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Everyone had a heartache when Alaska Air suddenly, without warning, devalued their Emirates award chart over night. It was a crap move honestly, but things are looking up. The addition of Japan Airlines to the partner list makes Alaska Air hands down the best reward program. There are rumors that Delta may be leaving, and if they do, so be it, Alaska Air will still have one the best charts to Europe and I’d say the best to Asia now. No they don’t have all the partners of some of the big alliances, but the value of their points is second to none. We shall see what the chart looks like when it’s unveiled, but my guess is it will be comparable to American and Cathay…
Here are the details via Yahoo Finance:
Let’s take a quick look at the products you could fly on JAL 777-300ER
First class ” JAL Suite”
Business class ” Sky Suite”
on 777-300 and retrofit 787
As you can see both forward cabins offer completely lie flat products and aisle access. Aisle access is so key. Who flipping wants to crawl across someone while in business class? Not I!
JAL vs CATHAY
This is the most obvious comparison as both are partners of Alaska and both offer outstandingly good premium classes. Now, the sweet part of JAL is that they offer up gobs of first class and business class availability within a couple weeks of departure. They also offer up lots of availability at the end of the schedule. Cathay used to offer up a lot more first class seats per flight a couple years ago, but in the past year they have dried up availability quite a bit. With this new partnership, getting anywhere in Asia has just gotten much better, especially when you factor in the 1 stopover rule that Alaska affords. This means if you want to go and see the Great Wall of China, you could stop and see Tokyo en route…or Hong Kong if you’re taking Cathay. It also means the likelihood of trying to score a last minute first class or swapping out your current business class seat to sit in the primo cabin has gotten better.
Alaska allows unlimited changes and cancellations up to 60 days in advance. Inside that window you will have to pay a fee of $125 unless you are top tier MVP GOLD 75k – the status I will be shooting for next year… Not a bad gig really, JAL releases a lot of seats at random times throughout the year, and then a lot of availability in those last 10-14 days.
When will I be able to use award tickets on JAL and credit my flights?
H/T View from the Wing
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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