Japan Airlines Mileage Bank Guide
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Before you read this guide, review "Points and Miles 101" to learn the basics of how it all works!
Want to earn more points to redeem through Mileage Bank? Checkout our #1 Overall Card!
Earn 100,000 bonus miles to transfer to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, plus 2x miles on every purchase, 10k bonus miles upon each renewal, airport lounge access, and more premium benefits!
Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has great rates for flights to and from Japan and for flying oneworld alliance partners, but it has often been overlooked due to limited ways to earn JAL miles. But now, points can be transferred from Bilt Rewards and Capital One Venture miles, which has opened up a whole new world of redemption opportunities! Read on for more on how to maximize points by transferring to Japan Airlines!
The Basics
Book flights operated by:
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Emirates
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Air France
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LATAM
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Korean Air
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JetBlue
Pricing structure:
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JAL Flights: award chart based on zones (seasonal pricing for First Class awards)
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Partner Flights: award chart based on distance
Fees/surcharges:
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Fuel surcharges passed on (significant fuel surcharges for British Airways flights)
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Approx $150 USD taxes & fees for US to Tokyo in business class
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3,100 JPY (approx 21 USD) fee for cancel/redeposit of miles. Direct changes not allowed.
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Lap infant fee 10% of the adult miles + taxes and fees
Best uses:
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Japan Airlines flights to and from Tokyo
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Japan Airlines flights within Japan and East Asia
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Multi-city Stopover Awards
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Partner flights between 2,000 and 6,000 miles
Customer service:
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Phone: 1-800-525-3663
Sample Rates for Japan Airlines Flights:
Flight route
Economy
Business
US to Tokyo
27,000
55,000
27,000
London to Tokyo
57,000
Honolulu to Tokyo
20,000
43,000
Delhi to Tokyo
17,500
40,000
Rates for Partner Flights:
Flight distance (sample route)
Economy
Business/first
Up to 1,000 miles (BOS-ORD)
12,000
24,000
15,000
1,001 to 2,000 miles (PHX-MIA)
30,000
2,001 to 4,000 miles (ORD-LHR)
23,000
42,000
4,001 to 6,000 miles (LAX-HND)
37,000
60,000
Tip: use gcmap.com to determine flight distance and get a general idea of the points you'll need before searching
Earn 100,000 bonus miles to transfer to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, plus 2x miles on every purchase, 10k bonus miles upon each renewal, airport lounge access, and more premium benefits!
How to search and book:
Note: the JAL website is a bit difficult to use and you may find it frustrating if you're searching without knowing a specific date/route with award availability, especially for flights on partner airlines. We recommend using a partner site like Qantas or Alaska Airlines to more easily find the flights that can be booked with points. Keep in mind the number of points required on a partner site does not reflect the number of points required when booking through JAL. You are only looking for the availability. Once you find a date and route available, go to the JAL site and follow the steps below to confirm the availability and rate before transferring points.
If using a partner site to find availability, keep in mind flights available of the airline on which the site you're searching doesn't mean those flights will be available to partners. I.e. if searching on Alaska Airlines, not all Alaska Airlines flights you see will be available to partners. Similarly, when searching on Qantas, not all Qantas-operated flights will be available to other partners. You're mainly looking for availability of any airline *other than* the one whose site you're searching.
Japan Airlines also releases flights on their own "metal" to their own program 360 days in advance. Most partner sites will not let you search that far ahead. If you're looking for Japan Airlines business or first class flights, we recommend searching as far as advance as possible directly through the Japan Airlines site.
Step 1: Create a Mileage Bank account
This is required to search, and you will need to have a Mileage Bank account setup to transfer points and book award flights. Yes, the signup page looks a bit sketchy.
Japan Airlines requires an account to be active for at least 60 days before booking an award flight. However, miles transferred from Capital One or Bilt only require an active account of 7 days to redeem. Either way, you will want to complete this step as soon as possible so you don't have delays in your booking!
Step 2: Select the "International" and "Award Tickets" Option
For Japan Airlines flights, you'll want to choose the JAL International Award Tickets option. However, there's an option to change this on the next page, so it doesn't really matter either way which one you choose. The Domestic option is for flights wholly within Japan - which have some great rates if your trip is taking you outside of Tokyo.
Step 3: Enter Search Details
This is where the JAL site is a bit painful - you must manually select your departure and destination city from the menu (below).
Generally, you'll want to search to and from Tokyo first to find the long haul availability, and then if you're wanting to connect to another city, add that into the search afterwards.
Step 4: Review Results
While it's not the easiest on the eyes, this page provides a lot of useful information. Clicking on the aircraft and seat type will take you to a page with all the details. And the "Display seat map" option has a fairly detailed layout.
TIP: if you have a choice between flying into Narita or Haneda, always go with Haneda! It is MUCH closer to the city center. From Narita, it takes at least 45 minutes and sometimes as long as 2 hours to get to Tokyo.
The newest and best business class on Japan Airlines is on the A351 aircraft and will have a seat map like what is shown on the left. The older (but still very good) business class will look like the seat map on the right.
At this point, if you select a flight before transferring points (don't transfer until you've found the availability!), you'll receive an error message like the above. You won't be able to proceed to the next step (finalizing the booking) until the miles are in your account and it has been at least 7 days since creating your account.
For partner flights, the process is similar, but with a slightly different look.
On the award flight search page, select the "JMB Partner Airlines Award Tickets" option (the "oneworld Award Tickets" option is for a multi-city stopover award - see this section). You will need to manually select the airline you're searching for, which is why we recommend first using a different site like Qantas to find the award availability before trying to search on the JAL site.
Step 5: Transfer Points and Finalize Booking
Once you have confirmed the flight availability, you are ready to transfer your points to book. Transfers to Mileage Bank are instant in most cases, but you usually have to sign out and back in to see the updated points balance in your account. Once the points post, search for the flight again and go through the booking process - it's pretty straightforward from there!
TIP: since Capital One doesn't transfer at a 1:1 ratio, it can be a bit confusing at first trying to figure our the amount of points to transfer. The formula is: Miles required by JAL / 0.75 and rounded up to the nearest 100.
For example, it's 55,000 miles from the US to Tokyo in business class.
55,000 / 0.75 = 73,333 => 73,400 points to transfer from Capital One
The ability to transfer in 100 point increments (instead of 1,000) is one of our favorite features about the Capital One Venture cards.
Booking for Family Members
While most award programs all you to use your miles for absolutely anyone, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is a bit more convoluted.
The website states:
"Awards can be used by the JMB member, the JMB member's spouse(including same-sex partner), the JMB member's relatives within the second degree of kinship, and the spouses of the JMB member's brothers/sisters-in-law."
And:
"A relative whose last name is different from that of the JMB member may be required to show proof of relationship to the JMB member."
The below chart from the JAL website provides a breakdown (click or tap the image to view larger).
As you can see, this covers a wide range of family members. However, you won't be able to redeem miles for a friend that isn't related to you. The note about different last names might also create an issue for dating/engaged couples or those that don't share the same last name.
In this case, you will want to contact Japan Airlines (well in advance of booking) to register a partner onto your account. Often times, it is required to show some sort of proof of living at the same address.
JAL also has a Family Club option for pooling miles. However, it requires a 1,000 mile initial registration fee, a fee of 1,000 miles for each family member changed, and a 1,000 mile renewal fee every 5 years.
BONUS: Multi-city Stopover Awards
This is where you can really unlock some great value with Japan Airlines Mileage Bank!
JAL has a very generous stopover policy for partner airlines. A stopover is defined as a stay of 24 hours or more in a city along the route (less than 24 hours is a layover).
It's important to note stopovers aren't permitted on itineraries with Japan Airlines-operated flights.
If your itinerary includes a single partner airline, you're permitted three stopovers with up to six total segments. There are exceptions for Hawaiian, Vistara, Royal Air Maroc, and Korean - which have more limited rules.
If your itinerary includes multiple oneworld airlines, you're permitted SEVEN stopovers...but only eight total segments.
Since the rates for partner flights booked through Japan Airlines Mileage Bank follow a distance band pricing structure, it makes sense that there's a generous stopover policy, as adding additional segments leads to a higher rate (in theory). But with some creativity (and the use of gcmap.com), you can come up with some pretty cool redemptions!
To price and book a Stopover Award, navigate to the "oneworld Award Tickets" page on the International Award Tickets menu. We don't recommend trying to initially find the availability here - use a partner site like Qantas or Alaska Airlines to build out the route first, and then go to the JAL site to price and book it.
The full list of routing rules can be found here.
Earn 100,000 bonus miles to transfer to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, plus 2x miles on every purchase, 10k bonus miles upon each renewal, airport lounge access, and more premium benefits!