Best way to reach Sapphire in the coming two months ?
 

Dear All,

I would like to request your expertise as I am not finding any suitable plan for my friend Sapphire status goal.

I am JGC and would like to help him joining us :)

By the end of the year, he will have reached 32,725 FOP. We are based in Tokyo.

I am looking for the most cost effective options to reach the 50,000 FOP required. So far, the best deal I could find was 4 x round trip Haneda - Ishigaki in J with the Tokubin rate 70% + 400FOP bonus points but this would cost approx 200,000 JPY.

We are quite flexible on the dates and destinations. Ideally, we were planning to do the FOP run over one or two week-ends in November/December but we can manage week days too.

Any suggestions are most welcome !

Thank you very much

You can probably do a OKA-SIN run in PE for ¥135000, and add on some tokubin HND-OKA return for positioning at 75% for under ¥40000. Plenty of dates that can work departing Friday and getting back to Tokyo maybe around Tuesday but these require one night in SIN. There's an itinerary that minimizes time on the ground in SIN to 1 full day (technically no overnight, screenshot).

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8ec8733e7a.png


The OKA-SIN in PE should net 15472 FOP, and the tokubin at 75% should be 1876 FOP, totaling 17348 FOP. That should get him just over the line, but definitely triple check the math because it's very close.

1. Does the friend have the JAL credit card (JAL Club A card)? If not, then it may not be worth it to do a mileage run.
Ask your friend to apply for it ASAP. You get 5000 FOP just by having the card and taking any JAL flight.

2. Does the 32,725 FOP include the 5,000 FOP from the card? If not, see # 1 above. If it does, then see # 3 below.

3. Does the 32,725 FOP include a minimum of 25,000 FOP from JAL flights? If not, concentrate on meeting this requirement in your flight plans.

4. Several options to earn 17,275 FOP with minimum hustle

4.1 the hard hustle
= taking the 6am HND-OKA and coming back on the same plane, tokubin fare, and upgrade to class J for 1000 yen for the 10% FOP bump. Repeat as many times as required.
I see tokubin on Saturday 11/16th, 19K JPY out, and 12K in, netting you 3,752 FOP (1,876 x 2), or if you can get the class J upgrades, 4,144 FOP (2,072 x 2). 4 such trips required, and you need to sleep in the airport.

4.2 Easiest and cheapest way.
Do KUL-ISG in premium economy plus full fare economy, for only 870 USD return (3,600 Malaysia Ringgit), netting you 16,510 FOP (5,407 x 2 + 2,848 x 2) per trip. Only one trip to get you there (almost)
. E.g. 27th Nov - 29th Nov.
(after using miles to position to and from Kuala Lumpur).
Make sure to snag class J upgrades at least on one of the HND-ISG-HND legs by going to HND/ISG airport as early as possible (3-4 hours before), and your FOP accrual changes to 16,998 FOP (5,407 x 2 + 3,092 x 2)

4.3 Other ideas: Look at cheap Qatar air business class flights from Manila or Jakarta to Europe. Check the premium fare deals forum

+1 on this, this is what I did on my Sapphire run recently. Image for better illustration.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9d52e106be.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6049b1d2ec.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ec5048e669.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f550353e8f.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...14e2c742b7.jpg
I am not sure if he is keen on using Points or not.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...de38447bfa.jpg
Beware on last week of Nov is expensive from KUL as it is start of school holiday there.

Dear lokisnake , Tokyoite , minizian

Thank you very much for your suggestions and detailed explanations !

I couldn't expect that much :)

Yes, my friend already has a JAL CARD Club A and the 32,725 FOP already includes the 5000 FOP first flight bonus. All flights on JAL metal so no problem on the 25,000 FOP minimum.

I think we will go with the Kuala Lumpur PE run. I tried many combination but didnt thought of this one. Plus never had the chance to visit KL before, so it will be a great opportunity !

Thank you again for your support.

Great.
I requalified for Diamond by using three of these KUL-ISG runs (added TYO stop over for free), and then two runs of the RGN-LAX business class deal ( deal has expired).
I recommend you to do the runs without a TYO stop over for quick runs, but you can add stop overs in Tokyo if you need.
HND-ISG is a long 3 hour flight, so try to get class J upgrades at leas one way. There is no lounge in ISG, which is a bummer, but the airport is compact and same plane returns are easy to do.

For the positioning using miles, either use Avianca Lifemiles for star alliance, or buy LCC Airasia flights HND-KUL.

I am curious how do you book your triple KUL-ISG run? Do you book all under one booking/PNR or you are using together with JEP too?

When I tried to booked in webpage two leg of HND ISG under KUL-TYO multicity, the rates went super high. Instead, I have buy separate JEP pass to complement it.

Of course, three separate tickets. I had to align the turns in KUL so that both previous and next ticket had availability in the fare bucket (otherwise it would be costly).
I have been to KUL so many times that I didn't feel like it to get out of the airport.

KUL-NRT(stop, stopped in Tokyo for a few month)
HND-ISG-HND(same plane turn, then stop in Tokyo for a week)
NRT-KUL-NRT(stop)
=same plane turn at KUL using end of ticket 1 and start of ticket 2, then stop in Tokyo for a few months

HND-ISG-HND(same plane turn, then stop in Tokyo for a week)
NRT-KUL-NRT/HND-ISG(stop)-HND(stop),
=same plane turn at KUL using end of ticket 2 and start of ticket 3, and then 2 days stay in ISG over a long weekend, then stop in Tokyo for a few months

Finally NRT-KUL of ticket 3.

Oh okay, thank you for the detailed breakdown.

I am based in KUL so usually I need to bundle everything (OKA/ISG/Etc) within few days (JEP only allowed two flights per day) when I have trip to Tokyo together with some short flight in between (OKA-ISG) with Tokubin 7/3. Tiring while have to work on the go but for sure its fun:p

Rates Ex-Kul are nearly fixed thought the year from my observation.

Starting from KUL makes it a lot easier, since you can do straight transfers from NRT to HND to OKA/ISG and back with only 1 overnight in Tokyo.