Japan Airlines - Win a trip with JAL

Following the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Japan will again be in the spotlight in 2020, when Tokyo hosts the world’s biggest sporting event, the Summer Olympics.

Coinciding with the occasion and to encourage visitors to go and see other areas of the country outside Tokyo, JAL announced that it would be giving away a huge amount of free return fights - 50,000 to be exact - to foreign visitors.

The criteria for qualifying for one of these free fights is as follows. It’s open to non Japanese residents only.

To qualify, visitors then need to join the JAL Mileage Bank Programme.

Meanwhile the fights will be from either Tokyo Haneda or Osaka, to one of four destinations chosen by the airline. Travel needs to take place over the Summer months (July to September), which is of course when most Olympic visitors will be in the country.

As the airline explains in its press release, the idea is to “facilitate regional revitalization by bringing tourist traffc to regions across Japan, in coordination with the Japan Tourism Agency, JNTO and other related government agencies.”

Applications for the free tickets open online from the end of February.

Why this campaign works

This is a great campaign, and it works for us on a number of different levels.

It’s bold: Most joint airline / tourism board campaigns see maybe a pair of tickets, or at most several pairs, being given away in some kind of online competition. Here, JAL is giving away 100,000 (50k return) fights, a staggering number.

That in turn has netted the airline media coverage worldwide. Literally hundreds of media outlets have covered the promotion, such as Fox News, CNN, Time Magazine, the Daily Mirror (UK), The Sun (UK), The Times of India and The Australian.

The offcial partner of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics is actually JAL’s main competitor, ANA. However many people will now imagine Japan Airlines has that role (needless to say, JAL has been careful not to say the word ‘Olympics’ in any offcial material).

By having visitors join its frequent fyer programme, JAL potentially gets details and data on tens of thousands of people who will almost certainly be in a higher income demographic. After all, to qualify for one of the tickets, you need to be able to afford to fy to Japan in the frst place.

There’s an element of surprise and gamifcation to the whole promotion. When you apply, JAL will show you four possible destinations. You then fnd out which you’ll be going to within three days of your application.

Clearly, this allows JAL to distribute the seats by route and capacity, but it also adds an element of chance and excitement to it. As JAL says, “embark on a thrilling journey like no other and see what discoveries await at your mystery destination!”

The airline is collaborating on the campaign with the Japan Tourism Agency, the Japan National Tourism Organization and Nomura Research Institute Ltd.