Japan Airlines First is one of the best first-class products in the air for 2023, especially if you factor in both the soft (experience/service) and hard (seat/food) products.

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This easily falls into my Top 5 First Class products, especially when you consider the number of points/miles needed, ease of earning, and “points/$ per hour in First” (especially compared to alternatives like Singapore Suites, which requires a LOT more miles).

How to Fly JAL First Class Using Points

There are four primary points currencies to consider:

1. JL — Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
2. AS — Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
3. AA — American Airlines AAdvantage®
4. CX — Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

What Would Sebby Do

In terms of value and points required, I would prioritize AA > AS > CX > JL.

Earn American Airlines AAdvantage® miles with Citi cards.

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Earn flexible points with American Express cards.

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JL — Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

Although you would think the namesake frequent flyer program would be the best, it doesn’t really work for our purpose.

Points Needed

Japan Airlines uses a distance-based award chart. From the US West Coast, you’re looking at 90,000 JL miles for First Class.

Cards

There is a JAL Card, but the intro bonus floats around 15,000 miles. This means that you would need 6 intro bonuses to do First Class; not really conducive to our purposes.

Transfer Partners

Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 rate, and you receive an extra 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy transferred.

This means:

60,000 Bonvoy ⇒ 20,000 JAL + 5,000 bonus = 25,000 JAL

You would need to transfer 225,000 Bonvoy to book this flight.

 What Would Sebby Do

Skip JL as an option unless you live in Japan and have a ton of JL miles accrued from JAL flights.

AA — American Airlines AAdvantage®

In 2023, this is the go-to option to book Japan Airlines First Class, given the value you’re receiving and the ease of earning AA miles.

Points Needed

American Airlines uses a location-based award chart for their partner airlines.

Japan is considered “Asia Region 1” in their chart, meaning that you would need 80,000 AA miles for First Class.

Credit Cards

Luckily, there are tons of cards that offer AA miles from both Citi as well as Barclays. In many cases, you might be able to have enough miles for First Class with just one intro bonus, depending on if there's an elevated offer or not.

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Transfer Partners

Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 rate and you receive an extra 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy transferred.

For the same reasons as mentioned under the Japan Airlines program, this doesn’t make sense in my book.

What Would Sebby Do

This is one of the best ways to book Japan Airlines First Class, especially given the number of AA cards and their typical intro bonuses.

I would avoid transferring Bonvoy since that seems overly prohibitive.

AS — Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

They increased the number of points you need to make this booking but I think it’s still one of the better use cases for AS miles.

Points Needed

Booking with Alaska miles is based on region and whether you’re flying to/from the East or West Coast of the US.

West Coast to Japan: 85,000 Alaska

East Coast to Japan: 100,000 Alaska

Credit Cards

There are two Alaska cards from Bank of America, and from the West Coast, this is still one of the more affordable ways to book JAL First Class.

Transfer Partners

Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 rate and you receive an extra 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy transferred.

For the same reasons as mentioned under the Japan Airlines program, this doesn’t make sense in my book.

What Would Sebby Do

You can open an Alaska card and meet the intro bonus requirements to get pretty close to the number of points needed. Many people go for both the personal and business cards for this reason.

There is a case to use your other currencies but it might make sense to save those points for other trips and use Alaska where you’re getting outsized value.

CX — Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Asia Miles is a more expensive option but might be worthwhile if you just want to transfer points from core cards (Citi, Amex) rather than sign up for dedicated airline cards from Alaska and American Airlines.

Points Needed

Cathay prices partner redemptions off their calculator.

Pricing out a flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo (HND), you’re looking at 120,000 Asia Miles.

Credit Cards

Cathay Pacific does have a Visa card but the intro bonus hovers around 35,000 miles. This means you would need 4 intro bonuses to do this flight which isn’t really viable.

Instead, I would look into American Express and Citi cards since both transfer to Asia Miles.

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Transfer Partners

Both Amex Membership Rewards (MR) and Citi ThankYou (TY) transfer at a 1:1 rate outside of any limited-time promotions.

The benefit is that these can be pooled easily. If you need 120,000 Asia Miles, 80,000 can come from Amex and 40,000 from Citi, and that’s perfectly fine.

JAL First Class Review Video

Check out the video below to see what it's like flying JAL F.

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