Beltway2A

Down to $2011 with the Amex IAP. Phenomenal price, but very strict refund requirements ("Tickets are refundable. A fee of $1600 per ticket is charged for cancellations").

Dominicus

If purchased not using IAP your refund fee is only 500...

jpasiczn

LOVE this. Headed to TPE for a concert in Nov, but I need to leave on a Friday...but great fare!

eneq

Better purchase quickly. TPG posted this sale, so it won't last much longer.

MSYtoJFKagain

DELETE

erik123

PEN and KHH also good.

nk15

This was first posted at the blogs a couple of days ago...

Assimilated Cajun

Just booked this for my wife and me, leaving January 27 (which appears to be the second-to-last day before the fare expires) and returning March 10. Using Amex IAP we were able to get the two tickets for a little over $4000. We used Amex MR points for half of that -- after the 5x points earnings and the 35% rebate that should only be about 110K points -- so our cash outlay will be about the same as we usually pay for economy trips to Asia. Since we need to leave from Washington, arrive in Bangkok, and depart from Saigon, we filled in the blanks with an inexpensive DCA-JFK RT on AA and with AA awards on CX (TPE-BKK oubound and SGN-TPE return). The timing of the flights means we'll have to stay in a hotel at JFK on the way out (since we don't want to begin our trip by getting up at 4 am) and at a hotel in TPE in each direction. But there's a Novotel at TPE with reasonable rates, and a few not-too-bad options at JFK. Including the hotels and point/mile spend, our price per person for the whole trip will be $1450 + 55K MR + 45K AA miles. Thanks so much to OP for posting this (I only read the blogs when Google tells me to, but I check this forum regularly) and to Beltway2A for pointing out the extra savings from Amex IAP.

A couple of additional notes that might be helpful:

1) Although JAL is typically terrible about seat selection, even in premium cabins, on tickets not purchased directly from them -- and although I got big red warning signs with exclamation points when I first went to their website to try to select seats -- we were ultimately successful.

2) If your destination is not TPE but somewhere in Southeast Asia, a CX award on AA in J will get you there for only 22.5 miles. We also looked at UA for nonstop TPE-BKK flights on Eva and Thai Air, and there were plenty of nonstops but they all cost 45K in J. Apparently UA divides the regions of Asia differently than AA. To save 45,000 miles we don't mind the stopovers in HKG, which we will spend in the wonderful CX lounges.

3) AA should credit a little over 32K EQM and a little over 4K EQD.

4) As noted in another recent thread on this forum, JAL (and also AA) are offering NYC-KUL for almost exactly the same price as this TPE offer. That alternative is tempting, because it would get us closer to our destinations and would also result in substantially more AA EQMs (40K vs 32K) and EQDs (5K vs 4K). However, it requires an additional overnight in NRT. Also, for some reason I can't get the NYC-KUL fare to come up on Amex IAP, so without that additional discount the two tickets to KUL would cost us about $700 more than our two tickets to TPE. But if you won't be using Amex IAP, and/or if maximizing EQMs and EQDs is really important to you, booking the NYC-KUL itinerary on JAL might be better for you.

Whodunit68

should be 32,402 EQMs and 4,050 EQDs if my calcs are correct based on the "X" JAL fare I found of 2,280.67 (USD) / pax.
X should be 25% EQDs (GCMAP shows 16,201 via NRT) and 2x EQMs according to AA JAL thingie. Pretty sweet.

Isochronous

That's incredible value.

Whodunit68

agreed. 0.07cpm for JAL J? I'd say it's good. I honestly don't know JAL J but I'm about to find out unless someone says it's crap. They're SkySuites on the one I found. I've seen some mixed reviews but I'm willing to try for that price.

betonic

Has anyone seen other destinations other than TPE and KUL offered in this sale?

Assimilated Cajun

+1. I was surprised that JAL J TPAC seating is 2-2-2, vs the equivalent AA and CX flights which are 1-2-1. But it's fine on this trip, since my wife and I are traveling together. For trips on which I'm alone, I've been spoiled in recent years by having a window seat that's also an aisle seat on most long-haul flights. I love looking out the window -- especially when passing over coastlines and/or over parts of the world that are far removed from both my departure point and my destination -- but sometimes I get claustrophobic, especially when the person in the aisle seat takes up a lot of physical and/or psychic space. Also, some commenters on SeatGuru say that the JAL J seats are narrower than those of their competitors. Again, probably not a problem on this trip, since my wife and I are reasonably compact and don't mind brushing elbows with each other.

I get the impression that there's a world of difference between JAL seats in J vs F, whereas on many AA planes the two classes are almost the same. But I agree that this fare offers a good opportunity to try JAL J and see whether it's worth keeping on my list for future flights.

eneq

The seat map may be 2-2-2, but the windows seats are staggered so every seat has direct aisle access. The window seats have a little walkway at the front of the "suite" to the aisle. I've never flown JAL's version of the Apex Suite, but KE's was very nice.

warrenw

Just a quick note on the Novotel, they have an airport shuttle and the rooms are quite new and nice. I've stayed there 3 times for layovers.

I could be wrong but as early as last year they still had the angle-flat 2-2-2 configuration. So it might be that configuration. Also, Apex suites I *thought* were actually 2-3-2 on JAL, 2-2-2 on every other airline.