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Bilt Adds JAL Mileage Bank as Transfer Partner
You have to hand it to the team at Bilt Rewards. I’m not talking about the greater Bilt program, where you earn rewards points while paying your rent with no transaction fees – as great as that is! I’m talking about the transfer partners.
Here is the current list of Bilt’s transfer partners:
| Bilt Transfer Partners | All transfer at a 1:1 ratio. Transfer times below: |
|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines MileagePlan | TBD |
| Aer Lingus Avios | Within 10 minutes |
| Avianca Lifemiles | Within 10 minutes |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Within 10 minutes |
| Air France Flying Blue | Within 10 minutes |
| British Airways Avios | Within 10 minutes |
| Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | Within 10 minutes |
| Emirates Skywards | Within 10 minutes |
| Iberia Avios | Within 10 minutes |
| JAL Mileage Bank | Within 10 minutes (Account must be open 7 days before you can book an award with a Bilt transfer) |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Within 12 hours |
| IHG Rewards | Within 10 minutes |
| Marriott Bonvoy | Up to 48 hours; generally within minutes. (5,000 point bonus when you transfer 20,000). |
| United Airlines MileagePlus | Within 10 minutes |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | Within 10 minutes |
| TAP Miles&Go | TBD |
| Virgin Points | Within 10 minutes |
| World of Hyatt | Within 10 minutes |
| Accor Live Limitless (ALL) | TBD - Note, transfer is 3:2 |
Once the Alaska and Hawaiian merger completes this year, we fully expect that Amex will lose Hawaiian (and therefore Alaska) as a transfer partner. It’s very likely that occurs around June 30th this year. That would leave Marriott Bonvoy, at a 3:1 transfer ratio, as the only program that can transfer to Alaska and it’s quite hard to earn lots of Marriott Bonvoy points.
JAL Mileage Bank, the program for Japan Airlines (JAL) was similarly only a partner of Marriott Bonvoy – until now.
Somehow the Bilt team saw fit to engage with JAL on adding them as a transfer partner and succeeded. For those that don’t know the mechanics of loyalty program partnerships, the majority of the ones you see most banks offer can be set up pretty much out of the box using a company like points.com to facilitate. There is a lot more “behind the scenes” to integrate, but it’s more or less ready to go.
A partner like JAL is not at all simply ready to go. Bilt had to negotiate this from scratch and then most likely build a link for the IT component. Keep in mind that it’s not simply the transfer itself, but also things like fraud protection and the like. that must be considered.
And yet, here we are – JAL Mileage Bank is now a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards.
So the next obvious question is… “Is JAL a good program?”
And then…”Should I transfer to JAL?” and “What are JAL’s sweet spots?”
Let’s dive in.
JAL Mileage Bank New Member Policy and Expiration
Yes, JAL’s Mileage Bank is a very interesting program with a variety of sweet spots that were mostly unavailable to most of us until now.
But before I go any further I want to be clear about two things – JAL’s miles “hard expire” after 36 months. While this simply isn’t a thing with North American programs, it’s more common internationally. Cathay Pacific used to do the same with their AsiaMiles but saw the light a couple of years ago and changed to miles that can be extended with activity.
So, if you transfer miles in and have to cancel, that’s doable, but you’ll have to make sure to use those miles before they expire 36 months from when you transferred them. You can book for travel beyond that but after the miles hit that expiration date, no changes or cancellations would be permitted.
Perhaps even more importantly, you cannot normally book an award until you have been a JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) member for 60 days following enrollment in the program. However, “Bilt has secured the ability for Bilt members to be able to redeem their miles within 7 days after transferring if the JMB account is not 60 days old.” (quoted from a Bilt press release)
Still, signup for an account now even if you don’t have any immediate plans to book – because if you want to book say 3 months from now and then first open the account, you’d have to wait another two months (or 7 days if transferred from Bilt) and likely miss out on the award you wanted.
JAL Mileage Bank Change and Cancellation Fees
You can’t technically change an award booking but you can cancel and rebook for a very reasonable 3,100 yen which is about $21. Just keep in mind the mileage expiration policy above.
JAL Mileage Bank’s Recent Devaluation
It’s not all roses… there was a fairly large devaluation announced recently which takes place for tickets booked starting June 10, 2025. A one way First Class ticket on JAL from the US to Japan will now from 110,000 to 140,000 miles depending on if it is Low, Regular, or High Season.
It *was* just 70,000 – 100,000 miles for that same one way ticket, so if you are sitting on a pile of Bilt points, this may be somewhere to use them quickly.
It’s possible you will find space on the “new” JAL First Class experience using JAL miles when the same seat is not available to oneworld partners.
Business Class from the US to Japan will only increase from 55,000 miles from 50,000 in June, so that remains a tremendous value.
JAL Mileage Bank Sweet Spots
I know – this is really what you came here for 🙂
There are several sweet spots and I’m sure many more I don’t even know about. To be clear, I’ve never redeemed via JAL (due to the difficulty in getting the miles) but I have spent a fair bit of time on the JAL website searching availability in years past. Back before most airlines would show partner availability online, I would use the JAL website to know what was available there.
Japan Airlines First Class
Despite the devaluation, it may be worth the 110,000 – 140,000 miles for a seat in First aboard one of the planes with the latest F product.
Around the World
The biggest sweet spot is the pseudo Round the World. With the ANA Around the World award ending in June 2025, this may be the next best thing.
While not called an Around the World or Round the World award per se, you can use their distance based award chart to book up to 7 (!) stopovers.
You need to reference either the JMB Partners chart (these are the partners)
or the oneworld chart.
This page will let you calculate your total mileage = handy!
On the JMB (JAL) Partners distance based chart, we find:
BUSINESS CLASS
| Total trip distance (miles) | Required Mileage |
|---|---|
| 1 – 1,000 | 24,000 |
| 1,001 – 2,000 | 30,000 |
| 2,001 – 4,000 | 42,000 |
| 4,001 – 6,000 | 60,000 |
| 6,001 – 8,000 | 80,000 |
| 8,001 – 10,000 | 85,000 |
| 10,001 – 12,000 | 100,000 |
| 12,001 – 14,000 | 110,000 |
| 14,001 – 20,000 | 130,000 |
| 20,001 – 25,000 | 145,000 |
| 25,001 – 29,000 | 160,000 |
| 29,001 – 34,000 | 190,000 |
| 34,001 – 50,000 | 210,000 |
- First Class is available with Business Class required miles on following flights:
American Airlines flights operated with 2 classes of service (Economy Class and First Class).
Hawaiian Airlines inter islands flights
Alaska Airlines flights
| Total trip distance (miles) | Required Mileage |
|---|---|
| 1 – 1,000 | 36,000 |
| 1,001 – 2,000 | 45,000 |
| 2,001 – 4,000 | 65,000 |
| 4,001 – 6,000 | 90,000 |
| 6,001 – 8,000 | 120,000 |
| 8,001 – 10,000 | 135,000 |
| 10,001 – 12,000 | 145,000 |
| 12,001 – 14,000 | 165,000 |
| 14,001 – 20,000 | 190,000 |
| 20,001 – 25,000 | 220,000 |
| 25,001 – 29,000 | 250,000 |
| 29,001 – 34,000 | 290,000 |
| 34,001 – 50,000 | 330,000 |
- First Class award is not available on flights operated by following Airlines:
Malaysia Airlines
Air France
Korean Air
Emirates - First Class is available with Business Class required miles on following flights:
American Airlines flights operated with 2 classes of service (Economy Class and First Class).
Hawaiian Airlines inter islands flights
Alaska Airlines flights
| Total trip distance (miles) |
Economy Class | Business Class *1 | First Class *2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 – 4,000 | 25,000 | 48,000 | 72,000 |
| 2 | 4,001 – 8,000 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 100,000 |
| 3 | 8,001 – 10,000 | 50,000 | 85,000 | 110,000 |
| 4 | 10,001 – 12,000 | 60,000 | 110,000 | 160,000 |
| 5 | 12,001 – 14,000 | 70,000 | 115,000 | 165,000 |
| 6 | 14,001 – 20,000 | 90,000 | 120,000 | 170,000 |
| 7 | 20,001 – 25,000 | 120,000 | 150,000 | 230,000 |
| 8 | 25,001 – 29,000 | 140,000 | 190,000 | 280,000 |
| 9 | 29,001 – 34,000 | 150,000 | 200,000 | 300,000 |
| 10 | 34,001 – 50,000 | 160,000 | 220,000 | 330,000 |
- The required mileage is determined based on the total trip distance (miles), the distance of total award itinerary, and the class of service traveled. The distance of any surface sector is not included in total trip distance (miles).
- Awards issued for children and infants who occupy their own seat require the same mileage as those issued for adults.
Infants sharing a seat with an adult cannot travel on an award ticket and must instead have a purchased ticket issued at the infant fare for the same class of service as accompanying adult.
- Terms and conditions may differ depending on the partner airlines. Please check the details with the relevant airline.
- In addition to the required mileage for the awards listed above, fuel surcharges and other taxes will be collected.
- First Class is available with Business Class required miles on following flights:
American Airlines flights operated with 2 classes of service (Economy Class and First Class).
Alaska Airlines flights - First Class Award is not available on flights operated by Malaysia Airlines (MH).
ANA charged 125,000 miles for a band of 20,000 – 22,000 miles in Business Class.
JAL is 145,000 – 150,000 miles for 20,000 – 25,000 miles flown in Business Class. Nearly identical!
But I also want to note for those without Bilt points that Cathay Pacific offers 20,000 – 25,000 flown miles in Business Class (Cathay Pacific as one carrier and two other oneworld carriers – or just two or more oneworld carriers without Cathay) for 250,000 miles. Yes, 100,000 miles more! But you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points, Capital One Miles, or Citi ThankYou points to Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles.
Upgrade Awards for Paid Japan Airlines Flights
These can offer tremendous value with a few “must knows.”
- You can move up form Economy to Business but you will need to use the mileage upgrade rate for both steppes (i.e. the rate from Economy to Premium Economy and then from Premium Economy to Business).
- You can only upgrade to First from a PAID Business Class ticket
- Only certain fares are upgradable
Business Class > First Class
| Booking Class | J/C/D/I |
|---|
Economy Class/Premium Economy Class > Business Class
| Booking Class | W/R/Y/B/H/K |
|---|
Economy Class > Premium Economy Class
| Booking Class | Y/B/H/K |
|---|
- Most importantly – these upraises are capacity controlled. While you can waitlist, that is very risky. I would call and check availability and book while on the phone if available.
Multi-City Awards in the US using JAL Mileage Bank – Alaska Airlines / American Airlines
You can use the oneworld partner chart to construct some pretty cool multi-city trips since it’s distance based and
You can fly up to 4,000 miles in Economy for 25,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles – or 48,000 miles in Business Class
If you are on the West Coast, you could do something like SFO-LAX-LAS-SEA-SAN-SFO for the above price.
On the East Coast (I’ll include a trip to the Midwest here as an example), you could fly LGA-YYZ-ORD-MIA-LGA (of course, YYZ needs to be a stop and not a layover or it would violate cabotage rules.
Partner Awards
They do have some interesting partnership for awards, such as Korean Air (only in Economy and Business, though – sadly. That said, I was not able to find any business class award from JFK-ICN when researching for this article.
Emirates in Business Class from JFK to Dubai or even to MLE via DXB would be 85,000 JAL Miles.
LATAM also presents some interesting options via JAL.
Bottom Line
I’m sure I missed some more great ways to use JAL Mileage Bank miles, so definitely leave your comments below or in the MilesTalk Facebook Group.
That said, my bottom line is that this is a fantastic addition to the Bilt Rewards suite of partners and makes using the Bilt Mastercard even more compelling.
