Japan Airlines Adds Huge Surcharges to Emirates Awards
If you're looking to book an Emirates award via Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, be prepared to fork over significantly more cash in the form of surcharges. As of November 22, 2017, JAL has begun charging what is frankly an absurd amount of added charges for Emirates awards booked through Mileage Bank.
As reported by One Mile at a Time, prior to November 22, 2017, the JAL partner award chart showed that Emirates awards had maximum fuel surcharges of $78.20. However, the same award chart shows that Emirates redemptions now have maximum fuel surcharges of $1,716.09 as of November 22. In all, that's nearly a 3,000% increase.
Before looking into booking an Emirates award via JAL, you can use ITA Matrix to see how much you'll be paying in surcharges. Search for the flight you're looking to book. Ignore the cash value for the base fare of the ticket, as you'll be using points or miles to cover the cost of that. But, pay attention to the surcharges, such as this example that carriers more than $1,600 in fuel surcharges alone:
Ultimately, this is a disappointing change from JAL. Mileage Bank has long been one of the best ways to redeem for premium Emirates flights. However, with the higher cap on surcharges, it's likely to be less appealing for many. Note that likely not all surcharges will be this high — economy tickets we've seen have had lower amounts of added fees.
JAL is a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest. You can transfer your Starpoints at a 1:1 ratio, however, the transfer time can take upwards of a couple of days. At this time the redemption rates for award tickets isn't changing, but be aware that you could be paying a lot more out of pocket to use your miles to book an Emirates flight.