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

[Kyo]

Hello and thanks in advance!

Based on this website here - http://www.jal.co.jp/en/jalmile/jgc/oneworld.html

I've been recently crediting alot of flights since March to JL.

I'm hoping to somehow get into the Jal Global Club (henceforth referred to as JGC) in order to achieve at least OW Sapphire status.

I'm very curious as to the bottom two rows/columns in this picture, which are cryptically only in Japanese (unable to copy+paste it into a language translator!):



What exactly is the page trying to tell me?

Just by guessing alone, does 20,000 fly-on points (I have no status in OW or JL yet) suddenly catapult me into OW Sapphire category? What about OW Ruby?

I have thus far 9 flown flights with JL, more to come in the near future, and 4,937 Fly-On points. Does it mean if I can push this total to 20,000 Fly-On points (a bit of a stretch but by no means impossible), they will allow me into the Jal Global Club/OW status?

This will determine my course of action for quite a few flights over this/next year, so I'd really appreciate if a Japanese-reading member of SQTalk could assist me.

If all else fails, even OW Ruby would be something, at least.. that new CX lounge in KLIA (reciprocal JL premium pax/OW Sapphire-Emerald) looks tempting!

[HUGE AL]

Or, you could just go to the English page:

http://www.ar.jal.com/world/en/jalmile/jgc/

[Kyo]

Which one would have assumed I would have done...

...and upon close examinatino, would reveal absolutely no mention about anything related to '20,000 Fly-On Points' whatsoever... as per the picture above.

Hence my disappointment at JL for perhaps purposely witholding the English translation in favour of Japanese native speakers.

(Do note my first link is also '/en' - ala English site, but Jap translation)

[stargold]

As far as I can tell in my extremely basic Japanese, the two green cards are for existing JGC members who do not requalify for one of the proper tiers.

If an existing JGC member accumulates at least 20,000 fly-on points during the previous year, he will receive the green soft landing card with OW Sapphire status.

If an existing JGC member does not accumulate 20,000 fly-on points during the previous year, he will receive the green soft landing ard with OW Ruby status.

So, I don't think the above applies to members who are not currently/was JGC status.

[Kyo]

Thanks!!

If that's indeed true, I'll have to consider if it's woth another 20 weekends with JL til March '10 in KUL

Or the odd mix here and there on other OW carriers. Thanks again.

[milehighj]

So what are you on to here Kyo+?

Is JGC the new BD DC? Good earn:burn ratio, benefits and God-like treatment? No Savage members (yet)?

[Kyo]

Haha, I don't think it's a great earn:burn ratio - but I think the soft-landing for JGCs into OW, might be an avenue for some to consider. Esp for those who shuttle very frequently between Singapore and our neighbours to the North.

Basically I hypothesise that the JL eqiuvalent of OW Sapphire (with lounge access etc) could be relatively cheaply maintained once one qualifies once for JGC. Note - cheap does not mean convenient/easy and it could actually prove quite time-consuming.

I think in combination with two to three longhauls on JL / other OW carriers, it should be even easier to firstly qualify for JL status, apply for JGC and then subsequently re-qualify for OW Sapphire without breaking the bank/inconveniencing oneself too much with careful planning. Which would be sufficient to cover the two major alliances adequately and what I'd want out of them, namely status, with the focus not so much on earn:burn.

Which would suit me fine because *G takes me where I need to (conveniently) be anyway.

[Kiwi]

If you are doing lots of short flights (especially if these are in business or first) then a FFP with a status points requirement (as opposed to miles) would be easier to (re)qualify.

[stargold]

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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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]

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]

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.