Diamond strategies
 

I just hit JMB Sapphire and I currently have flights booked through the end of the year that should get me to JGC Premier (~81,000 FOP).

Something came up recently at work which would involve two NY - London round trips in J (BA/AA) before year-end, which will get me to around 98,000 FOP. However, I would only have 43,000 FOP on JAL metal out of the 50,000 required for Diamond. I figure if I get that far I might as well get Diamond.

I'll be in Japan the last 5 days of the year (Outbound JFK -> NRT flight in J gets me to JGC Premier), which would give me very limited time to do FOP runs. I need 7000; speed and convenience is more important than price. Any ideas how I might do this? ITM based. ITM-HND-OKA-HND-ITM all in J/F maybe?

Or is there any way I can book JL codeshares for US domestic flights somehow, to avoid doing a mileage run in Japan?

Any suggestions very welcome!

I know, that's what I'm worried about :( I am going to wait like a hawk until JAL reservations for year end open and try to book ASAP.

Diamond would be nice for the 130% mileage bonus as I have a non-trivial amount of AA business travel in international J

You can do it, but you'll need those domestic flights. I went from Sapphire to Diamond while I was in Japan the past 3 weeks. I started at 59K fly-on points before I left and was 103K before I boarded the flight back home yesterday.

If you haven't already, make sure you designate the double fly-on points month for the time you're there. You can rack up points easier that way. Granted, I still flew a crap ton (18 domestic flights total) to get those points.

Also, to JALPak's earlier point, you're gonna have 0 luck getting a ticket during the peak travel weeks (Shogatsu, Golden Week, and O-Bon), and even the week/before after can be bad for finding domestic flights.

Also, it takes 2 days for the points to show in your account, but it takes a 3rd day to have your status update.

Good luck!

Only if the OP was a status member for 2018.

I hope you have a MR spreadsheet you keep track of your FOP earnings.
Tricky bonuses, slightly off sector mileage, 1.5x etc might skew your calculations. just FYI.

the sectors alone earn 4,321 FOP, so x 4 = 17,285. You also get 35K miles to boot (with the 105% saphire bonus included) !
*expected sector mileage on the JAL website (link), not GCMAP.

As others above have mentioned, doing MRs during end year is financially suicidal.
Best bet is to do a KUL/SIN run in PE (use miles to get to KUL, , or do some OKA runs on tokubin 21 and get your additional 8K+ FOPs.
My specific suggestion: Do KUL-Ishigaki PE mileage run. Use miles to position yourself in KUL.
You can stop over in Tokyo and make it easy to work. (Although you are ITM based...). Try BKK instead (BKK-KIX flights exist).

Late update. I do have an accurate spreadsheet :)

Bit the bullet and booked ITM-HND-OKA-HND-ITM at the end of the year, with 3 sectors in domestic F and 1 in Class J. It was expensive yes, but I probably will never reach Diamond again so decided to go for it, and I didn't want to use my miles or go abroad. Turns out that one of my London trips were canceled, so still need to do a US domestic mileage run to earn ~2500 FOP. Probably will find a cheap F fare on AA to get that taken care of...

This is becoming an expensive (but addictive) hobby!!

2500 FOP.....

That's only JFK-MIA return in F.. Nice little weekend break at the beach.... :)

I was thinking JFK-DFW same day turn, but yes...that doesn't sound bad...:)

Apart from the documented differences between JGCP and Diamond on the website, are there any other differences that are known but unspoken of?
For example in upgrade awards after looking at fare class, do they release based on Diamond and then JGCP, or are they categorised the same (such as technically the same as OWE)

From what I have read online,

• Blocking of neighboring seats
• Higher chance of op-ups

I haver never seen any indication of seat blocking in action on JAL. Have travelled with a friend with zero status on a separate booking, he never struggled to pick seats next to me, except if I picked a row blocked non status members.

I have had seat blocks kick in on QR though, but that is a different and quite funny story.

Back to topic....How is the JMB Diamond assault strategy working out?

Currently sitting at ~74,000 FOP (~34,000 on JAL)...I am going to hit Diamond via a mileage run on the last day of the year, just in time. :)

Bunch of BA flights coming up + JFK->NRT in JAL J, which gets me to JGC Premier & ~94,000 FOP...then ITM-HND-OKA-HND-ITM to get me over the line.

Just in the nick of time!
Welcome to Diamond, and lets meet up in a lounge (hopefully NRT international lounge) sometime in the coming few months.
FYI, I am leaning on getting the 60,000 eJAL points as my choice selection (I don't have immediate family that needs Diamond status, and dont need the JAL coupons).
Keep us posted on your epic run at the end of the year.