JAL Global Club as OW FFP -- anyone who can read Japanese?

[HUGE AL]

stargold, according to JAL's website, I'm seeing a different story:

"JAL Global Club (JGC) membership [OW Ruby] is available to JMB members who have achieved 50,000 FLY ON Points or have taken at least 50 flights of 15,000 FLY ON Points on JAL Group airlines flights during one calendar year (January-December)."

"As a JGC member you can renew your membership with the payment of the renewal fee of 5,000 miles from your JMB account around the beginning of March."

The annual fee can be waived if you have a credit card OR, "JGC members who earn 25,000 FLY ON Points or fly 10 eligible flights with JAL/JALways international flights during the calendar year."

Regarding the JGC Premier (OW Emerald):

"JAL Global Club members who have accrued at least 80,000 FLY ON Points or boarded more than 80 flights of a minimum 25,000 FLY ON Points on JAL Group Airlines and/or oneworld member airlines in a calendar year will be enrolled in JGC PREMIER Service."

Renewal of the JGC Premier is the same as above qualification.

[stargold]

Okay, I just had a good read through the thing and I think I've got it figured.



So, the "20,000 points" concession is only available if you are able to apply for the JGC credit card. Without the credit card, you have to apply every year as normal.

Key to understanding the system is that JMB = without credit cards, and JGC = with credit cards.

So, JGC Crystal, for example, is someone who qualified for Crystal and holds the credit card, whereas JMB Crystal is someone who qualified for Crystal without holding the credit card.

[stargold]

The other problem is that the fee is not guaranteed. When you think about it not much different to paid lounge memberships - eg buying an Admirals Club or Qantas Club membership every year.

Personally, I think the two are actually very different:

1. Given that JPY11,000 is not even USD150, the JGC fee has a long way to go until it starts to resemble lounge membership fees. In fact, I don't think the credit card fees would ever approach the lounge membership fees.

2. You can't just join the credit card schemes if you want to - you have to firstly achieve the necessary elite membership, then also qualify for the credit card.

3. An ANA Super Flyers Card or JAL JGC Credit Card is much more than a lounge membership since it offers other priority benefits as well as lounge access, across all the alliance carriers. Often, things like priority check-in can be just as important as lounge access to make the journey smoother.

[HUGE AL]

Do note that, as far as I'm aware, the JPY11,000 membership fee refers to their JGC Credit Card. You can't just pay JPY11,000 each year to renew Sapphire without any flying, if you do not have the JGC credit card.

The problem is that it is, to my best knowledge, very difficult to qualify for this credit card in Japan unless you actually live there (and even then, apparently not very straight-forward if you're not Japanese).

NH also have the same deal, the "Super Flyers Card" which has less benefits than NH Plat (mid-tier) but you do not need to fly to renew it. You get full Star Gold benefits for life, as long as you pay the renewal fee each year. Again, the problem is qualifying for the CC in the first place.

Ahhhh...thank you, stargold, for bringing this up. In checking my notes you are indeed correct about the credit card. Which further proves my point that this program is very confusing.

Upon researching further, here are the Emerald JGC (JGC Premier) qualifications and (somewhat) details:

http://www.ar.jal.com/world/en/jalmi...n/premier.html

[Kiwi]

The other problem is that the fee is not guaranteed. When you think about it not much different to paid lounge memberships - eg buying an Admirals Club or Qantas Club membership every year.

[stargold]

The JGC thing IS very confusing. In my research one of our expert members informed me: "With the JGC thing...you get to maintain Ruby status with paying an annual fee of roughly 11000yen per year for a credit card...As long as you pay the yearly fee you get to maintain Ruby status without flying for a lifetime."

I also read on the JL site that it is possible to simply requalify for JGC by paying a membership every year which is not too high. This, with the above 'soft-landing' requalification bit, is sufficient to not just get the JGC benefits, but also OW Sapphire (with business lounge access minimum on OW, priority etc).
HUGE AL - 11000 Yen is a very reasonable price for a JGC membership, to me. OW Ruby is unfortunately not what I'm aiming for with JL as the benefits would be similar to KF's ES.

Do note that, as far as I'm aware, the JPY11,000 membership fee refers to their JGC Credit Card. You can't just pay JPY11,000 each year to renew Sapphire without any flying, if you do not have the JGC credit card.

The problem is that it is, to my best knowledge, very difficult to qualify for this credit card in Japan unless you actually live there (and even then, apparently not very straight-forward if you're not Japanese).

NH also have the same deal, the "Super Flyers Card" which has less benefits than NH Plat (mid-tier) but you do not need to fly to renew it. You get full Star Gold benefits for life, as long as you pay the renewal fee each year. Again, the problem is qualifying for the CC in the first place.

[HUGE AL]

Actually, JL722 / 721 are not operated with an F cabin onboard. Only 2-class config. No new fancy seats here...

Yeah, I don't pay attention to those.

[Kyo]

Uh-oh, then we better not leak that to the Internets otherwise my favourite flight will get inundated and no more flirting with the dark side...

Actually, JL722 / 721 are not operated with an F cabin onboard. Only 2-class config. No new fancy seats here...

[HUGE AL]

It's a long-haul crew... they fly NRT-SIN-KUL-KIX and vice versa.

Interesting. Nice to see they offer an F cabin via JL710/JL719. I'll have to keep that in mind.

I'm sure Diamonds get plenty of op-ups (have read a few on TOF), but I have no intention of gunning for that, nor do I have intention to redeem much on JL. This is purely a OW status gaining exercise from the perspective I've decided to look at..

It's not that. It was that on the long hauls, F availability on redemption is usually open for Diamonds. Worst case, you waitlist and always clear.

I'm sure there are other "unwritten" benefits which are similar to NH's.

With regard to the "Which FFP for me?" master thread - I'll leave that up to the various ones in power to decide. For me, I was just asking on a very specific translation that had irked me for many months and primarily focused on a technicality of JL's Mileage Bank (Fly-On) and JGC soft-landings. I did think the TOF JL section is seriously lacking any serious information, probably because other FFPs are more suitable to other OW members outside of Japan.

I'm happy to defer to the various admins/mods.

Point being that from a translation question, we've moved more into the JGC option as a pseudo lifetime (albeit confusing) FFP.

[Kyo]

It's a long-haul crew... they fly NRT-SIN-KUL-KIX and vice versa. I think you can guess which segment I'm particularly interested in. Also useful to any JL members that want to bump up the number of flown flights for minimal cost (also another factor to achieve certain levels of status with JL).

I'm sure Diamonds get plenty of op-ups (have read a few on TOF), but I have no intention of gunning for that, nor do I have intention to redeem much on JL. This is purely a OW status gaining exercise from the perspective I've decided to look at..

With regard to the "Which FFP for me?" master thread - I'll leave that up to the various ones in power to decide. For me, I was just asking on a very specific translation that had irked me for many months and primarily focused on a technicality of JL's Mileage Bank (Fly-On) and JGC soft-landings. I did think the TOF JL section is seriously lacking any serious information, probably because other FFPs are more suitable to other OW members outside of Japan.

I'm happy to defer to the various admins/mods.

[HUGE AL]

I have to say I still highly prefer NH over JL service when it comes to Japanese carriers though.

I think this depends on if you will get a long haul crew or not. As taught NH only flies regional planes in and out of SIN. Does JL (haven't checked, but figured you have)?

In both cases, IMO Diamond is the only worthwhile thing to gun for with both carriers providing much more redemption availability. Can you accomplish this on JL? If so, you should go for it.


Another thought: As this thread contains a lot of valuable information for our members, might I suggest we merge it into the "Which FFP for me?" Sticky?

[Kyo]

Well, the thing is, I am flying JL quite a fair bit these days. As it' the cheapest, most consistent way to fly commercially that I can regularly book into for one of my very short hops. And I can achieve it by flying Y (in this case, 3.7-4x cheaper than flying J).

As such, 15x2 flights in JL J would roughly equate to 60x2 flights in JL Y on this fare class. My intention is to achieve this with about 15 to 20 (x2) flights in JL Y. A massive difference.

As Kiwi says, the FFP of JL requires status 'FLY-ON' points (roughly similar to *A elite status miles - ala, you have to 'fly-on-JL' to get these). And the main difference is that they have a pretty decent bonus at the moment (4x the miles, approximately) on this short hop.

So, in essence, pay 4x less than J (actually even the fare class that I book into is 50% off the regular Y price on jal.com), get 4x additional 'Fly-Ons'...

I also read on the JL site that it is possible to simply requalify for JGC by paying a membership every year which is not too high. This, with the above 'soft-landing' requalification bit, is sufficient to not just get the JGC benefits, but also OW Sapphire (with business lounge access minimum on OW, priority etc).

Since I fly less on OW than *A, but have at least one JL route that I'm very much taking a liking to, this could come in very handy as I heard JGC status is also very favourably looked upon when flying on JL metal with the occasional op-up etc. Not that there's much to do/enjoy on this 25 minute flight...

HUGE AL - 11000 Yen is a very reasonable price for a JGC membership, to me. OW Ruby is unfortunately not what I'm aiming for with JL as the benefits would be similar to KF's ES.

I have to say I still highly prefer NH over JL service when it comes to Japanese carriers though.

I have no problem with paying roughly 2.8k SGD for 20 flights on JL if it'll help me get into JGC and hit/maintain OW Sapphire with perhaps two or three cheap Y medium hauls.

Most importantly I think this route is safe from the Savage25 effect...

[HUGE AL]

Sorry, Kyo+. Didn't mean to infer (too much) that you didn't know how to use a website.

The JGC thing IS very confusing. In my research one of our expert members informed me: "With the JGC thing...you get to maintain Ruby status with paying an annual fee of roughly 11000yen per year for a credit card...As long as you pay the yearly fee you get to maintain Ruby status without flying for a lifetime."

As for the Emerald, I believe you must fly to maintain it.

[stargold]

Don't forget the BA metal requirement, though. That's what made someone take flights, rather than the train, between London and Manchester over the weekend.

Ah yes, no doubt BA Domestic service will be enhanced shortly. I feel a new thread coming:

"The Savage25 effect - standing room only on UK Domestic", or
"Savage25 continues his trail of enhancement - no lounge access when flying domestic"
etc etc

[jjpb3]

If you have a European address, BA Gold can be had with 10x KUL-SIN r/t on JL J... (40pts per flight x 2 x 10 = 800 points)

BA Silver is only 5x roundtrip (400 points). Not bad at all!

PS. Sorry, forgot to mention that BA reset your tier points once you reach Silver, so you would need 15x r/t on JL J to get from Blue to Gold.

Don't forget the BA metal requirement, though. That's what made someone take flights, rather than the train, between London and Manchester over the weekend.