Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs.  They are a oneworld airline, so you can book flights on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and American using their miles. And they have partnerships outside of oneworld including Emirates.

They also have a reasonably priced distance-based award chart.  For instance I’ve loved booking Emirates first class awards New York – Dubai – Bangkok and back for just 155,000 miles. That was still a really nice value, I thought, even once they started adding fuel surcharges again to these awards late last year.

• Emirates Skywards charges 285,000 miles plus fuel surcharges.

• Alaska charges 360,000 miles without fuel surcharges.

One of the reasons I was more excited than many of you about the new Barclays transferrable points card is because Japan Airlines is a transfer partner, and JAL miles are tough to come by. I hated parting with my Starwood points.

Unfortunately JAL has announced a devaluation of their award chart effective November 20, so giving us about six months’ notice.

Bottom line is that short haul awards get cheaper regardless of class of service, long distance awards get more expensive, and the longest distance awards which were already priced too high stay the same.

Roughly speaking the sweet spot of long haul business and first class redemptions are going up 20% – 30%.

Here are the changes – including percentage changes – for business class awards.

			Business		Business
Distance			Thru 11/19/18		Starting 11/20/18		% Change
1 –	1,000		32,000		24,000		-25%
1001 –	2,000		35,000		30,000		-14%
2001 –	4,000		42,000		42,000		0%
4001 –	6,000		60,000		60,000		0%
6001 –	8,000		63,000		80,000		27%
8001 –	10,000		65,000		85,000		31%
10001 –	12,000		80,000		100,000		25%
12001 –	14,000		85,000		110,000		29%
14001 –	20,000		100,000		130,000		30%
20001 –	25,000		125,000		145,000		16%
25001 –	29,000		160,000		160,000		0%
29001 –	34,000		190,000		190,000		0%
34001 –	50,000		210,000		210,000		0%

And here are the changes – including percentage changes – for first class awards.

			First		First
Distance			Thru 11/19/18		Starting 11/20/18		% Change
1 –	1,000		55,000		36,000		-35%
1001 –	2,000		60,000		45,000		-25%
2001 –	4,000		65,000		65,000		0%
4001 –	6,000		90,000		90,000		0%
6001 –	8,000		100,000		120,000		20%
8001 –	10,000		105,000		135,000		29%
10001 –	12,000		115,000		145,000		26%
12001 –	14,000		135,000		165,000		22%
14001 –	20,000		155,000		190,000		23%
20001 –	25,000		200,000		220,000		10%
25001 –	29,000		250,000		250,000		0%
29001 –	34,000		290,000		290,000		0%
34001 –	50,000		330,000		330,000		0%

The thing is that the Japan Airlines award chart was already so good that even with these changes their redemption prices remain competitive.

One Mile at a Time writes, “I don’t want to say the JAL Mileage Bank program is now completely useless, but it’s certainly not the program it used to be.”

And it’s not the program that it used to be, six months from now many great awards will cost more. We’ve seen that around the world. There’s a strong incentive for these private currencies to inflate.

I disagree with Ben though when he says “as a transfer partner I don’t view the program to be especially useful anymore.”

• That New York – Bangkok roundtrip in Emirates first is going to cost 190,000 miles roundtrip which isn’t cheap. But New York – Bangkok in Korean First costs 190,000 Korean Air SkyPass miles roundtrip too.

• It’s still a lot less miles than Emirates and Alaska charge for the same flights.

• United MileagePlus doesn’t add fuel surcharges to awards, but charges 240,000 miles roundtrip for first class US-Southeast Asia. That’s 50,000 miles or 26% more than the new Japan Airlines price for New York – Dubai – Bangkok roundtrip.

I don’t like to see these increases. I’m saddened by them. But I still see the Mileage Bank as a strategically useful program. Their first class award prices remain better than many competitors, and that doesn’t even get into short haul business awards which are less than US airlines generally charge for coach.

(HT: Dan’s Deals)