Free Class J upgrade on select Okinawa remote island routes

Japan Airlines (JAL) is currently running a free domestic Class J upgrade campaign on select Okinawa remote island routes. For travel between July 9 and October 26 2013, you will be able to get a free domestic Class J upgrade when you redeem an award ticket on eligible routes. JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members from all regions are eligible for this campaign.

In other to qualify for this campaign, you will need to redeem your 2 flight sectors connecting the Okinawa and its remote islands operated by Japan Transocean Air (JTA) or Ryukyu Air Commuter (RAC) at the same you redeem a roundtrip ticket between Okinawa and Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu on JAL or JTA. Basically, these are the routes eligible for the 5,000 JMB miles add-on award redemption. But the catch is, as of July 2013, JTA only provides Class J service on the Okinawa Naha (OKA) - Ishigaki (ISG), and Okinawa Naha (OKA) - Miyako (MMY) routes. So your options are really limited at this point.

So how much saving are we talking? 4,000 JMB miles on a roundtrip ticket. If you live in Japan, this could be a good deal if you are already making an award redemption as domestic tickets are generally very expensive. But for overseas members, domestic award tickets usually aren't good-valued redemptions. For example, tickets between South Korea and Japan could be as low as 12,000 miles, and a redemption on roundtrip discounted award between Tokyo and Okinawa costs exactly the same amount of miles. But I guess if you want a confirmed Class J seat, this is one of the way to secure them (not that I am recommending doing it).

For more details on this campaign, you can refer to JAL website (Japanese, English)

PS: For some reasons, the banner says JAL International Route. Probably just an oversight as this is not related to any international flights.