Japan Airlines (JAL) has once again announced an extension to its FLY ON Point (FOP) bonus for another year till Dec 31 2011. For each of the qualifying flight, you can earn an extra 400/200FOPs bonus! For details, you can refer to JAL website (English, Japanese)

JAL has opened a brand new First Class Lounge at the NRT Satellite building on Dec 8 2010. There are enhanced dinning, business facilities, showers, massage, etc just like the one in the main building. This is to enhance the competitiveness of service offered by JAL. Now eligible passengers can relax in the satellite F lounge instead of the one at the main building if their flights departs there (no more leaving early to catch the train ).

But as a result, JAL is closing down the 4F F lounge in the main building, leaving only the 3F F lounge.

Source: JAL Press Release (Japanese, English)

Update: The planned strike was cancelled and no flight operations will be affected.

JAL's smaller cabin attendant union plans to strike on Dec 24 and 25.

JAL has ~5400 CAs and this union only consists of ~870 CAs. Not sure about how this will impact JAL operations but during previous strikes, only domestic operations were affected and sometimes the unions even cancel the planned strike.

There will be the monthly JAL press conference today, in which JAL plans to announce the approval of the restructuring plan by the Tokyo District Court. Might have more information after the press conference.

I would say you have nothing to worry about for now if you are traveling internationally during that period of time.

Source: SankeiBiz (in Japanese)

As you might know, Russian carrier S7 is set to join Oneworld on November 15 2010. JAL Mileage Bank members will be able to earn miles and Fly On Points on all S7 operated flights. JAL finally announces the accumulation and redemption rates today. If you think BA's accumulation rates are bad, wait till you see S7's! All discounted Y earns only 25% miles!!! Below are the accumulation rates on different fare classes.

Japan Airlines (JAL) announced today that they will introduce the popular Premium Economy service on Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Bangkok (BKK) route on JL717 and JL718 from January 16 2011. Reservation and ticketing starts on November 5 2010. JAL has been using the longhaul configured 772 on this route for a while and giving PY away to elites. It's about time they roll this out on BKK and have people pay for the seat! Right now another route that is operating with a longhaul 772 is HND-HKG and during winter time, it's a 5 hour flight from HND to HKG, will JAL roll out this this route as well? I say why not? Worst case, you op-up the people and not give them the PY service.

Source: JAL Press Release (Japanese, English)

Last year Japan Airlines (JAL) ran a couple of birthday related campaigns for the JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members residing in Japan. One of them is to give out free domestic upgrade coupons for JMB members to use around their birthdays. JAL announced today that they will continue this campaign through 2011. Registration is required and JMB members whose birthdays are in January can register now. Below is the detail of the upgrade campaign (copied from my last year's post :p).

JAL "Thank You Jumbo" memorabilia. Image by Blue Sky.

As reported before, Japan Airlines will retire the 747 fleet in March 2011. Blue Sky will start selling some "Thank You Jumbo" JAL memorabilia as part of the Thank You Jumbo campaign. Below are the items available.

JAL and Cathay Pacific expand code sharing agreement. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) has reached yet another code sharing agreement to allow JAL to place "JL" codes on CX's flights to other cities around the world from Nov 1 2010. This is the third expansion agreement met between the two airlines within a month. The new agreement covers 13 routes and 11 destinations in Asia, Europe, Oceania, and Africa! Reservations starts on Nov 1 2010. Below is the schedule of the codeshare flights, all operated by CX.

oneworld alliance member British Airways (BA) will finally move to Terminal 2 of Narita Airport (NRT) on October 31 2010. After that, all OW members will be using T2 at NRT and therefore making connections much easier. The bad news is BA won't be building its own lounge at NRT T2, instead, it will start using Japan Airlines' (JAL) lounges at NRT. That means the Sakura lounge will become even more crowded. Last couple of times, I had problem finding a table in the dinning area and the wait time for shower is just way too long. I will see how bad it gets when I am there in January.

Source: JAL Press Release

After suspending Japan Airlines' (JAL) longest route NRT-GRU (via JFK) as part of the restructuring, JAL has successfully kept Sao Paulo in its network by reaching an agreement with American Airlines (AA). JAL will put its JL codes on AA's flights between JFK and GRU from October 31 2010. Reservation and ticketing starts on October 28 2010 (Subject to government approval). Below are the schedules of the codeshare flights operated by AA

JL5010/AA951 JFK 21:30 - GRU 10:15 (+1) Daily 777
JL5009/AA950 GRU 23:20 - JFK 06:25 (+1) Daily 777

Source: JAL Press Release (English, Japanese)

Today, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (MLIT) approves Japan Airlines (JAL) and American Airlines' (AA) antitrust immunity (ATI) application submitted back in June. US DOT granted a tentative approval earlier this month. The final approval will be obtained after the Open Skies between Japan and the US is signed. After that JAL and AA can coordinate on flights between the US and Asia. For details, you can refer to JAL Press Release (English, Japanese).

During a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan this week, Japan Airlines (JAL) CEO Dr. Inamori gave a little bit of update on JAL's restructuring progress. Apparently JAL is likely to secured a record operating profit of 100 billion yen in the first half of the fiscal year (April-Sep)! They originally forecast an operating profit of 64.1 billion yen for the entire fiscal year ending in March!

JAL opens new Haneda Lounges. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has finally updated its website on the new business class seats JAL Skyrecliner and the new inflight entertainment system MAGIC-V. These new products will be available on the following routes: NRT-SIN, NRT-HAN, HND-PEK, and HND-SIN.

JAL special site for 747 retirement. Image by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines (JAL) corporate promotion video with the Japanese version of "I Will Be There with You" as background music. Enjoy! (This video is a few months old :p)

JAL new regional business class seat JAL Skyrecliner. Image by Japan Airlines

Finally Japan Airlines announced its new regional business class seat - JAL Skyrecliner, and the new in-flight entertainment system MAGIC-V! The new seats and IFE will be installed on the four brand new 767-300ER aircraft and will be introduced on Haneda-Beijing and Haneda-Singapore routes starting this month.

As some of you might have heard already, Japan Airlines (JAL) still has not reached its early retirement target of 1,500 job cuts. Earlier JAL discussed with the unions about possible layoffs if the target is not met but that still is not enough. Now JAL is targeting about 320 pilots and some cabin attendants and essentially told them either retired or be dismissed. How? By grounding them!

Japan Airlines (JAL) has sold the remaining 19 747-400's in its fleet to AerSale. AerSale will disassemble a couple of the JAL 744's and sell them as aftermarket parts but expects the majority of the 19 JAL 744's remaining flying as passenger planes and freighter.

Source: AerSale Press Release via PRNewswire

Japan Airlines (JAL) has added an auto web check-in button to the bottom of the itinerary list. Still not sure how this will work but looks like you could fill out the info now and it will automatically check you in when the web check-in opens (need to wait for my December flight to find out the entire workflow).

JAL added auto web check-in function on its website.

US Department of Transportation has granted tentative ATI approval on the ATI application of Japan Airlines (JAL) and American Airlines (AA). Now it is only waiting for Japan's MILT to grant the approval (which shouldn't be a problem). At the same time US DOT has granted approval on ANA and UA's ATI application. You can find the press release from AA here.

As expected, the JAL Sakura lounge at HKG will be closed as a result of cost saving and Japan Airlines (JAL) downsizes its HKG operation to 2 daily flights. From October 5 2010, JAL passengers will be invited to use the Travelers' Lounge instead. There will be a reserved area for JAL passengers. For details, you can refer to JAL website.

Enjoy! JAL Premium Economy Campaign. Image by Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced a new campaign allowing JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members of ALL region to redeem an upgrade award to premium economy class on flights to and from the US (SFO, LAX, ORD, JFK) from October 1 2010 till March 31 2011.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has launched a new credit card for the US based JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members today called the JAL USA Card. The new card will replace JAL Family Club Premio Card, the current credit card for US based JMB members. The major differences between the two cards are JAL USA card does not require you to be a JAL Family Club member and option of choosing to earn 1 mile per $2 spent and 1 mile per $1 spent. JAL is currently running 4 campaigns to celebrate the launch of the new credit card.

Sample meals served on JAL Haneda red-eye flights. Image by Japan Airlines

JAL Aloha Jet. Image by Japan Airlines

MAGIC-I controller. Image by Japan Airlines,

MAGIC-I is no longer listed on Oct JAL Entertainment Network (JEN) listing. That means JAL will retire all 744 equipped with MAGIC-I IFE by Oct 2010.

I still remember how excited I was when I first board the plane with MAGIC-I installed. It was the state-of-art at that time. Thank you for all the good entertainments you provided over the years but it's time for you to go.

Japan Airlines (JAL) announced a bunch of new codeshare flights tends to improve Haneda's international network. Also, the new AA and AF codeshares will improve the new HND-SFO, HND-HNL, and HND-CDG connectivity. (Finally there's a LAX-SFO codeshare YAY!). You can find the full schedule of the new codeshare flights on JAL Press Release. Reservations on these new codeshare flights start from Oct 1 2010 with the exception of CX codeshares.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Cathay Pacific (CX) finally found a way to work together as a partner!!! Until now, JAL and CX sees each other more as a competitor than a partner. Before JAL joined oneworld, you can't even earn JMB miles on CX's flights between HKG and Tokyo. According to the press release, this is only the first step JAL will take to improve JAL's network in Asia with the help of CX. Further announcements will come when they have reached more agreements.

FLY JAL! SFO Super Discounted Upgrade Campaign. Picture by Japan Airlines.

Folks at San Francisco are usually the one who got screwed by Japan Airlines (JAL), but not this time (OK if you don't kind the downgrade from 773 to 772 with no F service and JAL Shell Flat seats :P)! In order to celebrate the launch of SFO-Haneda route, JAL is running a special discounted upgrade award campaign for flight JL001 and JL002. You can save up to 20,000 miles on a roundtrip upgrade award!

[Update: Added extra picture and videos]

Today is the launch day of Japan Airlines's (JAL) Arashi Jet. The first flight it performed was JL119. Twitpic user xxx7103xxx managed to snap a picture of the new JAL Arashi Jet before its first flight. You can find the picture here. Below are some videos of the JAL Arashi Jet.

Japan Airlines (JAL) launched a TV commercial earlier this summer to show their determination on a successful restructuring, providing better service and to thank the customers for their support and understanding. The JAL CM features Japanese popular boy band Arashi's song Movin' On, which matches perfectly what JAL is trying to do. To continue on the campaign, JAL has just launch the new JAL Arashi Jet! Starting from today till January 2011, this 777-200, registration JA8982, will be flying Haneda's domestic routes to New Chitose, Itami and Fuokuka. JAL has created a page to show the flights which this Arashi Jet will be flying.

Japan Airlines (JAL) had announced more details on the upcoming launch of Haneda international services. There will be lots of facility improvements and campaigns. One of the major new improvements are of course the new lounges at the new HND international terminal! And there will be JAL's first ever ARRIVAL LOUNGE! Below are the details.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Rakuten, the No. 1 online retailer in Japan, finally starts working together. Up till now, Rakuten customers can only buy ANA tickets from the site but this is all going to change. Today Rakuten launches a JAL page which customers can buy JAL domestic tickets (Y and class J) and make hotel reservations at the same time! Don't you think the JAL icon on their front page makes it look much better? Now booking on this site is finally one of my options (Yes, I refused to book my hotels from Rakuten just because they only allowed ANA ticket purchases LOL)

This is expected to generate a couple of billion yen of revenue in the current fiscal year and tens of billion yen revenue in the next 5 years according to Sankei

Source: JAL Press Release (in Japanese)

According to Yomiuri Online, Japan Airlines (JAL) will discontinue the birthday discount tickets on its domestic flights.

After months of delay, speculations, rumors and leaked information, Japan Airlines (JAL) has finally filed its restructuring plan with the Tokyo District Court on August 31 2010, barely meeting the end of August deadline. There aren't many changes to the original plan announced earlier in the year and most of them have been leaked in the recent news reports. Below are the highlights of the business plan

Japan Airlines (JAL) has officially announced its 2010 winter schedule today. There are frequency decrease and aircraft downsizing as expected to improve JAL profitability, but there are also frequency increases and service improvements too. Also from December 1, all JALways flights will be marked with the "JL" code instead of "JO" code to improve operational efficiency.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the world's most deadly single-aircraft accidents. A quarter of century ago, due to faulty repair conducted by Boeing, Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 123 lost control and crashed into Ridge of Osutaka at 6:56PM. 524 passengers and crew members were killed. Only 4 people survived this accident.

According to 47 News, Japan Airlines (JAL) now plans to cut 19,133 jobs through end of March 2015, up from the previous plan of roughly 16,000 job cuts. Some of the extra cuts will be from the popular early retirement program, which now expects to cut 8,339 jobs, up from the previous number of 7,000.

Japan Airlines (JAL) will roll out a new online check-in system on October 21 2010, same date they start the new HND international flights to Taipei. With the new system, you can finally print out your own boarding pass (or have it sent to your phone if it is an ex-HND flight) and walk strict to the gate (ok after dropping off your luggages at the quick baggage drop-off counter and going through security).

According to The Mainichi Daily News, Japan Airlines (JAL) has sent 100 executive staff to American Airlines (AA) headquarters so that they can learn some of the management skills from AA, including their corporate trade secrets!

Japan Airlines (JAL) announced the decision to sell 79.6% of its share in JAL Hotels to Hotel Okura today. After the transaction, JAL will maintain 11.1% of stake in JAL Hotels. Both brands of Hotel Nikko and JAL Hotel City will be retained and JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members can keep accumulating miles and using JAL Coupons at the JAL Hotels chain. JAL Hotels and Hotel Okura will cooperate closely to improve profitability. For details, you can refer to JAL Press Release.

Japan Airlines (JAL) announced today the decision to merge 4 of its subsidiary sales companies into a consolidated entity. The subsidiaries are JAL Sales Co., Ltd. (JSAT), JAL Sales Hokkaido Co., Ltd. (JSAH), JAL Sales West Japan Co., Ltd. (JSAW) and JAL Sales Kyushu Co., Ltd. (JSAK). Right now each of them is responsible for JAL sales in their respective region. After the merge, which is scheduled to take effect from October 1 2010, the consolidated company JAL Sales Co., Ltd will improve efficiency by unifying the sales strategies and activities, and drawing strengths and expertise from each of the four companies.

Source: JAL Press Release

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Vietnam Airlines (VN) has reached an agreement to expand their existing code sharing deal to include Nagoya-Ho Chi Minh City and Narita-Hanoi from October 1 2010. Ticket sales will start on August 5 2010. JAL will also retime its Narita-Honai flight on the same day it starts codesharing with VN on this route. Below are the schedules.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has finally posted a notice on its website regarding the upcoming configuration change on the SFO route (JL001/002). But the period listed on the notice is longer than the one I reported earlier. Now SFO will see 8 more days of older generation products. If you are flying JL001/002 between September 5 and October 8 2010, make sure you check your assigned seats as the aircraft configuration has changed on these days

Source: JAL website

I finally find out where Japan Airlines (JAL) is going to deploy the extra 777-300ER after switching Narita (NRT) - San Francisco (SFO) (JL001/002) from 777-300ER to 777-200ER. From October 31 2010, JAL will start First class service on NRT-Jakarta (CGK), the same day which JAL downsize SFO to 772. Since JAL will be using the SFO aircraft on this route, it is getting the latest and greatest products, i.e. JAL Suite and JAL Flat Shell NEO seats in First and Business class respectively. And don't forget about the Sky Gallery and Self-service bar. I start to feel jealous :P

Also, JAL will discontinue First class service on Hong Kong (HKG) route (JL731/732) from October 1 2010. Currently NRT-HKG is the only short-haul route left with First class service. When JAL switches this flight to Haneda (HND) airport, it will downsize the aircraft from 747-400 to 777-200ER, and therefore discontinuing First class service and finally retire the Sky Sleeper seats (at least no route with regular scheduled Sky Sleeper service). This will also marks an end of short-haul First class service. NRT-CGK will be the shortest route with First class service after this.

You probably know by now when Japan Airlines (JAL) switches San Francisco (SFO) route (JL001/002) from Narita (NRT) to Haneda (HND), it will lose First class service. But a month before the switch, JAL screws folks at SFO once again by switching it to W73 config between September 5 and 30, i.e. no JAL Suite nor NEO seats, only Solo and Shell Flat. This is not the first time JAL has done this. In fact, every time there's an aircraft routing change or maintenance that requires taking one of the new 773 out of service, SFO is the one who got switched out. JAL did this a couple of times last year. So if you are flying JL001/002 within that period, make sure you check your seat assignment because there could be better options now. Good luck!

According to jiji.com (via The Economic Times), Japan Airlines (JAL) will spend 241.5 billion yen in the next 5 years to buy small/mid-sized fuel efficient aircraft.

Back in January when JAL filed for bankruptcy, there were 71 unfilled Boeing orders including 20 737-800's, 9 767-300ER's, 7 777-300ER's widebodies and 35 787's. JAL originally scheduled to take more 773 this fall but I just checked Boeing's website, JAL only has 60 unfilled orders left and Boeing has only delivered 4 738's to JAL this year so far. There are no more unfilled 773 orders left! :( Well this all make sense because JAL don't need anymore large sized aircraft at the moment. Too bad I was hoping to fly on JA744J. I guess that's not going to happen any time soon :(

So if you are hoping for the JAL Suites to make it to the European network, you will have to wait for JAL to reconfigure its older 773 fleet. With JL001/002 downsizing to 772, JAL only has 1 spare 773, not enough to have a daily JAL Suite to Europe :)

Japan Airlines (JAL) announced today that they are seeing great results on their restructuring efforts. JAL has successfully achieved an operating profit in the June quarter, i.e. April-June 2010 (Oh my 6 flights helped them out :P)

Japan Airlines (JAL) will be moving its operation at Delhi from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 on July 3 2010. Terminal 3 is a newly built terminal at DEL. All international carriers will be moving to T3 as well. IT, 9W, IC, S2 will move their operations from T1 to T3 on August 27 2010. JAL will be using Kingfisher's lounge in the new T3 (Obvious choice right? Since they will be joining Oneworld). However the lounge won't be open until mid August. Until then, JAL passengers are invited to use the common lounge. For layout of the new T3 and location of JAL check-in counters, you can refer to here. Lounge access rules are listed here. According to the press release, Kingfisher's new lounge will use the color red as its main color, and there will be wireless LAN access and shower facilities in the lounge.

For details, you can refer to JAL Press Release (which is only available in Japanese at the moment, the English version should be up soon)

J-AIR's Embraer 170 aircraft with COP10 livery, registration JA217J (Source: JAL Press Release)

In case you have missed this, Japan Airlines (JAL) has added the COP10 logo to its Eco-Jet since June 13 2010. This is to show JAL's support to the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity to be held in Aichi, Nagoya in October and to raise awareness for the event and its motto of “Life in Harmony, into the future". Now JAL has decided to add the COP10 logo on more planes.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Finnair announced they will expand their existing codeshare agreement to cover 7 additional routes. Starting from August 1 2010, JAL will start placing its JL code on Finnair's flights between Helsinki and 7 European cities: Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich, Brussels, Warsaw and Gothenburg. With these latest additions, JAL's European network now covers 36 destinations! JAL and Finnair's agreement now covers 13 destinations on 15 routes. Reservations on these new codeshare flights starts tomorrow. Below are the schedules

On my inbound flights, I noticed some changes to the MAGIC-III system. It now plays a short commercial before SOME of the on-demand movie contents. This is probably a new way for Japan Airlines (JAL) to generate some extra revenue. This happens in both economy and business class! (At first I thought this is only for economy class) To be honest, it is a bit annoying but I can live with that. Below are the videos showing how it looks like...

First post after my loooooooooong break. I am still trying to recover from my trip and get back to my normal life. To be honest I miss flying on Japan Airlines (JAL) already. It will take me a while to get use to NOT flying on JAL every week. Yup, that's what I did last month - spent 42 hours on JAL LOL (Consider that as my JAL intensive training course :P) The flights are still as good as before. And man I love JAL Global Club, the JGC perks have saved me so much time during my trip.

Now the "bad" news part...As some of you might have noticed, I haven't been updating the blog and my twitter as often as before. It is quite a demanding job to do all these by myself and have a normal life...It surprised me that I have actually run this blog for more than a year (I didn't think it will last this long). I still intend to continue running this blog but I am trying to find a balance between this and other things...So (at least until I got this "other thing" done) I probably wouldn't be updating the blog as often as before. For more updated news, you should follow me on twitter (which I am trying to keep that up-to-date). At least that's my current plan. But who knows, my JAL-OCD might make me write a post once I read something about JAL LOL

And hey, if you want to help me out to update this blog, I am more than happy to create an account for you and rename the blog to something else :P

Japan Airlines (JAL) has released its Haneda international flight schedules today. Ticket sales starts tomorrow. You can see the official press release on JAL website. One thing to note is JAL is dropping First Class on SFO (JL001/002) (which my little birdie told me months ago, thanks! You know who you are :) JAL has a special page for the new Haneda international schedule which is in Japanese only (as expected)

I am on vacation right now (yes, I have been on vacation for a while :P) and will resume regular posting in July.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced it will maintain the current level of fuel surcharge for tickets issued between July and September. This is expected as JAL's fuel surcharge is calculated based on the average jet fuel price in Singapore. The average price for Feb-April 2010 is USD88.51 per barrel and therefore is still within the same range as last period. Next fuel surcharge revision will be on October 1 2010. Hopefully the current oil price drop will lower the surcharge next time.

Source: JAL Press Release

Still remember the theme song used for the launch of Japan Airlines' (JAL) new cabins? It's the song sung "I Will Be There With You" sung by Katharine Mcphee. Yes, it's the one you hear onboard all the time :) A while back JAL has announced there will be a Japanese version sung by Anri and I finally find the song! You can listen to the song on JAL Happy Eco Project site (there's a video there).

I will let you guys be the judge and decide on which one is better. Below is the original song by Katharine Mcphee. It's not the JAL Suite promotional video, this is something called the JAL Spirit video, probably one of the last videos you will see the 744 in it :(

Japan Airlines (JAL) was recognized as an "Eco-First" company by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOE). The Eco-First Program was established in April 2008 to encourage companies to preserve the environment and to be in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. The Dark Side was awarded this title in December 2008. So JAL is more than two years behind :(

Due to the political unrest in Bangkok which hurts tourist demand considerably, Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced a temporary frequency reductions to two of its Bangkok routes.

Japan Airlines' (JAL) Doraemon Jet got into an incident at Itami on May 9th. It scraped its tail skid assembly when the pilots decided to go around.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has finally given overseas JAL Global Club (JGC) members a choice of annual gift! As an added benefit, overseas JGC members have a choice of 800 JAL Mileage Bank miles or a JAL original calendar plus JGC desk diary!

Japan Airlines (JAL) has uploaded its June inflight entertainment program listing. To be honest, the offering is a bit disappointing this month. You even see repeat of Michael Jackson's This Is It! I guess it's just no good movies came out in the last few months :( Below are the list of movies available on MAGIC-I and II.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has selected to install TIMCO Aerosystems Featherweight Galley on its new 767-300ER's aircraft. Yes, thanks to 787's delay, JAL still has unfilled orders of 763's, a total of 9 of them as of March 31 2010. JAL will be the FIRST customer to install this new galley from TIMCO.

In case you have missed the press release from yesterday, Japan Airlines (JAL) will retire its entire 747-400 and A300-600 fleet by the end of this fiscal year. JAL has started the process of finding buyers for its plane a while back. And it has sold 9 of the 744's already. Any guess for how much JAL got from these?

(Update: Official press release is up on JAL website)

The previous post is getting too long. I am starting a new one for the domestic list. Below are the changes on Japan Airlines (JAL) domestic network according to the official press release.

(Update: Official press release is up on JAL website)

Ha I found the link to the official press release before JAL updated the PR site. It outlines the current restructuring plan including the list of routes to be suspended.

JAL will hold a press conference today to give an outline of its restructuring plan, including the planned route cuts. So far I haven't heard anything yet but bloomberg has an interesting article. Apparently they have received the press release before JAL released that to the public.

Yesterday I blogged about how local governments are stilling campaigning against Japan Airlines' (JAL) plan of route suspensions. Nikkei reports are bit more details of yesterday's meeting and JAL's current restructuring plan. Nikkei's report titled 'JAL's Rehab Could Be Delayed By Local Govt Opposition" says JAL has scrapped its extended route suspensions plan and the current plan is much closer to its original one.

Sankei reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) is expected to post an operating loss of 160 billion yen in the fiscal year ended in March, the largest loss since the merge with JAS.

It sucks to be one of the cities on Japan Airlines' (JAL) chopping block because losing the direct flights to the cities means a blow to the local economy. That's why the local governments don't give up and keep protesting against the planned suspensions. Officials from 16 Japanese prefectures had a meeting with JAL executives and on the other hand Hawaii Tourism Authority has started an online petition to save the Narita-Kona once daily flight. Doesn't look like they officials will give up until the very last minute.

Japan Transport Minister Maehara spoke at the House of Representatives today. He mentioned that Japan Airlines (JAL) might delay its restructuring plan court filing.

After disappearing from the media for a while, Japan Airlines' new CEO Dr. Inamori speaks up once again. During his first interview as JAL CEO, he said he refuses to cut more jobs or routes!

Japan Airlines (JAL) finally released the 2010 Golden Week (GW) traffic forecast (something I have been waiting for a while). In case you haven't heard of GW before, Japan has a 4 different national holidays from end of April till beginning of May every year, combining with weekend and that's the GW. This year there are 8 days of holiday from April 28 to May 5 (Geeze, I want to move to Japan just because of that LOL). So how is JAL doing during this one of the busiest travel periods in Japan? In a nutshell, JAL domestic flights are doing GREAT while international ones are doing okay too.

We all know the volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused flight cancelations in Europe. The weather condition seems to improve a bit now and Japan Airlines (JAL) has started resuming some European flights yesterday.

Congratulations! Japan Airlines (JAL) apparently has an operating profit in March! This is a big step in the right direction. Way to go JAL!

Back in early March, Japan Airlines (JAL) announced the early retirement program and aimed to recruit 2,700 employees to join the program. The application deadline was April 16 and JAL has successfully reached its goal, in fact it has far exceeded the 2,700 target!

Japanese Bankers Association Chairman Katsunori Nagayasu commented on the restructuring of Japan Airlines (JAL) yesterday during his last conference as chairman. He basically told the reporters that the banks have to be onboard with JAL's restructuring plan or there will be no more financial assistance given to JAL.

You probably have heard about the volcanic eruption in Iceland. The volcanic ash is spreading over Europe and it is affecting flight safety (Why? Check out BA9 incident. Basically it damages the engine, scratches the windshield and the ash cloud is not detected by weather radar!!!). Japan Airlines (#JAL) is therefore experiencing irregular operations on flights to and from Europe at the moment. JL401 (NRT-LHR) and JL411 (NRT-AMS) are returning to NRT, the returning ex-LHR and ex-AMS flights are "indefinite" at the moment. If you are flying to/from Europe, make sure you check JAL website for the latest flight information. You can also register for flight status update on your "View My Reservation" page!

Local governments were scrambling to keep their Japan Airlines (JAL) routes after Yomiuri Online released the list of international and domestic routes that are on the chopping board. Japanese and overseas local government are working with JAL and are hoping to save their routes from the cut. Meanwhile other airlines are eager taking over JAL's route :(

Diamond Online reveal's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's (MLIT) original JAL suspension plan. This was the plan drafted by MLIT back in February 22 2010 but was allegedly replaced by the rumored suspension list reported by Yomiuri. There were 46 international routes on the chopping board in the original plan vs only 29 in the new plan.

As a reminder, passengers flying to/from Haneda tomorrow might be affected by the temporary service suspension on Tokyo Monorail. They are going to finish some work to prepare for the Haneda internationalization in October. For details, you can refer to my previous post.

oneworld alliance held a summit at Los Angeles yesterday. Japan Airlines' (JAL) COO Masaru Onishi represents JAL. This is the first meeting after JAL reconfirmed its commitments to OW and JAL is one of the focuses on yesterday's summit. Kyodo interviewed Onishi at the summit and he made a couple of comments about recent rumors on JAL's restructuring plan including the one that fears me (and probably some other US/European travelers) most :)

JiJi.com reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) is planning to reduce frequency on 7 Narita routes from October, resulting a reduction of 40 weekly flights at NRT.

JAL supports Food Nippon Action once again with domestically produced rice flour strawberry roll cake. Image by Japan Airlines

Another new product from Japan Airlines (JAL) to support the Food Nippon Action, a movement to improve Japan's food self sufficient rate. Once again, JAL is cooperating with Mon Chou Chou, an Osaka based pastry store, to produce a domestically produced rice flour strawberry roll cake.

As reported earlier, Japan Airlines (JAL) plans to shut down its Osaka (Itami) and Fukuoka cabin attendant bases and move all cabin attendants to Tokyo in June. JAL's Cabin Crew Union (CCU) held a press conference yesterday and officially commented on this change. Of course, they are not happy about it.

Nikkei reports an update on Japan Airlines (JAL) layoff plan. According to Nikkei, JAL will cut around 16,500 staff by March 2011, 2 years ahead of schedule.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Fuji Dream Airlines (FDA) first announced their intention to cooperate in January 2010. They reached their first code sharing agreement in Feburary to cover the Shizuoka routes withdrawn by JAL. Now both airlines have reached an agreement to expand their code sharing to include flights to Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport (MMJ), another airport JAL going to withdraw from on June 1 2010.

Japan Airlines (JAL) is once again cooperating with JTB this summer to develop new destinations for Japanese tourists. This summer, JAL and JTB are planning 14 charter flights to various destinations in Europe and all of the flights will be operated by 747-400 with 356-372 seats.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has uploaded its May inflight entertainment program listing. As expected, Avatar is still on the May program list and that's the only repeat from last month. Other movies include "Invictus". "Shutter Island", "Leap Year", etc. Below are the list of movies available on MAGIC-I and II.

Finally I found the rumored Japan Airlines (JAL) domestic suspension list from Yomiuri Online. According to the report, JAL will be shifting focus to Haneda. Currently JAL has 150 domestic routes and if JAL cuts all 31 routes listed, that means JAL is cutting 20% of its domestic network!

Yomiuri Online reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) will increase its international and domestic route suspensions.

JAL New JAL business class meal on SE Asia flights: "Samurai Zen”-inspired Japanese meal. Image from Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) will enhance the business class meals on its Southeast Asia flights from April 1 2010. If you are flying from Japan to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bali or New Delhi, you will be the lucky ones who can first try out this new dinning experience.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced a new benefit for its top tier frequent flyers. From April 1 2010, JMB Diamond and JGC Premier members can reserve JAL domestic award tickets two weeks before other members. That means they can reserve JAL domestic award tickets 2.5 months in advance instead of 2. Details of this new benefit can be found on JAL website.

It's end of March and Japan Airlines (JAL) only have 3 more months to finalize their restructuring plan. Here are a few updates on JAL restructuring progress.

Japan Airlines (JAL) finally got back to me yesterday regarding whether booking class 'X' qualifies for the 400 Fly On Point (FOP) bonus. It took JAL two weeks to confirm this as they were confused themselves about this change. And as expected, the new business booking class does qualify for this bonus. So below is the JAL Mileage Bank miles and FOP summary effective April 1 2010

According to jiji.com (in Japanese), Japan Airlines (JAL) is looking into suspending such benefits in fiscal year 2010 and they might revise the system later on! So how many free/discounted tickets JAL employees get?

(The new JAL and BA code sharing network. Routes in red are the new additions. The only misleading information here is JAL doesn't fly over the Atlantic to London :P. Source: JAL Press Release)

British Airways (BA) delivers first part its promise to Japan Airlines (JAL) made during the Delta fist fight. JAL and BA announced today that they will expand their code sharing flights to include 13 new routes. And JAL finally add Athens back to its network after it suspended that route 20 years ago! And JAL and BA are currently studying further partnership (2nd part of BA's promise, to file ATI with JAL)

Japan Airlines has announced changes to its cargo business. After October 2010, JAL will no longer operate freighter flights and will solely depend on its passenger flights for its cargo transportation.

Japan Airlines has issued a press release (in Japanese) regarding 28 day advance purchase business saver fare...Starting April 1 2010, the weekday fare will be lowered by 5,000 yen! So how much will you save if you wait till this price cut kicks in?

Japan Airlines has reached an agreement with Jetstar (JQ) to expand their existing code sharing deal to include the Kansai - Cairns service operated by JQ from April 1 2010

There is a delay on Japan Airlines flight 1662 from Izumo to Haneda on March 23 2010. So why is it delayed? Isn't JAL the most on-time airline :P Well, this time the delay is caused by a car accident that JAL has little control over. I know what you are thinking. No the car did not hit the plane :P

Yet another cost cutting measure from Japan Airlines. In order to lower its fixed cost, JAL plans to reduce its contract workers', mainly cabin attendants', salaries by 3%.

According to Aviation Herald, there was an incident involving a Japan Airlines airbus 300-600 on March 21 2010. There was a hydraulics leak shortly after takeoff and the plane returned to the airport safely 30 minutes after takeoff.

JAL First Class Lounge and Sakura Lounge at Tokyo Narita

Sorry i haven't been posting the trip reports lately. It's March now and I am still writing about my November trip! Well, I have been busy and Japan Airlines filing for bankruptcy didn't help either. Anyways, here's my report on the Sakura Lounge. I actually took the picture above a while back (more than a year ago) but the entrance/wall didn't change :P The Sakura Lounge and First Class Lounge share the same entrance and are located next to gate 61 at the main building. The Satellite Sakura Lounge is next to gate 92. But for this report, I will focus on the lounge at the main building as I only had enough time to visit one of them and the one at the main building is definitely better :)

All Nippon Airways has announced its fiscal year 2010-2011 corporate strategy and revised its earning forecast today. This can be summarized in one sentence: ANA's loss has widened due to increased competitions and they will restructure and downsize too! Looks like Japan Airlines' recent promotions are seeing some positive effects (from JAL's point of view of course, this is a JAL blog LOL)!

There was an unacceptable incident involving a Japan Airlines 767-300 at Kaohsiung Airport on March 6 2010. The JAL pilots had to go around because the airport forgot to turn on the runway lights!

Nikkei reports that Japan Airlines has extended its early retirement program to its pilots. Around 2,300 pilots are now qualified for early retirement.

It has been almost two months since Japan Airlines filing for bankruptcy protection. The new JAL CEO Kazuo Inamori and COO Masaru Onishi held a joint press conference in Tokyo today to update the press of their restructuring plan. They answered the question in a lot of people's mind including when will JAL become profitable again, when will JAL start cutting the routes, etc. And Inamori made some pretty harsh comments on JAL staff too :(

No this is not the kind of challenge on AA in which you only have a fast track to attain your status. Since Japan Airlines announced the changes in JAL Global Club (JGC), a number of people have asked me similar questions: What is the cheapest way to obtain JGC. So I have started a thread on FlyerTalk JAK Mileage Bank forum.

The largest Japanese aircraft seats manufacturer Koito, who faked test data of its seats, said 3 executives will step down and its president will take a 30% pay cut for 6 months. They have submitted their plan to MLIT and intends to complete the first phase of safety check by end of May.

Talk about being sneaky! Japan Airlines has updated its previous announcement no booking class/JMB miles accumulation rate changes and the Fly On Point (FOP) bonus campaign page without publishing it on the front page (at least I didn't see it). I only found out about the changes when I looked at the new JAL ex-US fares from April 1 (yes, they are changing the fare rules).

JA8921 as JL736 at HKG on 2009-12-31.  Probably my last JAL 744 flight

(Update: It should be JAL is phasing out 20% of its fleet instead of 2% in the 3rd paragraph. This is what happens when you didn't sleep and blogged at 6am :P)

Japan Airlines has approached a foreign company and wants to sell off 49 of its aging aircraft ahead of schedule. If the deal goes through, JAL will get rid of these plan as early as this year!

Reports surfaced yesterday that Japan Airlines will shut down its cabin attendant bases in Osaka and Fukuoka at the end of June as part of the restructuring. JAL has started informing the affected cabin attendants about this idea.

You might have heard there is an anti-government demonstration in Thailand right now. Japan Airlines is expecting normal flight operations but has advised passengers departing from BKK to arrive extra early to check-in. This is to avoid traffic congestion and crowd at security check. The demonstration is expected to last till March 23. You can find the notice on JAL website

A couple of people has emailed/PM'ed me asking me questions regarding BKK flights a few weeks ago. They should be in Thailand right now. Hopefully they are doing fine. Most district in Bangkok is calm right now but stay safe and good luck! Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully soon.

China Eastern Airlines (MU) currently is a partner of both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. There are speculations recently that MU will end its partnership with one of them but their president has denied such speculation.

There's a survey about the most popular corporation among college graduates done every year. And the results for 2011 Spring graduates are released. Last year Japan Airlines was the 5th most popular company among the Arts graduates. So how low has JAL drop in the ranking this year? Any guess???

Japan Airlines has previous announced that they will form a compliance investigations committee to probe into their previous business practice. Today JAL has announced more details including contact information of the committee in case you want to report any misconduct

Frobes released its 2009 top 10 most on-time airlines a few weeks ago. Japan Airlines beats all of other carriers and scores the highest on-time percentage in 2009! Congratulations!

Both Japan Airlines and Tokyo Monorail has put up a notice regarding temporary service suspension on April 10 2010. So if you are flying out of/into Haneda on that day, you should be aware of this.

A week ago Japan Airlines approached 400 senior managers for possible early retirement. Now JAL has extended this to other employees including maintenance, cabin attendants and ground staff.

JAL Global Club non-elite member status from April 1 2010. Picture by Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines has announced the modifications to the Oneworld elite status of the JAL Global Club (JGC) members from April 1. ALL JGC members will get at least OW Sapphire status. Yes! Even those who did not take any flight in the previous year!

Step 4: Peel off the stickers. Picture by Japan Airlines

You should know Japan Airlines has a Doraemon Jet by now. So how did JAL decorate the aircraft? No JAL did not paint the Doaremon characters on the aircraft. Instead, they use stickers! JAL has updated the Doraemon special site show you the process. Also, JAL added a page for the Doraemon Jet schedule!

The US carriers submitted their bids for the 4 precious Haneda slots few weeks ago. So what are their next move? Trash talk at each other LOL. They now start attacking each other and hope to swing the public opinions :P

Shimizu S-Pulse is the J. League Division 1 soccer club Japan Airlines has been sponsoring since 1992. JAL continued to support the team when they were in some kind of financial trouble. Now the table has turned and JAL is bankrupt. As a way to thank JAL for their long time support, the soccer club has decided to continue to put JAL's logo on the left sleeve of their 2010 jersey and they are doing this for free!

As part of the cost reduction, Japan Airlines is considering to move its headquarter from Shinagawa to Haneda. This idea has been floating around since January and FNN news once again report this today

Japan Airlines has posted more service details of the code share flights operated by Fuji Dream Airlines. Most of the service will be the same as other code share flights except for lounge access and inflight magazine.

(Update: Added video report of the flight in Japanese)

As reported earlier, Japan Airlines is organizing a special flight to celebrate Hina Matsuri, aka Girls' Day or Doll Festival. Jiji.com has a picture taken at the departure gate. Is it just me, they looked much happier last year.

It's this time of the year again. 2010 JAL Scholarship Program is accepting applications. This year's theme is "Tourism and cross-cultural understanding". Selected recipients will be awarded an all included 17-day trip to Tokyo and participated in this cultural exchange program.

April movie list on Japan Airlines international flights is up! The only repeat this month is "Up In the Air" (aka AA commercial LOL). Features include "Avator" (probably in 2D only sorry), "Sherlock Holmes", "Nine", "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (late Heath Ledger's last movie), etc. Below are the list of movies available on MAGIC-I and II.

According to Nikkei, Japan Airlines plans to cut 2,700 positions, roughly equals to 5% of its workforce, through early retirement scheme. First target group? Flight crew and ground staff managers.

Back in January, there were reports saying the merger talk between Japan Airlines and NYK's cargo operations (NCA) had hit some major obstacles. Today, JAL issued a press release saying they have ended the negotiations.

Hina Matsuri, also known as Girls' Day or Doll Festival, is a traditional Japanese festival held on March 3 to wish a healthy and prosperous growth for young girls. Japan Airlines will once again organize a special flight to celebrate this festival.

Japan Airlines will launch a new product to support Food Nippon Action, which is a movement to improve Japan's food self sufficient rate. This time JAL will cooperate with Mon Chou Chou to market a cookie made from domestically produced rice flour. Mon Chou Chou is a Osaka based pastry store. This is not the first time JAL works with Mon Chou Chou. In fact, JAL is serving some of Mon Chou Chou's products on flights between Kansai and Honolulu and Bali.

Japan Airlines announced today that they will establish a Compliance Investigation Committee on March 2 2010 to investigate if there are any violations in its past business practices.

As promised, Japan Airlines has released its consolidated result for April-December 2009 today. JAL reported a loss of 177.9 billion yen in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009. Below are the highlights of the result. 

Due to its structuring, Japan Airlines has pushed back the announcement of its financial results from beginning of February to 26th. So we will see how much JAL has bleeded/recovered today. Stay tune for the update tonight. Hopefully JAL will announce its corporate strategy at the same time

Source: jiji.com

According to Nikkei, Japan Airlines CEO Kazuo Inamori has become the part-time special advisor to the Cabinet on Thursday. Yes, another part-time job for 78 year old who are focusing to turnaround JAL!

Japan Airlines has reached code sharing agreements with Emirates (EK) and Fuji Dream Airlines (FDA). EK's agreement include the new Narita-Dubai service launched in March (as I tweeted a few days ago). While FDA's agreement covers the Shizuoka routes which JAL will withdraw from.

I was doing some silly calculations because someone posted on FlyerTalk's oneworld forum about how easy it is to get to the highest level of elite in the King Club. Oh what's King Club? Of course it's the loyalty program of Kingfisher :P And I am actually surprised to find out how little you have to fly on Japan Airlines to attain the highest level of oneworld elite status: Emerald.

Travel Vision has an update report on the Haneda slots for international flights. According to the report, China could be allocated as much as 20 flights per day! But the most interesting part is there's a comment regarding US DOT's preference of who they want to allocate their 4 slots to. Below are the destination allocation so far

Japan Airlines has launched a couple of Kansai International Airport (KIX) exclusive campaign to boost the flight loads for flights at KIX. And JAL is seeing GREAT results from these campaigns!

Kingfisher Airlines (IT), which is India's leading domestic carrier and only 5-star Indian airline, has informed India's Ministry of Civil Aviation their intention to join Oneworld alliance.

Even though Japan Airlines has officially picked AA over Delta two weeks ago, the drama doesn't seem to end there. A French newspaper La Tribune once again tried to stir up the drama and started up a rumor that Air France-KLM is in talk with JAL for a joint business venture for flights between Japan and France.

Thanks to the raising fuel price, Japan Airlines will once again raise its fuel surcharge for passengers starting April 1 2010.

The average Singapore kerosene-type jet fuel between November 2009 and January 2010 was USD 84.66 per barrel, compared to USD 78.04 per barrel in the previous period. As a result, JAL will be using Zone C on its fuel surcharge table. So for a transpacific roundtrip ticket to Japan, instead of paying for USD 138 for fuel surcharge, you will have to pay for USD 222 from April 1!

JAL Mileage Project 2010

The JAL Mileage Project details in English is available on Japan Airlines website now. But sadly the US website department still doesn't look like they know how to run a campaign or is still as slow as they are before. Where's your sense of urgency and crisis?

Japan Airlines CEO Kazuo Inamori told reports in Kyodo that JAL will accelerate its efforts to improve profitability because they are bleeding cash every day.

This is just a political show! The Japan ruling party wants to launch an investigation on Japan Airlines' failure. So they can point their fingers at the ones at fault. The news is coming from DPJ member Tsutomu Okubo's aide who asked not to be named.

Japan Airlines' new CEO Kazuo Inamori once again went for a little field trip. This time he visited JAL's safety promotion center near Haneda, which is a requirement for most JAL staff.

After 49 years of trading, Japan Airlines finally ends its last trading day at 1 yen. JAL's stock will be officially delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 20 2010 (Saturday). On its final trading day, 27,624,000 shares changed hands, all at 1 yen per share. JAL has issued a notice (in Japanese) regarding the handling of its share after delisting from TSE. It is a sad day, but I believe JAL will be listed on TSE again one day. But I am not sure if 9205 will be assigned to JAL again when the day come. :(

Nikkei reported that as part of its restructuring, Japan Airlines has asked its employee to accept a 5% pay cut and to give up bonuses in fiscal year 2010.

Shortly after its bankruptcy filing in the Tokyo District Court, Japan Airlines has filed a Chapter 15 protection in Manhattan court. Yesterday, JAL's protection request was granted.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck granted JAL the protection today with no objection against the bid. With the Chapter 15 protection, JAL is protected against US lawsuits from creditors while it is undergoing restructuring under Tokyo's court protection. All JAL's U.S. creditors are now bound by the terms of the restructuring proceeding in Japan.

Source: Business Week

Related Post:
JAL filed Chapter 15 proceeding in New York

American Eagle (AE) is the commuter unit of American Airlines, who is Japan Airlines' partner in the US. This is the second fine within weeks the FAA has proposed against AE due to maintenance mishaps. I know I have said this before, but have you really picked the right partner, JAL?

The fight for Japanese traffic in the US is far from over. Round 1 has just ended with American Airlines taking home the grand prize of Japan Airlines' commitment. Round 2 of this fight has already begun and is way more vigorous than the first round. This time around, the airlines are fighting for 4 pairs of slots at Haneda. AA's opponents are Delta, United, Continental and Hawaiian Airlines.

JAL Double Mileage Campaign. Picture by Japan Airlines.

WOW Japan Airlines really delivers its promise of miles will be easier to earn! JAL keeps adding new campaigns to their Project 2010 page. If you feel being left out as a regular JAL Mileage Bank member yesterday, don't worry, JAL has not forgotten about you. To make up for this, JAL will give you double miles!

There are 5 exclusive campaigns Japan Airlines is running for JALCard holders. There are two discounted award ticket campaigns, two mileage bonus campaigns and one Fly On Point bonus campaign. These are some of the ways JAL trying to thanks their loyal customers and to lure other passengers back from other carriers. OK, so there are loves for the elites and JALCard holders. But where is the love for holders of other cards e.g. Premio, Hang Seng, etc? I want the bonus FOPs campaign! Maybe JAL include current JMB elites too? :(

Looks like Japan Airlines wasn't lying about miles will be easier to earn soon when they issued the notice to customers last month. JAL has posted about Project 2010 on its Japan region website. There are whole bunch of campaigns exclusive to JAL elites and JALCard holders! Below are the details of campaigns exclusive for JAL elites. I will write a separate post for JALCard holders campaign to keep this post short.

(Picture Source: Mainichi Daily News)

(Update: Added video news coverage and you can see how JAL staff decorated the Doraemon Jet)
Japan Airlines finally unveiled its Doraemon Jet today at Haneda hanger. JAL will start flying the Doraemon Jet from Monday until the end of April.

Japan Airlines and American Airlines has filed for antitrust immunity (ATI) application with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) on February 13 2010. JAL and AA will also apply for ATI with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan.

If you haven't heard about Feng Zhenghu before, here is his wiki page. He is the Chinese activist who spent 92 days at Narita Terminal 1 after being denied entry to China in November for the 8th time in a row. I am not trying to get into politics on this blog so this entry is only about how JAL and ANA handle this incident.

[Update: JAL has announced the discontinuation of upgrade points. All upgrade points will be expired on March 31 2013 and no more upgrade points will be awarded to the JMB elites]

I am trying to document some of the Japan Airlines and JAL Mileage Bank knowledge I gained over the years so more people can benefit from it (and save you some time posting the questions on FlyerTalk :P). In some ways, this is kind of similar to a "sticky thread". Just like the trip reports, you can click on the title bar menu below the banner to search for all JAL 101 posts.

What's a better way to start this than to talk about the upgrade points JAL has just credited to your JMB account. If you have attained JAL Mileage Bank most frequent flyers status for 2010, the upgrade points should have been deposited to your account.