Does anybody have an idea as to when JAL will become eligible to accrue onewold miles.

Will it be in the next couple of months?

Thanks.

If you mean when JMB members will be able to accrue miles that count for oneworld awards, that's already true. When JAL joins oneworld current JMB mileage balances could be used to redeem on oneworld airlines. JMB elites will have certain privileges when flying oneworld carriers, and there will be significant reciprocity. (First Class lounge access will be interesting, though. JAL's own top elites don't get that. It's for paid F.)

If you mean when JMB members can earn JMB miles by flying oneworld airlines, that will occur when JAL joins oneworld. The rumored date is April 1, 2007, but that's only because Aer Lingus departs oneworld at that point (and thus removes any need to link JAL and Aer Lingus systems, which is expensive to do if it only lasts a short while). It could be later than April 1.

Now, it's up to JAL whether they want to award elite status miles (called FLY ON points) to JMB members when they fly oneworld airlines, and at what rate. None of that has been announced. I suspect it won't be any more than 1 FLY ON point per mile flown (with some uplift for paid J or F flying), but it could be even less than that. It's possible there will also be a minimum JAL FLY ON requirement for elite status. All speculation, though.

It is possible for JMB members to earn miles (but not FLY ON points) when flying American Airlines, for example. There are other airline partners. There are also codeshares, and the codeshares do earn FLY ON points.

Great answer, sipples. Thanks a lot for your help.

Do not know how that may work out, but AA has even more interesting restrictions on lounge accesses for both its own AAdvantage members and First Class travellers when traveling domestically. Strangely enough, these restrictions do not apply to OW elites from other airlines.

Yes, AA won't extend an invitation to its own elites, even top tier ExPlats, to spend time in AAdmirals Clubs unless they have a membership or a paid first class ticket. The exception is international travel. This is quite unlike JAL, which treats its elites much better in terms of lounge access. However, JAL's First Class lounges are still only for paid first class ticketholders.

I don't think there's any question that JAL will have to grant reciprocity to oneworld elites for access to its business class lounges at least. But it will be interesting to see whether they admit top tier oneworld elites to the JAL First Class lounges. We'll see. It'll be more than a little strange, though, if as a JAL Diamond I can enter another oneworld airline's First Class lounge when flying JAL but I can't enter my own, "home" airline's First Class lounge. For example, if I'm flying NRT-HKG-NRT in JAL Y, does this mean I can't enter the JAL First lounge in NRT but can enter the Cathay First lounge in HKG on the return? That'd be weird. Even weirder if there's a Cathay First lounge in NRT.

It's going to be a mess lining this up. JAL has "too many" lounge levels compared to most/all oneworld carriers. And the JAL Global Club is quite odd as a parallel elite recognition program, so who knows what JGC members will get. I'm very curious how it'll all shake out.

The best parallel may be the Concorde Room: you can only enter if you have a F ticket. BA Golds and oneworld emeralds are not allowed to enter. So if JAL has a lounge that requires an F ticket, I don't see why they'd have to extend privileges to oneworld emeralds. Isn't the rule that emeralds get the same access as the native top-tier members?

American Airlines violates that rule in favor of non-AA oneworld elites. AA's own ExPlats don't automatically get into the AAdmirals Clubs.

I agree that JAL will probably try to protect its F lounges, but we'll see. It'd be nice if JAL opens them up to JMB Diamonds, but I'm biased.

Absolutely not. The Oneworld rules (and contractual agreement by airlines when joining Oneworld) is not ambiguous. Non-native Emeralds get access to the F lounge, Sapphires to the J lounge. Any other lounges that an airline might operate are not part of the agreement. So JL can create an F lounge for OW Emeralds and rename its real F lounges so that they are not covered by the agreement (the BA solution). BTW BA does allow status-based access to the Concorde Room: BA Premier flying any class on any airline, and QF Platinum flying F on QF ex-LHR. I think an F ticket on QF without WP gets F lounge access and not Concorde Room at LHR (doesn't apply to JFK).

Not the case!

To get access to the Corcorde Room one requires an F ticket on either BA or QF or alternatively one of those special Concorde Room cards which BA gave out to a select group. Non status person flying F on QF will still get access to the Concorde Room.

For your information.

About JAL's complicated lounge access
See

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/lounge/japan/nrt/

Bottom of this page shows lounge scheme of JAL.

JAL has paid membership service known as JGC(JAL Global Club).
JGC has separate lounges.

Even if you are top tier JMB Diamond member (100,000 miles+),
You can not access JGC lounges.

Sakura Lounges are Business class lounge equivalent.

AAdvantage Elite cannot go to AA lounges when traveling domestically, but other OW elites can, because of OW rules. So when JAL becomes an OW airline, will they allow other OW Emeralds to go to their F lounges? I am on MPC, not JMB, so I am interested in seeing what will happen.