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.