Japan Airlines (JAL) operates its only arrival lounge at international terminal at Tokyo Haneda. When The JAL Arrival Lounge was first announced, only JMB Diamond, JGC Premier and first class passengers arriving on JAL operated international flights with JAL flight number are eligible. But JAL has been running a campaign to include JMB Sapphire, JAL Global Club and executive class passengers. And once again JAL has extended this campaign for another year till March 31 2013.

This is probably one of the benefits a lot of folks (even for the non-Japanese speaking regulars) haven't heard of as Japan Airlines (JAL) only advertise this in Japanese. JAL has been running this arrival shower campaign at Tokyo Narita (NRT) for couple of years now. JAL has just extended this for yet another year. Below are the details of the campaign.

In preparation of introducing Boeing 787 into service, Japan Airlines (JAL) will begin 787 training flights on March 30. So if you want to see the JAL 787 in action, you can go visit Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Osaka Kansai, and Nagoya Chubu during the training period which will last till mid April. Below are the planned schedules for these training flights.

JAL added more partners to online award redemption

Japan Airlines (JAL) has upgraded its JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) website to allow online award redemptions for more partner airlines. Effective immediately, the online partner award redemption is available for American Airlines (AA), Air France (AF), British Airways (BA), Cathay Pacific Airways (CX), and Qantas (QF). Just login to your JMB account and you should be able to see AA, AF, BA as the new options in the drop-down menu.

Boeing has launched a special JAL 787 first delivery site. You can see videos of JAL's first 787 flight and painting of JAL's first 787 in the new livery, Photos of historical partnership between Boeing and one of Boeing's loyalest customer, JAL (JAL has not ordered a single plane from the Airbus), photos of the JAL 787 interior, etc.  


Delivery ceremony, fly away flights, Tokyo arrival, NRT-BOS launch are coming soon. I expect to see live streaming on some of these events :) So bookmark the following page and visit it this Sunday :) 


Boeing's JAL 787 First Delivery Special Site: http://www.newairplane.com/787/delivery/#/en/jal

To celebrate the frequency increase of flights between Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Kita Kyushu (KKJ), Japan Airlines (JAL) will be serving free breakfasts to all passengers on early morning flights between the two cities between March 25 and May 31 2012.

JAL Original AIR MISDO served with Boston's signature clam chowder (Source: JAL Press release)

To celebrate for the launch of the new Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Boston (BOS) route, Japan Airlines (JAL) has collaborate with Duskin Co to create a JAL Original version of doughnuts, AIR MISDO, from the famous Mister Donuts franchise served exclusively on JAL flights from NRT to BOS.

FAA has eventually certified the GE powered 787-8 and therefore we finally have a firmed delivery date of the first Japan Airlines (JAL) 787. JAL will take delivery on March 25 2012. Then the plane will fly from Seattle Paine Field to Tokyo Narita the following day and will arrive on March 27 2012. And since we finally have a firmed delivery date, JAL has also reveal the long-haul configuration of their 787 and its interior.

[Updated with English link of priority award flights and comments at the end] promised, Japan Airlines (JAL) has provided us yet another update on JAL Mileage Project 2012/JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) today. And as expected, this is a relatively small announcement targeted mainly to Japan region members (you could tell when there was no announcements coming soon on March 14 2012 on the English page right :P). The three JMB program enhancements are:


1. Award redemption priority on popular resort routes
2. Extra partners for non-flight award redemptions
3. WAON enhancement specific to JCB cardholders

You saw this coming right? ;) Japan Airlines (JAL) will of course organize a special inaugural flight tour to celebrate the upcoming launch of Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Boston (BOS) 787-8 service. Since this is a long-haul route, its probably a good idea not to do a same day turn around (although some might want to). Therefore JAL is giving you two options and you can choose to be on the inaugural NRT-BOS flight (JL008) or the inaugural BOS-NRT (JL007) flight.

[Update: Added business cabin configuration analysis] Japan Airlines (JAL) has just announced their plan of new full-bed business class seats the new FLY ON (aka elite) benefits for 2012 that they will implement to make up for the discontinuation of the upgrade points (UGPs). Below are the details

About a year ago, more than 15,000 people were killed by a series of disasters triggered by the Tohoku earthquake. Japan Airlines (JAL) has participated and organized many events and campaigns to rebuild the Tohoku region, which includes operating 2,700 special flights to the region in the 5 months after the earthquake. March 11 2012 marks the first anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, and JAL will operate a special "Tohoku Reconstruction Charter Flight" from Hong Kong (HKG) to Sendai (SDJ).

Some people are worry about further Boeing 787 delays will affect Japan Airlines' plan to launch the new Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Boston (BOS) route on April 22 2012. Well JAL has that thought out already. In case if there are further delays, they will use Boeing 777, probably 777-200ER, as their back up.