can arrive at the gate just around boarding time and not be too far from early boarding.

I would say my arrival time is more triggered by my cabin on the flight than the location of the gate, the further back the more keen I am to board early. Though generally speaking I do prefer to be on the early side rather than the late side.

Actually I don't think Ruby got downgraded, but upgraded instead. In fact, under oneworld benefit system, Ruby does not have priority boarding.

And in my experience in JAL, ruby has been always board after sapphire, both in last year and early this month.

I flew SIN to NRT, and DFW to NRT last year with ruby status. By the moment I board, I was surprised the number of statud flyer. The plane was at least 50% filled

Ruby boards with J, Sapphire, and JGC at the moment. So yes, a downgrade.