The ‘End’ of JGC Training: The True Aim Revealed in JAL Global Club’s Revamp [Column]

Japan Airlines (JAL) is overhauling its ‘JAL Global Club (JGC),’ an elite membership group within the JAL Mileage Bank, significantly shifting its strategy to retain top-tier members.

As I analyzed when the revamp was announced last December, it seems to have turned out largely as expected.

In this article, we will explore the new program and the real intentions behind the JAL Global Club revamp.

What is the New ‘JAL Life Status Program’?

Starting January 2024, JAL will introduce a new ‘JAL Life Status Program.’ This program will accumulate lifetime achievements, such as JAL flights, JAL Card, and JAL Mall usages, as ‘Life Status Points.’ Based on these points, JAL and its partners will offer various benefits.

The current membership organization, ‘JAL Global Club,’ which provides members with elite benefits such as lounge access during flights, priority baggage return, and mile bonuses, will be integrated into the ‘JAL Life Status Program.’

Even after the ‘JAL Life Status Program’ launches, existing JAL Global Club members will generally maintain their qualification and benefits such as lounge access during flights. However, the criteria for joining the JAL Global Club will change significantly. Previously, membership criteria were determined based on one year’s results. Now, it will be judged based on a lifetime accumulation of points.

The ‘End’ of ‘JGC Training’

With the shift from a one-year to a lifetime period for determining JAL Global Club membership criteria, the so-called ‘JGC training’ also changes significantly.

‘JGC training’ refers to intensively flying to meet the JAL Global Club’s membership criteria. For JAL Mileage Bank members in Japan with the necessary credit cards, roughly speaking, it used to require 50 flights or the acquisition of 50,000 FLY ON Points (FOP).

The traditional ‘JGC Training’ practice allowed for entry into the JAL Global Club based on one year (January to December) of flight achievements. Now, with the shift to lifetime points for 2024, one will need to accumulate 1,500 ‘Life Status Points’ to join JAL Global Club.

The announced accumulation rates for various services are, for example, 5 points per domestic flight on JAL, 5 points for 1,000 sectional miles flown internationally with JAL, and 5 points for every 2,000 miles earned with a JAL Card.

To earn the required 1,500 points for new JAL Global Club membership, one would need to take 300 domestic flights or fly a total of 300,000 miles internationally. Given that Tokyo to New York is about 6,000 miles, it’s clear that the difficulty level is significantly higher than the previous 50 flights or 50,000 FLY ON Points ‘JGC training.’

In essence, the short-term, intensive flying known as ‘JGC training’ to qualify for JAL Global Club membership is essentially over.