With precious few ways to earn the miles, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank flew under the radar for years … but we've been screaming about the value of JAL miles from the rooftops for the last year after Bilt, Capital One, and Rove all added the airline as a transfer partner. Now we can add another one to the list.
Citi officially added JAL as a transfer partner over the weekend, meaning you can now transfer points 1:1 straight to the Japanese carrier from cards like the and Citi Strata Premier℠ Card and Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (for full disclosure, these are not affiliate links) – though no-annual-fee cards like the Citi Double Cash® Card transfer on a poorer 1000:700 basis. Better yet, the bank is offering a 30% transfer bonus to JAL through Oct. 24, so your ThankYou points will go even further for the next month and change.
Read our full guide to Citi ThankYou transfer partners!
This is a big win for Citi cardholders because JAL's Mileage Bank has emerged as one of our favorite airline loyalty programs in the world, period.
Not only is it the best way to book flights to Tokyo and beyond on JAL itself, but for countless other Oneworld partner airlines as well as other carriers like Air France and Emirates – often for a fraction of the miles and fees that virtually any other airline on the planet would charge you. A quirk with its distance-based award chart opens the door to what's easily among the best deals in the world of points and miles.
Take a look and see for yourself.
What Can You Do With JAL Miles?
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles are, without a doubt, some of the most valuable in the world.
However, there are a few quirks you'll want to be aware of when booking with JAL:
- If your JAL Mileage Bank account is less than 60 days old, you won't be able to use JAL miles transferred from Citi immediately
- Using JAL miles, you can only book for direct family members (through blood or marriage), so booking for a friend or travel pal is off-limits.
- JAL miles have a hard, 36-month expiration policy with no way to extend them. For that reason, you'll want to have a plan in place for using your miles before transferring.
Even if you don't have a redemption to make right away, you'd be wise to enroll in JAL Mileage Bank now to speed up the process and avoid any future delays when it comes time to transfer miles to JAL.
All that said, here are a few of our favorite ways to redeem JAL miles.
Fly Japan Airlines
Flying Japan Airlines from one of the carrier's nine North American gateways to Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT) – or even Osaka (KIX) – is a great way to cross the Pacific, no matter if you're flying in economy or business class. Thanks to JAL's reasonable award chart, a one-way ticket to Japan will cost as few as 27,000 miles in economy, 40,000 miles in premium economy, or 55,000 miles in business class. That's even better than what American AAdvantage charges!
Take this flight from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND), for example. You can book a Japan Airlines business class seat on the 13-hour flight to Japan for just 55,000 miles – just 43,000 ThankYou points with a 30% transfer bonus – and $353 in taxes and fees, as of publication.
Your best bet at finding these cheap award rates is at the end of the calendar – for a trip next fall – or during off-peak periods like winter or July and August. But one standout feature of JAL Mileage Bank is that it offers its members additional award availability at slightly higher rates: It's not too hard to find one-way flights for 75,000 miles or 85,000 – transferring just 58,000 Citi points to make it happen.
If you're flying to or from New York City (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), or Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), you might even luck out and find availability on one of JAL's new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, equipped with the airline's brand-new business suites.
Partner Redemptions for Less
JAL miles arguably shine even brighter for booking partner airlines – and not just within the Oneworld alliance.
Japan Airlines has a dedicated award chart for redeeming flights on Oneworld airlines like American, British Airways, Alaska/Hawaiian, Finnair, and countless others. But that exact same chart also applies when redeeming points for flights on other, one-off partner carriers like Air France, Emirates, LATAM, and others.
Here's the business class award chart, for reference. It's distance-based pricing – use a tool like GCmap.com to get the distance of your flight.
These rates are lower – and sometimes, much lower – than what you'll see booking through other carriers. Better yet, JAL doesn't pass on the same (often egregious) surcharges as many other carriers.
So while British Airways itself would charge you 88,000 Avios and nearly $400 in taxes and fees for this one-way business class award from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to London-Heathrow (LHR) – and other carriers would levy surcharges north of $1,000 for that exact same award…
That exact same flight will set you back just 42,000 miles and $219 by booking through Japan Airlines instead! With this 30% transfer bonus, you could book for just 33,000 Citi ThankYou points!
The same workaround works for booking Air France business class overseas – yes, you can book this SkyTeam carrier with JAL miles. In fact, it goes even further after Air France/KLM Flying Blue nuked its award chart recently with new “Light” business class award fare buckets.
Forget paying 75,000 miles and close to $400 for a one-way to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG). That same seat is yours for as low as just 42,000 JAL miles … and just $5.60 in taxes and fees!
Finding award space to book this Air France flight can be tough – though we've sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members a handful of alerts over the last year. And it'll almost always require a phone call to Japan Airlines to get it to go through.
Roundtrips for Less!
This is the cream of the crop.
Like many airline mileage programs, JAL uses a distance-based award chart for these partner award redemptions: The longer your flight, the more miles it may cost. But unlike virtually every other airline, it doesn't tally each segment separately: It adds the distances together for the final price.
For example, Japan Airlines charges 60,000 miles – just 47,000 Citi points with this bonus – each way for a one-way flying American Airlines from Miami (MIA) to Madrid (MAD). That's solid, especially with just $5.60 in taxes and fees.
But add a return flight, and it's not 120,000 miles – the roundtrip total costs just 85,000 miles. With the current transfer bonus, you could book roundtrip business class flights to Europe for as few as 66,000 Citi points! That's a steal …
This even works with multi-city and open-jaw redemptions, so you could fly into Spain and jet home from Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or any other European city for the same roundtrip rate!
The possibilities are practically endless – in part, because Japan Airlines has a wonky worldwide network of partner airlines.
Bottom Line
We are not mad about another way to rack up Japan Airlines miles.
With Citi in the fold, ultra-valuable JAL miles are getting even easier to earn. And a 30% transfer bonus available through Oct. 24 makes that case even stronger.
