Last month I wrote about JAL devaluing their award chart, but there’s actually a silver lining. While long-haul rates go up, short-haul rates actually go down.
Here is the JAL partner award chart:
For example if you fly less than 1,000 miles in flight distance you currently need 15K JAL miles, but that will drop to 12K on November 20.
JAL allows you to book partner awards on their website for: American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Malaysia, Qantas, Qatar, S7, SriLankan, Air France, Emirates, and Bangkok Airways.
You will need to be logged into a JAL mileage account and then you can search for partner awards here. JAL doesn’t have a flexible search calendar, so you’ll want to research saver award availability on a site like Alaska, American, British Airways, or Qantas beforehand.
You need to call JAL to book award travel on LATAM, Royal Jordanian, Alaska, Korean, and China Eastern.
While both JAL and British Airways have distance based award charts, they are actually quite different.
- JAL looks at a combination of the total distance across all flight segments. That means if I were to fly Cleveland-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Philadelphia-Cleveland using BA Avios it would cost 30K Avios as each segment would cost 7.5K Avios. However it would cost just 12K JAL miles starting in November as the total flight distance is under 1,000 miles.
- On the flip side, if I just wanted a one-way from Cleveland to JFK it would cost just 7.5K BA Avios versus 12K JAL miles in November. A round-trip from Cleveland to JFK would cost 15K BA Avios (2 segments that cost 7.5K each) versus the same 12K JAL miles in November (as the total journey is under 1,000 miles).
- JAL allows 3 free stopovers on an award, though you’ll have to call JAL to book a stopover award. BA charges for every flight segment, so there are no free stopovers.
- JAL requires awards to be booked at least 4 days in advance, while you can book awards using BA Avios on the day of the flight.
- JAL doesn’t charge anything to change dates or charges $28 to cancel an award. BA charges the lower of the taxes paid for the award ($5.60 for a one-way domestic award) or $55 for changes or cancellations.
- You can transfer Starpoints or Barclay Arrival Premier miles into JAL miles.
- You can transfer AMEX, Chase, or Starpoints into BA Avios.
Here is a comparison of how many BA miles or JAL miles you would need based on flight distance. The BA rates listed are for a round-trip, though they allow you to pay half that rate for a one-way. The JAL rates apply whether you have a one-way, round-trip, or stopover award. The top JAL number in parenthesis is the rate for bookings through 11/19 and the bottom rate is the rate starting for bookings made on 11/20. You can check flight distance on gcmap.com
| Round-Trip Flight Distance | BA Coach | (JAL Coach Current) JAL Coach New | BA Business | (JAL Business Current) JAL Business New | BA First | (JAL First Current) JAL First New | Sample Flights......................... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1,000 (Flights that don't touch the USA) | 9K | (15K) 12K | 18K | (32K) 24K | 36K | (55K) 36K | London-Paris Melbourne-Sydney Amman-Tel Aviv |
| 1-1,000 (Flights to, from, or within the USA) | 15K | (15K) 12K | 30K | (32K) 24K | 60K | (55K) 36K | LGA-Cleveland LGA-Toronto |
| 1,001-1,300 (Flights that don't touch the USA) | 9K | (20K) 15K | 18K | (35K) 30K | 36K | (60K) 45K | London-Milan Iguazu Falls-Sao Paulo Johannesburg-Victoria Falls |
| 1,001-1,300 (Flights to, from, or within the USA) | 15K | (20K) 15K | 30K | (35K) 30K | 60K | (60K) 45K | Miami-Cancun Miami-Montego Bay |
| 1,301-2,000 | 15K | (20K) 15K | 30K | (35K) 30K | 60K | (60K) 45K | LGA-Chicago Hong Kong-Shanghai |
| 2,001-2,302 | 15K | (21K) 23K | 30K | (42K) 42K | 60K | (65K) 65K | LGA-Miami Chicago-West Palm Beach |
| 2,303-4,000 | 20K | (21K) 23K | 40K | (42K) 42K | 80K | (65K) 65K | Chicago-Miami Los Angeles-Dallas JFK-Cancun |
| 4,001-6,000 | 25K | (37K) 37K | 75K | (60K) 60K | 100K | (90K) 90K | London-Tel Aviv New York-Los Angeles Los Angeles-Kauai |
| 6,001-8,000 | 40K | (39K) 45K | 120K | (63K) 80K | 160K | (100K) 120K | Dallas-Maui New York-London |
| 8,001-10,000 | 50K | (40K) 47K | 150K | (65K) 85K | 200K | (105K) 135K | JFK-Rio de Janeiro |
| 10,001-11,000 | 50K | (50K) 50K | 150K | (80K) 100K | 200K | (115K) 145K | JFK-Buenos Aires |
| 11,001-12,000 | 60K | (50K) 50K | 180K | (80K) 100K | 240K | (115K) 145K | London-Johannesburg New York-Amman |
| 12,001-13,000 | 60K | (55K) 55K | 180K | (85K) 110K | 240K | (135K) 165K | Vancouver-Hong Kong |
| 13,001-14,000 | 70K | (55K) 55K | 210K | (85K) 110K | 280K | (135K) 165K | San Francisco-Hong Kong |
| 14,001-20,000 | 100K | (60K) 70K | 300K | (100K) 130K | 400K | (155K) 190K | Los Angeles-Sydney |
| 20,001-25,000 | 100K | (85K) 90K | 300K | (125K) 145K | 400K | (200K) 220K | - |
| 25,001-29,000 | 100K | (110K) 110K | 300K | (160K) 160K | 400K | (250K) 250K | - |
| 29,001-34,000 | 100K | (130K) 130K | 300K | (190K) 190K | 400K | (290K) 290K | - |
| 34,001-50,000 | 100K | (150K) 150K | 300K | (210K) 210K | 400K | (330K) 330K | - |
Have you redeemed JAL miles for any awards?
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20 Comments On "JAL Will Soon Offer 12K Round-Trip Awards, Here’s How Their Award Chart Stacks Up With British Airways"
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I have over 100K of avios points. I’ve been trying to figure out how to use it with partner airlines. I’m looking to go Thailand. Does anybody have links or how tos?
Do JAL programmers know how to interface with AA availability better than BA programmers do?
Lol, seems to work flawlessly.
Looks awesome – unfortunately it appears to be tough to get many JAL miles – I like to hoard my Spg points
Could be a good enough reason to get the Barclay Arrival Premier.
Am I reading it correctly? AA JFK-LAX will cost only 36K miles for F or 24K in J? I never knew this existed.
It exists in theory only. Good luck finding availability.
I don’t think you are reading it correctly. Gcmap says JFK-LAX is 2475 miles one way (i believe the JAL calculator is typically a few miles different than gcmap but very close), so one-way would fall in the 2001-4000 pricing band. That would be 42k one-way. R/T is just under 5000 miles, so would fall in the 4001-6000 mile pricing band, which would be 60k r/t.
Unless i’m the one reading it wrong!
ideas NYC-TLV using JAL?
And United 10k short haul one-way savers are based on distance as the crow flies, regardless of stops?
Correct.
So can I do a hidden city by flying to a destination within the 10,000 miles range, but stopping off in a 12,500 mile city?
Can I book JAl London to NY and back?
With Which airline? Ba?
How much miles?
So if I understood correctly, with a stopover is still the same 12k, that would be a major advantage over ba that charges per segment.
dan in your recent starwood post when you spoke about the nights and flight packages to marriot , i was wondering if i can transfer the united points to my brother (same last name) or my brother in law( different last name) as they have the united card which gives them access to expanded saver availibility , would marriot allow me to do that if i transfer from my marriot account to someone elses united account?or would it reject the transfer? Thanks
Does JAL online bookings work for booking for others (without proof of relation) or only member or same last name? Have not tried the new online booking portal yet.
JAL allows 3 free stopovers on an award, what does this mean i dont understand if i wanted to go from nyc to chicago stop there for a month and then go to la i can pay a flat total of 23k? as opposed to ba i would pay 7.5 to chicago and then another 12.5 to la? i never understood this stopover, exurcionist perk, open jaw thing its so flippin frustrating to keep up with you i always feel im ten feet behind, am i ever going to be geribben? WE WANT ANOTHER SEMINAR ASAP!
And BA Avios is probably going revenue soon anyway, not sure about Iberia.
Dan, did you get the gold status on JAL as per the IHG offer?
i think fuel surcharges are very high