Paid upgrade to First from Business
 

Will probably flying Japan Airlines for the first time internationally. Just wondering if their is oppurtunity to upgrade from business to first, like Air france at check-in, or sooner?

There’s no discount for F upgrade. You will need to pay for the fare difference and change fee. If you have JMB miles and is booked in an eligible booking class, you can upgrade with miles.

JALPak, I know there are certain types of tickets that can't be upgraded with miles even if in eligible classes.
I have a trip in May coming up in Business that I purchased through American Express Travel through the IAP program. This is an I class ticket. Do you happen to know (or have any experience) whether I could upgrade that with JMB miles into F?

Yes, I class IAP tickets are eligible as long as you have JMB miles and have had your JMB account for more than 60 days. Just be warned it will be a nightmare if you need to make changes to your booking after the upgrade. I spent over a month and numerous hours on the phone with Amex to make a simple flight change. Amex couldn’t price it with the correct fare after the upgrade has cleared. The platinum travel desk agent eventually figured it out with the help of JL.

Thanks JalPak. Very helpful. I also appreciate your experience with changes.

Is there a limited inventory on the upgrades or can one book as long as there are F seats available?
If limited, do they release more closer to departure?

Thanks in advance for your information.

Upgrade inventory is managed separately and is different from revenue tickets. There’s no guarantee they will release more closer to departure because FLY ON members have waitlist priority over regular members. And they definitely won’t release upgrade award when cabin is full.

Again thanks for this information. Some of this coming back as I think I looked at this pre-Covid.
I'll see about waitlisting. Since this was not directly issued by JAL and I have my AA number of it for credit, I appear to have to call them about getting adding the waitlist request.

Remember, your JMB has to be at least 60 days old too. Otherwise, they won't let you redeem for an award.

Thanks for the reminder JALPak. Fortunately I have had it for a while. This will be a good exercise!

As always your replies and post are very informative so thanks for your time you put into this forum.