Japan Airlines Heavily Increase Emirates Award Surcharges

by Zac George
a bed in an airplane

Emirates are known for having some of the best onboard facilities in the sky. Their First Class are enclosed suites, they have onboard showers and bathrooms which are the biggest in commercial aviation, there’s an onboard bar at the back of Business Class, they offer some of the best beverages in the sky, the list goes on. It’s safe to say that they are one of the best airlines in the skies.

As Emirates aren’t in an alliance you have to rely on either their frequent flyer program or using partner airlines’s programs when you’re redeeming for their products. Their frequent flyer program called ”Skywards” sucks and has some massive rates. The best miles to use for Emirates used to be Alaska however last year the rates nearly doubled and made redeeming Alaska miles for Emirates a waste.

a seat in a plane

Emirates A380 First Class

The next best was Japan Airlines. They have one of the most generous frequent flyer programs and offer some great rates on partner airlines. On top of having great rates, they offered some of the smallest surcharges which was fantastic. The only problem with JAL miles is that they’re hard to get and the best way was to transfer points from SPG.

Well sadly, JAL is now not the best program to use as they’ve heavily increased their surcharges for Emirates awards and the prices are quite eye watering.

Ben over at One Mile At a Time posted that prices had gone up dramatically and some prices were past the $1000 mark which is just INSANE for a award surcharge.

Now this isn’t an error, here are the new prices according to JAL’s website. These are the surcharges for a First Class roundtrip award ticket:

a screenshot of a white background

$1716.09 is just insane for an award ticket and this makes JAL no longer an option when redeeming miles. Considering the prices of Emirates First and Business out of Colombo.

As I see it, there’s really no longer a good program to use for Emirates awards which is really sad. Skywards have massive rates, JAL have massive surcharges, Alaska have massive rates & Qantas have massive rates and huge fee’s.

a interior of an airplane with a desk and a tv

Emirates A380 First Class

I had thought JAL may increase their rates for travel as they’re quite low but adding surcharges at those prices was something I did not expect at all.

H/T – One Mile At a Time

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