randomasian

I know that there would be quite a few people in Hong Kong who were in JGC for frequent trips to Japan pre-pandemic but didn't take advantage of JGC benefits for a couple years due to how closed off the city was.
Most of us here are probably most curious about the OW sapphire benefits which I don't think costs JAL as much as providing actual benefits in their own lounges. Maybe they would do what US based airlines do and require you to have the expensive JAL card for lounge access on domestic flights? I can see the 3K miles after the first flight going either way. It's an incentive to fly JAL but also costs them money.

CPH-Flyer

Japan based credit card holders having JGC is not insignificant, look at the priority boarding lines for domestic flights, and the crowding of the domestic Sakura lounges. Even the number of people in the diamond premier lounges probably gets a good boost from the JGC Premier ranks.

I think it is far more a domestic problem (challenge?) than the international JGC members. But culling the domestic group will probably also affect the international group.

JALPak

Domestic folks who don’t fly internationally that much isn’t such a big deal. Their domestic lounge access don’t cost as much compared to a single entry to partner lounge when JGC member travel on non-JL flight. That is assuming JL got charged for the access if JGC member is flying Y and JGCP member flying anything other than F. Even worse for those who access the lounge using JGC and then credit the miles to a different program. An easy fix would be switch back to the old ways and only give JGC members Ruby status by default and they can still access JL designated lounge when they travel on JL.

CPH-Flyer

Yeah, it is not quite clear how lounge visits are paid in OW. The rumours I have heard is that it is operating carrier, but who knows. It is one of those insider pieces of information.

The fun stuff is when 120 passengers on a flight to Seoul has priority boarding, and the last 40 don't. I don't think it is a cost issue per se, but more a just too many people issue. What the point of status if 2/3 of the flight has it?

JALPak

there’s also rumor stating who got charged depends on how the passenger qualifies for the access. If it’s based on class of service then it’s the operating carrier but otherwise it will be the FFP carrier. Either way, they probably aren’t getting rid of priority for JGC members so if that’s what they intend to fix, it will take a very long time to see the effects.

CPH-Flyer

​​​​​​The retirement of the members in Japan is probably fairly slow, which might be why the target is to stem the inflow.

According to rumours, Star Alliance has a far more complicated matrix based on class of service and status.

ECR

What I had seen suggested several years ago was that in Oneworld the operating airline pays for the lounge access, whereas in Star Alliance the frequent flyer programme pays where the customer doesn't already qualify for access via class of service.

This was in the context of it being suggested that British Airways weren't very happy with Amex giving a Cathay Pacific Oneworld Sapphire card as a perk with the Amex Platinum card in the UK. These customers would be more likely to be using lounge access on British Airways flights (rather than Cathay Pacific) and the suggestion was that BA therefore incurred the costs of the lounge access.

I have no idea if this is correct, or even if it was at the time that it reflects the current situation. If it is the case though JAL might be quite happy to have overseas JGC members who never or rarely fly JAL. They would have had to do some flying with JAL, perhaps status running, to qualify for JGC in the first place. If they now only fly AA, BA etc then while those airlines pick up the lounge access costs, JAL would earn through the sale of points as the customers probably need to credit flights to JAL to earn enough points to pay the annual membership fee (at which point JAL take the points back!).

percysmith

i would have thought OW will take *A’s approach to charging for access. Otherwise this incentivises partner misbehaviour eg Sri Lankan indiscriminately sending a bunch of matches/status matches to Japanese customers on the assumption JL will bearing most of the cost.

BA has a different rationale: they don’t value the partner lounge access income to be worth their cost in hosting these partner elites BA Lounge and Concorde Dining at IAD

Assuming FFP airline pays in cases where pax has no other entitlement to lounge through ticket itself then JAL has been picking up these costs.

koi

Do you guys think it's worth pursuing JGC? I'm AA Plat Pro right now but will be traveling less in the future. so wanted to see if I could just join JGC and get life time sapphire status with just paying miles. Heard the program was gonna change in 2024, so I really wasn't sure if I should wait or pursue it this year. thoughts?

JALPak

JGC does not give lifetime sapphire status. It only provides sapphire status based on the current program. There’s no guaranteed that you will get sapphire status next year as JAL has clearly indicated the JGC benefits will change next year. But it will probably be harder to qualify JGC next year too. So pursue at your own risk.

CPH-Flyer

I it is a good question if it is worth it. You'll have to make at least 25K status points from JAL group flights and 50K total before the end of the year, with enough space to get the sign up for JGC managed. The open question is of course what exactly does the JGC status mean once we get in to 2024 and beyond.

randomasian

Bookings made with miles don't count towards status so you're looking to spend at least 3K USD. We don't know what will change in the program but the Japanese site does say they will announce the changes "around autumn" which means that you may have like 3 months at the end of the year to do your status run assuming they are still offering Sapphire with JGC. If you were already planning to visit Japan, it may make sense to do the JAL portion of the qualification now but I'd say it's too risky to do a pure status right now unless you're OK with potentially getting only one year of JAL Sapphire out of this.

izzik

Considering you can "buy" your way to platinum status for ~$2k each year unless they raise the qualification, I would say stick with AA. JAL premium fares aren't particularly cheap... But it can be done with the NA fop promo.

koi

Since I'm in Canada, it'll be like 3-4K for me to qualify for plat solely based on plane+AAHOTELS, but yeah I looked through the current planet tickets, current JL plane tickets are way more than I would spend. I think I'm going to keep my AA unless flight prices becomes more reasonable

bocastephen

No one knows how the program will change in 2024 - only that something will change - but everything in this thread, including qualifying for, and the benefits of JGC, are pure speculation and opinion. There is zero evidence or confirmation, only speculation (and hope by some ) that JGC will lose OW Sapphire status as a benefit after the update.

So you just need to do what's best for you and your budget at this time and let the chips fall where they may in 2025 when the new program is implemented. Depending on what gets announced later this year, we might still have a very reasonable path to JGC qualification including Sapphire status during 2024, especially if there are any double point promotions. Also keep in mind that ex-Japan members and Japanese members may end up with very different qualification requirements and benefits.