JAL introduces new discounted domestic tickets to the Tohoku region for oneworld passengers

JAL introduces the heavily discounted oneworld YOKOSO/ Visit TOHOKU Fare to boost tourism to the region. Image by Japan Airlines.

Since June 1 2013, Japan Airlines (JAL) has started the "VISIT TOHOKU!" project to stimulate tourism demands and support local industries in the Tokoku region which was severely affected by the earthquake a couple of years ago. From October 1 2013, JAL will introduce a new heavily discounted oneworld YOKOSO/ Visit TOHOKU Fare for eligible oneworld passengers to visit the region.

The new oneworld YOKOSO/ Visit TOHOKU Fare is similar to the existing oneworld YOKOSO/ Visit Japan Fare. The differences are for the TOHOKU fare only covers routes to and from 6 airports in the TOHOKU region and it is way cheaper than the Yokoso Japan fare! Other than that, the ticketing conditions are the same as the Yokoso Japan one which requires overseas residence and round trip/circle trip/open jaw ticket to or via Japan. And the flights to and from Japan must be on one of the oneworld carriers.

You can purchase up to 5 sectors total. Each sector costs only JPY 5,250 (tax included)! This is half the price of the Yokoso Japan fares! Although the website doesn't mention earning rate, I would assume it's the same as the rest of the discounted domestic fares for overseas visitors which earn you 100% rates for JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members.

Below are the eligible routes

Aomori (AOJ) - Sapporo (SPK) / Tokyo (HND) / Osaka (ITM)
Misawa (MSJ) - Tokyo (HND) / Osaka (ITM)
Akita (AXT) - Sapporo (SPK) / Tokyo (HND) / Osaka (ITM)
Hanamaki (HNA) - Sapporo (SPK) / Osaka (ITM) / Fukuoka (FUK)
Yamagata (GAJ)-Tokyo (HND) / Osaka (ITM)
Sendai (SDJ) - Sapporo (SPK) / Osaka (ITM) / Fukuoka (FUK)


For more details, you can refer to JAL website.

Other than this new discounted fare, JAL has also announced that it will operate 3 roundtrip international chartered flights from the Tokoku region. Two of them will be to Taipei (TPE) and the remaining one will be between Fukushima (FKS) and Honolulu (HNL).

Note that JAL has intentionally selected Fukushima as it wants to provide residents in Fukushima "a closer opportunity to refresh their minds by traveling abroad and encourage them to keep walking on the way to rehabilitation". It's very nice of JAL to do this to fulfill its social responsibility.

For more details and tentative schedule of the chartered flights, you can refer to JAL Press Release (Japanese, English)