JL awards now bookable on Qantas website

[PaulST]

Yep you can certainly fly JAL from Australia to North America. I just used the multi-city tool for SYD-NRT and NRT-JFK and I managed to snag Business x-SYD and First x-NRT! Not the most efficient use of points although I'm very excited to try out JAL F!

There looks like there's a lot of Y and J availability too.

 

[rock86]

I know people are annoyed at this, but IMHO I don't think it'll have too much of an impact on JL award availability.

 

[Kangol]

As a side note, I travel to Japan a bit so I think this is a great improvement however there seems to be a few limitations. As an example I have rewards flights PEK-HND but need to end in CTS, at the time of booking the reward seats HND-CTS were not available and QF advised they would add them in later and waive the points change fees.

As at today I can see reward seats are available HND-CTS on the day we need to travel are available, in fact on almost every flight and class. When I rang QF to get these added to the booking QF advised that they could not add these to the existing booking but they could see the availability. I can make seperate bookings (more points and insignificant) however these will be under a separate PNR and I would rather keep in a single PNR so if there are delays it becomes JAL's problem to sortout in case of delays and missed connections rather than mine.

Maybe just few teething issues.

JL domestic awards do not open up at the same time as international. I think it's T-60 days or thereabouts. You can look it up on their website or otherwise.

For your QFF issue, use the word "change". You want to change the booking by changing the destination which means adding on the HND-CTS connection. Funny that QF said the above (see bold), for more than one reason.

 

[Kangol]

Yep you can certainly fly JAL from Australia to North America. I just used the multi-city tool for SYD-NRT and NRT-JFK and I managed to snag Business x-SYD and First x-NRT! Not the most efficient use of points although I'm very excited to try out JAL F!

Depending on the schedule, for some people it can be better for jetlag to route via Asia.
JL F is great. Their caviar condiments are a nice different touch.
Being able to see the menu ahead of time online is also helpful, especially for the Japanese menu.
Shame they downgraded their champagne to Cristal

 

[tizey]

JL domestic awards do not open up at the same time as international. I think it's T-60 days or thereabouts. You can look it up on their website or otherwise.

I always thought you could add y domestic legs to qn international J JL booking? I had HND-KIX added to a KIX-HNL J award at time of booking (330 days out)

 

[travelislife]

JL domestic awards do not open up at the same time as international. I think it's T-60 days or thereabouts. You can look it up on their website or otherwise.

For your QFF issue, use the word "change". You want to change the booking by changing the destination which means adding on the HND-CTS connection. Funny that QF said the above (see bold), for more than one reason.

That’s only true for wholly domestic trips (90 days). If you are connecting from international then domestic legs can definitely be added much earlier to revenue and award bookings.

 

[Mattg]

Well it looks like there is a downside to JAL availability coming online - and it's not the obvious availability issue.

I've just had a look at the price of a JL award flight from MEL-NRT in business class. The cost is 78,000 Qantas points + $172.34. I thought this seemed a bit high so I clicked on the breakdown and see that this includes "Other carrier charges" of $4.20 and an additional "Q surcharge" of $83.00. The $4.20 charge is a JL-imposed surcharge, but the $83 Q-surcharge most definitely is not. It's not imposed by JL, nor is it an airport or government tax. It's pure profit for Qantas and presumably a way to stop everyone just booking JL awards, given Qantas' $180 surcharge for QF metal on the same route.

We all know that Qantas imposes its own charges on QF metal award bookings, but this is pretty low IMHO!

FWIW, this "Q-surcharge" did not used to apply back when JL awards were not available online.

 

[rock86]

Well it looks like there is a downside to JAL availability coming online - and it's not the obvious availability issue.

I've just had a look at the price of a JL award flight from MEL-NRT in business class. The cost is 78,000 Qantas points + $172.34. I thought this seemed a bit high so I clicked on the breakdown and see that this includes "Other carrier charges" of $4.20 and an additional "Q surcharge" of $83.00. The $4.20 charge is a JL-imposed surcharge, but the $83 Q-surcharge most definitely is not. It's not imposed by JL, nor is it an airport or government tax. It's pure profit for Qantas and presumably a way to stop everyone just booking JL awards, given Qantas' $180 surcharge for QF metal on the same route.

We all know that Qantas imposes its own charges on QF metal award bookings, but this is pretty low IMHO!

FWIW, this "Q-surcharge" did not used to apply back when JL awards were not available online.

That is absolutely ridiculous. I have no problem with them passing on the carrier fuel costs, but this is completely rubbish.

 

[madrooster]

We all know that Qantas imposes its own charges on QF metal award bookings, but this is pretty low IMHO!

FWIW, this "Q-surcharge" did not used to apply back when JL awards were not available online.

That is actually incorrect. JL has been charging fuel fines on AU-JP flights since last year. It used to be 42 AUD per AU-JP flight, and is now 83 AUD.

Since JL bookings weren't possible online previously, unless you had access to the PNR or the ticketing data, you wouldn't have realised that JL were indeed charging such a fuel fine.

See JL fare rules:

  ORIGINATING AUSTRALIA -
  IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN AUSTRALIA
  AND JAPAN ON
      ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
        ANY JL FLIGHT
      FOR TICKETING ON/BEFORE 31JAN 18                                     
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 42.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                 
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.                                       
      AND - FOR TICKETING ON/AFTER 01FEB 18                                 
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 83.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                 
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.

The above rules apply to all JL commercial fares in all classes. QF is simply passing the charge on from JL.

 

[rock86]

That is actually incorrect. JL has been charging fuel fines on AU-JP flights since last year. It used to be 42 AUD per AU-JP flight, and is now 83 AUD.

Since JL bookings weren't possible online previously, unless you had access to the PNR or the ticketing data, you wouldn't have realised that JL were indeed charging such a fuel fine.

See JL fare rules:

  ORIGINATING AUSTRALIA -
  IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN AUSTRALIA
  AND JAPAN ON
      ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
        ANY JL FLIGHT
      FOR TICKETING ON/BEFORE 31JAN 18                                    
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 42.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.                                      
      AND - FOR TICKETING ON/AFTER 01FEB 18                                
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 83.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.

The above rules apply to all JL commercial fares in all classes. QF is simply passing the charge on from JL.

Thanks for that @madrooster

 

[Mattg]

That is actually incorrect. JL has been charging fuel fines on AU-JP flights since last year. It used to be 42 AUD per AU-JP flight, and is now 83 AUD.

Since JL bookings weren't possible online previously, unless you had access to the PNR or the ticketing data, you wouldn't have realised that JL were indeed charging such a fuel fine.

See JL fare rules:

  ORIGINATING AUSTRALIA -
  IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN AUSTRALIA
  AND JAPAN ON
      ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
        ANY JL FLIGHT
      FOR TICKETING ON/BEFORE 31JAN 18                                    
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 42.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.                                      
      AND - FOR TICKETING ON/AFTER 01FEB 18                                
        A FUEL SURCHARGE OF AUD 83.00 PER DIRECTION WILL BE                
        ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.

The above rules apply to all JL commercial fares in all classes. QF is simply passing the charge on from JL.

Thank you for checking that! I'm happy to stand corrected. Also happy to see that QF isn't adding its own YQ to partner award bookings! That could open up a real can of worms..

 

[madrooster]

Thank you for checking that! I'm happy to stand corrected. Also happy to see that QF isn't adding its own YQ to partner award bookings! That could open up a real can of worms..

Here's a snippet of the ticketing data from a 280k award where I had a JL MEL-NRT flight in the ticket:

FARE  R AUD      42.00                                                        
TX001 O AUD   565.10-YQ   TX002 O AUD    93.40-YQ   TX003 O AUD     7.60-YR    
TX004 O AUD     6.50-YR
......

Note the 42.00 AUD "fare" - this is a Q surcharge. This ticket was issued back in August 2017.

Q surcharges are normally priced up as part of the fare component rather than a tax. Despite the name, Q surcharges aren't specifically a QF surcharge. Q surcharges are actually named that as it's a type Q surcharge when filed with ATPCO.

 

[Kangol]

That’s only true for wholly domestic trips (90 days). If you are connecting from international then domestic legs can definitely be added much earlier to revenue and award bookings.

Ah, thanks. Never booked a domestic connection before.

 

[tizey]

JAL is a terrible airline and no-one should ever book award flights with them, particularly not F. The first class lounge in NRT has to be the busiest, most horrible barn I've ever laid foot into... You definitely shouldn't partake in the Japanese whisky on offer, nor should you touch that raw fish sushi they throw at you continuously from the sushi bar.

Qantas should go back to the old way of making it really hard to redeem these seats as it's too easy for folk to slip up and book themselves on a terrible airline with shocking amenities.





/Sarcasm

I've never longed for a delayed flight more in my life. Would happily spend a few more hours here gazing at the tarmac drinking whisky eating tuna before boarding an F flight to JFK.

A royal shame they don't fly F to Aus.

 

[eminere]

A royal shame they don't fly F to Aus.

JL used to fly their B77W with F to SYD before they downgauged to the B789. Sad day when it happened.

 

[Danielb56]

My wife and I were looking at holidays to japan some months back and looked at using points for flights. Talk about round about travel - the only direct flight was with Qantas and fully booked at the time. We are going elsewhere anyway...but just tried looking again at this to see the changes but no JAL flight shows up only the previous flights - Qantas/Jetstar etc. Am I missing something?

 

[Danielb56]

My wife and I were looking at holidays to japan some months back and looked at using points for flights. Talk about round about travel - the only direct flight was with Qantas and fully booked at the time. We are going elsewhere anyway...but just tried looking again at this to see the changes but no JAL flight shows up only the previous flights - Qantas/Jetstar etc. Am I missing something?

Just re-looked at it...tried different days and it shows up there....

 

[Dr Ralph]

My wife and I were looking at holidays to japan some months back and looked at using points for flights. Talk about round about travel - the only direct flight was with Qantas and fully booked at the time. We are going elsewhere anyway...but just tried looking again at this to see the changes but no JAL flight shows up only the previous flights - Qantas/Jetstar etc. Am I missing something?

Try different dates

 

[Danielb56]

Try different dates

Dr. Ralph....I did...realized the issue.